Note: I will not be making an individual episode for ep 14-16, since I watched them in a stretch and found that it was better to make a discussion of the characters, rather than the story proper. On the other hand, I might not even blog about it yet, and will direct you to Hopeless Sensei for his views.
Anyway, onward to Saiunkoku Monogatari Episode 13, the preclude to the coming arc of the National exams.
Ran was in fact the person who had left Kochou in the middle of the night in order to help Eigetsu as he heard that he was disturbed by some hoodlums. As we got a flashback, Ran mentioned that Eigetsu was very different as he was apparently having a drinking competition with the thungs from Seikintou. However, they refused to pay the money and tried to bash Eigetsu up, only to be bashed up instead. However, Eigetsu could not remember any of it but he had dropped the official wooden token. It seemed that the Seikintou had deliberately targetted those with these tokens (required for the Kaishin test).
Santa came back to Kougarou and warned the party about the possible invasion that was going to be carried out. He was however ridiculed by Shuurei who said that it was stupid for him to join and try to be a hero. It was here that Kochou was revealed to be one of the underground bosses and she was in charge of the red light district. As the Seikintou came over, they found that the place was too quiet. They did not bother, thinking that the people inside were scared of them. They charged in, only for a giant snowball to be thrown at the leader. We then saw that Kochou was the one who had thrown it and the Seikintou was surrounded by all the big bosses of the underground.
While the main party was fighting outside, Ri, Shuurei, Eigetsu and Santa were hiding in a room, avoiding the fight. Shuurei was still shocked that Kochou was the leader. However, they decided to go out and hunt down the tokens, since the Seikintou would have brought the tokens along. As they tried to search the bodies around, the leader came in and held Shuurei hostage. Eigetsu and Santa tried to stop the leader but was shoved aside easily. Ri had then crashed a flower vase on the head of the leader but it seemed like there was no effect.
Finally, Eigetsu got up after he was shoved into a barrel of wine. In fact, he had switched to an alter-ego, Yougetsu. When the leader tried to slash him with the sword, Yougetsu easily parried the sword and broke into half, before easily dispatching of the leader. Shuurei noted that Eigetsu was completely different but was taken by surprise when he threw her up, before kicking two of the filler thugs and grabbing her in mid air. However, it seemed that the alcohol effect wore off as Eigetsu returned.
As the battle finally ended, we see the underground bosses trying to fight for Eigetsu as he had shown his strength in power. However, Ryuuki arrived to the scene and said that he had gotten him before hand. As Ryuuki mentioned his name, they thought that he was joking and him being the emperor. One of the senior underground bosses eventually realised that it was Ryuuki and said that Ryuuki had intervened to prevent the trouble from getting bigger and it was their fault for not dealing with the Seikintou earlier. With that, they all bowed to the emperor, showing that they have vowed to him in loyalty and allegiance.
Eigetsu woke up and Shuurei told him that his token was not there with the others. He wanted to drink once again to get Yougetsu to come out in order to find the token but Shuurei stopped him. It was then that Santa’s father came over and passed them the token as well as an expensive bottle of sake. It seemed that Yougetsu had made plans earlier for it. With the token found, Ryuuki gave his blessing to Eigetsu and Shuurei, telling them to work hard for the final test.
The scene changed as we see Shuurei having her last day in the brothel. The present that Kochou gave her was a make up kit with instructions how to do it. As they sat on the bedside, Kochou said that Shouka and Seiran had both visited Kochou to say the same thing to her shortly after Shuurei asked to be employed. It was something like to take care of Shuurei and that she had lost her mother and the likes. Kochou found the whole scenario very amusing then.
As she finished the make up on Shuurei, Kochou told Shuurei that a make up was the battle armor of a woman. No matter what, Shuurei should just be a woman and never act like a man in the courts. She should just be herself and never cry because with tears, the armor will break. Kochou then smiled and said that if there was anyone that dared to bully Shuurei, if the man came to the red light district, he would get kicked out.
It was time for the last exam. Shouka sent them off as Seiran escorted Eigetsu and Shuurei to the exam hall. We changed scenes slightly to Ryuuki who did not know whether it was a mistake to let Shuurei take the exam as she felt further and further away from him. However, Ran told him that feelings are hard to be turned around and it was regardless whether Shuurei would be a government official or not.
As they arrived at the scene, they met up with Ryuurin, Ran’s eccentric younger brother with the strange flute. He then blurted out some random stuff about friends and snow. Eventually, we realized that the top “Jougen” spot was taken by Eigetsu, 13. The second “Bougen” spot went to Ryuurin, 18. And Shuurei, our heroine, took the third “Tanka” spot.
You go, shuurei!
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Episode thoughts
An episode to lead to the next arc. It was clear already from the exam hall that Shuurei would have a very hard time to convince others of her ability as a government official. I am sure at episode 14-16, we will see more of this discrimination going on. I will pity Shuurei a lot, since she was already under so much stress. However, she could do it because she was finally able to fulfil her dream as a government official for the kingdom.
Eigetsu’s introduction was interesting. The part about changing to a different alter ego after alcohol was interesting, as it was adding more supernatural sorts of effects to the show. With that, I found the change really amusing, because even the eyes of Eigetsu changed completely when he was in Yougetsu’s form. It was rather interesting to say the very least.
Ryuuki really came to age in this episode. He was proving to be a very smart and intelligent emperor and he had finally gathered the support of the underground bosses as well, which was a very surprised success. I am not sure but it seemed that he had planned all this way before the thing happened. He seemed to have the intellect and the foresight to do something like that.
All in all, a good build up episode to the next arc and I will think whether to an episode by episode review for 14-16. Or should i just be lazy. I will think 