Rating: B+
The episode titled “The Shrine of Choosing” primarily involves one mystery while also setting up another. Unlike many other mysteries in the series, though, these aren’t life-or-death matters or (necessarily) connected to a bigger plot. Instead, these are mysteries which delves into the history of the setting.
The one that’s being set up for later is actually at the beginning of the episode and involves Jinshi’s dreams back to his early childhood. If we follow previous implications to assume that Jinshi is the current emperor’s actual son rather than younger brother, then the old man would be his great-grandfather and the current Emperor’s grandfather, which would make that man the one who was Emperor at the time of the envoy’s visit more than 50 years ago – in other words, the man who established the capital where it currently is and at least started the building of the current palace. (This is, incidentally, a point which is much clearer in the subtitles than in the English dub for episode 28 due to the way one line by the matron is translated. I will be curious to see if the dub script does something to compensate for that when it gets to this episode.) That dream strongly suggests that he went senile and so was tucked away somewhere on the palace grounds by the time Jinshi was a child, which means there’s a big story afoot there. The golden-looking item in the old man’s hand is also featured in the OP, so it has some later significance, too. But that’s all for next episode; none of that has anything to do with this episode’s post-OP content.
The main mystery involves a building that was briefly featured in the background back in episode 28: the Shrine of Choosing. Here it’s revealed to have once been a test for the nation’s rulers; only one who could successfully pass all the way through to a particular balcony could be substantiated as a worthy ruler. It fell out of that role two generations back due to circumstances causing any question of succession to be avoided, but the building still remains, and apparently the current Emperor has tried it once before; even though he didn’t need to, he still apparently desired the satisfaction of having his right to rule affirmed by tradition. But now he’s got a particularly smart servant girl at his disposal who might be able to solve the mystery that he couldn’t on his own.
Like many of the series’ mysteries, the design of this one is quite clever, as it’s based on an inherited genetic quirk. While color blindness is known in Asian populations, it’s much less common than in Caucasian populations. (That being said, Maomao’s comments about it in this episode are overstating how extreme the difference in frequency is if this is based on real-world data. Caucasian men are only twice as likely to have it as Asian men with the lowest frequency.) And since it can be hidden relatively easily, it not being common knowledge in such a population is believable, even for rulers. That determining the correct path is dependent on having (or at least being aware of) a certain kind of color blindness is a neat trick and an interesting (if imperfect) way to assure a pure lineage and certain degree of political influence.
The setting of the story has always lacked a bit for a deep sense of history, so I appreciate greatly that the second season seems to be emphasizing delving into at the least the recent past of the setting beyond just the last 20 years. I also appreciated the series bringing up the way foundational stories can be used to manipulative both historical and political narratives. Having extra little bits like that regularly worked in helps round out the series further.
USA Anime 