Maomao Is Back Where She Started
Episode 49 picks up after the cleanup from the Shi clan's rebellion has finally settled. Maomao has been dismissed as the rear palace food taster and has returned to the life she led before any of it: apothecary work in the pleasure district. Jinshi is in the opposite position. He has publicly acknowledged that he is the emperor's younger brother and has formally joined government affairs. He is also wrestling with the omen of a disaster striking the nation, the last thing Loulan entrusted to him.
The episode title is the first clue. 「蝗」 reads as Ko and means locust. One morning, the madam of the Verdigris House serves Maomao and Chou-u boiled locusts for breakfast. Chou-u takes one mouthful and starts to say something that catches Maomao's attention. The advance stills and synopsis published by Japanese anime news site Anime Anime stop there, so what he noticed will have to wait for the broadcast.
What Season 3 Is Setting Up
The numbering runs straight through: Season 1 ran from October 2023 to March 2024, Season 2 from January to July 2025, and the third season picks up at episode 49. Natsu Hyūga's light novels, published by Imagica Infos under its Hero Bunko imprint, have passed 57 million copies in circulation worldwide across the franchise.
The pitch has not changed. It is a mystery series about Maomao, a girl who serves as a food taster in the imperial rear palace and keeps solving cases nobody else can. Anime Anime credits the show's broad audience at home and abroad to three things: Maomao herself, proper detective plotting, and the human drama of its exotic setting. What has changed is the stage. Season 3 moves out of the rear palace and into the city, where a mysterious shrine maiden is leading people astray over the omens of disaster, and Jinshi's new duties as the emperor's brother put fresh pressure on both of them.
OLM Returns With the Same Core Team
Akinori Fudesaka directs again, with Kō Nakagawa as assistant director, and animation production is handled by OLM (Pokémon the Series, Odd Taxi). Norihiro Naganuma, who directed the first season, stays on series composition, with scripts by Yūko Kakihara, Misuzu Chiba and Hitomi Ogawa. Yukiko Nakatani returns on character design, working from Tōko Shino's original character concepts.
The rest of the staff: Katsumi Takao on art direction, Misato Aida and Nanako Okazaki on color design, Yū Nagai as CGI director, Mayo Suzuki as director of photography, Daisuke Imai on editing, and Shōji Hata as sound director. Satoru Kōsaki, Kevin Penkin and Arisa Okehazama share the score. Yorushika performs the opening theme 「雲を抜け風下へ私だけ」 and Eve performs the ending theme "AIYOU".
The voice cast is intact. Aoi Yūki plays Maomao and Takeo Ōtsuka plays Jinshi, with Katsuyuki Konishi as Gaoshun, Ryūmaru Tachibana as Basen, Toshiyuki Toyonaga as Lahan, Kōki Uchiyama as Rikuson, Natsumi Fujiwara as Chou-u and Reina Ueda as Shenmei. Sumi Shimamoto handles narration.
Looking Ahead
Episode 49 airs in Japan on October 2 at 11 p.m., broadcast simultaneously nationwide across the 30-station Nippon TV network in its FRIDAY ANIME NIGHT block. Streaming platforms follow once the broadcast ends. The season is split into two cours: the first starts in October 2026, and the second follows in April 2027.
Internationally, Crunchyroll holds the season in the United States and most other territories, while select Asian regions get it on Netflix instead. For readers who want to get ahead, Square Enix Manga & Books publishes both the light novels in print and Nekokurage's manga adaptation in English, and J-Novel Club handles the light novels digitally.
（C）日向夏・イマジカインフォス／「薬屋のひとりごと」製作委員会