The Apothecary Diaries film casts its Bi clan and Kajadan pirates as daily character trailers roll out

The southern province of Binan-shu is starting to fill up. Since October 11, TOHO Animation has put out one character trailer a day for The Apothecary Diaries: The Late Lady's Treasure, and the second and third videos used that space to introduce two new factions, with voice actors attached, ahead of the film's December 11 opening in Japanese cinemas.

The family that rules the south

The October 12 video belongs to the Bi clan, who govern Binan-shu. Nobuo Tobita takes the clan head, Birō, and Mariya Ise plays Mu Qing. Kumiko Watanabe voices Birō's wife and Hirofumi Nojima his eldest son; English-language outlets have so far spelled those two characters' names in different ways.

A crew of pirates

The following trailer turned to the Kajadan, a pirate band that Final Weapon reads as the film's likely villains. Kenshō Ono is Suija and Ryōta Takeuchi is Eishō, while a third member, Seisei, has been shown without a named actor. Jirō Saitō plays Kaja, the crew's former leader, who is already dead when the story begins. The opening day of the series was reserved for the leads, Maomao and Jinshi.

An original case

Rather than adapting a volume of the light novels, the film tells a brand-new mystery from series creator Natsu Hyuga. The emperor charges Jinshi with carrying out the last request of a concubine who died five years ago: to be returned to the land she came from. Her remains, when Jinshi examines them, show no sign of decay. He takes Maomao with him to Binan-shu, a crowded city built on the water, where the apothecary is delighted by plants and medicines she has never handled. The city is also on edge, because the Kajadan are searching for a hoard that Kaja concealed before his death. When the funeral finally takes place, something goes badly wrong, and the incident pulls everyone into a chain of events Jinshi had sensed was coming.

Norihiro Naganuma is directing, and animation comes from TOHO Animation STUDIO.

Release outside Japan

Crunchyroll holds rights to the film for North America and international markets other than Asia, with India included, and Sony Pictures Entertainment is handling distribution in those territories. Neither company has given overseas dates or ticketing details yet.

Where the TV series stands

The movie lands in the middle of a busy stretch for the franchise. The Apothecary Diaries Season 3 began airing on October 2, 2026, following a first season that premiered in October 2023 and a second that started in January 2025, and the third season's second cour is slated for April 2027. The novels themselves, written by Hyuga and illustrated by Toko Shino, also run in two separate manga adaptations, which Square Enix publishes in English, while J-Novel Club carries the novels.