Saiunkoku Monogatari – 14 – Ryuuki Looks Interesting in Armour

This episode basically was meant to show the harsh treatment Shiurei and Eigetsu had to endure on their first month of work. Ryuuki may have passed the bill which allows women to take the exam, the fact remains that half of the palace hates the two of them now. You can’t change the beliefs of people that easily, and Shiurei, as a woman, really has to show people how awesome she can be. Not an easy task, though she’ll definately be able to manage in the end.

To sum things up:
– When Shiurei and Eigetsu get a letter about their first day at work, the dates are changed.
– People keep talking behind Shiurei’s back, without caring whether she hears it.
– Shiurei gets assigned to clean the lavatory (in the minds of the palace officials, the only useful thing a woman is able to do).
– Eigetsu gets to polish shoes.
– Officials are get too enthusiastic when they see a chance to bump over a bucket of water near Shiurei.
– Eigetsu gets kicked in the face numerous of times.
– Did I already mention the talkings behind Shiurei’s back?
– People treat Shiurei like she’s a patch of dirt.

Though this does show Shiurei’s strength. She’ll live through this, and within no time at all, she will be the one to order around everyone who talked bad about her. Talk about revenge! Those officials will really regret the day they mocked with Shiurei. ^_^

Eigetsu also manages to survive his harsh treatments. We don’t know exactly what’s going on inside his head, though he does try to not pay attention to the officials, and just tries to remain his usual fake-cheery self. Still, there’s one thing about Eigetsu that bugs me. He’s a genius, though I’ve yet to see any genious actions from him. Okay, he’s a thirteen year-old, though he didn’t really strike me as a very smart thirteen year-old. (After all, who sends an enormous amount of money through the postal order?).

In any case, Shiurei will be tested like this for two entire months. The first one and a half months, she’ll have to continue assignments as cleaning the lavatory and cleaning up paperworks, after which she gets half a month the time to write a report about this. Once this is over, the real officials get picked, out of the ones who survived the national exams, based on the things they accomplished over these two months. This arc will probably follow Shiurei as she makes her way towards the end of the two months.

We also got introduced to another minor character this episode: a yellow-haired boy, Haku. He’s the one who came in fourth, after Shiurei, and he didn’t quite take a liking in her. After all, she beat him fair and square, and now she’s busy cleaning lavatories. He doesn’t want to imagine his status when the truth remains that Shiurei’s above him. After all, this would make him below the level of lavatory-cleaning. We should expect some great things from this guy in the near future.

Rijin also played a big role as observer during this episode. He didn’t quite grow, though he made sure of some interesting background commentary about Shiurei. When Shiurei speaks to him for the first time, he gives subtle hints to her that Shuu and Shiurei were different persons. He also advices Shiurei to act more like Shuu, which is in one way a compliment, he approves of her and the things she did the previous summer. I have to admit, when I first saw him, I thought him as a bad guy, though he really has good intentions. He also asks his assistant to subtly show Shiurei a small pile of papers. The assistant gets shocked when he sees these, though I never really found out what these papers meant. So, what were they about?

Ryuuki also was adorible once more. He saw it as his duty to protect Shiurei on her first day, so he dressed up as a soldier. I have to say, he looks surprisingly good in an armour, though his hair looked a bit whacky. (^^;) An interesting fact is that he doesn’t appear in the rest of the episode, and he’s nowhere near Shiurei when she gets to endure these harships. I wonder what his reason was not to interfere. Of course, there are countless of reasons, but I also see him crazy enough to do something about it as well.

The beginning of the episode also shows that a certain ring of the “Sa”-family has been found. Still, it was gone as fast as it appeared. The leader of the group who found the ring was not exactly happy with this. More background about this ring, and what it’s got to do with this arc, is missing, though.

Overall, the more I think about it, the more awesome this episode becomes. This is one of the few shows that doesn’t need to create tension in order to be good. Something that’s very rarely accomplished. Each of the main characters are just so likeable. Oh, and Kouyuu’s sense of direction was too cute once more. ^_^

Memorable Moment: Seeing Kouyuu trying to handle the tasks of the emperor for one day. ^_^