"The hawk with talent hides its talons."

I hope fillers would not be a thing for another anime I’ve recently continued to follow, Saiunkoku Monogatari. If Bleach was action driven, this one is drama-driven, which is only to be expected from a shojo (girl) anime. The first season was generally in the mold of a typical shojo anime – a cheerful heroine surrounded by a lot of good-looking guys (bishonen) -__-. But in Saiunkoku Monogatari’s case, it had a plausible reason for that -- the protagonist, Kou Shuurei, is the first female to take the national exam of her country Saiunkoku (reminiscent of ancient China), which was previously only open to males. She passed the exam with the third highest score and achieved her dream of becoming a civil servant.

In the second season, we follow Shuurei as she faces more challenges related to her work and at the same time fends off discontent from those who believe women do not belong in the civil service. What I like about season two is there’s less shojo anime elements (like Shuurei entering the palace as a consort, being kidnapped, and so on in the first season) and more about how the government of Saiunkoku works with all the political manoeuvring that comes along with it. We also get to meet two male characters who aren’t infatuated with Shuurei, although both are complete opposites. Shin Suou, or Tan Tan as he is named by Seiran, gets involved with Shuurei when she investigates a series of fake art paintings in Shi province. We later find out that he is a government official too, albeit a low-ranked one who is much more laidback than the very ambitious Shuurei. When a group of low-ranked civil servants (Shuurei was demoted to the same rank after the Jasenkyo incident) were given a month to prove themselves in order to avoid dismissal, many of them asked Shuurei to help them find tasks that would help retain them. Shuurei, being the kind-hearted person she is, agrees. Tan Tan told her she should focus on helping herself instead of helping them. He told her she was too kind and naive and that not everyone she meets would help her like those who did previously.

Around the same time, the two of them met another supposed low-rank government official named Riku Seiga. While Tan Tan voiced his opposition at Shuurei helping the other officials, Seiga happily agreed to help Shuurei. We later find out his true personality when he stole a report Shuurei wrote which would have helped her get retained. Seiga was actually a senior investigative officer whose work had been interrupted earlier when Shuurei took the initiative to investigate the case of the fake paintings during her suspension (yep, even during suspension she found something to do).

Fortunately for her, she was saved by Tan Tan who found the actual money press used for the counterfeit money related to the case of fake paintings, which they couldn’t find earlier. He handed it to her for her to submit as a report. Tan Tan in turn was safe from the dismissal because he had struck a deal with the head of the investigation department earlier. Shuurei, defeated, told Tan Tan that he had been right all along. To this he said, “I may have told you that you were too kind, but I didn’t say I hated it.”

From then on, Tan Tan becomes her friend and colleague (nothing more) while Seiga becomes her nemesis. It’s interesting to see how Shuurei does get less naive after that and even once managed to outmanoeuvre the scheming Seiga.

We also see more characterisation for Shi Ryuuki and military general Ran Shuei. Amidst the backdrop of declining support from the noblemen, Ryuuki finally fights his own demons and makes a decision that would guide him the rest of his life as an emperor.

As for Shuurei, it becomes clearer that despite her ambitions, she does have feelings for Ryuuki who had declared his love for her in the previous season. It certainly provides a dilemma for Shuurei who wants to climb the ranks to become a respected official. Yet, how can she become for example, the Prime Minister, if she becomes the emperor’s consort? The second season pretty much ends on this note -- with you rooting for the both of them to get together yet wanting Shuurei to fulfil her potential. I hope there’s a season three :)