The Eigetsu-arc is probably the best arc of Seiunkoku Monogatari yet. Not nessecarily because of Eigetsu, but all kinds of things are happening at once. The setting also is a very original one, and Shiurei continues to be awesome. Not to mention the original humor that the creators posess. ^^
I had a few troubles with the first arc of the show. After all, Shiurei only managed to get in the castle because of the high status of her father. If she would have been just a commoner, she would never have been able to accomplish that. She did show her strong character, but in the end she did end up as the damsel in distress, only to be saved by Ryuuki. Then the second arc started, and this element was immediately gone. Shiurei now advances because of her own hard work. Starting from the second arc, we really get to see what kind of an amazing person Shiurei is.
We start at Kougarou. Shiurei wonders what Ryuuki’s up to. He answers that he was here to see Eigetsu. Kouchou reveals that Shiuei was indeed the one who left her in the middle of the night and dropped Eigetsu off. Shiuei also is surprised when he sees Eigetsu with such a different personality. We then see a flashback of the previous night, in which Eigetsu beat up a couple of punks with a very evil look on his face. This suggests that the guy must have some kind of dual personality. In any case, Eigetsu doesn’t seem to remember what happened back then.
He also reveals that he lost his official wood token. Later in the episode, the importance of this token gets explained, and why Eigetsu was in such panic when he realized he lost it. Kouyuu and Ryuuki seemed to be shocked when they find out that the Seikintou have been collecting these official wood tokens.
Afterwards, Keichou seems to have arrived in Kougarou. When Shiurei finds out about the fac that he’s joined the Seikintou, she begins to yell at him. ^^; It seems he did it in order to be able to boast about something to the girl he loved. While Shiurei continues to unleash her anger upon him, Seiran reveals that Keichou used to often hit upon her when the two of them small. This even got so far that Keichou ended up in a river in the winter. ^^
Keichou then reveals that the Seigintou will be invading Kougarou that evening. What follows is a very enjoyable scene in which the Seigintou get ambushed by an army of crime-bosses. Kouchou happens to be the leader of the crime-bosses. ^^ Things start very nicely when the leader of the Seigintou gets bombarded with a giant ice-ball (nice haircut, by the way). Shiurei, Keichou, Seigintou and Kouyuu are hiding in a shack somewhere, as all of them can’t really fight. Eigetsu then decides to head out after all, as his token is very important to him. Kouyuu sends Shiurei along with him. Keichou follows them, though Kouyuu doesn’t really care about him.
The leader of the Seigintou meanwhile managed to escape the ambush, and he managed to invade the building of Kougarou. He then runs into Eigetsu, Shiurei and Keichou, searching unconcious bodies for the tags. He then manages to take Shiurei as hostage. Even though the two of them know they aren’t strong at all, they still try to attack the guy. Only to end up on the floor, knocked out in Keichou’s case, and in a barrel full of sake in Eigetsu’s case.
Then the mystery behind Eigetsu’s second personality becomes clear. It seems that whenever he drinks alcohol, he turns into Yougetsu, his total opposite: violent, strong, confident. Kouyuu meanwhile manages to free Shiurei by dropping a huge flower pot on the guy’s head. Shiurei also acts as a perfect hostage, as she just doesn’t want to stay still. the leader of the Seigintou has huge troubles to prevent her from checking whether Eigetsu is allright. Kouyuu managed to finish this in a nice anti-climax.
It seems that the creators were really enthusiastic in giving the leader of the Seigintou a couple of fun haircuts, as the guy now walks around with an afro full of flowers. ^^ Then, Yougetsu woke up, and kicks the guy’s ass. These fighting scenes looked very amazing. Shiurei also manages to find out the purpose of the wooden tags the Seigintou have been stealing. They’re indeed passes which permit a person to take the national exam. For a lot of people, these tags are worth more than their life, and so the Seigintou have found a nice way to blackmail persons.
At the same time, this explains the importance of Eigetsu in this story. Both Shiurei as Eigetsu will be taking the national exam. This means that they both will become government officials at the same time, they’ll be advancing together. Eigetsu will probably also end up living with Shiurei, Seiran and Shouka, so the two of them will be spending a lot of time together.
Eigetsu also seems to be the one youngest person to pass the local exams at the top of his year (therefore, beating Kouyuu). It also seems that his tag was not among the ones the Seigintou have been stealing. Then it appears that Yougetsu was responsible for the disappearing tag. He saw the danger of the ruckus he caused, so he gave his tag to a third party (Keichou’s father. Apparently, the two know each other). He also ordered a bottle of high-quality sake, which would explain Eigetsu’s empty pocket at that time.
Now that everything has been solved, the show still has enough time left to wrap up a couple of things. First of all, Shiurei’s last day. In the previous episode, Kochou promised Shiurei a surprise for her last day at work. It appears to be a make-up kit. (Shiurei looks beautiful with make-up, by the way) Kochou also reveals that both Shouka as Seiran knew about the fact that Shiurei was working at a brothel. They both came to her, begging to take care of Shiurei. It was quite funny that both of them said the exact same thing.
After that, we see Shiurei and Eigetsu heading to the palace, in order to take their national exams. In the palace, they run into a Ryuuren again, as weird as ever. (I loved it when he used his flute to talk ^^) The results are also announced afterwards. Eigetsu really is a genius, despite his shyness, when it seems that he managed to get the best results. Ryuuren managed to come in second and Shiurei third. Eigetsu and Shiurei will be working in the palace afterwards, though I think that Ryuuren will continue roaming around.
One more thing… what kind of “job” did Shiuei have to do at the beginning of the previous episode? He couldn’t have known about Eigetsu, could he? (*wink wink*)
Overall, this arc was great. Saiunkoku Monogatari really gets just better and better. I’d love to see the reactions of the ones who follow the subs. If they already thought that the first arc was awesome, I can’t wait till they find out about the second and the third arc. 🙂
Memorable moments: The leader of the Seigintou getting bombarded by a giant iceball, and Shiurei seeing herself with make-up for the first time.
