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No Saiunkoku Monogatari. Though we did get some Code Geass. That's not as good but it's an otay Christmas present

We went to visit Relatives. That meant Grandparents' house where everyone comes to visit. This meant that Cat and her Bother - I mean Brother - had to amuse her teen-aged cousins. This wasn't too hard because they like anime and they play cards. Cat likes both of these past-times, though she lost pretty bad at cards this time. That's otay, someone has to lose and her luck should change for next time. Supposedly. Sagittariuses are supposed to be lucky, but Cat's never been especially. But usually she manages alright at cards.

Anyway, they watched a lot of Bleach and Hannah (the girl cousin who's like 16 and very sensible) watched Saiukoku Monogatari with us. She liked it. Though she didn't watch enough the decide who she thought Shuurei should end up with. That's really the most important part of the series. It's a romance story really, though it's kinda fantasy too. It takes place in a country, Saiukoku (which means Country of the Colored Clouds or something - we have to take other people's word for it since we don't speak Japanese), that's kind of like ancient China (except not) where a great Emperor in the past united the eight provinces with the help of the Eight Enlightened Ones, who were each named after colors and so that's how they named the provinces and the rulers of the provinces too. This makes identifying characters somewhat easier since the main nobles are all color coded. Anyway, Shuurei is the daughter of a noble who is in charge of the library of the palace. Since his job doesn't bring in lots of money, they're pretty poor. So for a pile of cash to keep her family fed, the bright Shuurei agrees to become consort of the new emperor who is young and not particularly motivated. Her task is to make him an emperor worthy of following and then I guess she doesn't have to be consort anymore (cos suddenly in the series she decides she's not . . . ). Her family's retainer, Seiran, is made a bodyguard to the emperor. And so they go to the palace, meet Ryuuki the emperor and of course he falls in love with her, because she's smart and capable and she's nice to him. But Seiran's already in love with her, but he's really passive about it and she's totally oblivious to him so he's getting no where fast, while Ryuuki makes his intentions pretty clear. But I think Seiran will win out because he's a loyal and they've known each other forever and just because he's slow doesn't mean he doesn't love her - because he does - he relies on her and it makes him sad when she won't cry to him anymore. Anyway, Cat thinks she'll end up with Ryuuki. She sites My Fair Lady for evidence. She says Liza ends up with Pickering cos he needs her more, and it's the same with Ryuuki. I don't know about that . . . Hannah didn't have an opinion yet, since she only saw the first 8 or so.

They watched a lot of early Bleach. Well, middle Bleach. Early compared to the recent stuff. The boy cousin watched that too. Hannah and Cat spent a lot of time wondering if the guy who voices Renji also voices Li Kouyuu in Saiunkoku Monogatari. They still couldn't figure it out. I haven't been able to find anything about either online. Sigh. We may never know.

Anyway a good time was had by all.