This episode probably was more than enough to please all the Saiunkoku fanboys and fangirls. Not only does it start with Shuurei, getting saved by none other than her father, but the kissing-scene between Eigetsu and Kourin was just BEAUTIFUL. This definitely was one of the best Saiunkoku-episodes so far!

Seeing Shouka save Shuurei really surprised me, as I nearly forgot that he was, in fact, the leader of a highly successful assassin group once. He’s got a very interesting conversation with the white-haired immortal (apparently named Riou), after he ordered Shuurei to leave, as it seems that the two of them have met each other before. Shusui also shows her face again, in what feels like an absence of thirty episodes.

Riou mentions the name of Bara-hime. If I had to guess, then this Bara-hime was a very special person to the guy, and somehow Shuurei resembles her. That’s why he’s after her, even though he knows that the two of them aren’t the same person. We’re definitely going to see more of him in the future episodes. Shuurei, meanwhile, runs into Seiran, who finally gets a bit of screen-time again when he notices Shuurei, obviously in trouble.

She tells him about what happened, and he seems to get worried as well. That’s the strange part about this. I can imagine Shouka having some kind of history with the guy, but I believed that Seiran’s past already was wrapped up. If that’s the case, then why did he react so worried when Shuurei described the guy?

The next part: Kouyuu finally spends a bit of time again with Shuurei, when she saves him from getting lost in the middle of snowy weather. After a while, he forgets his worries about marriage a bit, and calms down a bit. That is, until Tei Yuushun shows up, with the news that the governor of the Koku-province will be arriving on the next day. I do wonder what’ll happen with the two of them, and whether we’ll have some kind of climax between the two of them, before Shuurei leaves to the Sa-province again.
Seiran, meanwhile, informs Ryuuki about the things Shuurei told him, but Ran and Ryuuki don’t really take this seriously. I still don’t know why he’s so worried, simply because of her description, and he also didn’t freak out like he did when the Satsujinzoku was mentioned.

Still, the definite highlight of the episode was the scene between Kourin and Eigetsu. I originally believed that Yougetsu created Eigetsu, but this was a lie. At one point, Eigetsu was nearly dying, so Yougetsu offered him his body, so that he’d live. I’m not sure why Yougetsu did this. Perhaps it was out of compassion, perhaps there was a deeper reason behind it. But still, Eigetsu’s soul could only remain in Yougetsu’s body for a limited amount of time, it seems. And that time is now running out. That probably also explains why he didn’t chose to be a doctor. People like them take at least twenty years to become really good, while he knew that if he studied enough, he’d have more chances becoming a government official. That’s also the reason he became a child prodigy, and managed to pass the national exams in first place: he just wanted to be useful more than anyone else participating in it.

By the way, does anyone know how much episodes the second season will consist of? If I’m not mistaking, we’re currently at novel eight of eleven or twelve (?). This probably means that there’s enough material for about twenty-six episodes. Any opinions about this?

I just realized that from now on, my Saturdays are going to be really busy, with Seirei no Moribito, Kaze no Shoujo Emily, Toward the Terra, Saiunkoku Monogatari and starting from next week, Dennou Coil as well, all airing on that very same day. This is going to be interesting, as these four series already are top-quality, and I’m suspecting Dennou Coil to be great as well. ^^;

Anyway, back to the episode, it starts off by refreshing our memories about the eight immortals that supported the first king. After the first king did, they disappeared, and legend told that when there was a king, fitted for them to serve, they would return to the building we always see Sho Taishi in and watch over this king. With this bit of information conveniently passing right after we get a proper introduction of the white bishie, this really confirms that he is one of these immortals. This also explains why Sho Taishi did what he did in the first season. As it’s for sure that he’s an immortal as well, he just got a bit impatient and instead of waiting for a good king, he decided to take matters in his own hands, and pull some strings behind the scenes, in order to make this happen a bit faster.

Still, I nearly forgot it, but there has to be a reason why the silhouette of each of these immortals is different, and actually very detailed. Something tells me that each of them is going to make some kind of appearance in Saiunkoku Monogatari. I do wonder when the other six arrive. Back to the white bishie, he does know Shuuri from something, but how and where did he learn her name. At the end of the episode, he approaches her, and she is so stunned that she’s not even able to move. Is there a deeper meaning behind this, or was this a variation of the “Kijin-effect”?

Surprisingly, a majority of the episode is about Reishin. While he was as funny as usual (especially Kurou, noticing the prospect of Reishin becoming Shuurei’s father-in-law), the guy really is getting worrisome. He really doesn’t want Shuurei to know his name, and when he finds out that Kurou presented Shuurei a bag of tangerines, he just had to do the same thing. Hakumen also nearly spoils his secret, making Shuurei at least aware of the existence of a guy named Kou Reishin who keeps giving his subordinates too much work.

Eigetsu also surprised me even more when the disease gets even worse, and it is confirmed that a snow-fox has been spotted in the autumn. This does suggest that we’re dealing with a disease which travels along with foxes. Anyway, Eigetsu only has a feint hope that there is some kind of cure discovered, and he actually begs Yougetsu to give him a bit more time. This suggests that he really doesn’t have that much time left, and he knows it.

Also, Tei Yuushun finally tells Ryuuki that he’s a good emperor, and pledges his trust into him. Ryuuren, meanwhile, first looks for something called the Phoenix Wind, after which he disappears from Kokujun. The fact that Shouka noticed this must mean that this will play some kind of role in the future episodes.

Finally, what the heck happened to Seiran? If I’m not mistaken, this episode only saw one shot of him, eating, while the previous episode only mentioned him once, about how he fled the house because of Ryuuren’s presence. What has he been doing for the past few episodes?

Ah, the introductions are finally over, and now this anime can start building upon its characters. This episode was another great one, with unsurprisingly, the focus being aimed at Emily. The next one should focus on Perry, if the show is going to keep building on the same pattern, which will probably introduce his parents and their problems.

The current episode was really meant to flesh out Emily’s talents. We’ve seen her write, we’ve seen her get enthusiastic about it, but this episode shows that she actually has real talent, when she writes an entire two-person play for the school theatre-plays. Roda and her friends, who have been preparing a different story, take this too lightly and fail miserably. This episode also shows that Emily’s teacher doesn’t really fancy her as well.

Two more relationships got quite a bit of development as well. First of all, Ilse, who performs along with Emily in her play. It’s obvious that during the rehearsals, the two of them would get really close together, despite the few arguments that they have when Ilse doesn’t want to read the exact lines Emily wrote. Obviously, as a writer, you would get ticked off when you hear that. ^^;

The second is the relationship between Emily and her aunt. I like how she isn’t really evil. She just has different viewpoints, and her methods are a bit extreme. She just doesn’t approve of Emily writing, as she doesn’t see the use of it. In the end, she also tears up the paper that Emily wrote her play on. While the fact that the play couldn’t be read anymore, a day before the performance, wasn’t really that worrisome (Emily and Ilse knew their lines anyway), she did write it on the back of one of Teddy’s incomplete sketches. That probably was the biggest shock for Emily.

Still, Elisabeth did visit Emily and Ilse when they had to perform their plays. Yet, she never smiled, or showed any sign of appreciation. If I had to guess, then she’s trying to understand Emily in her own way. She’s trying to figure out why Emily continues to write. Perry, meanwhile, gets some nice practice in trying to read while coaching Emily and Ilse in their practices.

I must be crazy to blog a show with as much dialogue as this one, but then again, I managed to blog Bakumatsu as well, with its obscure historical references, so I think that somehow I’ll manage, if I just keep reading summaries from other blogs.

This episode yet again spent its time building up. First, Torogaishi arrives and she explains a few things about the egg, left in Chaggumu’s body. I’m not exactly sure what she tells him, but they were some pretty nasty things she said to Chaggumu. She also drops the title of this anime as well “Seirei no Moribito”. Could it be that Chaggumu is this Seirei no Moribito (guardian of the sacred spirit) because he has the egg inside of him? After all, it had to be implanted for a reason.

Later, it seems that the king even contacted the commoners into finding Barsa and Chaggumu for him. Luckily, Tanda finds out about this in time. Shuga, meanwhile finds out about even more mysteries when he enters some kind of carefully hidden secret library. At this time, I’m not yet sure what the purpose of these books is, but that’ll probably be explained in the next episodes.

Thankfully, I did understand the last part of the episode. ^^; Barsa decides to put the jewels she recieved from the second queen to good use when she sends Tanda to retrieve them, and give them to some old acquaintances of her, in exchange for support, supplies and a horse.

I can really see Seirei no Moribito to really take off in its second season. The episodes so far have been building up and building up. It’s really taking its time to tell its story, and it’ll be very interesting to see the results of this. I loved how the guy first was reluctant to give up his horse, though when you see Barsa smile confidently, you just know she’s going to get it. ^^; Still, Tanda did get angry at her, right before the climax set in. Probably because these acquaintances of her were a shady bunch, and he figures that she shouldn’t take such huge risks. I think I can understand his worries. After all, he’s had to take care of Barsa for twenty years now, and in that period, she’s had lots of wounds. Of course he’d be worried about her.

Whoa, talk about a change of focus when compared to the first season. I don’t know exactly what it is, but so far, the second season has felt refreshingly different from the first one. Shuurei surprisingly isn’t the centre of attention at all. Heck she does what she needs to do in the capital: get a bunch of permissions, while the other characters now are turning far more interesting.

Especially Eigetsu got fleshed out even more, and I never expected that the guy actually doesn’t have any longer to live. Up to this point, it’s still unclear exactly what his relationship with Yougetsu is, but if I had to guess, then we first had a person called “Getsu”. Getsu then became Yougetsu, because of the influence of his parents. When he was taken in by Doushu, he probably created Eigetsu as his alter-ego, due to the guy’s influence.

And Kourin was just great. After the previous episode, I noted how the relationship between her and Eigetsu had rather stagnated, but with this episode, it just skyrocketed forwards, when Eigetsu gets more and more absorbed in his work, and Kourin finds out about his shortened life-span.

We also see Kokujun back, though things didn’t go as you’d expect, as he’s following Ran Ryuuren now. I’ve got no idea what the two of them are planning, but Kokujun regards Ryuuren very highly. Reishin pays a visit to Shouka’s house, and still is too scared to reveal that he’s her uncle. In fact, he reveals that he’s actually willing to marry her. Still, I do wonder whether Shuurei is going to marry in the first place.

Also, quite a bit of characters were introduced or mentioned through the course of the episode: a white wolf, a fox, the leader of a strange cult who goes by the name of “Li Senya”, and some kind of acquaintance of Sho Taishi. What is their role going to be in the future episodes, and where did they come from? I personally believe that Sakujun wouldn’t be stupid enough to just say to everyone that he’s back. If he was somehow alive somewhere, he’d use his methods a bit more subtle, in order to meet Shuurei.

We also get a confirmation that the white bishie will be the antagonist for the coming arcs, when Ryuuren warns Shuurei for a silver-haired man. Obviously, this has to be this guy. Or spirit. I have high reasons to believe that he’s one of the seven sages, just like Sho Taishi.