And now for the latest volume… BTW, this book is long; the author herself says so in the afterword. XD
More of Saiunkoku 11. Sorry about the length. I write a long letter because I have not the time to write a short one, etc.
And now, the long-awaited vol 11 post.
Spoilers for vol 10, of course.
This summary is becoming somewhat nonsensical, but I persevere.
Here we go! Volume Nine. This one actually felt rather long for the plot. Although it’s in a mystery form, sort of, the best scenes often have nothing to do with the counterfeiting. The book feels really like an ‘in between’ incident. Well, looking at volume ten, it seems more interesting. /forges on.
It seems that people have some questions about Saiunkoku.
1. Where can I get the novels and how can I read them?
The novels can be gotten anywhere Japanese books may be found. As for reading them, they’re in Japanese. I hear there are also Chinese translations, but I don’t know Chinese so I have no information about these.
2. Who does Shuurei end up with? Does she marry anyone?
The series is not over yet. So far, Shuurei has not ended up with or married anyone in the novels. Actually, I think that this issue is not going to be resolved until the end of the series, and who knows when that’s going to be.
Okay, there’s more story here, but I’ll be a bit less tl;dr here, because there’s less exposition.
This is the second gaiden. It features the following stories:
1. First appearance of Ryuuren. Occurs at a different place from where it does, chronologically, in the anime. In the anime, it happens while Shuurei is in the palace, but in the novels, it occurs after she has left, around the time of the exam. Events here are quite different, though. I actually don’t understand why this one was eliminated, because it actually gives a lot of insight into the characters of Ryuuren, and oddly, Reishin, as well as developing Shuuei as a character (as he is somewhat underused, I believe).
2. Story of the Autumn Festival: This *wasn’t* animated. It takes place after Shuurei and Eigetsu have become governors, but before New Year’s, so between books five and six. I actually have to wonder if they’ll animate this as a flashback, because IMHO it gives a lot of important information about the Hyou clan and Hyou Riou (both of them). Actually, I wish they had put this in, because it adds more development to Kokujun, Shunki, and Sai Rin.
3. Post book eight story involving the main principals in that book. Ryuuren takes Shuurei and Eigetsu, with Kourin tagging along, on a tour of the newest tourist spots of the Sa Province capital. Occurs after the main events of book eight. This is a fairly cute story. (Yeah, Ryuuren appears a lot in this gaiden. It’s no coincidence he was on the cover.)
4. A short piece, after the afterword. (more…)
Continuation of previous post. You should consider both of them one big post that just spoils the heck out of the entire novel, as I discuss some things that aren’t revealed till the end in the beginning of the first post.
Well, I finally finished this book. Now onto Gaiden 2. This book struck me as a bit overly long, and some of the points about Eigetsu were a bit hammered in. And although I like Ryuuren and like his character development here, the current significance of his inclusion here escapes me; the main events of the plot wouldn’t have changed if he hadn’t been here. Like previous Saiunkoku novels, somewhat irritatingly, what actually goes down seems to be less important to the overall plot than what is revealed, again raising the question of where the storyline is going. (much is revealed about the mystical/supernatural overplot here). Also, caveats: I don’t have perfect knowledge of Japanese, I may have misunderstood some things, and also I’m biased and write the most about the parts that interest me. (more…)
Note that I’m not talking about events in the order in which they appear in the book. The book jumps back and forth in time and between various in a rather irritating way, if you’re trying to blog it, and I don’t include all the details, just the ones that interest me.
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This novel covers the part where Shuurei and Tei Yuushun, along with Sai Rin and Sa Kokujun go to Kiyou for New Year’s. So, read on ONLY if you want to be spoiled for both current events in the anime. ^_^ (Actually, it covers quite a bit of the stuff from the ending part of last season: IMHO, there actually are quite a bit of changes, although probably they don’t make that much of a difference, in terms of the general plot)
Something I was wondering: do the seven great families predate the founding of the nation?
This novel is the second part of the Sa arc. Don’t read this if you haven’t seen the anime series, because it’s the climax of the second half of the series.
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