SAIUNKOKU MONOGATARI

Yes, it is a little hard to follow the names, specially when they are so similar.
The Minister of Finance it is certainly hot, I wish we get to see more of him, he has such a nice voice.
On the novel there is more details about all of them, and specially Shuurei's uncle.
Have you guys read the translation summaries of the novel?
It does help a lot to understand. No everything is animated.

I get the feeling I asked somewhere before but... where do I get them??? It would be cool to get the whole nove, though, but I doubt I'll be able to...

I must say this is embarrassing; but I'm a poor graduate student so I can't afford to buy any of the actual material; I imagine I could get it online.. but it just feels .. well wrong to do that! *sigh* Being poor makes liking anime really difficult because it's so very expensive.

@tinyrachie - the original pervy thought was for the yaoi goodness of Shuuei/Kouyuu/Ryuuki
I like how your mind thinks though if you are putting Reishin/Houju/Yuushuun together

Also in one of the earlier episodes it was said that there was a harem which Shuuei regularly "plundered". Remember Shusui is the head lady and she always haad problems with Shuuei.
This is different from the inner-harem which Shou Taishi got Shuurei to join...it was vacant because Ryuuki made it 'clear' that he was not interested in women 'that way'.
So there was a harem but not one for breeding heirs.

The books from the original novel are only published in Japanese or Chinese.
However, there is someone generous enough to make a summary of each book, plus any Saiunkoku material out there, and translate it to English, this is the link to that person blog: http://yuzutea.net/log/tag/saiunkoku/

(thanks to it I could survived the raws)
I thought I was a big fan, but I'm nothing in comparation to Charmian. You will need to dig a little but the whole story is in there.

xcc: Thank you again, you and spirited_soul are really my gods in this group.

ok, behold. I added all my pics of SM here... not made by me, though, but I just love them. (took one more loving look at the pics...)

Thanks for sharing, real nice pics, some of them I've never seem before.
I like very much the one with Reishin and Hoju (the real name of the Minister of Finance, since Kijin really means 'weirdo') his hair looks really silky in that one!
Another one I like a lot is Ryuren's. Well, I do like all the Ran Clan guys.

Ryuuren is sweet. And when he was trying to help Eigetsu in the second season... I just felt like hugging him.

Oh that is a nice pic of Reishin and Houju with poor abused Kouyuu and Yuuri


btw - some trivia for you guys. In the novel when Shuuei was a boy and first met Seien he thought he was a girl