The bar for a show like Koukyuu no Karasu is very high this season.  Just the stuff I know I’m going to blog would have me busier than an average 2020-2022 anime season, so if I’m going to pick anything else up (which I certainly will – the patron pick for starters) it’s going to have to really grab me.  That said, Raven of the Inner Palace is a series I considered a sleeper going into the season, so I went into this premiere with a good deal of interest.

I’m modestly optimistic after one episode.  This was a solid start – nothing flashy or especially surprising, but a straightforward story-driven narrative with pretty decent visuals.  It’s interesting that fellow Sunrise series Gintama’s director Miyawaki Chizuru – and a lot of key staff, too – is attached here, as stylistically Koukyuu seems a pretty different kettle of fish.  It’s the story of a young emperor somewhere in a fantasized Chinese past, and the strange consort rumored to have magical powers (some rumors are true) who captures his interest.

The animation is nothing special, but there are some nice flourishes, such as when the Raven Consort uses her flower-based magical ability, and the backgrounds are quite nice.  Backstory we have aplenty.  The current young emperor deposes the prior empress – who’d murdered his mother – by politicking with the nobles of the inner court and swaying their loyalty (her being an insufferable wretch helps).  But he refuses to execute her without an ironclad legal case, which cuts against the grain of how inner palace affairs usually work – that is to say, a low-ranking court lady or official is framed for whatever murder has been committed and summarily executed.

So – an idealistic emperor, a rarity indeed.  The other principal is 16 years old, and it’s apparently a tradition of the palace that the daughter of a high priestess fill the “Raven Consort” role and be granted autonomy on the level of an empress.  She also, as it turns out, seems to be a member of the previous dynasty of silver-haired beauties that the emperor’s grandfather supposedly wiped out down to the last infant.  The Raven Consort does come off as rather a stock anime teenager in terms of mannerisms at times, but I’ll withhold judgement on her until we see more of the character in action.

Whether this is going to follow a “mystery of the week” format I don’t know, but it does start out in the vein of a detective series.  The emperor asks (he cannot order her, so bribes her with steamed buns) the Raven Consort to find out who the ghost who haunts a jade earring found at his palace is.  As it turns out it was a courtesan likely framed for the poisoning of another, and while the emperor’s interest is purely driven by pity for her restless soul, this might end up having some bearing on the main storyline of his efforts to convict and condemn the empress dowager.

Obviously, the emperor is going to fall in love with the priestess – which is obviously forbidden.  I could see a few directions the plot might take, but on the whole I’m interested enough to be curious.  It’s not a bad premise, and decently executed (as you’d expect given the experience level of the staff).  I’m not remotely close to committing yet, but Raven of the Inner Palace seems like a solid bet to be in the mix at the very least.