Short Synopsis: Another one of the emperor’s wives falls in love with Genji.
Episode Rating: 8/10 (Excellent)
Yeah, now I’m sure: aside from Birdy 2, Genji Monogatari is my favourite show of the series that premiered in the winter-season so far. The Don Juan of anime; it sounded like a pretty strange formula, but it worked out really well. This really has been a consistently excellent series so far, with hardly any moments or signs of weakness. It’s a shame that the subs have been virtually non-existent, but then again that was to be expected.
In this episode, Genji performs a piece of a Noh Theatre play (at least, that’s what it looked like), and there he gets noticed by what looks like one of the lower wives of the emperor. The two of them start flirting and before you know it they end up together in bed, even though for a woman of her position, it would probably be very bad if she were found out.
And yet again, Osamu Dezaki worked his visual magic again: some of the visual effects in this episode looked really nice. It’s always great to see someone with the attitude of “screw conventions, I’m going with my own style!”, because it’s here where the most interesting art in anime comes from. I’m a huge sucker for anime whose art style doesn’t try to want to be like other anime, but instead tries to go with its own.
FYI, Oborozukiyo was the sixth daughter of the Minister of the Right and engaged to marry the crown prince. That’s what the confrontation after it was found out that she came home in the morning was about. She said something along the lines of how she known her assigned role is to marry the crown prince, but her heart is her own and she’ll love whomever she wants. Later she cried her heart out when Genji said the prince will probably be nice to her. (No getting out of it.)
I loved her “Matsu onna. Matsu onna. Matsu onna. Matsu onna. Matsu onna. Matsu onna. Hitori gurai wa kuru onna. Matanai onna.” line (reproduced from memory) when she came to Genji. At first when she kept repeating “matsu onna” so many times, I wondered what was up with her, but she repeated it almost at nauseam because that was exactly how she felt about about the restrictive customs. So may waiting women. Just one rebel, her 🙂
Corrections (geez…):
how she knows her assigned role is
so many waiting women
ad nauseam
and most importantly
“Matsu onna. Matsu onna. Matsu onna. Matsu onna. Matsu onna. Matsu onna. Matsu onna. Matsu onna. Demo, hitori gurai kuro onna. Matenai onna.”
Verbatim this time. Couldn’t resist rewatching that scene 🙂
Oh for crying out loud!!!! lol
hitori gurai kuru onna
i just cannot bring myself to see this as any kind of romance, i mean… he’s in a relationship with a dozen of women, come on!