With episodes like this one, I’m glad that people like Impz can churn out reliable summaries. A lot of stuff happened in this episode, but it was also incredibly hard to understand with my limited level of Japanese.
Basically, from what I understood, this episode shows the death of one of the guys who’s after Juusanhime’s life. He’s killed by Shun, in front of Seiga and a whole number of guards. What Seiga was doing there, or what is exact role was in this whole matter, I have no idea of, though. We also get introduced to two new characters: Shun’s assistant (who is quite a good fighter), and a rather young head of the guard. He’ll probably have some kind of small role in the next couple of episode. We never know his name, but there has to be a reason for him to get a unique character-design.
Ensei also returns, when Shuurei runs into him in prison. It seems that he ended up there after he saved Juusanhime from her attackers back then. What’s also interesting is how Juusanhime’s assailants have the same mark on their forehead as Shun. Are they all members of some kind of clan or family, which rivals with the Ran-family, perhaps?
Thanks to your summaries I’ve started to watch Saiunkoku Monogatari and now I ask myself why I’ve waited so much (some months..)!
I can’t wait for the 2nd series to be subbed, maybe I’ll follow your steps in switching to raws and summaries from THAT 🙂
i believe the one that you were talking about who’s being killed was the vice chairman of the palace’s army department, Mr. Mong. (not related to the Emperor’s 2 private armies that Shuei’s under.) even though that dude’s dead, but his death is what stirs the story forward and you’ll see his name pop up more often later on.