Anime on DVD is reporting that Geneon Entertainment has acquired the rights to the 39-episode anime series Saiunkoku Monogatari and will release the first DVD on July 24th. Based on a series of 12 novels (and counting) written by Sai Yukino and illustrated by Kairi Yura, Saiunkoku Monogatari ('Tale of the Land of the Multi-Colored Clouds') is a romantic drama set in what resembles a fantasy version of a medieval Chinese kingdom.
The heroine of the series, Shuurei Kou, is a child of an impoverished noble family who jumps at the chance to tutor the emperor in order to further her goal of becoming an important government official. The bureaucracy of the kingdom of Saiunkoku is a multi-layer civil service system that greatly resembles that of ancient China, and Shuurei's quest for an important post introduces an element that modern female audiences can empathize with along with the romantic complications caused by the growing affection of the Emperor and others for Shuurei as she becomes an increasingly powerful and important civil servant.
The Saiunkoku anime series debuted in 2006. Its success can be documented by the fact that it has been renewed for a second 39-episode season (only a few of which have aired in
Kadokawa Shoten has published one volume (so far) of a manga series (by series artist Kairi Yura) based on the property -- so far no U.S. publisher has announced acquisition of the Saiunkoku Monogatari manga, but Geneon's release of the anime should raise the profile of the property and make the rights to the manga an even more attractive proposition.