Saiunkoku Monogatari – 43

I just realized that from now on, my Saturdays are going to be really busy, with Seirei no Moribito, Kaze no Shoujo Emily, Toward the Terra, Saiunkoku Monogatari and starting from next week, Dennou Coil as well, all airing on that very same day. This is going to be interesting, as these four series already are top-quality, and I’m suspecting Dennou Coil to be great as well. ^^; Anyway, back to the episode, it starts off by refreshing our memories about the eight immortals that supported the first king. After the first king did, they disappeared, and legend told that when there was a king, fitted for them to serve, they would return to the building we always see Sho Taishi in and watch over this king. With this bit of information conveniently passing right after we get a proper introduction of the white bishie, this really confirms that he is one of these immortals. This also explains why Sho Taishi did what he did in the first season. As it’s for sure that he’s an immortal as well, he just got a bit impatient and instead of waiting for a good king, he decided to take matters in his own hands, and pull some strings behind the scenes, in order to make this happen a bit faster. Still, I nearly forgot it, but there has to be a reason why the silhouette of each of these immortals is different, and actually very detailed. Something tells me that each of them is going to make some kind of appearance in Saiunkoku Monogatari. I do wonder when the other six arrive. Back to the white bishie, he does know Shuuri from something, but how and where did he learn her name. At the end of the episode, he approaches her, and she is so stunned that she’s not even able to move. Is there a deeper meaning behind this, or was this a variation of the “Kijin-effect”? Surprisingly, a majority of the episode is about Reishin. While he was as funny as usual (especially Kurou, noticing the prospect of Reishin becoming Shuurei’s father-in-law), the guy really is getting worrisome. He really doesn’t want Shuurei to know his name, and when he finds out that Kurou presented Shuurei a bag of tangerines, he just had to do the same thing. Hakumen also nearly spoils his secret, making Shuurei at least aware of the existence of a guy named Kou Reishin who keeps giving his subordinates too much work. Eigetsu also surprised me even more when the disease gets even worse, and it is confirmed that a snow-fox has been spotted in the autumn. This does suggest that we’re dealing with a disease which travels along with foxes. Anyway, Eigetsu only has a feint hope that there is some kind of cure discovered, and he actually begs Yougetsu to give him a bit more time. This suggests that he really doesn’t have that much time left, and he knows it. Also, Tei Yuushun finally tells Ryuuki that he’s a good emperor, and pledges his trust into him. Ryuuren, meanwhile, first looks for something called the Phoenix Wind, after which he disappears from Kokujun. The fact that Shouka noticed this must mean that this will play some kind of role in the future episodes. Finally, what the heck happened to Seiran? If I’m not mistaken, this episode only saw one shot of him, eating, while the previous episode only mentioned him once, about how he fled the house because of Ryuuren’s presence. What has he been doing for the past few episodes?]]>