Vol.3 – Sunday GX

Cover variant released as an appendix of the magazine Sunday GX n.10, October 2018

“Hey, wait a second…this doesn’t look like the MaoMao I know”. Yeah, that’s because she isn’t.

«The multiverse is a concept of which we know frighteningly little»

You’ve heard that before, right? Turns out, it applies surprisingly well to Japan too, especially when the publisher decide to take the same hit light novel series and spin it into not one, but two manga adaptations. Both started around the same time, both tell the same story, but one runs in Big Gangan (Square Enix), and the other in Sunday GX (Shogakukan).

The Square Enix version is the one licensed overseas, turned into a big success anime, and basically became the de facto version of The Apothecary Diaries for most fans around the world.

The Sunday GX version? That one stayed in Japan (but also in France), quietly doing its thing in the shadow of its more famous sibling.

But redemption comes in the form of this variant, a straight-up lethal combo of a hit series + only official manga variant ever released in Japan + magazine with an exceptionally low print run. A perfect storm that kicked this cover’s rarity into the stratosphere.