Kusuriya no Hitorigoto – Episode 32 Review

「皇太后」 (Kōtaigō)
“The Empress Dowager”

Mao Mao always ends up getting herself into hilarious misunderstandings. This time, it involves a “downgrade” from proper palace quarters to a storage room, which looks like a punishment for freaking a maid out with lizard tails. Though in actuality, it was at Mao Mao’s own behest, seizing on the advantages of size and location for her midnight ravings. She is an odd one and views the world quite differently from the other ladies in the palace (or in anime, period), and for that, she is a breath of fresh air. Mao Mao is no longer solely in a league of her own when it comes to strangeness, with a kindred spirit in Shisui. Maybe a little too kindred perhaps, much Mao Mao’s chagrin when the other maids mistake Shisui’s crazy bug catching for an act of Mao Mao’s. It gave me a chuckle how she used Jinshi’s handkerchief as a bribe for clues in her Shisui hunt- I don’t think he would be as amused. The conclusion of said hunt is the pair of girls almost running into the Empress Dowager.

When I heard the Empress Dowager was going to be introduced, I couldn’t help but think of Kingdom and the lovely Empress Dowager there, so I was pleasantly surprised that this ED is actually decent. More than decent, humanitarian, from her work on establishing the clinic to efforts in banning eunuchs and slavery. Though as Mao Mao wryly notes, there are still loopholes- just known by the fancier sounding name of “courtesan”. Mao Mao and Shisui glimpse the grand lady on her way to the clinic, supposedly to hammer out reforms in the medical system. It’d be nice if she enacted changes to allow women to work as official doctors in the palace- god knows the palace needs Mao Mao and other qualified women like her and it’d be nice to see them get that recognition.

That is only the appetizer, and we see her show up for the main course not too long after for a private visit to Lady Gyokuyo. From what we learn in Mao Mao’s musings, the ED is a strong woman, but it’s clear she’s had her fair share of hardship in life as a child bride, physically scarred by childbirth and marriage to a pedophile husband. Her resilience and gumption to make what she could out of the hand she was dealt reminds me a little of Mao Mao, actually. I could see the two getting along as kindred spirits, if it weren’t for the large difference in station, of which Mao Mao is always acutely aware.

This isn’t merely a well wisher’s visit to Gyokuyo, the ED has an ulterior motive up her sleeve. Gyokuyo picks up on the hint, making a timely exit to leave Mao Mao and ED for a tete a tete. Everyone and everything are connected in this place, including Suiren, Mao Mao’s former boss at Jinshi’s place, who also happens to be the ED’s former lady in waiting. Of course, word spreads to her that Mao Mao is a genius detective, and like many others before her, seeks out Mao Mao’s assistance.

The ED’s request is an interesting one at first glance- seemingly in the ream of the supernatural with the great lady bearing the guilt of possibly having cursed the former emperor, and wishing Mao Mao to investigate. As with many other cases, what seems supernatural turns out to be the mystifying work of purely natural causes, so it’s safe to assume there is not curse at work here. As to why the emperor’s body was preserved after sitting in storage for a year, my guess is there was some kind of anachronistic formaldehyde they’ll pull out or, a body swap, or something in that vein.

Unlike the poisoning cases, this one, at least on the surface, serves the self-confessed guilty party’s conscience since the target’s already long gone. From what we’ve been told about the ED, she seems kind and just, so I can’t see her murdering the emperor (and what culprit goes and tells on themselves anyway), though she has every reason (many reasons at that) to have wished him dead from the way he treated her and the other young girls. I’m wondering if she has a deeper motive to this- if she suspects something else, maybe something related to the attempts on the other women at the palace. “I cursed him” makes for a convenient cover that Mao Mao will see through, no doubt.

The other headline of the day was Mao Mao circling closer to the center of the Jinshi mystery. She starts ruminating on the royal brothers and comes to the realization that due to the age difference, the younger brother, who it was pointed out is around her age, may not in fact be the “brother”, then stops just short of a grand revelation. I played along with her willful blindness before, but now it’s getting frustrating. Hello? A guy your age, the royal family- Jinshi who’s that age, awfully close to the emperor, and surrounded by mystery? It’s right under her nose!! The plane is circling in for landing and there’s no way it can stay in the air much longer.

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