What I'm Watching: Saiunkoku Monogatari

[joiedecombat]

I know I said I was going to watch Princess Tutu, but I got sucked into Saiunkoku Monogatari instead, and it's amusing me greatly. It's sort of like what might happen if you took equal parts Fruits Basket and Ouran High School Host Club and mixed them up into the imperial court of a fantasy counterpart culture to feudal China. Situational shoujo romantic comedy juxtaposed with political intrigue, and a sprawling cast of quirky long-haired prettyboys with more than their share of emotional issues.

The plot mostly revolves around Kou Shuurei, an impoverished young noblewoman who joins the (previously empty) Imperial Harem after the Grand Master of the court flat-out bribes her to try to make the emperor actually take an interest in politics. The emperor, nineteen-year-old Shi Ryuuki, is more interested in hiding from his own ministers and sleeping with male servants than in ruling, but Shuurei is nothing if not motivated, and in spite of the obvious flaw in this plan, if anything it works a little too well - especially considering that Shuurei never intended to stay in the harem once Ryuuki came around to the idea of actually ruling his empire. Hilarity and cutthroat politics ensue.

This isn't really a recc post since I'm not even done with the first season yet, but it's entertaining me so far. Shuurei is a likeable enough heroine to just about justify everyone being a little bit infatuated with her as is customary for shoujo heroines, and as the series progresses it's beginning to dabble a little in some gender politics which have the potential to become interesting. Ryuuki pushes the buttons I have apparently developed regarding heroes who practice obfuscating stupidity to excess, and I really, really love Shuurei's father, Kou Shouka, for reasons I can't go into at all without spoiling the fun. (I do wish at this point that we could get past the fairly light shoujo stuff going on currently and back into the more complicated political intrigue of the first arc, but there's a good bit left to go from where I am, so who knows?)

What I've read of the manga is even better in little ways (for one thing, more cross-dressing) but I have yet to be able to find more than the first two volumes, sadly.

Comments

[ancalemon.livejournal.com]

Oh, Saiunkoku...so silly, and yet I got so, so hooked on it.

Aside from all the surprisingly complex politics (at least, surprising to me, having expected it was just a fluffy shoujo show), I really like the relationship between Ryuuki and Shuurei. I get all mushy just thinking about the end of the first season. XD

[joiedecombat.livejournal.com]

I am about halfway through the first season at this point - it watches very fast, which is an odd thing to say since the episodes aren't any shorter than any other half-hour series, but perhaps because it's a fairly light series it's easy to burn through quite a bit of it at a sitting - and I'm pleased to see the return of the court politics.

I do notice that even in all the political intrigue there's not a whole lot of real dramatic tension, mostly because Shuurei made so many powerful allies within the first ten episodes that, even with efforts to avoid appearances of favoritism tying their hands, anyone that messes with her is setting themselves up for a vigorous session of the humiliation conga.

But watching it happen is still all kinds of fun, and I really do like most of the characters, especially Ryuuki and Shuurei.