While I was walking down memory lane, I decided to read some of my Anime-Planet blog posts. Even after I started aniblogging here, I posted on A-P... mostly because I was going through anime at a ridiculous rate, and I didn't want my family to see how often I finished and discussed different series. Three of my posts were about Saiunkoku Monogatari. Here's my post from right after I finished the first series. I liked the second series almost as much.
It's been three years since I watched this shoujo anime, but I remember that it was a lovely experience. There were a total of 78 episodes, split into two 39 episode series. I went through them in less than two weeks, despite having school and other responsibilities. That should tell you two things: First, I had very unhealthy anime habits (mostly rooted in escapism). Second, this show captivated me.
Like I said in my Anime-Planet posts, I loved the characters in Saiunkoku Monogatari. Looking back, they weren't too extraordinary, but they were fun. Three years later, I still think about one of the directionally-challenged secondary characters whenever I get lost.
There's romance, but the plot is far more involved than that. Anime-Planet has it tagged as "political," and it is. The main character, Shuurei, is a sharp, politically-minded girl living in an ancient empire. It takes more than a little determination for a woman to rise as a political figure in a world like that, and the rise does not happen overnight.
Saiunkoku Monogatari is not a comedy, but it has more than a few comedic moments. I'll leave you with one of them, courtesy of a nameless, very minor character from the second series:
