Saiunkoku Monogatari Episode 10

The moral of this episode was “Good things come to those who wait”. To make a long story short, Shuurei was finally given the chance in which to take the imperial examination. After a long wait of her 16 years of life, it seemed that the impossible time that she might finally sit and be a government official. The story had been moving in a good pace, where we realised the real identity of Ensei as well as the reason why he was being hunted by bandits from the Brown province.

I must say that the conclusion of this arc was slightly hasty but it did explain quite a few things, especially on the character of Ensei. I never did know why Seiran disliked Ensei so much, even though they are friends though. That could be a nice backstory sometime. However, I am somehow sure that Ensei would probably not appear any more in this series, which was a rather big pity.

To add, I must really thank the people at Shadow dreams Fansubs for also jumping in to fansub Saiunkoku Monogatari. Now, i am totally in touch with the current episodes. Go support them too, their subs seemed to be decent enough, with the translation being relatively error-free. It’s not bad at all.

Anyway, enough of my rants. Onwards to episode summary + thoughts!

Ryuuki, the emperor, was toiling late nights for the past few weeks, busy with his draft proposal in which to impress the court enough to allow females to enter the imperial examination. Considering the patriarchal mentality that had been in practice for so long in Saiunkoku, it would take a very strong point in which to get rid of the dissenting voices. That was why Ryuuki had been busy with the proposal.

The scene changed, as we see Shuurei with Ensei in front of Shurrei’s mother’s grave. It was the day before the death anniversary of her mother and she explained a bit of history about her mother. Her mother was a kind but clumsy mother, not a good cook, contrary to what Ensei thought of her.

However, she was always there, caring for Shuurei because Shuurei was a very frail child when she was young. During a thunderstorm, her mother was still taking care of Shuurei in the summer time, when she suddenly died. That was why in episode 9, we see Shuurei hating the thunderstorm and her mood was extremely bad during summer.

Strangely enough, Shuurei’s body got better instantly after her mom died and she always felt that she was the one that had cursed her mother to die by stealing her life. Ensei assured her that she would not think that way, because that way of thinking would be a child’s form and only made others worried for her. In fact, Ensei’s parents died in the summer after bandits raided his house but he loved the summer because of other memories.

The scene changed back to Ryuuki and his two advisors. Ryuuki was in a good mood after sending a letter of intent to make a house visit to Shouka in order to visit Shuurei. The two did not know this at first and thought that Ryuuki had eaten something really wrong. The advisors actually asked if Ryuuki was to miss Shuurei so much, he should force her into the imperial harem once again. However, Ryuuki rationalized that Shuurei was still angry and he had to make sure that the proposal worked in order to legitimately get her closer to him.

We then got to the treasury department, where the assistant and Kijin were discussing about Shuurei and Ensei. However, the talk was interrupted by bandits who had invaded the palace (I am surprised bandits could invade the palace so easily, what’s wrong?) and there was when Ensei and Shuurei came in. With his scar, Ensei was recognised by the bandits as the bandits moved in to attack.

However, Ensei simply used a chair and floored the other party. The other bandit tried to escape but was caught by other guards. Kijin then mentioned that Ensei was able to stay at his manor, in order not to implicate matters to Shuurei’s family. Ensei invited her as the bandits had seen her. It would be dangerous if she was used as a hostage.

Ryuuki had then arrived at night to Shuurei’s house, only to realise that Shuurei was at the manor. He then rushed over to the manor, with Seiran and all. Seiran warned them that they should bring their weapons along as the bandits would probably go over to hunt down Ensei. At the manor, Ensei made an excuse for a walk as he left Shuurei along with Kijin. The others had also arrived at the scene, as Ensei asked Ri to explain the situation to Kijin about the fight coming.

The fight then resumed between the bandits from Brown province. The scene changed as Ri was telling Kijin about the incident outside and Kijin mouthed out that the two of them had been extremely helpful. The fight was over as they found Ensei was missing and Ryuuki said that he was trying to escape. He did not, and he actually came out clean cut (HANDSOME MEH! more bishonen!). He was the governor of Brown province and he had came over to the emperor as the brown province had been problematic with the usurper attempt of Sa. The thing was that due to the fact that there was a huge displeasure and that many of the higher ranking officials had been either bribed or assassinated.

Due to the social unrest in the province, no one dared to in fact be the governor. That was when the grand advisor stepped in, saying to offer the governor post to anyone that would be able to settle the situation. Ensei then turned the tables on the people who had caused the unrest and he was in fact a very good governor with his aide. He then passed the jade pendant to Ryuuki, telling him to find someone qualified for the job since Ensei had not even taken the basic examination, much less the imperial examination. The hunt of him was due to the fact of the bounty on his head. He was a famous man after all. Someone of true authority had to be the true governor and he would support that man.

We then went back to the house where Shuurei prepared food for them. Shuurei talked about how she had used the gifts and Ryuuki gave her a cherry blossom shoot, because she had mentioned that the trees in her house were no longer growing. She cried, completely touched until Ryuuki kissed her once again.

As they left the house, Ri told her that if given a chance, given if she was going to be ostrachized and blamed and ignored, would she join the imperial examination? She says yes of course. At the end of summer, a new bill was passed in time for females to join the exam this year. With that, they sent off Ensei, who left once again.

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Episode thoughts

Ensei was definitely proving to be the person I expected him to be and much more. I remembered saying that he was probably someone that was in exile. I did not expect him to be the governor though, it was a little unexpected that he would leave his post so easily. However, listening to the reasoning of the show, it was probably why he had to come on in this disguise. He really cared about the country a lot, and his knowledge, wisdom and maturity were probably evidence why I was not that shocked when he revealed that he was a governor. He definitely possessed the keen ability to deal with things.

The conclusion was also decent, even though I am still very curious how Seiran and Ensei actually met. There must be something about them. Something special, i bet. A pity that i felt that Ensei would not appear since there was nothing really that could get him here. Maybe when there’s a crisis, there might be a small chance. I am not holding my chances though. The conclusion, as I mentioned at the start, was slightly abrupt as I expected slightly more. However, it was still good enough to satsify my cravings for the good twists and character development that Saiunkoku Monogatari had been doing. This anime had intelligence for a refreshing change in this season of anime where comedy had reigned supreme.

Shuurei really showed a lot of character, yet not to the extent that she turned to some wimpy, crying damsel in distress in character. It was touching that she kept to the concept of her cursing her mother, showing her vulnerable and young side of her. Remember that she was forced to grow up under rather dangerous circumstances, her strong side was so apparent that we sometimes forgot that she was only 16, an age where there was much uncertainty. It really humanized her but the strength she had after crying was admirable as well. It would take a miracle for anyone to hate Shuurei, seriously. She’s a very strong lead.

Ryuuki also showed his wisdom, even though his mentality toward Shuurei was rather naive. He was definitely an effective emperor, considering his ability to deal with work so well. He was on the verge of being slightly annoying when he was going all crazy and kiddish about visiting Shuurei. However, he immediately redeemed himself with a mature understanding of the situation in the place. It was all good. Seiran sadly did not get much screen time. Sigh.

All in all, a pretty solid conclusion and the next arc would continue soon. I can’t wait to watch the next episode! My craving for Saiunkoku Monogatari had been realighted!