KARASU WA ARUJI WO ERABANAI

DESCRIPTION

CAST

MANGA ActionKarasu wa Aruji wo Erabanai
MANGA DramaKarasu ni Hitoe wa Niawanai

REVIEWS

• 

  Ionliosite2

  60/100
  A serious political drama with a web of conspiracies

  Political dramas are hard to make, I’ve seen enough series be completely unable to have the gravitas needed for such storylines, so the fact that Karasu wa Aruji wo Erabanai actually managed to pull it off was a pleasant surprise to me. The series tackles webs of conspiracies ingrained in the royal family, in the royal court and even in the common populace, taking it all with the seriousness these plots need, but also the complexity needed to be engaged in them. A character chart to keep track of every character, their relations and alliances is practically a must if you want to follow all the twists the mysteries provide, being a rare example of a modern anime that rewards you for paying close attention to everything happening, something I never expected to see when I picked this show purely because of finding the premise intriguing.

  Character wise, our standouts are the main duo of Prince Nazuhiko and Yukiya, the future ruler of the land of Yamauchi and his young bodyguard. The Prince is the one fated to become the Kin’u, a mythical Messianic figure who’s said to keep the land of Yamauchi afloat for reasons the show eventually delves on, so he can come across as being a bit too perfect at times, but this is no Mao Mao, he actually has flaws and self-doubts that he needs to confront over the course of the story. Yukiya has the more interesting character arc, being forced by his family to serve as the Prince’s bodyguard due to his status as a rebel but laid back bum, and the circumstances where he has to put his life on the line for the service of a man he barely knows leads to his growth as he discovers more about the actual state of affairs in the government. Other notable characters like Sumio (the Prince’s older bodyguard), Rokon (first prince Natsuka’s bodyguard with his own agenda), and the Prince’s mistresses (a bunch of slimy women who want power no matter the way they have to get it), round out a memorable cast living in this palace of conspiracies.

  Superficially, the lore of the show looks like a fairly standard Feudal Japan but with fantasy elements, with the fact the main characters are not humans but shapeshifting birds called yatagarasu coming across as its only twist, but the show also addresses on its latter half where we see more of the situation surrounding Yamauchi, so the world building is actually richer that it may seem at first glance. The show is a bit lacking animation wise, being very average with its many long shots, even if the art direction provided by the former Yuru Camp staff involved at least manages to make it nice on the eyes, while the OST is very fitting for the kind of setting this has.

  Overall, I enjoyed seeing a series that succeeded where Kusuriya no Hitorigoto failed, providing a proper political drama that takes itself seriously and has flawed main characters with obstacles to face, so I’ll gladly wait for another season to see if the duty of the true Kin’u is fulfilled.

  Thank you for reading

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• 

  aprocrastinator

  80/100
  Promising politics, worldbuilding, and possibly character growth

  Overall, this was pretty good. I was surprised there would only be 20 episodes. There are pretty much three points I want to cover: the animation, the characters, and the storyline.

  Regarding the animation... it's pretty bland. The animation as a whole has a bit of its own style, especially in the characters (possibly trying to replicate the stylization of people in the manga), but the action scenes are not particularly fluid or impressive, and there isn't any particularly beautiful scenery etc., either. Which, like, is totally fine; this is not an action show and doesn't require super fluid and gorgeous animation. But is something to note if that's what you're looking for.

  Regarding the characters, they're not bad. I can't say that any of them are particularly deep, with the exception of maybe one of the concubines in the first cour, but that's mostly by virtue of being complicated, which is not the same as deep. For each of the characters, you could summarize them pretty easily in a phrase or two and it'll hold for the 20 episodes.

  That's not to say, however, they aren't endearing; I pretty quickly grew to like the main character and am rooting for him to succeed (and be a bit more appreciated by the other members of the cast haha). I don't think there's any character that annoys me per se.

  There are few characters that I want to delve a little deeper into (aside from the MC), mostly the Prince's older brother and his retainer/bodyguard (? not sure his position, the red haired guy). The red haired guy's character design stands out pretty strongly and we haven't gotten an explanation into that which I'm hoping we will, and in the last few episodes, the Prince's older brother's actions have been a little perpendicular to the direction of the narrative, for his supposed role in the story. If anyone is to get character development and become a little more complex, I really hope it is him.

  There are some pretty cliche approaches to the characters/their development (e.g., the red haired concubine) and the Prince's shtick with emotions, but it hadn't really bothered me too much. Also, to some degree, the design decisions around the Prince, like, makes sense within the context of the world, so I get it.

  Regarding the story line and the worldbuilding: I think this is where the story shines. The story is pretty slow, but I enjoyed the way all the pieces are slowly being put together through the various mysteries/events that go on.

  Spoiling a little but not too much, the way the yatagarasu connect to the "real world" is really interesting, and not something I've seen a lot of in similar fantasy anime. We're also brought to attention to a few societal issues/behaviours within the yatagarasu themselves; e.g., what's essentially crow-slave-criminals for transport and inequality. It's only briefly touched upon, but with the way the Prince is meant to save the yatagarasu, I'm tentatively hopeful they'll come around to it.

  As I mentioned, I felt the ending of the season was a bit abrupt, but it wrapped things up well enough and left enough to want for more. There are some smaller story/world points that I like less and others that I like more, so overall I'll leave it here and say that for a first season, I think it did a good job in convincing me to continue along with the story. I'll be reading the manga once it catches up and with a second season if they make one. I'm under the impression that the source was a light novel; I think you can tell that the anime perhaps doesn't always make the most of its medium, but I can see it working a lot better with a novel or manga.

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• 

  luxray978

  80/100
  Pleasant enough to watch, very intellectually exciting at points but often takes an unideal route

  Karasu Wa Aruji Wo Erabanai - Yagatasaru (The Raven Doesn’t Choose It’s Master)

  Another in a series of multi-cour NHK produced anime that have soso production quality but stand above on their ideas Yagatasaru is a court drama set in the fictional land of Yamauchi. I debated my placement as I think it’s criminally underrated but still has significant flaws that hamper my ability to wholeheartedly praise it. It sits at an 8/10 on the anime scale as a show that is pleasant enough to watch, very exciting at points but often takes an unideal route.

  A recent pleasure of mine has been the court drama genre, starting with 2022’s Koukyuu no Karasu (raven of the inner palace) which immediately sprung to mind when starting due to its similar name. Both series blend the supernatural with court politics modeled off their respective eras to tell an old type of story in a new way. 2023’s immensely popular apothecary diaries would also appear to fall into this category however I will refrain from commentary as I haven’t found the time to watch it. To round out this list of similar shows I will drop the Heike story which is one of my favorite anime of all time despite its flaws which gorgeously tells one of the most famous stories in the history of Japan in a new light.

  Yatagarasu is well aware that it comes from a long line of media based around the issues of court and politics (The NHK has been airing live action court dramas weekly for decades) and tries to subvert the expectations of the audience wherever it can. This tendency can if played wrong become annoying, cloying and frustrating but it feels very good here. The constant guessing around the nature of people’s hearts serves to place you in the narrative and is the strongest in the first arc.

  The latter half was less enjoyable on this front and was still well done but moved a bit rapidly and ended up feeling slightly simple and arbitrary. This is likely in part due to a major reveal that requires the rebuilding of the antagonism dynamics of the show. I think that this ends up creating an interesting story that really blossoms by the end of the second cour but the unfortunate nature of this is that it leads to an early story style of weakness as it’s footing is regained.

  Gender politics are largely absent from Yagatarasu besides some minor commentary on the expectations placed upon women. This is largely to be expected for a male led historical drama and I do not find myself very surprised here. Female characters are pretty consistently involved in the supporting cast and they are portrayed with deep inner lives which I like. Sexualization of female characters is entirely absent which is another plus. If I were to give an isolated ranking on this I would give a B+, far better than most anime.

  I don’t have a lot to say about the animation quality, studio peridot did a passable job here. There is little harsh CGI as seen in some other low-medium quality studios (JC staff I’m looking at you) and the backgrounds look okay and can occasionally draw interest. I found the desaturated color palette to be inoffensive but largely uninteresting with the exceptions of the kimonos and other colored garments worn by various characters.

  Yatagarasu seems unlikely to get a second season which is a real shame, it’s certainly something very interesting and has built itself up a decent fanbase. The novels appear to lack any English translation and since the anime is so far ahead in the first place it seems like it will be a long while before the content brought up in the finale is fully touched upon. For a show that likes to reinvent itself this is a real shame as I find myself quite interested in what happens next in Yukiya’s story.

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