Cheat Pharmacist’s formula is fairly simple. It always starts with a customer coming into Reiji's drugstore to ask for some sort of medicine. As a pharmacist, Reiji will hear them out and see what he can do. Since he’s hell-bent on not creating some miraculous drugs, he tries to solve the problems through out-of-the-box problem solving. This is often through common earthly products or through sheer logic. That’s basically it.

Following that simple formula, we get 12 episodes of Reiji helping others. Since Cheat Pharmacist doesn’t follow a specific plot, it’s quite similar to classics like Doraemon and Gintama. Unlike those two, however, Cheat Pharmacist often doesn’t have any fun twists. Each episode is a blast of cuteness and a predictable ending. Even so, the anime is surprisingly relaxing. The mindlessness of it is soothing, and its cuteness is comforting.

If we’re going to be completely honest, we don’t give a damn about Reiji. The true highlights of the show are Noela the werewolf and Mina the ghost. Mina is the only character that has been expanded on, and her backstory is rather tear-jerking too. She was a sickly lady that passed away even before she got to enjoy life. Even though Mina is also very cute, cuteness is Noela’s forte. It’s undeniable that Noela is the series’ mascot. Her fluffy tail, which even got the Demon Lord going gaga, is more powerful than any other weapon. If not for these two, this anime may have lost a lot of what little viewership it had.

Even though Cheat Pharmacist is relaxing and fun to watch in its own right, it doesn’t change the fact that its other aspects are mediocre. The music, the art, the premise, the characters, the inventions, and the story—if we can even call it that—are seriously lacking. While they are not necessarily bad, they have nothing to make the series stand out. Mina and Noela may have been the saving grace due to backstory and cuteness respectively, but the other characters are just meh. Yes, that includes the protagonist. In fact, the only moment Reiji’s character has been explored is in the last episode. Even then, we’ve only seen him being a corporate slave; nothing more, nothing less.

Delving a bit deeper, Cheat Pharmacist’s plot is a constant repetition. Unlike anime like Doraemon and Gintama, which have a lot of standalone episodes, Cheat Pharmacist’s episodes don’t have great or unpredictable twists. Even the way the inventions are used are nothing out of the ordinary. There isn’t even any character development either, so they just become duller and duller.