Title: Parallel World Pharmacy Vol. 6
Author: Sei Takano (manga), Liz Takayama (original story), keepout (characters)
Publisher: One Peace Books
Language: English
Format: Digital
Pages: 168
Genre: Isekai, Fantasy
Publication Date: November 19, 2024
The Story
The time has come to combat The Black Death. Farma and Elen arrive at Port Marseirre where they aim to conduct inspections on all of the ships that have arrived; however, some of them have been stuck waiting on inspections for weeks and the captains are growing restless. A familiar old face shows up and reveals his true identity! With his help, they are able to quell the angry crew members and continue their inspections.
As they are doing so, an emergency message reaches Farma that a ship didn’t want to wait for inspections and detoured, landing in the village of Estarque and The Black Death has begun to ravage them. Farma realizes that he’s the only one who can save the village so after convincing Elen to stay back and continue the inspections, Farma races off on his magical wand to do what he can.
There is some apprehension when Farma arrives as the villagers think that he’s an evil spirit! After some convincing, they let him in but not before Farma seals off the village by surrounding it with a giant dome of magical ice. Farma goes to work and faces some challenges in the process. Just when things are about to settle down, something happens off in the distance that he needs to go investigate!
Characters
Outside of the reveal of one of our characters, there wasn’t much in the way of character development.
We could talk about Elen and how she lacks a lot of confidence in her abilities, though. It was quite evident when she tried her hardest to go with Farma to Estarque Village and she needed quite a bit of convincing to stay behind and carry out the inspections on the ships. Hopefully, this will become a bit of a learning experience for her and she will learn to have a bit more confidence in herself.
We did come across a new character, though. Her name is Professor Casper and she is just a year away from retirement. She thought that she was summoned because her research on molds yielded little to no results and that her budget was being cut; however, it was quite the opposite. Because of her specialization, she was summoned to help speed up the extraction of molds to create Levofloxacin to help combat The Black Death. She was overwhelmed by the opportunity to prove that her research had meaning and that it could be used to save the world! While just a side character, it was a nice little side track that showed that years and even a lifetime of labor can pay off in ways you couldn’t imagine!
Final Thoughts
The Black Death arc hasn’t disappointed. This felt like a massive battle in an action manga; however, there was no action to be had. Farma racing from patient to patient to treat them, trying out his divine arts, and making quick diagnoses were akin to characters in a shonen manga calling out their attacks in a fast and furious battle! I know that’s a strange comparison to make given the wildly different genres here but that’s how it felt. It truly felt like Farma (and Elen) were fighting in a major war against an evil army of microscopic bacteria!
One of the things I liked was how it didn’t underplay The Black Death. Farma’s sense of urgency in needing to get to Estarque coupled with his panic and facial expressions truly drove home how precious time was in this battle. It added some deep drama that the series has been lacking thus far. I know not every disease is going to give us the same result but this has, by far, been the best arc in the series so far. After taking a more slice-of-life route in the beginning, something like this was sorely needed, and being able to turn curing disease into something that felt like a shonen big battle, takes skill and it definitely showed here.
Great volume! Next time, we’ll see what caught Farma’s attention as the battle against The Black Death continues!
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This item was purchased for review.
