Title: Parallel World Pharmacy Vol. 5
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: September 24, 2024
The Story
Farma’s big brother Palle returns! He’s so happy to see his sweet little brother that he drags him out into the pouring rain to beat the crap out of him using divine arts! Well, maybe not like that but he is interested in having a sparring session to see how much Farma has grown (or as he hopes, hasn’t grown). After Farma makes quick work of him, they head home where Farma is interested in hearing about his studies at Novalout Academy. After regaling Farma with stories about his ninth girlfriend, Palle talks about how Novalout is diving into the elements and creating what Farma knows as the Periodic Table. They claim they found 18 but after looking over the textbook, it appears two were compounds so, in reality, they found 20 versus the 118 discovered in here Earth. Farma sees this as an opportunity to transcribe the textbook and “fix” it.
Palle has other plans, though, and brings Farma to the Imperial City Guardian Deity Temple. There, we are reunited with Salomon. He asks how he is adapting to using the wand and talks about how lending him the sacred treasure is beneficial. It also explains why no evil spirits have been around lately. When Farma rejoins his brother Palle, they go to their guardian deity’s statue to pray when something strange happens to Farma which furthers his fears based on something Salomon mentioned to him!
After a bit of an incident in town involving Palle, he leaves to head back to Novalout. Meanwhile, word of the Black Death is beginning to spread so, naturally, Farma believes that it can be cured and we’re off to our next medical case!
Characters
The main focus in this volume was on Palle. He’s your typical over-the-top character who believes that he is superior to Farma in every way… until he gets thoroughly defeated by him. Slowly, over the course of the volume, he begins to amass some respect for Farma and how much he has grown; however, he remains immature and like a big kid. What’s sad is that even though he is learning knowledge about medicine at Novalout, it’s all wrong. Farma knows way more than he does which makes him look like an even bigger idiot; however, in the same sense, he’s not an idiot because he’s at the forefront of knowledge in his world. This makes for a hilarious paradox where this character is dumb and smart at the same time.
As for Farma… very interesting words muttered by Salomon which rattled Farma to his core. Then when Palle began praying, the reaction that happened with Farma made him wonder if what Salomon said was true. If so, this could put a massive monkey wrench into Farma’s plans for the future!
Final Thoughts
I will be honest… this felt like a filler volume more than anything. Palle coming back was pretty entertaining and even though some of the adventures and plots we were given seemed like filler, there was some main story progression at the same time. Plus, we had some interesting developments with Farma as a character which even made him question what his true form is in this world. This was accented by a moment when he zoned out completely and it was as if his past life on Earth had intersected with his new life in the parallel world. This felt like more than just a daydream but some sort of interdimensional cross-rift where the two Farmas merged together as one temporarily. That’s odd to think about because Farma died and got resurrected here in this parallel world.
I thought that was the most interesting bit followed by what Salomon told him at the Imperial City Temple. Somehow, I think the two are very subtly related to one another and it might be a way for Farma to return back to his original world and have a plot device happen to make it to where he had never died. Just my theory which would be interesting… I think after wanting to rewrite his brother’s textbook and the reasons behind it secretly told us the end goal for this series. It would make complete sense for Farma to leave the parallel world in better hands and return to his own or…. And hear me out…. What if he gained the ability to move between worlds and continued to advance the parallel world as new breakthroughs happened in the real world?
That would be an interesting twist! Then again, I could be completely wrong and overthinking things. I might have a case of the Black Death that’s affecting my thought process. Luckily, Farma is on the case and we’ll see how he handles it in Volume 6!
You can also check out other The Outerhaven reviews on your favorite social media networks:
Subscribe to us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/theouterhaven
Subscribe to us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheOuterHaven
Subscribe to us on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/theouterhavennet
This item was purchased for review.
