What a fascinating tangle the plot of Karasu wa Aruji o Erabanai is. It puts me in mind of Moribito and Akatsuki no Yona in that the fantasy is there, but about 95% of the story is driven by court politics and human emotion. None of these series could exist without the magical elements, but those elements are only the catalyst. Good things happen when anime turns to novels as a source – not always, but a strikingly high percentage of the time.
So it appears I was wrong in my assumption that the raven killed by the Wisteria Guard was Kazumi (and was that wounded raven Sumio found in the final scene someone different?). Shiratama thinks so anyway, though that could be a defense mechanism to try and preserve what’s left of her sanity. The fact that she’s only 14 (I’d mistakenly remembered that it was Asebi that was) does help explain Shirtatama’s unhinged behavior somewhat, though not justify it. She’s in way over her head here, and probably temperamentally unsuited to this exercise in the first place.
I continue to find Hamayuu the most interesting of the candidates, and her backstory reveal certainly does nothing to change that. The secret Shiratama (actually Kazumi) dug up on her is that she was the daughter of criminal parents – they killed Izayoi, who happens to be Wakamiya and Fujinami’s mother. Why? That question isn’t answered. But Tooru (her uncle) decapitated both of them that very day, and Hamayuu was sentenced to be “disarticulated” – that is, have her third leg removed so she would be stuck in beast form. But she was spared, lived as a hill raven, and eventually begged Tooru to restore her status. He did, in exchange for a task to fulfill.
There are tons of questions attached to this, and Hamayuu’s story – as related to the other three princesses – doesn’t entirely make sense. She admits to more than has been revealed, saying her true task was to assassinate Wakamiya, and then flees the Cherry Blossom Palace with advice to the others to think for – and about – themselves. Why spill all this when she didn’t have to? Something doesn’t add up (as Yukiya will correctly surmise). Is she the real assassin, and if not does she support the effort in the first place? And who sent Wakamiya the letter warning him an assassin was present at the palace?
What’s very clear here is that for the most part, the participants sent to this rite (the game, as the Empress calls it) were mostly fodder. Wakamiya was not seen by most of the houses as a winning horse, and they didn’t want to play their best card in a contest to be bound to him. Tooru is also the Empress’ brother (if we already knew that I’d forgotten) and it’s clear the South is playing a long game here to try and exert total dominance over Yamauchi. Whatever Hamayuu is ultimately up to, I don’t think she supports the siblings in this.
Where does that ultimately leave this sham of a contest? Shiratama is outed as a blackmailer and unstable, but her house still actually wants to win. The South is out with Hamayuu’s flight but they never wanted to win in the first place. Asebi of the East still presumably wants to win, but we know she wasn’t their first choice and that Wakamiya went to see her sister – who was – under the pretense of being a servant. And Masuho no Susuki and her Western house remain something of a cipher, about whom we’ve been told very little.
Wakamiya has clearly chosen to remove himself from the Center as this chaos has played out, but circumstances now seem to dictate his return. He’s nurturing Yukiya as a critical tool in his arsenal, and it’s clear that this has become personal for Yukiya now – the loyalty he feels is real. I’m also keenly curious to understand why Wakamiya entered into an alliance with Kazumi – what did he stand to gain from it? Is it simply a matter of Kazumi acting as a spy and passing the Prince information about what’s happening inside the palace, or does Wakamiya have a deeper motive? Since we know Kazumi was acting as a spy for the North and that he loves Shiratama, there’s no way Wakamiya could be sure of his ultimate loyalty.
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