The series Karasu wa Aruji o Erabanai calls to mind – Seirei no Moribito, Akatsuki no Yona – reflect the elite company it keeps. Director Kyougoku Yoshiaki did work on Moribito in fact (as a key animator). And of course Yona was like this series a product of the massively underrated Studio Pierrot. So the bloodline is there in very tangible ways. Pierrot is pretty much always great with story – give them good source material and they basically never screw it up. But I think Yatagarasu may be their most beautiful show Yona. Kyougoku-sensei is no dark horse with the mega-popular Yuru Camp franchise on his directorial resume, but he’s really catching my attention here in a big way. The backgrounds are stunning, but so are some of his stylistic choices.
This story is full of fascinating and complicated characters, none more so than Yukiya and Wakamiya (which is good, since they’re the most important too). Yukiya knew his own parentage of course – he was the grandson of the Lord of the North. But the fact that Azukihiko also knew changes everything between them. His lineage is a burden Yukiya has lived with since he was a toddler, when the leaders of the clan tried to take him away from his adoptive family and bring him to the Center. His stepfather was willing (though not eager) to let them do it, but in the end Yukiya’s stepmother simply couldn’t allow it to happen.
It says something for his mother and brothers that they clearly treated Yukiya with love even under the difficult circumstances his very presence wrought. They were warned that the boy’s presence in their village would create a succession war, as he has a superior pedigree to his elder brother. Yukiya had no interest in claiming Yukima’s inheritance, but that didn’t stop outsiders from trying to force it to happen. Or his adoptive father from lobbying to send him away, favoring his biological son and trying to protect him. In the end Yukiya decided to play the role of bonkura (blockhead) – trying to prove himself unworthy of supplanting his brother.
It’s very easy to see why Yukiya is so upset here. Everything he thought he knew about his presence with Azukihiko is a lie – even if Azukihiko is “honest to a fault” as Sumio calls him. The Prince simply isn’t the sort to sugarcoat things to soothe Yukiya’s hurt feelings – he doesn’t have that in him. Yukiya was brought here under contrived circumstances because Wakamiya needed allies, and the Northern House was the most trustworthy. All that was required was for Nazuka to ascertain that the lad’s bonkura reputation was unwarranted – which, being no fool himself, he did quickly enough.
At this point Rokon, who is himself someone who’s here because he’s useful and for no other reason, takes matters into his own hands. He literally drags the boy to see Atsufusa, battered but unbowed as he presumably awaits execution. Why? Maybe, in part, to show Yukiya what loyalty really is. More though, I think, to help the boy understand just how twisted a place the capital is. Atsufusa tells a rather harrowing story. He knew his master was in league with Wakamiya but acted on his own to try and secure for Natsuka what he himself did not seek. Why? Not out of loyalty so much as a desperation to be someone who mattered.
Yukiya is merely a chick, and deeply wounded both by a lifetime of being used because of who he is and by what he sees as Azukihiko’s betrayal. But he’s no fool by a long shot. And like his master he’s a good judge of people – he knows that Wakamiya is a master worth his loyalty in this den of vipers, for all his faults and lack of soft skills. Wakamiya is not the sort to apologize, but he comes as close as someone like him can by asking Yukiya to remain in his service evermore. Yukiya will only pledge to fulfill his promise to stay until spring, and the Prince is in no position to demand (or expect) anything else.
At this point Kyougoku executes a truly magnificent transition sequence, as the seasons pass and spring does indeed arrive. And speaking of arriving, Azukihiko arrives at the Cherry Blossom Palace with one of the all-time great entrances. Only three princesses remain now, and Yukiya announces his master’s arrival with the news that he’s ready to choose his consort. The Prince has been full of surprises from the moment he was introduced to the narrative, so I expect him to say and do anything but the predictable here.
The post Karasu wa Aruji o Erabanai (YATAGARASU: The Raven Does Not Choose Its Master) – 11 appeared first on Lost in Anime.
