Saiunkoku Monogatari

I watched the dubbed and then a little of the way through I could only find subbed – both were excellent

39 episodes

2 seasons

10/10 – it had just the right mix of romance, action and mystery

Themes: Romance, Conspiracy theories, Drama, Action, Historical, Comedy

I thoroughly enjoyed this series and immediately after watched season 2 (which is coincidentally called Saiunkoku Monogatari II).

Saiunkoku Monogatari is quite a girly series – set in old Japan when everyone travelled in carriages and sent letters to each other rather than using phones – it’s generally about a girl: Shurrei, who is independent, strong and generally a nice girl. The story begins with her being sent to the palace to become the Emperor’s wife but she resists this placement and instead sets out to teach the Emperor a few things in the way of duties to his kingdom. Soon it becomes obvious that the Emperor (Ryuuki) really likes Shurrei and thus their relationship begins… or so I thought. After the first few episodes Shurrei leaves Ryuuki and goes back to her old job at the local school, and the story truly heats up as she fights to become the first ever female official of the Kingdom, with help from a few friends.

The characters are all really likable, to start off with there is:
Shurrei – the main character
Ryuuki – the Emperor
Seiran – Lived with Shurrei and her father after they found him years ago (although as you can probably guess there’s a lot more to his story than is first explained)

(I will add pictures later, html is ticking me off right now)

Later on you meet:
Ryurren (my favourite)

Eigetsu

And many, many more.

That's it for this review: I did not write about the episodes as I watched the series (like I usually do for my reviews) due to lack of being awake; so I do not have an epi by epi guide to this series.