This episode was way too short. I swear, I blinked once and it was over. Despite what felt like a really short runtime, it managed to cover manga chapters 9-11…. well okay, a majority of 9-11. The episode ends just short of where chapter 11 ends in the manga, and just like the previous episodes, this one stayed true to its source material.
With that said, I haven’t been thoroughly disappointed with a scene yet in this anime adaptation… until now. When Gaoshun goes back to Jinshi to relay what he learned from his conversation with Maomao, Jinshi looks outright tired of everything. Just looking at him makes you feel for the guy: he’s been up since the garden party, unable to rest or change clothes or do anything else thanks to the poison soup fiasco. However, the anime doesn’t truly capture Jinshi’s level of exhaustion. I mean, just look at how tired he is in the manga.
Compare that to the scene in the anime:
I dare you to tell me that the anime expresses the same level of “I want to be done with this shit” from Jinshi as the manga does. Jinshi’s VA, Takeo Ootsuka, does a fantastic job because he certainly sounds exhausted. It’s just super disappointing that the visuals don’t match. They even left out Gaoshun’s menacing stare! And that’s the best part of the scene!
Aside from the scene with Gaoshun and Jinshi, I didn’t find fault with any of the other scenes. It was pretty much a panel-for-panel match from the manga. There were no major additions this episode either, aside from the dream Maomao has at the beginning. It’s a very brief dream, but sweet nonetheless.
Last episode reaction, I mentioned how there would be more details about Jinshi’s second hairpin in this episode. It wasn’t a huge reveal or anything, but the audience learned a couple of things about Jinshi thanks to this second hairpin. For one, Gaoshun has been with Jinshi since his birth. Two, the hairpin signifies that the wearer is of an important status. Now, why Jinshi would wear the hairpin in the first place if his status is something he wants to keep hidden, I have no idea. That’s always bugged me a little bit because it doesn’t make sense for him to suddenly appear with a hairpin that could possibly reveal his secret.
Something else that’s still bugging me is I still don’t understand how Maomao is able to confirm her suspicions about Lishu being bullied by her ladies-in-waiting just by looking at the fingerprints.
Last episode, she had her suspicions, but she didn’t say anything out loud. Maomao indirectly threatened the food taster so she wouldn’t try anything like that again, and then to Jinshi and Gaoshun, Maomao told them that she simply wanted to let the food taster know what foods to avoid. As we saw, however, Jinshi could tell there was something more to Maomao’s actions than she was letting on.
So tell me why seeing the food taster’s fingerprints on the concubine’s food bowl confirmed Maomao’s suspicions of bullying? Was the food taster not supposed to touch the bowl? But then how would she have tasted the soup? In the manga, Maomao goes on to say in that scene that Lishu’s food taster was well aware of what Lishu could and could not eat.
So she knew about the fish allergy? Did the food taster just not think giving her mistress something she couldn’t eat was equivalent to threatening her life? I just… My mind just cannot, for the life of me, connect those dots, so if someone would enlighten me to what I’m missing, I’d appreciate it.
One thing I love about Gyokuyou is her mischievous streak. You know that she purposely phrased her sentence in a way to make it seem like Maomao took off for good, so she could get this kind of reaction out of Jinshi.
Lastly, I loved that the episode ended as it began: Maomao with her dad. I can’t remember if the light novel ever mentions Luomen’s (Maomao’s dad) eye color, or if the golden eyes are an anime adaptation choice. The color does make him a bit more sus than what I believe suits his character, but I still like the choice nonetheless.
Looking at the preview for the next episode, looks like they’ll cover another 2-3 chapters of the manga. If I’m being completely honest, I was kind of hoping they would skip this next arc. Without revealing anything, I’ll just say that as interesting as this next mystery is, I don’t think it necessary for the overall story. I’d rather the story just go back to the palace. But it looks like they contain it just to this single episode, so maybe it’ll be better than I’m expecting. We’ll just have to see!
