Rating: A-
Episode 14 contains the sequence that I was probably most looking forward to seeing animated from this part of the story: Maomao’s lessons to the four high-ranking consorts on how to please the Emperor, a task warranted by the arrival of the new (and presumed to be sexually inexperienced) Pure Consort. That she ended up in this role at all is amusing in itself, but she does have access to the expertise of Verdigris House, after all, and it’s not surprising that a long-lived, prestigious establishment like that would have formal training materials. Nor is it surprising that she would pull recommendations from both Lihua and Gyokuyou because of her deeds while in the Real Palace (although you still have to think that Gyokuyou once again did that for her own personal amusement). The reactions of the three established consorts all suit their established characters, while the reaction of the new consort is interesting.
The new Pure Consort is Loulan, who looks like she’s probably between Lishu and Gyokuyou in age. In an anime-original scene, the episode opens with her entering the Rear Palace with her entourage, in a scene where the coloring of her robes, skin, jewelry, and umbrella stand out starkly against the muted coloring of everything else. Everything about the tone of that scene and her later intense stares at the camera suggests that she is a very proper and dignified young woman, but also less than thrilled to be here, and the way she acts in the training sessions suggests that she has little interest in trying to please the Emperor even though he will doubtless be visiting at some point. Certainly feels like she may have stronger ulterior motives than the other high-ranking consorts, but don’t expect that point to be revisited anytime soon.
That’s partly because there more immediate incidents to be dealt with. Last episode ended with a scene of someone giving someone else an ornate smoking pipe, and now that same pipe has turned up in a warehouse that exploded and caught fire. Naturally, Maomao can’t help but get involved when she comes across Lihaku investigating it the next day. That fine powder – whether flour, sawdust, or something similar – in the air create very flammable conditions is fairly common knowledge these days, but in this kind of setting, anyone who’s never directly dealt with materials like that probably wouldn’t suspect that as the culprit. Though Maomao is able to prove that someone taking a smoke likely ignited the incident, the question lingers about why such a nice-looking pipe would have been in the possession of a common worker. Given last episode’s ending scene, this smacks of an incident that was deliberately engineered, but to what end? And why did Mr. Monocle (aka Lakan) leave the pipe behind at the scene when he clearly had a good guess about what happened from the way he was investigating? A couple of different threads are overlapping here, portending wider, more tangled mysteries to come.
But first is going to be the matter with the fellow that’s drinking at the end of the episode. We’ll come back to him next episode.
USA Anime 