For all the other things Karasu wa Aruji o Erabanai does well, it has a curious effect on me. I would almost describe it as “cleansing” – I feel refreshed and invigorated after watching an episode. There’s such a purity and timelessness to the storytelling here. It’s something anime can do extremely well, but does extremely rarely. There’s Seirei no Moribito, Dororo, maybe Akatsuki no Yona (also Pierrot of course) and not a whole lot else, really. I grew up loving fantasy high and otherwise, long before I ever knew anime was even a thing. When one comes along that captures the best of what fantasy is, it’s utterly uplifting.
So yeah, Yatagarasu is pretty great. But what’s truly remarkable is that it doesn’t skip a beat. Never mind a 7/8 week break that would trip up the momentum of most series, it’s taken a radical shift in this arc to boot. For a great series to morph stylistically into something almost unrecognizable and still be great is a true unicorn achievement. But that’s what Karasu wa Aruji no Erabanai has done. It’s much more of a conventional conflict-resolution story, but no less compelling for it. And that, surely, is because the characters are superb and the writing never stops being exceptionally smart.
What is Wakamiya doing, shooting a bow (something we’ve never seen him do, I don’t think) into a vast night lit by ghost fire? That answer will come later. For now we return to Koume and Yukiya, whose relationship seems to be progressing in much the way his mother hoped it would. He’s taking her to her old house in the lower city (think Lower Ougi) to collect her clothes and belongings. She’s enjoying the ride and probably the company too, though there’s a lot of petty bickering as accompaniment. But things get complicated when they arrive at her old house, both emotionally and practically.
One can never be sure (Yukiya certainly can’t) when Koume is being truthful. She lets bits of truth out in dribs and drabs but even then, Yukiya is surely right that she’s holding back. Her story about the well and its running dry is probably true, at least in part. Her grief at finding no trace of her dad at the house? Again, plausible – though it does somewhat fly in the face of her words about him later. The two ruffians who show up to abduct her are ample evidence that Jihei was mixed up with bad people, and Koume seems not at all surprised. Yukiya steps up to defend her and he can certainly handle himself in a fight. But there are more fighting men waiting outside, and he’s just one adolescent boy.
Eventually, Koume is forced to play the “Prince” card. She warns the men that if they hurt Yukiya they’ll have to answer to the new Golden Raven. And this does stay their hands, though not their aggression. Their leader tells Yukiya to pass along a message from “Tobi of the Underground” – “I’ll be in touch. And when I find you, you better have a good excuse for breaking our agreement.” Koume curses her father for his poor lifestyle choices, Yukiya scolds her for saying such things and general selfishness. The fact is, Koume’s assumptions about Yukiya are plenty wrong – but that’s not a conversation he can have with her at this point. And all that was about seven minutes worth of the episode.
Yukiya knows that even if he’s on leave, he has a responsibility to Nazukihiko. And he leaves Koume with the Yamauchi guards and heads off to the Sunrise Palace to loop him in, only to be snookered by Sumio into thinking Hamayu was the prince. She’s filling in, she says, while her betrothed is engaged in affairs crucial to the nation. When Yukiya passes along the message she knows plenty about its context (she’s basically a spy after all). Beyond the Ravine, there’s the Underground – the place where desperate men go when all other roads are blocked to them. What of the “agreement” in the message? A peace treaty, Hamayu says – a non-aggression pact between the first lord of the Underground, “King Saku”, and Nazukihiko’s grandfather.
Hamayu promptly sends the boy off to where she knows Wakamiya to be. Once more we see evidence that those two have met before – a fuzzy but powerful memory from Yukiya’s childhood that this path recalls to his mind. Wakamiya is still firing those arrows – in fact, he does a lot of it. He’s healing tears, he tells Yukiya – tears in the barrier between Yamauchi and the outside world. Tears through which if a yatagarasu passes they may never return. That just begs further exploration, but for now the salient point is that these tears were not large enough to allow the monkeys in, which was the Prince’s suspicion.
It doesn’t take Tobi long to get a message to Wakamiya once news of the Yukiya encounter reaches him. Wakamiya pledges to go to the Underground himself to meet with Tobi, reasoning that it’s very likely his interest in Koume suggests an Underground connection to the monkey business. Absolutely no one else is in favor of this – certainly not Sumio and Yukiya, nor Nazuka and Rokon (he’s just tsundere) who arrive to dissuade him of the notion. Nazuka asserts himself here – he will not allow the Golden Raven to take this gamble, Instead, he says, he’ll send Yukiya. And not heartless, he and Rokon will apparently accompany the lad – giving us the enticing prospect of another new set of character dynamics to explore.
Vance
August 25, 2024 at 4:11 pmWhat an absolute gem this show is. It’s too bad it’s not more popular despite the fantastic writing.
Wakamiya is almost certainly correct that the Underground has some connection with the monkeys, but I don’t think Tobi’s people are the ones responsible for the rampaging moneys. In episode 15, Tobi said, “You sly bastard. Wherever you hide, I swear I’ll find you.” This suggests that Tobi knows who the principle antagonist of this arc is. It may be a renegade ex-member of the Underground or a previous client of the Underground.
Nadavu
August 25, 2024 at 7:04 pmI wish we could have a new opening sequence for this arc, but that’s about the entirety of my complaints.
To the list of great fantasy anime, I would add The Twelve Kingdoms, the show that got me into anime back in 2005, I believe.
Scampi
August 26, 2024 at 7:23 pmSkipped a week and binged through both new episodes, but I found that binge watching really helped with gathering the plot threads.
Like in episode 14, during the party at Sugou, Koume and Jihei was actually sitting with the men who turned into monkeys.
There was special focus on the cup she drank before she went to the outhouse, so she was probably drugged by Jihei or the monkeys then.
But that same night a woman with clothes like Koume’s also went to the suspicious physician shop, so she was probably in on the whole sagecap business.
I’m more inclined to think that the monkeys were drugged too, so things went out of hand and sparked the massacre, there wasn’t really any other reason for them to start such large scale massacre all of a sudden.
Maybe I’m too logical about it, but Nazukihiko’s mending scene doesn’t work for me. It looks nice but I have to question if the additional setting about kin’u patching the boundaries was really necessary. There must have been large gaps between appearances of true kin’u, so the boundary must have worn down for a long time before Nazukihiko was born. Now he’s making up for lost time, and there might even be another hole somewhere that he doesn’t know about. It’s like the kirins in Twelve Kingdoms, high fantasy systems that place a lot of burden on single individuals are just asking for pain and trouble, in my opinion.
Guardian Enzo
August 26, 2024 at 7:29 pmI have to say I thought that scene was quite effective. Very atmospheric and mystical, and kind of re-framed the way we look at Wakamiya. Also an important callback to the first scene of the anime.
Scampi
August 27, 2024 at 12:34 amIt’s beautiful but lonely and melancholy, like someone trying to build a sand fort in the waves. There’s only 4 years difference between them so Nazukihiko must have done this from early teens at latest. I feel like this is also the first time Yukiya really see him as a true kin’u, so maybe this’ll make him resolve to stay in the court to help him. No matter what happens the boy certainly knows more about him now, Hamayu played a cunning hand here lol.
I would argue that the scene where Nazukihiko commanded the Four Houses to work together on the monkey problem is more refreshing. Usually he’d avoid the court ravens like the plague, but when the situation arises seeing him work with the Four Houses is certainly both reassuring and inspiring, which to be honest aren’t qualities he frequently displays.
Guardian Enzo
August 27, 2024 at 8:02 amBoth of them play the fool as it serves the narrative they’re trying to create. I have no doubt Wakamiya saw this in Yukiya and that was a big part of why he felt he could be a true confidante.
Scampi
August 27, 2024 at 9:42 pmI mean Natsuka must have lost quite a few hairs over him lol. He’s quite the daredevil and I already made tirades about the way he treated Shiratama and threw Yukiya into the Ravine without an explanation. He’s no fool but he’s not trustworthy either.
Nicc
August 27, 2024 at 6:46 amAs usual, it was another great episode and we got to see some old faces again too. Right, the episode starts off with Wakamiya shooting some arrows towards the direction where have seen the ghost lights. The arrow hits some barrier and plants start to sprout. Those would be the wisteria arrows that is also the title of this episode. More on that later…
Next, we see Koume and Yukiya heading towards Central. They’re not going there, though. He’s dropping her off at a city that’s near the waters and that’s where her home is. She runs off towards home on her own while Yukiya is distracted with haggling over parking fees. Grumbling over paid parking… We feel you, dude, we all do. It’s at the home where we got some more Koume’s family life. It seems that they sold water that has special properties. It was darn good business because it was just water that they could upsell for a high price (Sounds familiar…). But then the well dried out and her father had to resort to other measures to make money, which all failed and seems to have died owing money. Some goons enter the home to pick up Koume for that purpose. We know that Yukiya is pretty good at fighting, but he’s outnumbered here.
Right, that’s when Koume pulls the “Prince” card and they back off. But, they’ve got a message to pass on to Wakamiya. A “Tobi of the Underground” is waiting for him. Koume and Yukiya get into a spat regarding their family situations. Indeed, she’s wrong about Yukiya’s family, but that’s a conversation for another time. He leaves her with the Yamauchi guard as he goes to report to Wakamiya.
He really isn’t the mood to exchange pleasantries with Sumio and there are still no changes to the palace. It’s still not known if Wakamiya is the actual emperor now or not, but it looks like he’s still keeping that shabby hut as his office. Except that it’s not him in there right now, but Hamayu instead. She’s filling in for Wakamiya as he occupied with other business. Looking from the back, it’s hard to tell the difference. He passes on the info from the goons and we learn more about this Underground. At the Ravine there’s a level that’s even lower and a place for people at the end of their ropes. That’s the Underground. Somebody formed a base of power from there and then took control of the Ravine. Right, that agreement is some sort of peace treaty between the Ravine and Central and that’s the reason why they don’t interfere with each other. Hamayu gives Yukiya a new sash as he once again “gets volunteered” back into the prince’s service. He’d have a better chance with negotiating the parking fees if he had this earlier on.
Yukiya is sent over to fetch Wakamiya as we head back to the arrow shooting scene from the beginning of this episode. On the way, there some memories come back to him, which I believe are from the very first episode when he and his brother were rescued by a raven. This may be the area where it happened. Wakamiya is firing those wisteria arrows to close up the tears between Yamauchi and another world beyond. He suspected that the monkeys may have come from there, but that’s not the case. Back at Central, Hamayu is taking in Koume to become a court lady as the Cherry Blossom Palace goes back to its normal functions. Their faces are partially obscured, but Masuho no Susuki and Shiratama are still there. That’s probably due to the fallout from how the both of them got of out of the engagement (They’re probably not welcomed back to their territories).
Wakamiya gets the message and he wants to personally meet with Tobi. It’s not the first time that everybody in the room has vetoed him, but Nazuka really puts his foot down this time. Okay, time to send in Yukiya again. There’s lots of reasons why Yukiya wanted out after that one year in service. He was just re-employed recently and once again he’s risking life and wing. I’m also curious to know what this has to do with Koume or he father. And, yes, I also believe it’s time to update the OP. As much as I still like it, it doesn’t have anything to do with the current arc anymore.