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I just love this series, especially one of the manga adaptions (the one with the prettier art, my favorite character so far is Pairin, her design is gorgeous)!!! What interests me the most are the detailed descriptions of the life in the harem and in the red light district. Furthermore I love the MC and her curiosity and love for dangerous poisons, such a protagonist is totally rare and even though normally she looks quite plain, she can be really pretty.
@SilverCat422 Regarding 'Saiunkoku Monogatari', it's a nice series overall with a pretty art style, but thats it already in my opinion. Sure, there are a lot of handsome ikemen, but the only love interest is that stupid emperor, who always acts like a naive, dumb little kid around the MC and I absolutely hate this. The MC herself isn't really to my liking either, her only goal is to make the kingdom a better place and becoming a female official or the like to achieve this. And most of the time, she is literally the damsel in distress and gets either rescued by her stepbrother, the emperor and his subordinates or her friends, while MaoMao in 'Kusuriya no Hitorigoto' is always trying to solve her problems by herself. And she doesn't give a shit about other peoples problem (although there are rare cases where she helps out of her own accord, without any hidden thoughts), as long as it doesn't concern her directly, or her family at the red light district, which is quite interesting. This novel is much more realistic too, what I absolutely like, although I don't hate it, if there is a little bit of magic included.
Lastly I absolutely can't stand it, that the MC in Saiunkoku is bound to be with the Emperor, even if there are much better suited candidates for her and I honestly don't know what has haunted the author to write such a shitty ending. If the art overall wouldn't be so pretty, I wouldn't even look at this series.
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