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.