Saiunkoku Monogatari the manga ch.03

The chapter starts with Shuurei waking up to find her royal husband lying on her and of course they are seen, but we know this from the anime. What is different in the manga however is the breakfast after that not so memorable first wedding night.

Shuurei is not sure what happened and desperately wants to hear that nothing took place, but Ryuuki acts nasty and …

 

… teases her to no end, but Shuurei being Shuurei is not fooled and sees right through him that nothing actually happened, which in turn causes the Emperor to sulk cutely.

Then our beloved concubine takes a long time to explain all the ways to love and how exactly she loves different people including telling her husband that he doesn’t make her heart go doki-doki (ouch, that must have hurt).

Next are some scenes from ep four – the talk between Ran and Seiran and the consequent sparring battle of the latter with the bearded councilor Sou.

The difference here though is that right after the end of the battle Sou talkes about what happened to the exiled prince Seien thus reveing straight away that Seiran and Seien are in fact the same person.

While I like the fast pace of the manga as well as the way the characters are much more seriously treated giving them mature and not so frilly personalities as in the anime, I think a bit more mystery about that one would have been a good idea. The anime also revealed that secret in one ep and even without it, it had enough subtle hints to the double identity of the lilac-haired bishi, but they did a better job of the revelation in my opinion.

Ok then there’s reference to one of the few things Shuurei fears (we get a glimpse of that in ep 9 of the series). Then follows some interaction between Shuurei and her father. It is annoying to no end, but he has his eyes constantly closed in the manga as well as in the anime. I don’t see why, it just gets on my nerves, big time!

And we have Ryuuki going to his concubine’s room to sleep there again, while we get all this in the eps, what is new here is the part Kourin plays. She gets some attention and we are shown that she harbours some romantic feeling towards her Emperor. She blushes sweetly when he takes the dinner she had brought for the two husbands.

Ryuuki drinks Shuurei’s tea and this angers her, but what I am more interested in, since it is not shown very clearly is if he does it because he considers it poisoned. The tea was in a silver cup, so after the hints that silver would change colour when filled with poisoned drink, it is a possibility. On the other hand unlike the case in the anime, where that was at an official gathering, here there were only the two of them, so he could very well spill it somewhere making it look like he did it unintentionally, like slip or drop it, or whatever.

Then follows a bit different way for Kouyuu to realize that the emperor is not the fool he makes of himself, but the difference is not that important. The only additional info we get is that Ryuuki’s teacher at swordsmanship was Sou, who’s legendary for his excessive expectations from his students. I guess that this would either be a substitution of the tournament from ep four or just some info that would make sense later. I guess the next chapter at the latest will show us the Emperor realizing Seiran’s true identity. I am most impatient to see how this is handled in the manga.

Interestingly, the last panel of the chapter is dedicated to Kourin, a character one would least expect to be treated with such an honour. It can even be said that she was given a lot of personality in this chapter, more that in the anime till ep 5.

The art of the manga remains absolutely gorgeous and the guys in it are so yummy that fangirls should have a napkin to prevent the drool from falling on their keyboard. I really hope that the manga will remain as beautiful and well passed. I am happy that through it I can have a view on the story form a different angle.

On another note, I’d like to point everyone’s attention to the great chibis on the cover. An especially to the fact that while Shuurei is alone in the top half of the sheet, Seiran ane Ryuuki and together in the bottom part and looking towards one another. And yes, I am perfectly aware that there is close to zero chance of any actual BL interaction between those two, but I can’t refrain myself from noting this small detail and go moe over it. I mean what kind of BL fangirl would I be, if I don’t comment on it?