(CR) Kōkyū no Karasu (A Raven in the Harem)

[Kanon]

Yep, the final plot will be definitely to get rid of Niao Lian. She's making the Raven consorts suffer so much.
And now there's an Owl? Hopefully he'll be a better villain than the previous guy.

[Marcus H.]

I feel like Huilan was a ghost from the start of the story. The Huilan we saw at the start was her when she was at the peak of her health; the emaciated Huilan was the present Huilan... and the Huilan at the time of her death. The twist was handled masterfully here.

Moving on, why is a guy out there wanting to kill the Raven Consort? Considering the the Wulian, Li Niang the former Raven Consort and the former generation was mentioned in the Magpie Consort case makes me feel like we're finally going to have a glimpse of the overarching plot.

[FlareKnight]

That was a nice twist. I like that the other girl had peacefully moved on. Huilan being a ghost and trapped by her own fears was a nice reveal. Wanlin had a tough life, but she actually found some peace. Another tragic life there where she was pulled between two paths and had one of them painfully lost. Someone she loved was killed and all she could do was sadly carry the dirt stained with their blood with her. But at least she didn't need help to move on.

Huilan is a sad figure. Gave off a creepy vibe the whole time. Things like looking happy about the guy after Wanlin being killed and the news not reaching the Emperor. If not for her something terrible "like Wanlin leaving with that guy or them ending up together" could have happened . Her perspective makes sense on a certain level and it's not exactly wrong to see Wanlin entering the inner sanctum as a good thing. But everything about her in that second part of the episode felt off.

And that really worked. In the end no matter what she did for Wanlin's sake it was always about her own sake. Anything Wanlin would have accomplished was thanks to her and she should be praised for all her good work. That she could say all that after how tragically things turned out was impressive. The one good thing going for her is that on some level she realized that. She was stuck as a spirit and tormenting herself. Not out of fear of Wanlin, but of herself and her ugly side.

[Anh_Minh]

I wonder if the emperor feels about his harem the way modern men feel about having hundreds of available TV channels and nothing to watch.

Also, what's with all those guys who know something is haunted and just decide to poke it, first thing.

[Alchemist007]

Yellow chicken just wanted to be held and fed, very calm this ep.

[Kanon]

Originally Posted by Anh_Minh

I wonder if the emperor feels about his harem the way modern men feel about having hundreds of available TV channels and nothing to watch.

He has a channel he's very interested in but the signal isn't very good yet. Doing his best to set up a new antenna.

[kuroyanagi]

Is it just me, or did this episode look significantly better than usual? There were some really eye-catching scenes in here, like Shouxue being embarassed over touching the emperor's hand. Both of the times the biwa played, the sound was adequately amazing, too.

That being said, as much as I enjoy the relaxed tone of this series, two episode in a row where Shouxue is led to the right person to explain the whole mystery right away is a bit much

[Marcus H.]

It seemed "differently-directed". I did notice something off with the episode, but overall it was a positive. The biwa is also authentic, as if they got someone who knows how to play it during the exorcism scene.

Also, it is an interesting move by Gaojun to basically stop a troublesome eunuch from having a great-grandson as an heir by making his granddaughter a part of his consorts. Next level play right there.

[FlareKnight]

We did get plenty of nice Shouxue embarrassed shots which was nice. The buildup with her and the Emperor remains really nice. I get that's part of why Wei Qing is worried. But in the end both parties are good people and he does need to just let things play out as they will. Without Shouxue things would have gotten increasingly worse with the whole curse situation. Give the girl some credit.

Just some really solid moments in this episode. Talk about a stressful way to deal with that ghost. I'm surprised that poor guy didn't have a heart attack trying to keep up playing while a horrifying entity was reaching out for him .

[Guardian Enzo]

“Keep playing till I tell you to stop!!”

[Huh...?]

Originally Posted by Kanon

And now there's an Owl? Hopefully he'll be a better villain than the previous guy.

Not sure how good of a villain it would be.
But naturally, Owl's are one of the rare predators that Raven have (very few animals hunt Raven, and Owl is one of them)

[Kanon]

Originally Posted by Huh...?

Not sure how good of a villain it would be.
But naturally, Owl's are one of the rare predators that Raven have (very few animals hunt Raven, and Owl is one of them)

I didn't know about that. This raises my expectations for that guy.

[FlareKnight]

Talk about a situation that gets all the more cruel as time goes on. Seems like there's a certain countdown on the Raven as soon as their successor is selected. So basically seeing their successor is both seeing a future victim and a physical manifestation of their own ticking clock. Credit to them for handling training their successors so well under what must be a painful emotional strain.

And seems like the endgame is pretty clear. Soon as Shouxue really falls in love and suffers from the fact that her position limits her from pursuing that...the clock starts ticking on her own death. The Raven consort lasts as long or as short as they can stomach their position. And that's partly why Shouxue's training was the way it was. To limit her connections, to limit her desires, and to extend her life. It's a choice between a long empty life or a short emotional one.

Seems like the only path is dealing with this fickle "god" and freeing Shouxue from those talons. Of course she first has to survive this owl guy who likely has laid out his plans to kill her so it's going to be tense.

[Kanon]

Sadly I doubt this anime is anywhere popular enough to get a second season, so we'll never find out what Shouxue's fate will ultimately be.

To me it's pretty much been the dark horse of the season.

[Anh_Minh]

There's a light novel. But only one volume translated for now.

[Huh...?]

Originally Posted by Kanon

Sadly I doubt this anime is anywhere popular enough to get a second season, so we'll never find out what Shouxue's fate will ultimately be.

To me it's pretty much been the dark horse of the season.

I wouldn't really call it a Dark Horse.

It's a good show, but not really that great either, because for standard Japanese Anime Watcher (from non-Japanese or non-Chinese countries), the show is a bit hard to follow, especially with the difference in how the names are spoken (they are speaking the name with Japanese pronunciation in the Anime, but the Subs use Chinese reading, which causes quite a bit of confusing for me atleast).

Plus, the OP isn't really that great either, which might lower some people's expectation of the Series (though the ED is one of the best one this 2022 Fall Season).

Originally Posted by Anh_Minh

There's a light novel. But only one volume translated for now.

If i am right, it just recently got licensed, so there being only one volume translated yet is expected (even Fan-Translation probably only started after the Anime announcement).
Plus the Light Novel has already ended with 7 volumes.

[Huh...?]

I thought the Season had 12 Episodes, but there is another one.

So, the Owl & Raven are twin siblings, but Raven broke the rules and was banished, while after many centuries Owl was sent to execute her.

[kuroyanagi]

Whew, Wen Yin is safe. I half-expected him to get eaten by the magic zombie to raise the stakes for Shouxue, but thankfully this isn't that sort of show.

I'm seconding the thought that this is the dark horse this season for me; what makes it work so well, I think, is for all of its Chinese court drama trappings, it dwells very little on the ugly, scheming side of human nature. It feels very comfy, for a lack of a better word, to see Shouxue's dreary surroundings slowly filled with genuinely nice, caring people. Even the big bad showed some compassion for her this episode, drilling it down that it's the 1000-year curse that's the enemy here, not any devious individual. It's what made this show click for me, when many live action shows in this genre didn't.

The novel seems quite easy to read, so I'll probably buy it when the broadcast is over. Judging by the Amazon blurbs, the anime will cover up to volume 2 out of 7, FYI.

[Kanon]

This episode kind of turned everything on its head. If what the Owl said is true, Niao Lian is actually a victim. She was tricked by the very first Raven Consort into getting imprisoned inside her body and has slowly lost her sense of self over time.

The Owl turned out to be a very interesting antagonist, he doesn't hate Shouxue at all and considers her a victim of the first Raven consort as well. He doesn't really want to kill her but it's the only way he has to put his sister out of her misery. That said, he's still very much evil given how he tricked the Magpie consort.

The episode also expanded on the lore quite a bit.

[Alchemist007]

Very important chicken is not just for coddling.