I'm looking forward to digging into it more!!! My headcanon (and my understanding of the folklore) is that the fox/tanuki dynamic is like a rivalry between fans of fart jokes and dad jokes respectively, with foxes being extra annoyed that tanuki can actually be a match for them, and I'm really curious to see how much of that sort of thing gets played with. I've only seen a little bit of the Shenmei and the Shi patriarch (Shishou, was it? I forget) so I'm not sure what I think of them yet, besides the obvious They're Bad News vibes and suspicions about what exactly they're up to.
Obviously I need to get back to my watching before pondering too much more about backstory things with them... orz But I definitely will circle back to that!
And yeah Hiroe has some very mixed feelings about humans in general, and the previous emperor is like the poster boy for that ambivalence, both a hideous monster and a tragically broken child. ...I'm blanking on the timeline, but I'm wondering if she might have had to take steps to avoid getting his attention, herself, in which case she'd have some personal feelings on the matter, as well.
Another thought--I'm kind of sad we didn't get to see more of Shisui as Loulan. We see her being aloof for a few seconds half a dozen times, but not much more than that, so it's a little hard to gauge how she relates to her ladies-in-waiting. They're obviously in on her deception, but seem to have no idea about her actual intentions, which seems to imply significant loyalty, but the anime at least doesn't really develop that--or at least, it hasn't by the point I'm at right now. Any thoughts or clarification, there, or is that anime spoilers and I need to just shush and watch the next episode? XD
(also I'm not ready for whatever leads to all the Singed-Looking Shisui emotes ;_;)
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Obviously I need to get back to my watching before pondering too much more about backstory things with them... orz But I definitely will circle back to that!
And yeah Hiroe has some very mixed feelings about humans in general, and the previous emperor is like the poster boy for that ambivalence, both a hideous monster and a tragically broken child. ...I'm blanking on the timeline, but I'm wondering if she might have had to take steps to avoid getting his attention, herself, in which case she'd have some personal feelings on the matter, as well.
Another thought--I'm kind of sad we didn't get to see more of Shisui as Loulan. We see her being aloof for a few seconds half a dozen times, but not much more than that, so it's a little hard to gauge how she relates to her ladies-in-waiting. They're obviously in on her deception, but seem to have no idea about her actual intentions, which seems to imply significant loyalty, but the anime at least doesn't really develop that--or at least, it hasn't by the point I'm at right now. Any thoughts or clarification, there, or is that anime spoilers and I need to just shush and watch the next episode? XD
(also I'm not ready for whatever leads to all the Singed-Looking Shisui emotes ;_;)