This episode was another intermezzo. In the meanwhile, a few months have passed, and it’s in the middle of the winter. I didn’t understand every part of the episode, but the parts that I did understand were great to see.
Apparently, Shiurei has to wait a bit more before she gets to take the exam, as nothing is shown about this issue. We start with Shiurei chasing one of the children she teaches (Ryuuji). Apparently, he wanted to play, but this goes too far and Shiurei winds up falling in a river. That is not good in such cold weather, and she indeed ends up with a cold in bed.
Seiran then decides to stay near Shiurei’s bed. Shiurei apologizes for being a bother, though Seiran tells her not to worry. We then get to see a flashback from when Shiurei was a very small child, and her mother was still alive. Apparently, she was sick at that time too, and Shiurei being sick reminds him of that time. Small Shiurei looks too cute, by the way.
Then Shouka arrives at home. He’s startled that Shiurei’s sick, and he carries some weird items. A bit later, the two of them try to take care of Shiurei. Do I still have to tell you what happens when Shouka offers to make Shiurei some food ^^;
A flashback later, and Seiran managed to view the battlefield that Shouka left behind. Then Ran and Kouyuu, who apparently heard that Shiurei was sick, pay a visit. They’re startled as well by Shouka’s actions. ^^; Seiran quickly sends Shouka to some other duty.
Seiran, Ran and Kouyuu then talk a bit about some thing I didn’t understand, and the two of them get a bit annoyed. Shiurei gets even more guests when Reishin and Kijin decide to pay a visit, for god knows what reason. Reishin gets a bit startled by his big brother. It really seems that he looks up to him. The two of them also enter through the window. I have no idea why, but it looked funny 😀
The two of them seemed to have brought some medicine. The three of them (Shouka, Kijin and Reishin) pay Shiurei a small visit, and then they run into Seiran, Ran and Kouyuu, who are all quite startled. Especially Kouyuu. Then Ryuuji’s father pays a visit, in order to tell Shouka that Ryuuji’s gone missing. Seiran, Kouyuu and Ran go to look for him. Reishin refuses for some reason, and he gets slapped by Shouka. The interesting thing is that, even though it looked like Shouka gently slapped him, Reishin really looks hurt. Kouyuu, Ran and Seiran notice this, and begin to suspect something.
Shouka and Reishin then are alone and have a very long discussion. What the heck were they talking about? In any case, the guests don’t stop coming when even Ryuuki pays a visit to Shiurei. And he does something stupid again. ^^; He tries to take care of her, though when she asks for water, she won’t drink it. His solution to this made Shiurei quite angry when she found out. Haha. So funny. ^^;
Ryuuji is meanwhile found. He tried to make it up for Shiurei by picking one of her favourite flowers. (Any Fantastic Children-references, anyone?) The parties talk for a bit, Shiurei gets some rest and she does appreciate Ryuuki’s effords. Overall, this anime’s going pretty fast, just skipping from summer to winter like that. That could promise to become something great. Still, I have yet to see any subtle changes in Shiurei, or any of the characters. You never see that in anime, by the way, characters subtly aging. Only when three or more years have past, you can see the difference. The Law of Ueki attempted to do this, but never got farther than just letting Rinko’s hair grow, while keeping all of the other characters the same, and from what I’ve seen from screenshots on other blogs, I believe that Haruhi’s doing the same thing as well. But then again, I’d be surprised if she wasn’t the only one whose hair started growing.
After watching several episodes it occurred to me especially in this episode that Shouka’s eyes have never been revealed. They are always squinty, his expressions hardly change whether he was worried because Shurrel was sick or when he was talking with Reishin. I wished that I was able to read the novel because the characters history are fascinating and waiting to find out next is so nerve-wrecking. I love Ryuuki’s reacting to Ryuushin’s declaration that he will marry Shuurei once he becomes a better man. Thanks for the blog.
Translation of this episode is out: http://shadow.randomfandom.com/saiunkoku/saiun_11.htm Yay!
There were some discrepencies with the Chinese sub version that I’m watching – in particular my favorite part of how Ryuuki fed Shuurei medicine. The translation says Shuurei screamed because she got fed ginger tea made by her Dad (Shouka – not known for his cooking… haha) but the Chinese subs I’m watching says she screamed because of the method by which she was given the medicine… lol I like that translation better. *wink*
There’s several flashbacks about Shuurei’s mother in this episode and I’m not sure I get them. It seems to hint that Shouka at one point was sent to assassinate Shuurei’s mom but fell in love with her instead. The title of this episode is “No cure for lovesickness” and seems to reflect how Shouka misses his wife? The other comical thing about this episode is Reishin (Shouka’s younger brother / Shuurei’s uncle / Kouyuu’s adoptive dad). He definitely has a niece fetish but for some reason can’t seem to properly introduce himself to Shuurei. I love how he threw the fan at Ryuuki when he started to talk marriage with Shuurei following Ryuushin’s (the kid Shuurei teaches at the temple) plea for Shuurei to stay single and wait until he grows up. Obsessive uncle, eh?
This episode is a side story, it seems the third story arc will start with episode 12, with a new main character introduction. That should be interesting since I’m still trying to keep the current characters straight in my head!