The Apothecary is Gonna Make This Ragged Elf Happy
ボロボロのエルフさんを幸せにする薬売りさん
Boroboro no Elf-san o Shiawaseni suru Kusuriuri-san
The Apothecary Will Make This Battered Elf Happy
Dying Elf & Apothecary

Back in June 2022, I wrote a piece about a web manga called The Apothecary Will Make This Battered Elf Happy. Then in December of that same year, I wrote a review of the manga as author and artist Giba-chan brought the series to a close. This year, Giba-chan’s work received an official release from Shueisha as part of their Young Jump Comics DIGITAL line. Now that three chapters are out, I figured I’d take a look-see.

The Story, in Brief

An apothecary visits a city shopkeeper and decides to purchase a horribly abused, barely responsive female elf after hearing her softly cry that she wants to go home. Carrying her back to his village, the apothecary names her Reszurre.

Upon arriving at his workshop, he begins treating her terrible wounds.A local woman and her young daughter bring clothing to dress Reszurre in after the apothecary bathes her and dresses her wounds. He wants to make an elixir that would cause Reszurre’s all but destroyed limbs and missing eye to regenerate.

After making dentures for the elf to replace her missing teeth, he feeds her small pieces of solid foods, making her cry tears of happiness even if she cannot speak. Unfortunately, Reszurre suddenly turns worse. The apothecary believes she’s poisoned, likely from her former master. As such, he desperately starts making an antidote.

What’s Different?

At its core, the story of The Apothecary is Gonna Make This Ragged Elf Happy (slight translated name change to differentiate it from the web version) is the same as the web version. However, the serialized version is MUCH more fleshed out than the web version. As such, the first three chapters of the serialized version (containing 44 pages, 20 pages, and 22 pages) cover the first 17 chapters of the web version, which were mostly single page entries.

Therefor, the story is allowed to breathe in a way that Giba-chan could not accomplish with single page chapters that were crammed to get as much story in as possible. To that end, writer KYOU Akasaka-sensei can take Giba-chan’s memorable story, but improve it in a positive way that changes nothing of the core story, but allows the characters to better come alive as it were. Things are no longer just a series of documented events, and that’s a good thing.

As to the artwork, SHINGI Hosokawa-sensei mimics Giba-chan’s art style quite well. I for one am thankful for this. After all, what drew me into this dark tale (with a good ending) was Giba-chan’s haunting art. One cannot help but want to protect and help the battered elf Reszurre. Shingi-sensei retains this feeling, and that is another good thing.

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

If anyone is going to license The Apothecary is Gonna Make This Ragged Elf Happy, it would probably be Viz. No doubt, they’d change the name to something like The Tattered Elf and the Medicine Seller, Dying Elf & Apothecary (Japanese subtitle), or make it worse. At present, I have no plans to chapter review the series unless there’s a reason to. And if Viz picks up the work, I will probably take a gander at what they do. However, I will continue to read this to see how the fleshed out story flows.