It seems that the creators themselves also realized how similar Shuurei and Shuuran are, that really becomes clear with this episode. I must say, Shuran was awesome! For such a small child to stand up for her sick mother, believing very word that Eigetsu told her must have been a really scary thing for her to do. I sense another female official in her.
The pacing of Saiunkoku Monogatari has really slowed down with the second season, and you can see that the creators are able to give the characters much more development. This episode again is about one thing: getting Shuurei in Kourinjou. With the usual pacing, I’d say that this could also have been done in just one episode, but the extra airtime was much appreciated.
One thing I didn’t like about this episode though was that the feminism had gone a bit too much overboard. Sure, I love how this anime had addressed this issue so far, about women, rising in a male-dominated society, but this episode went too far. Basically, every man is rash and stupid, and wants to see Shuurei killed, while the women are the smart ones to bring their husbands back to senses.
Also, what is Riou planning, exactly? Right now, he seems to be either a friend or brother of Shuuran, but he hasn’t done anything suspicious yet. This episode as well, we only see him suspiciously looking at Ensei and Shuurei trying to pass the walls of the castle and scolding Shuuran after everything was over, because she acted so rash. If he really is the other Riou, then why did he contact Shuuran in the first place, instead of looking for someone actually acquainted with her?
It’s also aggravating: we see nothing of Kourin and Eigetsu this episode! I’m so interested in what happens to the two of them, but it seems that the creators are waiting for episode 13 for the major climax. Still, this episode was another great one. Especially Shuuran is not to be missed.]]>
Saiunkoku Monogatari – 50
were is the sub fan of this I just got the first ep.
We are indeed seeing the makings of yet another leader in Shuuran ^^
I also noticed the slow down of the pacing (especially after seeing how they only covered about 30 pages of the novel this time, with ‘flashback’ scenes at that), which could actually be because they want to stretch it out and be as faithful as possible to the novel considering that only 11 volumes have been released (and it’s making me wonder how they’re going to conclude this second season).
as for the feminism, I don’t know if I’m just biased because I’m a female, but I don’t really think it went overboard… especially after seeing how the women simply retaliated to other harsh words the men uttered (omitted in the anime) about this twisted notion of “balance between men and women”, where men toil for his family (since they can’t give birth no matter what), so women should just stay at home and take care of the kids. The women also pointed out that there’s nothing wrong with having a woman for a government official considering that they kick the butts of their stupid husbands at home (as stated in the novel) :p
(I have to admit that it portrayed men to be submissive to their wives, that is where I’ll say they went a little overboard ^^;; )
I do admit that after reading a bit more about what exactly the men said, the women’s retaliation did make a bit more sense. But I still wonder why every men believed the rumours that Shuurei was the cause of the disease, while every woman didn’t buy it. ^^;
It’s indeed an interesting pacing, the first season seemed to cover 7 volumes, which means that there are five volumes left for the second season. By the looks of your comment, it seems that book 12 isn’t really closing off the story, though I think that the creators probably will make some kind of ending out of it. There won’t be enough material for a third season for a long while, after all.
yeah, having almost all of the men shown to be prejudiced against women is somewhat… biased ^^;;
as for the ending, I just hope that they’re provide a solid ‘temporary’ ending for this second season, like the previous season 🙂