Rating: A-
Since writing the review for episode 35, I’ve seen some discussion from those familiar with the source material which advocates that last episode would have been better-served running about a minute farther into the scene in the cave than it did. I didn’t agree with that assertion at the time, and I disagree with it even more strongly after seeing how this episode handled the continuation of that scene. The matter with the “frog” plays much more smoothly when taken all in one shot.
The “frog,” of course, is Maomao’s defense mechanism for not wanting to admit what she really accidentally put her hand on between Jinshi’s legs. Unlike many anime girls around her age, though, her aversion isn’t at all about the sexual aspect of it; she’s being dodgy in admitting it out loud because of what it means in the bigger picture that Jinshi isn’t a eunuch. That would make him the only intact man other than the Emperor allowed in the Rear Palace (though she’s still unaware that this also applies to Gaoshun), and the explanations for why Jinshi might be allowed such status are very limited indeed. She knows full well that’s dangerous knowledge, the kind of thing that people would literally kill to learn to obscure, which is why she’s always stopped herself from reasoning it out in the past. This is herstiffest challenge yet on that front.
The way Maomao handles the aftermath of the incident in the cave says a lot about Maomao. Though distressed in the moment when Jinshi suddenly got aggressive, she doesn’t seem particularly bothered by it later. There are a lot of possible explanations here: she knows Jinshi wouldn’t normally do something like that, she’s fully aware that she contributed to the situation by teasing him at the worst possible time, and almost certainly she’s seriously underestimating how strongly Jinshi actually feels about her as a woman, not just a tool. The last one is perfectly understandable; she was raised in a brothel, so she’s quite well aware of what kind of women men normally go far, but that’s nothing we didn’t already know before. The new insight here is that she feels those circumstances contributed to her being bad at reading people emotionally. That might seem like an odd viewpoint to a modern viewer, who would probably more assume the opposite, but people in this setting don’t even have a concept for what it means to be “on the spectrum,” so even someone as knowledgeable as Maomao can’t identify what her real issue is. In this case, though, it does contribute to her rather amusing ongoing assumption that Jinshi is miffed about the “somewhat large” comment rather than his effort to reveal his identity to Maomao going disastrously wrong.
Compared to the wonderful tension of the cave scene, getting out of the hole and dealing with the culprit behind the assassination attempt is practically an afterthought. Lihaku has always been a borderline-joke character, but he isn’t rising through the ranks without reason, and this episode shows him at his best. The method seems almost too simple: have Lihaku’s dog sniff out the lingering scent of fired gunpowder while tricking the lead culprit into a panic. The one issue I have with the adaptation here is that it doesn’t make clear that a message from Jinshi – basically, “trust this guy” – was written on the scrap of cloth Lihaku first handed to Basen, which is how Basen knew at least generally what Jinshi wanted. But at least the adaptation is consistent on the follow-up. The guy they catch is just the on-site commander; he’s clearly working for a higher authority, but who? And since the weapon came from the west, do the two envoys have something to do with this? Maomao’s probably on the right track thinking that something like these flintlock pistols may have been what the mystery Gaoshun described about the annex room was really about. The intrigue in the after-party also provides some good additional insight.
For all that happens in the episode, though (including learning Jinshi’s true name and the kind of status Gaoshun has), the clinching scene for me is the one depicted in the screenshot above. The split view of Jinshi and Maomao both leaning against the same door from opposite sides encapsulates so much about the state of their relationship. So does the way Jinshi completely loses Maomao’s attention when he hands over the ox bezoars. Really, he should have known better, but these two have never been completely on the same page. And that’s totally fine for their relationship.
While the episode still looked good, animation restraints showed a bit more in this episode compared to many. And fortunately, we won’t have to wait long for more; the series is continuing directly into next season without pause, so I will be back to review episode 37 next Friday.
USA Anime 