OP: “poi” by Saucy Dog
If I had to pick the most underrated studio in anime, I’m pretty sure it would be Pierrot. The general attitude towards them seems to range from ignored to derided. But Pierrot has had more series in my yearly Top 10 lists than any other studio, and there’s a reason for that. When Pierrot adapts, they usually get the most important stuff right. Their adaptations are faithful in tone and substance, even if not generally lavish in terms of production values. And they tend to wind up on considerably better than average projects too. That’s not surprising, as I think they represent a safe and relatively economical pair of hands to a production committee that has someone who actually cares about the source material (as better source material is more likely to have).
That brings us to Karasu wa Aruji o Erabanai. The source material is a series of not-light fantasy novels by Chisato Abe. And for a series with which I don’t know the source material, just about every one of my sleeper senses was at maximum tingle. Novels can be tremendous sources for anime, it’s seinen, we have a terrific cast (including Irino Miyu in a rare these days lead role) an up-and-coming young director, and high fantasy is something Pierrot really knows their way around. Basically all signs were pointing to yes.
That made the inexplicable delay in streaming rather irritating. The series premiered on NHK last week, but wasn’t streamed until today, and no fansub group picked it up. So we got two episodes for the “premiere”, and on balance they were worth the wait. The only niggle I have is that the first was too heavy with exposition by explanation, always a pet peeve of mine. I get the need for some of that, as this is obviously a pretty intricate premise. Apart from that though, Karasu wa Aruji o Erabanai is everything I was hoping it would be – atmospheric, intriguing, and fully engaging right from the opening bell.
After a cold open which introduces the two main players, the premiere jumps to a collection of secondary characters. The setting is the land of Yamauchi, which is ruled by the Kin’U – the Golden Raven. At the moment he appears to be declining, if the way his hand shakes when playing Go is any indication. The attention of the court is focused on the selection of a consort for the crown prince. In Yamauchi the Center is the land of royalty, and the rest of the country is divided into four cardinal regions. Each of them sends a princess to compete for the Crown Prince’s hand, a year-long process of political infighting and bickering that any sane person would want to avoid.
There are complicating issues with the Crown Prince. He’s a second son, born to a concubine, while his elder brother – much loved and admired – was birthed by the Empress. The high priests chose the second son to succeed the throne (there are hints he has intense magical abilities) and, after a power struggle, the elder brother was forced to become a priest. The younger is widely whispered to be not right in the head and is loathed by the Empress. It’s she who names the maidens who vie for his hand, and for the Princess of the West (Honnizumi Rina) she chooses “Asebi”- the name a tree whose poisoned fruits are known to cause intoxication in “horses” (they look more like giant crows).
The slight here (especially to the prince) is obvious, though not to Asebi. She’s a bit of a bumpkin compared to the others, a second daughter chosen at the last moment after her elder sister fell ill. The maidens of the other three regions mock her, apart from Shiratama (Kugimiya Rie), the princess of the North who likewise considers herself an outsider. Asebi is ill-prepared for the cutthroat world she’s entered, though she does have an ally in the prince’s younger sister Fujinami (Aoyama Yoshino), who appears to have been a childhood playmate.
With the second episode Yatagarasu really shifts into high gear, as the narrative moves to the central characters. The head of the northern village of Taruhi has arrived in town with his wife and three sons. Eldest Yukima (Kajiwara Gakuto) is his successor, and possessed of a sober demeanor and skilled bokken. But the main focus is middle brother Yukiya (the always excellent Tamura Mutsumi). He’s about 14, whip-smart, and seems to possess a faultless sense of how to get himself into trouble. Which he promptly does in the capital, luring some stuck-up palace ravens into beating him bloody so he can later out them in court.
This incident causes great embarrassment to his father, especially as Yukiya milks it for all its worth. During their audience the priest Natsuka (Satoshi Hino) – apparently the aforementioned elder brother of the Crown Prince – stops in and suggests that Yukiya spend a year in service to said Crown Prince. The boy realizes that in cat-like fashion he’s intuited his way in way deeper than he wanted, but it’s too late now – Dad threatens to send him to the contextual equivalent of military school if he screws this up.
Yukiya is a fascinating presence at the center of this story. Make no mistake, he’s extremely formidable. The way he schools the much-larger youth who beat Yukima in a kendo match reveals both his coldness and his brilliance. Yukiya comes from a different (higher-born) mother than his siblings, and was plucked away from her as a toddler. He resents any implication that he’s dishonorable (though he is a sneaky imp) or disloyal. But he lacks in common sense everything he possesses in guile and cunning. And one suspects that service to the prince is going to provide more schooling than his father expected.
Of the prince we still know little. Irino will obviously make the most of any role, and this could be a good one. The fact that none of his attendants have lasted longer than a week could be pretty telling. In fact only Yukiya and personal guard Sumio (Takeuchi Eiji) stand in service at the moment, and the Crown Prince lives in a ramshackle house on the palace grounds. We also know that he and the boy have met before, though it seems as if he took care to erase Yukiya’s memories of that event (though they may have returned when they met here).
All in all, I think this was pretty great. I’m a sucker for period fantasy, and these two eps delivered the goods. Pierrot gets little credit for their visuals but they were very pretty – imagine the events of a hanging scroll put in motion. And as usual their feel for the material itself seems to be spot on. They know fantasy and how to create the right mood. Both the OP and ED are bangers, too. The palace intrigue, with its cast of immediately interesting characters, seems to offer seemingly limitless dramatic possibility. Karasu wa Aruji o Erabanai is everything I hoped it would be – and I was doing some pretty lofty hoping.
“Tokoshie (Eternity)” by Akiko Shikata
Snowball
April 14, 2024 at 7:35 pmOverall, an excellent premiere with beautiful visuals and in Heian (?) period to boot. I also liked Yukiya and his voice actor a lot. My only niggle was the dumbest princess has to be blonde.
Guardian Enzo
April 14, 2024 at 7:42 pmShe’s not really blonde, is she?
Collectr
April 14, 2024 at 10:45 pmMust be something about ravens and fantasy – Koukyuu no Karasu was good too.
I don’t understand Studio Pierrot being “underrated”, but I don’t follow anime aggregation sites. They’re behind some of my favorite series (and yours) – Shirokuma Cafe, Akatsuki no Yona, Baby Steps, Fukigen na Mononokean, Tsuritama, Kingdom. Before that, well-known series like Urusei Yatsura, Hikaru na Go, Yuu Yuu Hakusho, Kimagura Orange Road, Ninku, and Naruto, and OVAs like Dallos, Rumic World, and Arslan Senki. If their video isn’t as flashy as the best of Madhouse or J.C.Staff, it’s never clever-for-its-own-sake like recent SHAFT.
I’m glad they bundled the first two episodes, because this show is a slow build. Lots of mysteries about the Crown Prince. I wonder if he drove his other attendants away deliberately, because he’s been waiting for Yukiya.
There is a manga, but only four chapters have been scanlated. Not much opportunity for spoilers!
Guardian Enzo
April 14, 2024 at 11:28 pmManga is for V1, this is V2 I think?
wx
April 15, 2024 at 3:30 amThere are two mangas. The one that Collectr is talking about (the scanalated one, with only 4 chaps rn) is for the second book in the series — i.e., the same one that the anime is ostensibly about. The other manga, that’s fully translated by K Manga in the US, is for the first book in the series.
Collectr
April 15, 2024 at 5:40 amThanks for the tip, wx – picked up that first manga. But as you point out, this show is based on the second novel/manga, and hardly any of it is available in English.
Beato
April 15, 2024 at 1:41 pmFYI while the title of the anime is that of the 2nd novel it looks to be adapting the first novel as well. Essentially the first two novels are paralel stories taking place concurrently with the first novel being about the princesses side and the rite of acension and the 2nd novel about Yukiya and the prince’s side. IE every scene with the princesses is actually part of the first novel. So if you wish to remain unspoiled of the anime I would recommend waiting with reading the manga. The manga adaptation is really good though so definitely recommend reading it overall.
Guardian Enzo
April 15, 2024 at 8:52 amThank you for the clarification.
Joshua
April 15, 2024 at 11:17 pmI will say that the director of Yuru Camp s1/2 has definitely shown a lot of directorial flair for the dramatic and intriguing here and it’s very promising.
But like, I wouldn’t exactly argue that they’re “underrated” or anything considering their long history. You talking about modern Pierrot? Because for something like Akudama Drive or Kingdom they put out, you have a Bleach TYBW which for my money is the anime equivalent to The Rise of Skywalker.
Nicc
April 16, 2024 at 6:51 amThis is a series that I’ve been looking forward to and we get a two-episode premiere to boot. The first episode was indeed an infodump, though perhaps necessary as it looks like there’s a large cast to juggle and then there’s the setting up for future political intrigue. We get a detailed background about the setting, which is the land of Yamauchi. The Center, at the mountain, is where the royalty is. The country is divided into four parts and in cardinal directions, as you said. The current Emperor may not be ruling for much longer and so it’s time for the Crown Prince to accede to the throne soon. Each of one territories sends a princess in hoping that they’ll be his consort. Being the Empress will bring many benefits to their home country. We don’t meet the Crown Prince in this episode and it’s instead focused on other characters.
Right, he’s the 2nd son born to a concubine and the priests chose him to be the successor. In the ensuing power struggle, he won out and the oldest son is now a priest. We also get in introduction to the four women who a vying for the position to be his consort. The princess from the West, who the Empress named as Asebi, gets the most focus. She’s really out of her element here as she’s not as worldly as the other candidates and was only there because her older sister fell ill.
It’s the second episode that does indeed move to the central characters. We head to the Northern territory in the village of Taruhi. Yukiya is the focus character here and we see quickly that he’s skilled at playing the fool. He hides his true abilities well, but it does get him into trouble. The plan to out the nobles who beat him up works out and the head of that group is dismissed from the position of being the aide to the Crown Prince. But, somebody has got to take his place and so why not Yukiya. It’s either that or he goes to a monastery that is, as you said, equivalent to military school and he doesn’t want to be swinging around a shinai all day long. Yukiya’s own upbringing was complicated too and with its own share of messy politics. It looks like him and the Crown Prince he’ll be serving under have some common ground.
He makes it to where the Crown Prince lives at his palace and it seems much more quiet than anybody would expect. He meets up with Sumio, the prince’s bodyguard. That’s when Yukiya learns that Sumio and himself are the only ones in the palace. Everybody else seems to have left. The prince himself doesn’t even live inside the palace and instead is shacking up at a old hut on the grounds. That’s when we meet the Crown Prince for the first time. He knows who Yukiya is as he was that raven who rescued him and his brother years ago. Two episodes in and I’m already sold. With this, my Saturday lineup is finalized and I’m eager for the next episode.
ليندا
April 16, 2024 at 9:56 pmPlease tell me who is the main hero because I loved the prince very much but the axis here is Yuki.
Guardian Enzo
April 16, 2024 at 10:11 pmAll I know is that Yukiya and the prince are both listed as main characters.