The Apothecary Diaries: Sub or Dub?
Crunchyroll's dub is solid, and ANN's reviewer still preferred Aoi Yūki's Maomao. The checked casts for both seasons, the review's grades, and the one extra the dub skips.
Both tracks are sound, and the one named review we found graded them a step apart. Choose Japanese if Maomao's voice is the reason you are watching: ANN's Rebecca Silverman found Aoi Yūki "a very tough act to follow." Choose English if you would rather watch the court intrigue than read it; the same review calls the other English performances solid and singles out Monica Rial's Ah-Duo.
Who plays whom?
ANN credits Aoi Yūki as Maomao, Takeo Ōtsuka as Jinshi, Katsuyuki Konishi as Gaoshun, Atsumi Tanezaki as Gyokuyō and Takuya Kirimoto as Lakan in Japanese. In English it lists Emi Lo as Maomao, Kaiji Tang as Jinshi, Alex Hom as Gaoshun, Molly Zhang as Gyokuyou and Ricco Fajardo as Lakan, with Shawn Gann as ADR director. ANN's season 1 entry lists 24 episodes from October 2023, OLM and TOHO animation STUDIO as the animation producers, and Crunchyroll as licensor and streamer.
Season 2 began in January 2025 with the same principal voices in both languages. ANN's season 2 entry credits Gann with the English voice direction and again lists Crunchyroll as licensor and streamer.
What the review says about the two Maomaos
Reviewing the Season 1 Part 1 Blu-ray in February 2025, Silverman wrote that "the dub performance by Emi Lo is fine," but that Yūki "best embodies Maomao as a character, with her deadpan delivery contrasting perfectly with Maomao's excited or exasperated noises and cat-like vocalizations." She added that Lo's work is solid too; "they're just not Yuuki Aoi." Her grades are A for the Japanese version and A- for the dub. The review lists "Dub Maomao isn't as strong as sub Maomao" among the set's weaknesses.
That is one critic on one set, and it is a narrow complaint. It is about one lead performance, not about the translation or the rest of the cast, so a viewer who does not mind Lo's reading loses little by choosing English.
One extra the dub skips
The same Blu-ray includes the "Maomao no Hitorigoto" shorts, which Silverman notes "aren't dubbed." If you watch in English and want those, you will be reading subtitles for them anyway.
A fair way to compare
Choose a scene where Maomao is alone with a poison or a puzzle, because that is where the qualities the review credits to Yūki come through: the deadpan delivery and the excited or exasperated noises. Play it in both languages, then try a crowded court scene, where the supporting cast carries more of the weight. This page covers seasons 1 and 2; check your service for the third season's English dub.
Use the Apothecary Diaries watch order for the seasons and the film, our checked quotes for Maomao's lines, and the manga if you want to read the court story instead.