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Ou ki, Yuushun and Shi Ryuuki

It’s been a while since I’ve had any time for fangirling over my favourite series. I was expecting the translations for the Saiunkoku Monogatari light novels to be out by now. After all, that was the conclusive volume of the series. I know it’s hard work for those who translate light novels or anything else for that matter, and to top it off, this one is a historical series with a political plot, no wonder it takes time and extra effort from our translators. But I really have been waiting since the very day the release dates of the final volume were announced.

For those who’ve gotten out of touch with this series, here’s a brief explanation on what went by and what to expect. This isn’t a summary but just a sort of recap.

Volumes 1-12 are animated and spread over 2 seasons with 39 episodes each.The anime stops at volume 12 where the Emperor of Saiunkoku, Shi Ryuuki visits the Ran Province and gets Ran Shuuei back to the capital. The volumes which aren’t animated are from #13 to #17. There is a lot going on after the 12th volume, Ou Ki’s role gets bigger and Shuurei ends up in Heki province handling a Locust plague. The last volume “Shian no Gyokuza” is divided into two parts: Heaven and Earth. Some sources refer to the two part of volume 17 separately as volume 17 and 18.

A comprehensive list of the translations and scans of the light novel volumes as well as gaidens and uncollected stories can be found here.

I did find spoilers for the conclusive volumes here, a bitter-sweet ending with 2 epilogues.

After having read the spoiler, I have a few things to say:

• The events leading up till the end of the first epilogue clear up the storyline and attempt at tying up a few loose ends. The darkness threatening to overpower the series is brushed aside, everything goes as per expectations.

• The second epilogue continues with the “happy ending” line of thought till it throws up a little shocker. Read that spoiler to know more, made me pretty sad. The authors did wrap up that shocker with a pretty satisfactory ending though.

I decided that after a while, I’ll take my time and re-read the entire series along with rewatching the entire anime. I kept losing track my line of thoughts once the characters and story got a little more complex ^^”. To all you Saiunkoku fans out there, I suggest the same. I hope the authors come together and collaborate on another lovely series once again!