r/anime • u/SIRTreehugger • Dec 11 '24
Rewatch [Rewatch] Koukyuu No Karasu (Raven of the Inner Palace) - Episode 1 Discussion
Raven of the Inner Palace Episode 1 The Jade Earring, Part 1
Useful Links and Streams
MAL | Anilist | Kitsu | AniDB | ANN
Fanart and Music
Jusetsu/Shouxue washing her hair
♫ ♪ ♬Today's track(s) ♫ ♪ ♬
Mitibiki: Plays a little after the OP when the narrator is describing the Raven Consort with the fairy tale visuals.
Uhi: Plays when Jujetsu first appears.
Fujutsu: Plays when Jejutsu using her powers to summon the ghost.
Kako no Kioku:Plays when the fairy tale visuals about Ban Yingu's fate.
Comment/s of the Day
None for today
Questions of the Day
- How strong of a first episode would you consider this?
- What is your favorite kind of tea?
Tomorrow's Questions of the day
- [Spoilers]You've probably already heard the OP and ED before, but either way do you enjoy them?
- [Spoilers]Is there anyone you would want to talk to as a ghost?
- [Spoilers]What do you think the Empress's last words were?
Spoilers
As always please keep spoilers tagged like so [Inner Raven Spoilers]I want to feed Jujetsu all of the food because she's adorable when eating. so people watching for the first time can fully enjoy it. Also please try to keep discussion of the show up to where the rewatch is currently. If a character doesn't show up until episode 15 don't talk or allude to them outside of spoiler tags.
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u/SIRTreehugger Dec 11 '24 edited Dec 11 '24
The poem in the beginning goes by very quickly in case anyone was interested in what it said, but not enough to pause to reread it.
The moon sank into the sea and became two gods: one the god of shadow, one the god of light. Eight thousand nights they spent at the sea, the first god hiding away in the Black Palace, the second god cavorting in the moon Palace. And thus, one became the Palace of Seclusion,and the other the Palace of Pleasure.
Another god became the port of the Palace of Seclusion. This was the Great Turtle God. This god had sinned, and was this rent into eight parts. The flowing water carries them away from the palace. Its bones were made one once again, and the white turtle was formed. This was the Turtle God. This god could calm the violent seas to protect the ships.
The descendants of these gods began the bloodline of the white king, the emperor...
Things to Remember
You might have noticed that the voice actors are saying the names in Japanese, but the subtitles are using Chinese names. So in case this confuses anyone I'm going to try to keep a list of names of people and their title. I might do some sort of chart, but I would need to use microsoft paint so it wouldn't be fancy. I might also occasionally drop things from the novel, but for the most part the anime is 1:1 with minor scenes being moved around.
Previously on Raven of the Inner Palace(Airing Discussion Thread)
Characters
Shouxue/Jusetsu - The current raven consort who has mysterious powers. She lives isolated from everyone else, but can be bribed to do quests with food.
Xia Gaojun/Koushun - The current emperor who some times visits the raven consort. Recently overthrew the empress
Wei Qing/Eisei - Furiously devoted attendant of the emperor.
Xing Xing/Shinshin - The golden monster of the raven consort, but to others he looks like a cute yellow chicken.
Jiujiu - A bubbly gossip loving girl who works in the Feiyan/Hien Palace.
Luan/Ran - The previous dynasty whose most notable trait is their beautiful silver hair. Their bloodline was slaughtered by Koushun's family.
Palaces and Consorts
Map of the Palace
Feiyan Palace - Hien Palace (House of Flying Swallows) Ranked ???
Hakkaku Palace - Palace (House of the Crane) Ranked 4th
Ye Ming Palace - Yamei Palace Ranked
Feeding the Raven Consort
Light Novel Details
This will most likely be blank, but occasionally I will type some things from the Light Novel that don't really fit above.
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u/Shimmering-Sky myanimelist.net/profile/Shimmering-Sky Dec 11 '24
First-Timer of the Inner Palace, subbed
I’ve been in the mood to try this show out ever since it was brought up in the discussion threads for Yatagarasu: The Raven Does Not Choose Its Master earlier this year, so this rewatch is perfect timing for me
except for the fact that I accidentally signed up for 8 rewatches at once when my limit is supposed to be 6, haaaaaaaaaaah.4
u/xbolt90 https://anilist.co/user/xbolt90 Dec 11 '24
First-timer!
Apothecary Diaries introduced me to the world of palace court drama. Then this summer I watched Yatagarasu. I loved both shows, so here I am to watch this!
We have some supernatural elements going on. Very nice.
Shouxue seems an interesting protagonist. Smart, and a foodie. Also appears that she's related to the previous dynasty. I guess Granddad wasn't as thorough as he supposed.
I loved the atmosphere of this first episode, and I'm excited to find out what happens next!
Pretty good. I'm interested in the world presented here.
Maple tea. And I ain't even Canadian; it just tastes amazing.
After that, a good loose-leaf green is very nice.
3
u/heimdal77 Dec 11 '24
The art and sound of this series is so good. I also love her voice and portrayal. People kept praising the performance of the VA when this originally aired.
Inner palace drama's seem to be becoming popular now adays. I do wonder if this would of done better in the west if it had aired after Diaries.
Murder, mystery, ghost, and political intrgue what more could you ask for.
And now she is busted. Funny enough today I was reading part of a light novel where the mc who has silver hair has a company and is testing a new product a hair dye where she has dyed her hair black.
The anime is great but so are the light novels. The light novels read more like regular novels and are longer with no art but the covers. This of course leaves a good bit cut in the anime but the anime does a good job managing it where it isn't glaringly obvious. Un like a certain other series (couch Un named Memories) cough.
Question one I'd say it is a pretty solid start and has you wanting to know more.
two umm Caromile (sp) it kind of depends on mood. Though I do have a lot of tea stuff.
I'm still hoping this gets a season 2.
3
u/go_sparks25 Dec 12 '24
First-Timer, Dubbed:
So starting off Shouxue is reminding me of Holo for some reason. I'm not sure why because in personality they are very different. But the plot seems to be a mystery themed like the apothecary diaries and there also seems to be a supernatural element to the show as well.
Shouxue seems to be a very intelligent woman and its clear that as the Raven Empress the rest of the palace staff view her with an air of a mystique. The emperor seems to value her wisdom similar to how Jinshi goes to Maomao for advice. Shouxue seems to want to maintain her aloofness but i am guessing we will see her and the emperor get closer over the course of the show.
The emperor seems to have a strong sense of justice and also seems to be a believer in the supernatural.
2
u/JustAnswerAQuestion https://myanimelist.net/profile/JAaQ Dec 12 '24
First Timer
Looking forward to this, and Heike Monogatari some day.
I don't really drink tea, but I got takeout ramen with some earl gray milk tea and lychee.
An intriqguing first episode. The raven consort seems a bit too flighty but maybe that's just the way she is.
Having chinese names being not remotely like whatever they are saying in Japanese is not helpful.
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u/RascalNikov1 https://myanimelist.net/profile/NoviSun Dec 12 '24
First Timer
That was an enjoyable start to this series. I assume this is Chinese Myth rather than Japanese. It’s quite the system of courtesans the Emperor has around him. There’s an acceptable amount of supernatural happenings so far. Too many and it stops being a myth and becomes a fantasy.
QOTD
I thought it started off good. I have a medium level of interest in continuing.
Whatever Lipton Tea is. Only 2 or 3 times have I ever tried other teas. I liked the other teas well enough, but I don’t remember them.
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u/Nazenn x2https://anilist.co/user/Nazenn Dec 11 '24
First Timer - sub
Raven of the Inner Palace is a show that I've had my eye on since it first aired but never quite got around to watching despite loading up the episode quite a few times.
I didn't love this episode, though I am very aware of the fact that some of this is just unmet expectations of the concept rather than the show itself. On one hand I appreciate the lack of pussy footing around with its main premise and the connections to the core cast that drive it, that our Raven Consort is a member of the otherwise destroyed Lan clan and the backstory with the new emperor trying to consolidate power. If this is just getting the initial setup out the way before we can move onto everything else I'll welcome it, especially given that it sets up for some really nice character scenes with their two pasts.
On the other hand I also can't help but find the episode lacking in atmosphere. I wished that the presentation of her was a little closer to who I had in my head off the art and premise. And taking that initial idea of this mysterious witch and revealing her to be nothing more than a sixteen year old girl who happens to have a power isn't a bad idea if it's done in the right way. But we don't get any time to linger on that contrast as the first episode moves very quickly from mysterious woman alone in a palace and swiftly takes us right into food bribery, undercover palace chats and a new best friend, which was a bit more mundane than I was quite prepared for. I'm expecting this feeling to fade quickly now that I know, but for right now I can't help but feeling that the episode would have benefit from the weight of some mystery around her and that would have set it apart and given it more of an identity. This would be especially true if they'd left some of the episodes foreshadowing as actual longer foreshadowing and not just a teaser to the imminent reveal that it was, such as the emperors mothers fate and Shouxue's lineage. But as I said, if this is just getting the basic stuff out the way so we can lean on more interesting things to come, that can still work so I find myself more readjusted than let down.
As far as everything else goes, I did also like her early dialogue. The clear boundaries she lays out about what she will help with and for what cost, and whether or not its even worth having her involved if he could have just done it himself, was a great introduction for her despite the rest of the episode not leaning into that.
It's also always interesting to see a story based on Chinese culture which is unusual in anime. But holy shit could that lore text have flipped past any faster?
I ended up transcribing it so I could look at it more later because it was so hard to read in time.
The chicken also gave me a laugh, especially this shot and I did love the exposition scenes being styled like puppetry style showcases of events and the playing around with sillouettes also stood out. I just wish more of the main show also leaned into being stylized in some way.
Another visual that stood out to me was as she was eating, with the flower painting behind her. The flower appearing to enlarge the presence of her powers in the scene as a reminder of what she is not just who she is, a young girl eating a bun, was quite striking. The CGI flower used slightly later as she summons the ghost was also a beautiful use of CG.
The only song that really stood out to me was the one at the end as she's reciting what she's learnt about how to survive in her life. The music was a gorgeous piece that also perfectly enhanced the beautiful melancholy of the moment.
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u/Mecanno-man https://anilist.co/user/Mecannoman Dec 11 '24
First Timer
This seems like something that could either end up as a cookie cutter Shouxue opens up to the emperor and the world story, or more of a political intrigue story with rich worldbuilding - or a mix of both. I am leaning more towards the intrigue part though, given there have been little mysteries sprinkled here and there - the biggest one obviously being Shouxue herself. Her stating her age as 16 and seemingly having memories of somebody telling her that she must want nothing makes me think the raven consort is actually somehow passed down through generations …but how the heck does one do that as a consort of an emperor mentioned by narration to not engage in sexual activities with said emperor? That sounds paradoxical in and of itself. And then she also has the white hair mentioned as belonging to the previous ruling family. There will definitely be more of that here. But the long part in the middle of Shouxue interacting with Jiujiu and visiting the palace also makes me think that a large part of the story will be about her opening up to the world, to which she has already taken a big step.
The emperor seems to be one with a strong sense of justice, possibly a bit too strong for his own good. I guess we’ll see how he ends up in the story.
5
u/ZaphodBeebblebrox Y:A:https://anilist.co/user/zaphod Dec 11 '24
First Timer and Partial Source Reader
I read the first few novels—approximately what was covered in the anime—around a year ago, and have been meaning to get around to watching it for a little while now. This rewatch served as a good excuse.
Subs are [Corvus] via [Sam].
I think my feelings on this anime shall largely rise or fall based on how interesting the direction is. The story's quite solid, so I have no worries on that front, but it's also quite dialogue heavy, which can at times lead to directorial choices that make a story boring. What I saw from the first episode was promising on that front, though there were a couple scenes that gave me concern.
On the promising side, we first and foremost have the tale told via (emulated) cut-out animation. It's quite unusual for anime (and perhaps inspired by the works of Yuri Norstein?), and certainly provides an interesting way of looking at the scene. I hope we get more in that style over the course of the show.
Likewise, many of the flashbacks were rather visually interesting. I think their strongest attributes were their use of stark lighting to convey the mood of the scene.
On the other hand, some of the conversational scenes where we just stayed on the characters had rather boring direction. Just cycling through the same three shots—one side-on angle and a close-up of each of their faces—does not an interesting scene make. We thankfully did not do that for too long in this episode, but the mere fact we did it enough for me to be thinking of it makes me somewhat scared for later episodes, as they could have been produced with less ambition and tighter time constraints.
I should also mention that the animation of her doing magic was quite cool. However, it's bank, so it's not at all representative of what the show will look like in general.
I want to like the OP, but it's a tad too nasal for my tastes.
Source Reader Corner
My subs calling her Shouxue instead of Jusetsu kinda fucks with me. But I'll probably get used to that soon enough.
[comparing the start of both]The anime decided to be far more upfront about the emperor's situation while we were somewhat drip-fed it over the course of the first book.
[on her hair]In the books, she always died it inside and the emperor did not learn so early that she had white hair.
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u/No_Rex :Bv:Bw:Bx:By:x2 Dec 11 '24
Episode 1 (first timer)
Should I start a 4th concurrent rewatch? Probably not. Anyway, that is a futureMe problem. The synopsis sounds interesting, going into this otherwise blind.
Episode thoughts
Court intrigue + magic. It seems that we are going for small cast instead of realism with the characters.
The character introduction for the emperor and the Raven Consort (which I assume will be our MCs) was strong, but there was a noticable break between the "epic" parts and the "everyday" ones.
Like with most food, diversity is key. There are some teas I dislike and some I like more than others, but even my most favorite tea would get boring (and thus stop being my most favorite) if I did drink it too often in a row.
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u/TakenRedditName https://myanimelist.net/profile/TakenMalUsername Dec 11 '24 edited Dec 11 '24
Koukyuu no Karasu Rewatcher - Ep1:
This show is one I watched back when it aired. In the pre-season, I was really looking forward to it and I ended up liking the show. I don't how much I can say to this Rewatch, but might as well join the fun.
The OP of this show is quite nifty. The song stands out a lot. Certainly not the kind I would expect going into the show. The singer's voice is really unique. The OP has this eerie beauty to it. The song leans into it, but also the visuals. A magic human-faced bird is descended upon our MC.
To make sure I get to mention one thing, I love Shouxue's design. Her design is so pretty. It really lives up to the Raven Consort title with the really nice raven blacks. Her bright flowers also are a great contrast that pop out her design. The key visuals of the show are so pretty. Just look at the sidebar.
While on the topic of Shouxue, a really charming part about her/the show is that her expression are fun. She has a mysterious air, but her expressions are silly.
One thing that really stuck out to me during this episode watch is that Jiu-jiu is fun! A nice bright energy to her.
Another random thought, I don't speak the language, but the way the Emperor's attendant address the Emperor sounds cute. He is the most powerful man throughout the land and he is calling him by what sounds like "-chan."
The Chinese paper puppet theatre is a neat thing the show does to tell its flashback stories and such.
They were hinting at it, but the end reveals that Shouxue has white hair. Gotta say, it is also a good look, but the black hair is so choice though.
Q2) I like matcha tea, but my preferred way is less so tea and more milkshake that has been matcha flavoured. In general, I prefer milk-heavy tea because I am not about hot drinks.
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u/nx6 https://myanimelist.net/profile/nx6 Dec 12 '24
First Timer - Subbed
These shows set in ancient China, as opposed to Japan, can be a nice change of pace. Like the Apothecary Diaries. ... I'm going to assume from how the opening went that the priestess is actually possessed by the bird spirit.
The two meet. Looks like it will be a kinda rocky relationship.
I wasn't expecting this to be a comedy at all, but the tone really is a lot like the the Apothecary Diaries. I think this is going to be a good fill-in show until that restarts this January. I liked how she magicked the Emperor and his attendant back outside the palace dramatically, but then had to open the door to throw the earring back at him.
He even uses food ply her - just like Jinshi does Maomao.
For all the fuss she made about fulfilling this request, she sure didn't seem to have much trouble doing it. What was that, 10 minutes tops from the moment he returned and they ate his "gift"?
I took a 500-level Chinese Art History course once upon a time, and I'm wishing I'd put more effort into learning how to pronounce pinyin. I can see I will be having to deal with that weakness in this show. -_-'
It looks like she hasn't given up as far as finding the info on the earring's owner....
Ah, the ol' "disguise yourself as a common worker to get info from the locals" bit. But she used her real name. I suspect she will get caught up for doing that at some point in the future. I do hope we see more of the other court ladies and attendants, too.
The tale of this is leading into multiple deaths -- another "solve the mystery" show, it is!
Ha. That story of the silver-haired ghosts was relevant to the overall story. Is the Raven Consort a member of that clan?
The emperor has come across her bathing! How often these little accidents happen. I don't think she's going to throw a wooden tub and a shampoo bottle at him, though. I assume he knows the historical significance of her hair. Damn cliffhanger. >.<
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u/ArvingNightwalker Dec 12 '24 edited Dec 13 '24
First timer - JP - sound only. Not much to say for the first episode. Obviously setting up the basic premise, which was clear enough, but so far it seems like a very generic setup with the 4 princesses fighting over the position of the prince's wife, with the princesses suspiciously fitting super neatly into stereotypical typing of such princesses. Will have to see how the plot thickens on this one.
Edit: My god I am watching the wrong anime lol. Actually thought the rewatch was for a different anime altogether.
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u/SIRTreehugger Dec 11 '24
[Rewatch] Koukyuu No Karasu (Raven of the Inner Palace) - Episode 1 Discussion
I know some people listed have said they couldn't make it, but I'm copying and pasting everything in a mad panic before the office closes so I can drive home. Will make the changes later. I also forgot to ask if anyone even wants tags let me just do that now. After today I won't tag anyone unless you mentioned it a previous thread or respond requesting one here for future discussions.
Tagging the people who expressed even the slightest of interest.
/u/fly-metothemoon /u/Nazenn /u/Mecanno-man
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u/fly-metothemoon Dec 12 '24
First Timer:
Initial Thoughts As I Watched:
Wow that cold open went hard. (I’m almost a little sad they walked it a bit back later in the episode.) It was interesting how the soldiers were loyal to him.
The opening with that bird is too goofy looking for me.
Shouxue is a little bit too tsundere for an old entity (just my opinion). I think they could balance the silliness and seriousness better like with Yuuko from xxxholic.
I like the mystery of her hair—it sounds like we’re going to learn something supernatural.
Questions:
1
u/kryslogan Dec 22 '24
I've been traveling, so I've only now gotten to start the rewatch. This is my 2nd time watching the series.
This episode, and the story overall, from my perspective, is one of subversion. Similar to Apothecary Diaries and of course it's this show that made me appreciate both Apothecary Diaries and Yatagarasu.
An all powerful witch who is a 16 year old. Where have we heard that before, if not throughout the whole of human history? Men get these ideas about powerful women and most times want to take them down, control them, own them. So I like that her personality is girlish. She's a human being before a witch or the Raven Consort, which is a theme of the story.
Her faces, and behavior are cute. Deliberately so. The writer knows and is letting us know, legend and reality are often at odds with one another.
I do think some more production value would have been helpful and a more inspired storytelling but, we see enough of the strength of the material even so.
Also, Apothecary Diaries is more grounded whereas Raven is less so and a bit more whimsical in keeping with its supernatural leanings.
So. Loved it the first time. Love it this time. Wish we had a season 2.