Raven of the Inner Palace is a funny sort of show.  It gets the job done by doing a lot of big things poorly but doing all the little things incredibly well.  As someone who’s been watching anime for a long time, I can confidently say that’s a highly unusual formula.  Just how successful the final product is probably depends on how highly you value those little things, but happily for me I value them a lot.  I can live with wonky pacing and awkward narrative structure if I get world building and character interaction as good as what Koukyuu no Karasu offers.

Essentially, it’s those two factors that drive this series’ success for me.  I feel completely immersed in court life as soon as each episode kicks in – this is a very real and tangible place Sunrise has created here.  Equally important are the small moments in Gaojun and Shouxue’s relationship, which have only gotten better as that relationship has deepened.  I love the little looks they involuntarily flash each other when one of them does something to please or annoy the other – like when Shouxue had the fish Gaojun made for her hidden under her outer garments.  And while Shouxue is basically a traditional tsundere, the low-key way that expresses itself is really charming – for example, the way she manoeuvred him into sharing the sweets he’d brought her.

Indeed, their relationship is progressing – but so are the obstacles in its path.  Ironically the one consort the Emperor actually has feelings for is the one he’s absolutely forbidden from being intimate with.  Not only that, but the more he learns about her life the more he realizes how cursed she is – like this business about the old Raven Consort dying eight years after the new one is anointed.  As the old archivist warns Shouxue, getting any closer to Gaojun presents great dangers to both of them.

One really has to feel for the Raven Consort, who’s a young woman of real integrity and steely resolve.  She’s aware – and becoming more so every day – that her existence is indeed a curse, and that by sharing it too much with anyone she catches them up in it.  Yet she’s increasingly becoming entangled emotionally with others – not just the Emperor but Jiu Jiu, Yi Shiha, Dan Hai.  Even Wen Ying, who she more or less knowingly sends into harm’s way.  Again ironically, Gaojun’s actions in pushing Shouxue to allow others to get close to her are rather cruel, because they force her to face the hard truth of what and who she is and what that means for those around her.

As to that harm, it certainly comes in the form of the Owl.  He’s obviously responsible for the death of the court lady, whose throat was torn out (most likely by a human).  He’s taken up residence in the Magpie Palace and become a sort of Svengali figure to the Magpie Consort, who’s taken to her bed for four months after her brother was thrown from a horse and killed.  She, in fact, was the one who came to Shouxue begging to have someone brought back from the dead.  Depending on how deep the Owl’s machinations go, it’s not impossible that he could even have been responsible for the brother’s death, in order to create a vulnerability to exploit.

The Magpie Consort’s situation has created problems for Gaojun as well.  He knows the right thing to do is to send the girl home to be with her parents, but he cannot because her presence as a potential mother of an heir helps keep the dangerous Yu clan, to which the Duck Consort belongs, in check.  This is the Emperor’s own sort of curse – he’s powerless to indulge his own sense of ethics (and romantic inclinations) because of the political realities of his position.

Shouxue is not wrong that the personal attachments Gaojun has basically forced on her are making her weak, and she resents him for it.  It’s the sort of weakness everyone faces when they become emotionally vulnerable and attached to others (even Buddhism recognizes this as a fundamental weakness of mortal humans).  Most people accept it and move on, but her for her it’s not so easy to do that.  Shouxue and Gaojun are both trapped, and clinging onto each other for support even as their circumstances prevent them from embracing each other.  That’s quite a poignant anchor for a story, and that’s a major reason why Koukyuu no Karasu is such a good one.