In my usual don’t bury the headline fashion, another terrific episode of Kusuriya no Hitorigoto. On balance I’d say that this season has been better than the first. And since that was the first LN adaptation to crack my Top 10 in 12 years, that surely puts this show in the catbird seat as best LN adaptation of the 2020’s so far. This arc in particular has been giving me heavy Heike Monogatari vibes for weeks, and that’s not something I throw around lightly.
In particular, Kyou-u has played an interesting, Heike-like role in the story. But more than that, he’s brought out a fascinating additional layer in Maomao’s character – one you sort of suspected was there, but never really showed itself before. It’s quite different with Xiaolan, both because she’s older but also because she’s relatively secure in the world (well, to an extent). With Kyou-u Xiaomao has seen first-hand the gap between a child’s intentions and ideals and the reality of their ability to act on them. Superficially he’s a brat that annoys her. But this Maomao is also starting to see Kyou-u as a little brother – someone she admires in a way for his purity of spirit.
All that is here in part to make the last part of this episode really kick hard of course (and it does). But also to show us a Maomao we haven’t seen before. I mentioned earlier that she had a responsibility to try and protect Kyou-u when Shenmei caught them in the storehouse, but that was specifically her fault. This time around Kyou-u got himself into trouble with childish impulsiveness. But he did it for her. If you’ve read Heike Monogatari you know that the last part of the story (which the hideous anime “adaptation” completely excised) is especially heartrending. And Maomao knows what Kyou-u’s fate is as a result of Shenmei’s machinations. She’s signed the death warrant for the Shi Clan, and that includes the children. And that makes the Kyou-u/Maomao interaction especially poignant, both for her and us.
I won’t say Maomao choosing to take the fall to protect the innocent – Kyou-u, Suirei, the guard – is out of character, per se. But the manner of her arrival at that decision is new for her character. Shenmei is clearly the problem here but that doesn’t make any difference as to the fate of the rest of the family. Loulan steps in to save her from immediate torture, knowing full well a box of nasties is no match for Maomao. But it’s a holding action, no more. Fate is coming for this settlement and this clan, and it’s already happening – as Maomao finds out once the guard frees her from the taibon.
Loulan certainly deserves credit for thinking of the poor drudges working in the gunpowder works, slowly being poisoned anyway. She even brings them a bag of silver to help them get by if they escape – silver which is now useless to her, but might be the difference between life and death for them. Servants might slip away, blend into the background – but that’s not an option for the nobles. The victorious side is ruthless and meticulous in situations like this, and Loulan knows it. Her course is horrifying, but it made sense to her in the moment.
Needless to say, a room full of dead children is a tough thing to see. Loulan feels as if she’s saving them from a worse fate (again, see Heike Monogatari), but Maomao cannot accept that reasoning. I’d been pondering quite a bit on how she might save Kyou-u, when this inevitable turn of events came about (I have a couple of ideas). It wouldn’t be easy, as he’s clearly of Shi blood and known to the Emperor (effectively, a “Heike prince”). And she couldn’t bring him to the Rear Palace – not “as is”, anyway. Loulan has apparently taken that decision out of her hands, but I’m not so certain. No one knows more about poisons and decoctions and their effects than Maomao. Is this really the end of this thread, after all the development it brought about for Xiaomao (and the narrative potential his survival offers)?
I’m not sure where we go from here. Loulan and Suirei certainly have a claim to not deserve this fate either, but there’s no clear path to avoiding it. The revelation that Suirei is in fact the former Emperor’s granddaughter (Chekov’s howitzer again asserts itself) is yet another interesting wrinkle, but if anything I think it makes the Shi Clan even more of a threat. The only thing we know for certain is that Maomao will survive – that plot armor is a thousand meters thick – but for everyone else in the stronghold little hope exists. In a reversal of fate, it’s the lowest on the social ladder who are now the most likely to survive.
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