The anime is about the life about an ordinary girl named Shurei who aimed to become a Government Official. The theme is about hardships, friendship, determination and the value of life itself. The story is also based on an old traditional Chinese story where a country is ruled by an emperor, with 8 underlying provinces.

This focuses on the hardships she has to undergo to become a government official since a woman back then is not allowed to become an official, plus, she was among the youngest who passed the official exams. Her first job, being an ordinary woman taking an exam, is to become a tutor of a stubborn emperor. It took a lot of effort from her father (who works in the government), and for the old official (who went to her house to ask for the favor) to convince her of the job.

She finally conceded to the job when the official told her – that the emperor is lazy. Seeing how lazy the emperor was, Shurei scolded and turned the emperor’s life upside down. The emperor, having met Shurei, realized a lot of things about life among the ‘peasants’ and the life among common people.

It was not only the Emperor who was caught with Shurei’s determined and strong-willed personality, but most of the entire government officials under the emperor realized Shurei’s words and actions that made them realize how important their job really was. It was Shurei who taught them lessons in life that they took for granted.

Each and every episode of this anime has a lesson to learn. With a mix of hilarious to sentimental to touching-about-to-cry scenes as you go along the anime, this is definitely worth watching. Each episode has an introductory Chinese ‘sayings’ or ‘proverbs’ that gives a hint on what the episode is about, or what lesson is to be learned in that episode.

This anime has excellent drawing with gorgeous men and women. The way the scenes are cut makes the animation thrilling and exciting. The effects are good too and the personalities are drawn out of the characters are reflected on their colorful clothes and their facial expressions.

The music is okay, sentimental scenes are given soft music and the funny scenes are given a bouncy feel to match the mood. The opening and ending song is good too, more on the soft and dramatic genre of music.

Tags: Saiunkoku Monogatari

Category: Series Reviews