Rushed, shallow, disjointed, disconnected, aimless and frivolous.
Don't get me wrong, it's an acceptable piece of work, it's just not what it sets out to be.
Koukyuu no Karasu, or Raven of the Inner Palace, is an animated adaptation of the novel series of the same name. I suspect many parts of the novel of the novel were left out of the adaption, which contributed to the mess that is the final product, but overall with the major plot points revealed, I wonder if it can rival the best of Shoujo works out there, let alone Josei.
Let's dissect the story first. After reading Kusuriya no Hitorigoto, I have to admit, most similar titles feel like a copy of that, even if they are not. The basic structure of the work is a central mystery about the role and history of the main character, intersecting the "case of the week format". This is a very solid structure to stories, since detective or mystery cases can be interesting and slowly revealing the central conflict/story. This format is ancient, and much of the "epics" were written like this. For example, Divine Comedy, through its journey from mortal realm to hell, to heaven, and discussion about things that the characters encountered, reveals the story about faith, contemporary politics and science. More relevant and closely match the structure is shows like the X-Files following a case structure which then cumulate to "season finale". That's a great, solid structure.
However, Koukyuu Karasu didn't do a good job at establishing the tone, atmosphere, mood or even the setting.
Imperial China is a classic setting. There's nothing novel or innovative about it. That's to say, they should have done a better job at it, no matter how the novel did it. The first thing it should have done is to demonstrate how power works in the court. This is nothing new, Japanese classics like Genji Monogatari, frankly, demonstrated more than 1000 years ago. The power and prestige of the Emperor should be emphasise, along with the heavy weight of responsibility upon his shoulder. The role of the Inner Palace in both keeping a power balance and checking against the influence of various faction in the court should have been done much better. The beginning of the show was promising as the main character get involved with various positions in the Inner Court, and there's a story about power struggle within it. Yet, these elements were given limited time and resolved pretty quickly. I suspect the novel had more to say, and spend more time establishing the atmosphere of mystery behind the court intrigues.
Then, there's the tone. By probably summarising the plot, it speed ran character development and relationships. The tonal shift from a court intrigued mixed with mystery of the week, investigation, to generic romance and grand myths were quite jarring. I was a little disappointed that the main character went from having to disguise to investigate to just interrogate anyone she wants very quickly, without much fanfare nor spotlight on it. It shifted the tone from mystery, serious to romantic and lighthearted. This is rather inconsistent with the tone it sets initially, and made for a confusing watch.
The reason why I spend a big paragraph about the structure is because I can't help but think, all of the problems about the pacing and tone are the reasons why the structure can't support the story. Usually, when it comes to mismatching tone with the main plot line, there's a gradual change by the author as the story gets more serious. The romance, lighter elements should be the filler and the central mystery should be what it leads up to. Supposedly, it should start with characters getting to know each out of necessity, then romantically as they work together, which leads to them finding out about the mystery or issue, which leads to the climax about the central mystery. If I gather all of the information in the story together, I can definitely arrange them to fit the structure perfectly. Which is to say, Koukyuu no Karasu, perhaps due to the fault of the original, kind of got it backward.
The show can go from the mystery to romance to mystery and back, disconnected from each other. The tones of the scenes and the content jump around instead of flowing into a structure that supports each other. In a kind of symbiosis way, the mystery of the week adds to characters interactions which forms the bond that develops into the romance which led to the characters wanting to know more about each other then ended with them having to deal with that mystery. I feel that there's enough materials there, perhaps they should have been rearrange or perhaps, more appropriate, the director should have set the tone of scenes or rewrite the dialogues to fit the structure.
Kusuriya no Hitorigoto, which I can't recommend enough, did this perfectly. I hoped Koukyuu no Karasu could have pulled that off, instead the show got a lot less interesting and a lot more disjointed due to the aforementioned problems.
Lastly about just the story, I think the fantasy portion of it, the powers, should have been handled a lot better. Shounen frequently set the stage by presenting a small, similar problem in which the main character used that power, which introduced to the audience before the characters will use it in a later part at a grander stage with more at risk. Koukyuu Karasu animated adaption did not do any of it. I don't think any of us are interested in the power mystery due to how arbitrary and non-consequential that part feels, even though it is the central mystery.
What I can say I don't hate is the main character. I think it's a good female lead that never felt too powerful nor perfect, nor feeling like a victim. She's well balanced and interesting, and I think most viewers will feel both sympathetic and admired her character. The male cast, unsurprisingly, is as interesting as wet rags. But that's to be expected of Shoujo, much like how most harem comics treat their female characters.
Then, there's the animation. I dislike the elaborate henshin segment, but it's actually spell casting. That's overused and very boring. Usually henshin is strategically placed to feel epic or at least serious. This is just silly. That asides, the background is detailed, choice of colour tone is nice and comfortable, many scenes have the right mood and lighting is cool. It made me wish the old style Shoujo shows have this style. The old style bright washed out cartoon colour don't fit them. That being said, I would have been satisfied if they reduce the animation budget and spend more time with the story. They don't need this level of animation packed into one episode. Each cases could have used 2 like the old days.
Sound is unremarkable. The sound effect is nice, but the BGM is forgettable. Many people like the opening theme but I like the first few bars. The chorus is very disappointing in comparison. The story has such great pacing problems that I can't appreciate the voice acting much. The female lead is voiced competently, all things considered, but that's about it.
I really think the show should have cut the plot it covered in half to fit into the 12 episodes, spend more time elaborating on each case, the background, the conversation, the investigation, the thoughts of individual characters about the case, the skepticism etc.... It sorely needed more time to brew into the main mystery. This "summarisation" is a huge disappointment. I don't think I have felt as disappointed in a rushed work since Angel Beats. The problems are very similar due to the "build up" nature of their structure, and Angel Beats hits way more notes (pun intended) than Koukyuu Karasu.
Extra Notes: Regarding Karasu vs Kusuriya (raven vs apothecary, or pharmacy/pharmacist in modern sense). If you think I am being unfair, comparing 2 very different works, one about actual detective works and the other about magics, it further highlights how much better Kusuriya no Hitorigoto is. The magical elements make the mystery a lot less interesting because in one you can think about what happened and come up with a theory yourself and how it can be resolved while the other you basically take a backseat. The way they resolve it is also fairly straightforward and predictable. Magic casted, problems resolved. Then, there's the "case of the week" interaction with world building, character building. I have this big problem with shitty copycat trying to do what the original did but without understanding it. I am not saying the Raven is copying the Apothecary, but this animated adaptation basically do the exact same thing. It has the same structure but completely miss out on the things that makes apothecary great. The escalating stake is one thing. Characters should be resolving increasingly complex problem as the show goes on. The Raven started well then derailed completely due to the main character just got approval from the emperor to do whatever she wants. The Apothecary still have to work around her limited stature and status. Her life is at risk at all time, as demonstrated by the story. Some arcs overlap and formed a small climax. Yet, they all cumulate to a larger, hidden problem and villain. Elements are added slowly and play off each other. Things that happened earlier have an effect on things that happens later, whether it's in the overall plot or the case of the week. Instead, the Raven cases have extremely minor implications on subsequent cases pass the midway. The problem with the former empress should have remained the main one before shifting to the foundation of the empire. The two cases should have tightly connected to each other rather than the empress served as the catalyst for the emperor to get close to the raven. Because of the inconsequential nature of the cases in the Raven, the structure just don't work at all, while the apothecary went from strength to strength as the series progress, intrigues pile up and more is revealed about the main characters. The last nail in the comparison is how subtle apothecary is. It's not the most clever of works, but it prefer to keep things not blatant, while the Raven much more formal and powerful characters are very obvious and bland. The supporting cast is also taken out of classic Shoujo cast, which is nauseating and insulting to the audience. This is not the worst apothecary-like work, but it getting an adaption before apothecary is baffling. How did this received a decent budget and team and apothecary did not? What are you doing Japan?
