Saiunkoku Monogatari Episode 11

Hmm, the title for this episode is “There is no medicine for the lovesick”. I must say that the biggest amazement in this episode was the revealing of Reishin (Shuurei’s uncle) in a deeper character development. I was truly shocked, since it went against all my theories about him. In fact, I must admit that I am totally shocked and pleasantly surprised on how they had developed this man, one that has a great complexity in the way he is acting.

He’s comical relief at some points but when he turned serious, he immediately captured your attention. Interesting build-up episode to say the very least. We could soon see more fun in the next few episodes, since this is a setup episode to bring to the next arc.

Episode summary and thoughts below as usual, desu~

We start the episode with Shuurei chasing her student in the temple school, Ryuushin in the middle of winter. It was cold as she gave chase, simply because the student refused to hand up his work. The student then jumped off the bridge and held onto a tree. Shuurei tried to jump off the bridge in order to get the child but held into the water. As a result, she fell sick with a cold.

Seiran was there at the next scene, with Shuurei bedridden due to the extreme cold from jumping into the water in the middle of winter. Seiran was about to go off to get her some herbs and she held his hand, asking him to stay. Seiran then had a flashback about the same situation in the past where he had also stayed with Shuurei when she was sick. The mother then was still alive as Seiran was ordering Shuurei around as though Shuurei was a mature adult during their younger days. With that, the mother smiled and pinched Seiran, telling him that having such a sullen expression on a cute face was so wasteful.

As Seiran went to the kitchen to prepare the medicine, Shouka came back to the house in a rush, holding a few packages of things that he did not even notice he did. He must be in a panic as he rushed back to see if Shuurei was all right, since it had been ages since someone last fell sick.

The two then entered the room again and Shouka mentioned that he was going to make ginger tea. They then had the thought that Shouka would probably blow up the whole kitchen as he went over. As Shuurei warned Seiran to chase after Shouka, the inevitable happened.

Seiran got there to see all the kitchen utensils shattered in pieces everywhere. It was the same last time from a flashback. Shouka never did change when it came to aspects of domestic chores. Ran and Ri then came in, with herbs to visit Shuurei. They were then ordered to deal with the medicine by Seiran. It seemed that they came to a consensus not to let Shouka destroy the house even further.

As we proceeded to the next scene, we see Reishin gazing through the window secretly. Kijin was also there and he was getting annoyed that he was hiding behind and said that he was going to go in through the front page and announced his presence. He also questioned why Reishin would not admit that he was Shuurei’s uncle. That was when Shouka noticed their presence and opened the window to invite them in. Reishin was so eager to come in that he was about to climb in through the window, but Kijin simply leaped through easily (with the cool factor and the mask!).

Everyone was now at the corridor, as Ri expressed shock about Reishin’s appearance in the area. Reishin then turned back to his rather cold demenour and Kijin added some cold-blooded humor, saying that Ri “would be kicked out of the house”. Poor Ri. There was then a knock on the door and it was Ryuushin’s father (the kid that Shuurei chased). He said that Ryuushin was missing and he was getting worried as he thought that the kid would come over.

With that, he did say that he was going over to somewhere high. The group then deduced that the boy had gone to a nearby mountain and decided to rescue him. It was here where Reishin simply said something cynical and giving Ri a rather vicious comment before Shouka gave him a tick on the head and tell him to say things properly. It seemed that Reishin held Shouka in very high respect as he seemed pleased to be lectured by Shouka, his brother.

As everyone left to rescue the kid, Shouka and Reishin sat down, chatting with each other about the past. IOt was here where Reishin said that all he wanted was Shouka and Shuurei to have a peaceful life and that was also why Reishin transfered Shouka to the archives. He often regretted it as Grand Advisor Shou had made full use of Shouka as he was part of the “Black wolves” and Reishin was sad that he was unable to really give them a quiet life. Shouka simply said it was his own will.

When Reishin knew that Shouka had taken Seiran, he had sent out various assassination attempts to kill Seiran but they were all stopped by Shou once again. Reishin said that he was geniunely worried. There was then another mention of a brother named Kurou. Shouka then said that Reishin had to at least introduce who he was but Reishin refused, as he worried that Shuurei would know him as a cold-blooded uncle that had thrown out Shouka, cut all ties and became the head of the family. He did not want Shuurei to think that he was a bad person.

A flashback then happened with Reishin in his younger days, where Shuurei was still a little baby with the mother. Reishin then was told by Shuurei’s mother to learn how to smile, so that Shuurei would never see the other side of him. Back to reality, he said that he had always tried to do just that. We then see Ryuuki outside the room where the two men were talking and he took care of Shuurei, who was feeling slightly strained by the illness. He felt great pity as he saw how vulnerable Shuurei was when she was sick and took care of her by lowering her body temperature through various means. He then gave her ginger tea through mouth to mouth as she was too sick to drink it. The ginger tea, of course, was undrinkable.

We changed scenes once again as we saw the search party looking for Ryuushin. The snow-filled mountain was a treacherous place, as they discovered that Ryuushin was probably looking for medicine to get for Shuurei. It was then that they finally tracked his footsteps in the snow and found Ryuushin unconscious in a cave. He had suffered a bit of frostbite but was well.

We got back to Shuurei’s room and it was there when she woke up, feeling much better after some well-earned rest. It was then that Ryuushin appeared in her room, begging for Shuurei’s forgiveness as the child was worried that Shuurei was to leave permanetly. He did not want to do his homework in order to keep Shuurei back in the temple but he had caused her to fall sick. Shuurei smiled and said it was all right.

As they all left, we see Shuurei thinking about the phase for this episode, as she wished that Ryuuki would find someone good and beautiful that he could love. There was then a very important flashback of Shouka and Shuurei’s mother, with her mother saying that “Who would fall in love with the assassin that was out to kill her?”. It seemed that something had happened between the two. Their relationship was not as simple as it seemed.

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Episode thoughts!

Reishin really was not a bad guy. At episode 9, he seemed to me as a cold-blooded person but he was probably just someone who did not know how to control his feelings. In fact, he seemed to be a really nice guy, just that the situation meant that he had to maintain a certain form of distance. The interaction between Shouka and Reishin clearly established that there was a very strong bond between the two of them and I really learnt much more about Reishin.

I also made the mistake earlier that Reishin did not care what happened to Shuurei. He did in fact simply wanted Shuurei to be peaceful and happy, as he stated. I trusted his words, since he had said it in front of Shouka, a person he clearly admired. Shouka also had quite a bit of character development, as he was shown to be a really complex person. On one hand, he is the doting father of Shuurei. On the other hand, he was a cold-blooded person that would not hesistate to kill someone with a blink of an eye. It was really queer.

In fact, the last part about him killing his wife (or his wife sent to kill him) was really disturbing. Who was Shuurei’s mother exactly? She definitely seemed to be a really nice lady but it left more questions than answers for this episode as we were left wondering who the mother was. I would guess that Shouka had killed his wife after he realised that the wife had implications in trying to usurp the throne and the likes (my grand guess). That was close to it but the ending part about the wife saying that she loved Seiran and Shuurei confused me as she said that she loved Shouka. What was what?

I clearly am very puzzled. A very interesting setup episode, as i had said earlier. I wonder what the next arc will be about.