The only problem I’m having with this series is that the episodes seem so short. I’m always left wanting more, which as criticisms go is about as positive as one could hope for. It packs a lot of content into every week without feeling rushed. And once we got past the prologue phase the exposition has been show and not tell, which is exactly as it should be. Trust the audience to figure it out and the ones who are paying attention generally will.
We obviously have more than our share of mysteries unspooling now. This is literal palace intrigue in every sense of the word. Samomo’s death for starters, and I continue to suspect that Shiratama has nothing to do with that. Sumio is in charge of that investigation, from the outside anyway. He notes from the presence of feathers that the dead girl tried to transform mid-fall, and therefore her one-way trip was not taken voluntarily.
Then we have Kazumi, who’s a mysterious character altogether right from his first appearance last week. It was obvious Yukiya was suspicious of Kazumi but the reason for that seems quite straightforward – he was a spy for Yukiya’s Northern house and a familiar face. Apparently one of the conditions of his working for Wakamiya is that he be taken to the Cherry Blossom Palace in secret, as there’s someone there he wants to see. Yukiya takes him there while the Prince goes off on another of his mysterious errands, and it soon becomes clear who Kazumi went there to see.
The interesting part of this for me is the question of just how much Wakamiya knew about Kazumi. This is a guy who doesn’t miss much – how much of the ugliness which follows will have been a surprise to him? I can only assume Wakamiya knew (or at least suspected) about the connection between Shiratama and Kazumi. If so he was presumably looking for some way to work this to his advantage, but it isn’t immediately clear how. I don’t take any of these characters at face value, certainly not Wakamiya.
Shiratama, for her part, has gone completely where the buses don’t run. Wakamiya has gone to see the princess who was supposed to be the candidate of the North, posing as his own messenger. She’s faked an illness which supposedly disfigured her face, a ruse to get her de-selected for the princess game. Why? That’s what Wakamiya has gone there to determine, and it seems as if the woman is disposed to unburden herself of the secret. Whatever the reason the upshot of it is that Shiratama was sent in her place. And judging by the fact that she and Kazumi were lovers, it seems likely she was a much lower-ranking noble.
The most obvious explanation for what happens next is that Shiratama has simply crumbled under the pressure of the burden placed on her and is in way over her head. That was already true even before Kazumi sneaked into the palace and was eventually killed by the chief of the Wisteria Guard, but if there were any doubt that will have been the final push. She can’t possibly be taken seriously as a candidate after the display she puts on here after Hamayu forces her way into her pavillion, the others in tow. And that leaves a vacuum waiting for someone to fill it.
We still don’t know who killed Samomo. It would be ironic if Shiratama’s unhinged accusations about Asebi turned out to be true, but now that some are speculating that her naif act may be just that I can’t shake the idea they might be right. And then we have Hamayuu, likewise a replacement entry and forced out by Shiratams’s blackmail. With the latter seemingly now out and that threat removed, does Hamayuu re-enter the derby? Is winning something she even wants?
The post Karasu wa Aruji o Erabanai (YATAGARASU: The Raven Does Not Choose Its Master) – 08 appeared first on Lost in Anime.
