後宮の烏

KOUKYUU NO KARASU

ANIME

STATUS
COMPLETE
EPISODES
13
RELEASE
December 24, 2022
LENGTH
24 min

DESCRIPTION

Deep within the inner palace lives a special consort who does not serve the emperor despite her position as a consort. She is known as the Raven Consort. People who have seen her say she looks like an old woman, while others say she looks like a young girl. Stories tell of her use of mysterious arts, and how she can take on any request, be it death curses or finding lost things. Koushun, the current emperor, goes to visit the Raven Consort with that intention. Without knowing that their fated meeting will become a taboo that will overturn history.

(Source: Shikkarito)

CAST

Jusetsu Ryuu
Saku Mizuno
Narrator
Kikuko Inoue
Koushun Ka
Masaaki Mizunaka
Jiujiu
Marika Kouno
Onkei
Nobunaga Shimazaki
Eisei
Taku Yashiro
Tankai
Nobuhiko Okamoto
Kajou Un
Reina Ueda

EPISODES

Dubbed

| | |

Not available on crunchyroll

RELATED TO KOUKYUU NO KARASU

NOVEL DramaKoukyuu no Karasu

REVIEWS

Mcsuper
66/100
Aesthetically Pleasing, But Lacking in Substance
After watching this show, I can confidently say these aesthetics were among my favourites of the year. The character designs were amazing, especially for Shouxue/Jusetsu, but for most of the characters as well. It captured the spirit of a period drama quite well, though I’m not sure the episodic nature of the show really helped it. While the world-building was really quite superb, there could have been more that could have been done to make this even better, perhaps more episodes would have flesh this world out even more.

STORY:

In a way, it felt like a “mystery of the week” type of series, with a new conflict being introduced almost every episode, and the episode ending off in the conflict being resolved. With many mysteries packed in one show, the quality of each mystery ended up being quite hit or miss, as some stories were very engaging, while some did not interest me at all. There simply felt like there was a lack of time to flesh out each story to make it memorable, so it felt rather rushed at points, with the more lore-heavy stories. If you’re a fan of period dramas though, you’ll probably like this quite a bit.

ART:

I loved the art style, and it was probably the most beautiful work I’ve seen from Bandai Namco Pictures, although the animation itself wasn’t all that standout with the limited movement at times.

MUSIC:

The music was quite nice, especially the OP and ED, which both were very memorable. The soundtrack itself is decent, fitting for the style of the show.

CHARACTERS:

While I admired the character designs, the characters themselves for the most part did not feel very intriguing to care about to a high degree. Shouxue was probably the most standout of the bunch, as she explored the meaning of what the Raven Consort is and her past, while needing to help others with their problems. The emperor, Gaojun, just doesn’t feel like an emperor you’d often see in period dramas, but he was a fine character, although I wish we knew even more about him after the first few episodes. The side characters have their moments in the story, but other than a select few, there weren’t many memorable things to take away from them.

ENJOYMENT:

Bit of an up and down series for me. I wish I could have liked this more.

THEMATIC EXECUTION:

Once again, the execution is a hit or miss as well. Some of the stories were executed beautifully, while some went by too quick for me to care. The emotional weight is good at times, and meaningless at others. I wish it was a bit more consistent.

OVERALL:

I did like enough of this show to give it a light recommendation, and if you enjoy Chinese period dramas, you might enjoy this show as well. Overall, just too much crammed into a show to make it meaningful, so it had its ups and downs, but in terms of how it looks, it looks very nice. It’s perhaps a hidden gem worth your time if you enjoy this genre.
Continue on AniList
ThyMrMan
60/100
Decent enough show, but nothing all that special.
My quick review would have to say this is a pretty decent period drama, with some mystical elements involved as well. With reincarnation and magic and spirits and such. It has plenty that could be exciting or interesting, and plenty of ways it could develop. But I can't say it ever really did do all that much for me. I left each episode just kinda disappointed, or feeling like I wish more was happening in the story. More progress was happening, or more story was being given.

Generally the show followed a pretty simple theme, solving a different event or mystery each episode or every 2 episodes about. And those events are vaguely related to a larger main story that is being told over the season. It worked well enough, each story was interesting and enjoyable. And none of them I really hated in any way. But I do feel like they weren't strong enough to develop a main story really, a main story existed and was wrapped up. But it felt very much like an afterthought, and didn't have nearly as much development as I would have hoped.

Much of the development that happened involved the main character, Raven Consort Jusetsu getting closer to a couple main servants along with the Emperor Koushun. On the Emperor side of things, it seems like it will eventually lead to some form of romance in the future. But at the moment is really isn't anything I would call romance, more like a close friendship at the most. As for her servants we have Jiujiu and Ishiha who end up assisting her pretty closely. Along with the main security guards of Sei, Kai, and Kei. All of them have various roles to play, from being general enuchs to attendants. But I can't say any of them had all that much development at all over the story, they are largely the same characters from the start to finish. With the except perhaps being Ishiha who Jusetsu directly assisted and allowed to join her side.

All of this is presented with some decent visuals, it never hurts the show by being bad I would say. But I don't know if it ever takes that next step to looking really good. It kinda just hits that average point that I would say the show is just fine. Though the visual style is a bit different than most shows, so it does have that going for it.

Something I don't really have anything to say about are the voice actors or the music in the show. I don't think any of it really stood out in any way to me. The OP and ED was just fine, but not something I would seek out to watch separately from the show.

Honestly all together it was a perfectly fine show. I don't think it does anything special, nor would most people seek it out to watch and enjoy. But if you wander into the show during a rewatch of the Fall 2022 season, you could do worse.
Continue on AniList
Benkei
65/100
Spoiler-free review of Koukyuu no Karasu. Good idea, bad execution.
════ ⋆★⋆ ════ Considerations ════ ⋆★⋆ ════ ● __This is a spoiler-free review.__ ● 60+ in my rating means below average. ════ ⋆★⋆ ════ The Story ════ ⋆★⋆ ════ Deep within the inner palace lives the raven consort, who, despite her position, doesn't serve the emperor. Stories tell of her use of mysterious arts, such as curses, the recovery of lost artifacts, and exorcism. Koushun, the current emperor, goes to visit the Raven Consort with that intention. Without knowing that their fated meeting will become a taboo that will overturn history. The story of Koukyuu no Karasu is pretty average. Although the main plot and even the mythology are pretty well done, the pacing is terrible; most episodes are a charade; there's some kind of supernatural problem that the raven companions must solve, but most of the time those problems don't feel meaningful to the story as a whole. The anime has some supernatural elements, but it's not spooky at all. Even when the supernatural (ghosts, beings, curses, etc.) is revealed, they are rather mild, and I had no problem watching it, despite being a very fearful person. ════ ⋆★⋆ ════ The Art Style ════ ⋆★⋆ ════ The art style is overall good. The amount of detail put into hair, clothing, reflections, lightning, etc. was absurd. Even in this next gif, you can see the reflection drawn into the nails. There were scenes in which one character would look up and down at another character, and you could see their pupils dilating. After a few episodes, I got somewhat disappointed since the quality decayed and things that I really liked started being used as a copy and paste, like the gif I presented, which is reused pretty much every episode. They also focused a lot on having "cutesy" moments, so you can see girls pouting left and right. ‎ ════ ⋆★⋆ ════ The Characters ════ ⋆★⋆ ════ There are an average number of characters in this work: the Emperor, the Raven Consort, other consorts, servants, and so on. Their design is pretty well done, and each one has a different personality, style, clothing, and so on. The Emperor and the Raven are at the center of the plot, but there are plenty of supporting characters. As I always like to talk about the main characters, both the Emperor and the Raven are okay. Personally, I think the idea and lore are good, but the execution was poor, particularly in terms of what they do in each episode. ‎ ════ ⋆★⋆ ════ Conclusion ════ ⋆★⋆ ════ If you're like me, you skip everything and read only the conclusion because you don't want to get spoiled with other themes. So I will try to be brief on this point: Don't watch it. Koukyuu no Karasu has really good visuals and characters, but the story itself is very lacking. It was a hurdle for me to watch weekly, especially nowadays that there are so many animes with outstanding visuals. I was disappointed even soundtrack-wise, where I only liked the ED.
Continue on AniList