Category: Saiunkoku Monogatari

Short Synopsis: The journey from Kinka to Koren. And Ryuuki, Kouyuu and Shuuei are back! Good: Ryuuki, Kouyuu and Shuuei are funnier than ever, they cleverly decide to remain in the shadows, instead of the stage Bad: Their timing was a bit too perfect. Overall Enjoyment Value: 8/10 The focus of this episode was entirely different from the previous one, due to the addition of Ryuuki and his two companions. It seems that he couldn’t resist to come after Shuurei after all, with the excuse of inspecting the Sa Province. They really were hilarious, and I’m wondering what their part will be in the upcoming arc. Also, I might be wrong, but could Kouyuu have the same voice-actor as Baru from Otogi Juushi Akazukin? The way they yell is just too similar. ^^ I also loved how Shuurei still doesn’t know about Ryuuki’s plans. She never knows that she has an emperor behind her. Because of this, she’ll be forced to rely on her own strength, instead of Ryuuki’s. And that’s where she shines most. Her mother also gets mentioned again in this episode, just as the story of the Rose Princess. It seems to be a tale Shuurei’s mother told to her, and now Shuurei keeps telling to others, to help the story remain alive. It’s interesting, though. The story seems to suggest that her mother knew that she’d be taking over Shuurei’s sickness beforehand. Sho Taishi, meanwhile, gives us the first opportunity to see Eiki outside of a flashback. It seems that she’s going to be the first person he’ll be visiting with the ring. For some strange reason, he took on his young-form, instead going like an old-man. I think he’s going to test out all the possible candidates for the ring before letting Sa Enjun decide who is to take it. Speaking of which, it’ll be interesting to see how Eiki will react when she sees her deceased husband again. I’m actually curious whether the subbers will succeed in subbing the rest of the first season before the second season starts in April. After this, there are ten episodes left. In theory, it should be possible, especially if you look at the rate they’ve been distributing the past few episodes. Though let’s hope they don’t go into a sudden hiatus.]]>

Short Synopsis: The second part of the intermezzo. While the previous episode was rather gloomy, this one was more laid-back. Good: The scenes were either incredibly cute, or incredibly inspiring. There is no third. Bad: Like mentioned before, intermezzos don’t have too much tension. Overall Enjoyment Value: 7.5/10 Sorry about the lateness, but I was waiting for Shadow’s subs to appear, though it seems that We Suck has overtaken her. I still like Shadow’s subs better, but the fact also remains that I’m inpatient with these kinds of things. After the climax of episode 26, we’ve got ourselves an intermezzo again, preparing for the episodes to come. We also see Shunki for the first time, outside of a flash-back. Ensei has asked a couple of ex-mountain-thieves to take care of her. It’s indeed a great hiding-place for her. Nobody would think to look at their place, since they’re rather goofy. You wouldn’t expect them to hide such an important person. I’m suspecting that the two thieves did something in the past to warrant Ensei’s trust. I also like how Shunki lost her voice. Kourin and Eigetsu also were way too cute this episode when they were together. Kokujun, meanwhile, has set out to Koren, in order to stop his brother and grandfather. I’m not sure what he can do against the two of them, but I’m suspecting that it’ll be something significant. Shuurei also confesses to Seiran that he’s the second person she loves most. That’s indeed quite a strange thing to say, though it appears that the number-one person for Shuurei is her father. ^_^]]>

Short Synopsis: After the eventfulness of the previous episode, all the different characters prepare themselves for the upcoming events. Good: Altered OP; Kourin; only now Sakujun’s impact on Shuurei becomes clear. Bad: Sakujun may be a bit too perfect. I want to see some challenges for him as well. 🙂 Overall Enjoyment Value: 7/10 Ah, the aftermath. The chess pieces are preparing themselves to be moved. Quite a lot of things happened, though, since there are so many characters who have a role in this arc. First of all, Sho Taishi seems to have arrived in Kinka. That’s pretty fast of him, considering everyone else took months to reach it. He considers giving the ring to three possible parties: the two governors, Tei Yuushun or Eiki. It also gets revealed that Sa Taiho did some pretty bloody things in order to get the lead over the Sa Clan in the past. We also see a few glimpses of Tei Yuushun in this episode. I’m not sure what exactly his role is in this anime, but it seems to be a very important one, in order to be nominated for getting the ring. In any case, he’s now been locked up for half a year by none other than Sa Sakujun. Who this guy named Eiki might be… I have no idea. I’m suspecting we’ll learn more about him in the future episodes. Still, the most important focus of the episode was Shuurei. Only now, it becomes clear how much Sakujun has made an impact on her. The guy is a bastard, though because he seduced Shuurei, she doesn’t see it that way. She hasn’t thrown away the instrument he bought for her. She never tied her hair up again. She never spoke of Sakujun’s real name. I’m wondering where this will go.]]>

Short Synopsis: Now that everyone has reached Kinka, they rejoin with each other. Lin Senya, meanwhile, reveals his true name and makes his move. Good: Great fight, thanks to Ran Ryuuren. The scene between “Senya” and Shuurei had an amazing impact. Bad: Too bad I saw “Senya”‘s identity coming. Overall Enjoyment Value: 8/10 Haha! I knew it! Senya had to be Sakujun, he’s the only character who’s been mentioned a few times, but refused to show his face. Still, luckily his revealing-scene went way further than that, when he actually starts to seduce Shuurei. The thing that made the impact so huge was that Sakujun and Ryuuki have a scaring amount of similarities, and whether he’s aware of this, Sakujun uses the same sentences that Ryuuki used for Shuurei. Still, there’s one major difference between the two of them: Sakujun liked Shuurei with her hair down, while Ryuuki never even mentioned it. Sakujun also is quite the bastard. He was the one who introduced Seiran to the Satsujinzoku, he killed a large number of family-members in the past, he killed his older brother, he’s after Shuurei, he’s planning to make a second ring of the Sa-clan, and he’s probably up to a lot more nasty things. He was quite fearsome this episode. Still, he’s going down in the end. Here’s why: – We still have Sho Taishi who is on his way to the Sa-province with the real ring of the Sa-clan. I doubt that Sakujun’s aware of this. ^^ – He’s trying to go against Shuurei. Come on, she came all this way by herself for a reason. She’s not going to let such an idiot take advantage of her once more. ^^ – At one point, he’s going to have to deal with Ran Ryuuren. Seeing as Sakujun is the enemy of Bosom Friend Number 1, Ryuuren isn’t going to be easy on him. – Is Sa Chuushou really just going to just forgive Sakujun for killing his grandson? This also was the first time that We Suck got a sub out sooner than Shadow Dreams did. It’s a good moment to compare the two. Overall, I like Shadow Dreams better. I like how she left certain terms untranslated. “Tale of Saiunkoku” just doesn’t sound right, in some way. The Satsujinzoku also sounds much more fearsome than “The band of murderous thieves”.]]>

This episode showed a flashback, in which Ryuuki told Shuurei and Eigetsu that he hid the seal of the Sa-clan at a very safe place. He didn’t say what that place was, but Shuurei would know immediately if she saw it. It made me wonder what Ryuuki might have meant. What could be safe enough, when the Satsujinzoku checks even checks all steamed buns? Then the next episode followed. That most definitely was one of the most awesome scenes I’ve seen in a while! While it’s already at this extremely high quality, Saiunkoku Monogatari only keeps improving with each episode progressing! Of course Ryuuren would be the perfect person to trust the seal to. I should have known. ^^ But that’s not the only thing that made this episode great, seeing as Shuurei finally had the chance to display her strength again, being away from “Lin Senya”. Go Shuurei! ^^ Speaking of that bastard, I think I’ve got an idea who he might be. There’s one member of the Sa-clan who keeps getting mentioned, but never gets shown on the screen. It’s Sa Soujun’s younger brother, Sa Sakujun. There has to be a reason why he hasn’t been mentioned yet. Something’s telling me that both Sa Chuushou, as Sa Soujun as Sa Sakujun as Sa Kokujun have their own plans they want to get executed. Also, Eigetsu and Kourin are into a bit of trouble now that they’ve been discovered. I wonder how they were discovered. I’m suspecting that Sa … had some kind of role in this. Eigetsu also revealed quite an interesting thing. He isn’t really a genius at all, just someone who studies. Still, he did find a number of creative ways to study. Just for that, the guy deserves credit.]]>

Holy god, this anime is just getting better and better! I loved this episode to bits. Not only was it hilarious, some of the speeches, monologues and dialogues were brilliant! I can’t believe how much thought has been put into this anime. Now that we’re nearing the hearts of books 4 and 5, Saiunkoku Monogatari gets more interesting by the minute. It already starts out good when Sa Kokujun comes to free Ensei and Seiran. He’s the third grandson of Sa Chuushou, if I recall correctly. He’s been stationed alongside his eldest brother, Sa Soujun, whom we saw in the previous episode and kept an eye out on Kourin, Eigetsu, Ensei and Serian while they were captured. He’s in love with Sa Enjun’s granddaughter, Sa Shunki, I’m not sure whether this is known to the rest of the Sa-clan, but the fact remains that they don’t find him suspicious and he’s not too happy with their plans. In any case, I loved how Ensei lectured him when he released him. He’s one of those guys who keeps hoping for other, stronger people to do something. He hoped that Ensei would just go and rampage and everything would be all right. This also showed how easily influenced he is, as we later see him in the episode take initiative to guide Eigetsu and Kourin to Kinka. Speaking of Kourin, I’m surprised how strong she became after her stay in the Sa-Province. When she still was a servant of Sa Enjun, she just was a random scared servant. Same with when she returned. She was just too scared to be hated by Shuurei to show her true strength. But now that she’s shown her side when she’s not scared, she’s become awesome. 🙂 I also love how each of the characters go their own way, and do what they have to do in their own way. While Shuurei (she looks great with her hair down, by the way) is in the merchant’s guild, travelling without being seen, Ensei and Seiran travel a bit faster, while working as bounty-hunters, capturing the Satsujinzoku in the meantime and Kourin and Eigetsu have to make sure that nobody finds out that Kokujun has betrayed the Sa clan and Kourin actually is Shuurei. And yes, Ensei’s picture was hilarious. Also, I keep wondering what’s up with Senya? He’s definitely got an eye on Shuurei, but who does he work for? He seems to know Shuurei’s identity, as he’s been dropping lots of hints about Shuurei and her companions, which means that he definitely wants something from her. But is it to protect her in some way, by marrying Shuurei before the Sa-clan gets the chance to do so, or does he work for the Sa-clan and is simply luring Shuurei to where he wants her?]]>

I don’t know exactly what it is, though even though Saiunkoku Monogatari is a serious story, the added comedy-elements manage to crack me up every single episode. It probably has something to do with the great quality of the dialogue, combined with the already fleshed out characters. Still, I really like this addition of comedy to this anime, it keeps the story nice and fresh. The creators also know exactly when to use comedy and when to be serious, and both drama and comedy never contrast each other too much, in comparison to a show like Trigun, to take an extreme example, where our main character is an enormous goofball one second and full of sadness the next second.

Saiunkoku Monogatari really remains one of the most well-written anime-series this year brought forth. Probably because it’s so heavily rooted in diplomatics and politics. This episode also was a really great watch. Shuurei managed to be the only one who didn’t get captured. Because of this, Kourin is seen as Shuurei by the enemy. She’s quite smart as well, even though you wouldn’t say it. When she was asked to write down a piece of text only a goverment official who studied for the national exam could now perfectly.

For now, it seems everything seems to be a plan of Sa Taiho’s younger brother, Sa Chuushou. Still, I’m suspecting that things aren’t as simple as with the previous arc, in which there was just one person who had a grudge against Shuurei. This time, we also have the Satsujinzoku and its leader, Meishou. They seem to be working under Sa Chuushou for now, though I’m suspecting that they’ve got some plans of their own.

A lot of new characters have also been introduced this episode. First we have Soujun, someone familiar to Ensei in some way. And is it me, or did he just call Seiran Tei Yuushun? I’m suspecting that that’s the name he took on when he ended up in the Sa Province. Then we also have Lin Senya. He’s probably going to play a major role in the next episode, though I think that there’s something fishy about this guy. He’s just way too nice and appeared out of the blue. Could he be Meishou in disguise?

The past few episodes have really been meant to introduce the Sa-Province-arc. Not many interesting things have happened, but instead of that, we got some major fleshing out of characters. It seems that things will really be starting off next episode, when Shuurei has to travel to the main capital of the Sa Province either on her own, or with Eigetsu or Kourin accompanying her. Then, she’ll finally have the chance to display her strength again. 🙂

I loved how Sho Taishi keeps dropping hints to the people around him about the location of the ring of the Sa-clan. That smirk on his face really made it apparent that he’s really enjoying this. This episode, we also hear about two new characters: Sa Taiho’s daughter and granddaughter. The former has house arrest, while the latter is hiding somewhere. Shuurei imagining Seiran with a beard also was very funny, just as Ensei who got suspected of kidnapping Eigetsu. ^^

Kourin also played a major part in this episode, as she finally manages to confess the things she’s done, and finds out that Shuurei knew that she did it all along. I’m wondering how the relationship between the two of them will evolve. Right now, Kourin is desperate to make Shuurei forgive her, while Shuurei tries her best not to make Kourin worry too much.

Finally, the subs seem to have caught up with me. It was a nice experiment to start experimenting raw-watching with Saiunkoku Monogatari, but this show just isn’t fit for that. Luckily, I’ve found enough series over the past few months who are, which means that I’ll continue watching this series, based on Shadow’s subs.

This episode had a surprising main character: Ran Ryuuren. This episode again was more of an intermezzo between two arcs, just like the previous episode. Still, there were a lot of differences in theme and tone with the previous episode. Basically, after having disappeared for a while, Ryuuren returns to his Soul Mate #1 and Soul Mate #2: Shuurei and Eigetsu. He also discovers the existence of Soul Mate #2.5, aka Yougetsu. ^^

It’s a comical episode at first sight, though when Ryuuki appears, the serious side of Ran Ryuuren gets into the spotlight. He’s unique in the Ran family, as, even though he’s a genius, he doesn’t concern himself with power and politics. Because of his behaviour, he’s also impossible to blackmail or control, making him very reliable, in a way. Ryuuki realizes this, and uses him as a messenger.

– Kourin also made her appearance during this episode. Kouyuu informs Shuurei of the things she’s done. Afterwards, Kourin visits her, though she’s too scared to say anything about the poisoning. Still, she’ll get her moment some time, as she’ll be accompanying Shuurei to the Sa province.
– The location of the ring of the Sa-clan gets revealed. I should have known. Sho Taishi had it all along. He used it as a vessel for Sa Taiho’s soul, who makes a small appearance in front of Shuurei during the episode.
– Kurou also gets to see Shuurei. With this, Shuurei knows that she’s got the full support of the main house of the Kou clan.

I’m also wondering about the supernatural aspects of this show. They’re well hidden, but they’re there nonetheless. Especially the eight enlightened ones. It’s clear that Sho Taishi is one of them, but what about the other seven? First, I thought that the strange ghost Sho Taishi summoned in the previous episodes was also one of them, but it just appeared to be the young soul of Sa Taiho, who obviously wasn’t one of them.

Holy god, I am SO late. Why the heck did I put off watching this awesome series? Ah well, the good thing is that Shadow seems to have made a three-week trip to Japan, so only the translation of episode 20 has been released yet, which means that I haven’t missed anything. I’m not going to attempt to watch the raws without any translation anymore. This really is a series at which you need to fully understand what’s happening in order to enjoy it. Luckily, Shadow’s back from Japan now, and I’m now eagerly awaiting her new translations. ^_^

This episode was mostly meant for background information. Both about Seiran as about the history of Saiunkoku, and the civil war. But that doesn’t mean that it wasn’t a great episode. I really enjoyed it. It seems that both Seiran and Ryuuki were unwanted children. Ryuuki was hated by all his brothers, while Seiran was hated by his mother. She kept telling him that she’d been so much better off if he hadn’t been born.

Out of all the princes, Seiran was the most talented. At the age of twelve, he already was an excellent swordsman, he won the royal tournament and was presented by the royal twin swords Kanshuu and Bakuya by his father. He gave Bakuya to Ryuuki. I’m not sure how, but at some point, Kanshuu also came in Ryuuki’s possession, which he then gave back to Seiran again during the previous episode. So, what happened to Bakuya? *kicks memory*

Seiran was exiled because of his mother and grandfather. They were planning to make Seiran Emperor. That’s something which his four eldest brothers didn’t like, so they used this fact to arrest Seiran, and exile him. (Small note: who were the women, standing right beside them?). It was because of the current king’s influence that Seiran just became exiled, rather than executed.

Seiran was exiled to the Sa-province. During his journey, his mother was killed by assassins, sent after him by his brothers. Seiran then vanished fourteen years ago. At the end of that year, Shouka found him, and took him in. Between those times, it’s unknown what he’s been doing, though if I had to guess, it wasn’t pretty. All we know is that he’s picked up by a strange man, with long, dark-red hair.

Then, the episode focuses on the history of Saiunkoku. After prince Seien was exiled, things went well for five years. Ryuuki was taken in by Shouka and the four other princes continued to fight on the inside. Then, nine years ago, the emperor turned sick. When the princes found this out, the conflict between them took a serious turn, and the entire palace lost its balance. Therefore, civil war started. When you combine this with a heavy drought, the population suffered heavily. I just loved how the creators showed a quick shot of Shuurei, playing on her instrument in front of the dead people.

Shou Taishi didn’t do anything about this. It seems that he was waiting for a person, worthy to be called the emperor of Saiunkoku. When he finally found someone like that in Ryuuki, he solved the crisis like it was nothing, he fed the hungry and executed the four fighting princes (at least, this is implied. They’re all dead, aren’t they?). Then, two years ago, the previous emperor died, and Ryuuki got the throne. What happened afterwards, we already know.

Really an excellent background episode. Why did I ever start to ignore this series?