Yatagarasu: The Raven Does Not Choose Its Master
Episode #1-13 (2024)
Studio: Pierrot
Distribution: NHK
Streaming: Crunchyroll
Release Date: April 4, 2024
I wouldn’t blame anybody for missing out on Yatagarasu: The Raven Does Not Choose Its Master this spring. The series aired in a season packed with blockbuster sequels to My Hero Academia, Demon Slayer and Sound! Euphonium. Not to mention intriguing original shows like Jellyfish Can’t Swim in the Night and Train to the End of the World. Yatagarasu was, by comparison, an anime series based on a manga series based on novels that have yet to be translated outside of Japan.
That said, I would blame myself for missing out on Yatagarasu. Translator Jocelyne Allen has raved about the novels on her blog Brain vs Book for quite a while. Everything I read about these books–court politics, shapeshifting ravens, wild metaphysical twists–convinced me that they were just my sort of thing.
The anime series was supposed to be adapted from the manga, though, not the books. It was also named after the second novel rather than the first. Could an adaptation of an adaptation measure up to the source material? I couldn’t be sure of that anymore. So much anime is produced these days that even series built on decent source material cannot be guaranteed dignity or survival. So I let Yatagarasu be. My hope was not so much that the anime would be any good, as it was that its presence might herald the English translation of the novels.
The bad news is that no translation has been announced. The anime adaptation may be the only version of the story, other than the manga series, to be accessible to English speakers. The good news is that the Yatagarasu anime is much more than just an adaptation of the second manga series. It adapts everything.
The first two Yatagarasu novels take place in a world of giant shape-shifting crow people. Book one follows Asebi, a young woman of the Eastern House sent by her family to the Cherry Blossom Palace. There she must compete with three other women for the hand of the Prince. The Palace soon descends into conspiracy, sabotage and murder, just as you’d expect from a story like this.
Book two follows the Prince and his assistant Yukiya. Yukiya is a court outsider who hates politics and insincerity. The Prince, on the other hand, is feared for being a true kin’u: a creature with size and supernatural power beyond his kin. The two of them navigate political headwinds that are nearly as treacherous as those in the Cherry Blossom Palace.
The Yatagarasu manga adapts these two novels as separate series: “A Raven for All Seasons,” and “The Raven Does Not Choose Its Master.” The anime adaptation, though, weaves them together. Episodes cut at will between Asebi’s struggles in the first novel and Yukiya’s in the second. You see the Prince as a cold, distant authority figure in the “All Seasons” sections, and then as an eccentric political chess player in “Raven Does Not Choose.”
My greatest fear was that the Yatagarasu anime would be merely a slice of a larger, incomplete story. As of the most recent episode, the series doesn’t feel that way at all. I don’t know if it measures up to the books because I haven’t read those. What I can say is that I would gladly recommend the anime on its own merits rather than just as a “substitute” for the novels.
Part of this is due to the innate strength of the source material. The characters in Yatagarasu are just fun to watch, particularly in the “Raven Does Not Choose” strand. Yukiya is a great protagonist; he’s smart enough to sniff out corruption, but just naive enough to bruise when he’s betrayed by the people he trusts. The “Raven For All Seasons” strand is a slower burn, if only because the heroine Asebi at first appears to be the most archetypal character in the series. Of course, nobody is quite who they appear to be in Yatagarasu.
The source material could easily have been fumbled in translation. Yatagarasu’s fussy worldbuilding and interlocking mysteries requires a sure hand. Director Yoshiaki Kyougoku (of Laid-Back Camp fame) and his team ensures that Yatagarasu’s big moments hit as hard as they need to. It is not the best looking anime of the season, but it is certainly not the worst; it even punches above its weight at times. Meanwhile, Yukiko Yamamuro (a J-drama screenwriter since the early 2000s) condenses the novels just enough that they work on screen.
It’s also significant that Yatagarasu was produced by Pierrot, a studio that has a distinguished history with fantasy anime. Their 2002 adaptation of Twelve Kingdoms became a cult classic in fan circles despite the liberties it took with the source material. Yona of the Dawn, adapted in 2014 by future Do It Yourself!! director Kazuhiro Yoneda, also caught people’s attention. Yatagarasu is the next stop on that ten year cycle.
Everything I have said previously would be enough to qualify Yatagarasu as an underrated classic that fans recommend to each other through the grapevine for years to come. But there’s one big difference: Yatagarasu isn’t over yet. The end of the thirteenth episode teases a new protagonist as well as giant man-eating monkeys. The Yatagarasu anime isn’t just an adaptation of the first two novels. The staff are adapting the third as well. Surprise!
You won’t believe how excited I am about this. It was already a gift to receive an adaptation of the first two books rather than just the second. Now we’re seeing an adaptation of the third, it’s feasible that Kyougoku and company intend to adapt all six of the initial novels. The fifth in particular I’ve heard truly weird things about. I can’t wait to see people’s reactions if it ever makes it to screen.
Much of Yatagarasu‘s spring competition have left the field. Now it enters the slower summer months, the perfect time to catch up on backlog. Why bother with backlog, though, when you can hitch a ride on the next big thing? Aren’t you tired of interchangeable hero protagonists fighting supernatural battles with the power of friendship and perseverance? Don’t you want to see beautiful bird people engage in no-holds-barred political warfare?
The first thirteen episodes of Yatagarasu present a complete and satisfying fantasy saga on their own. Should you wish to continue, the sequel to that saga is airing very soon. I’ll be there on the ground floor, excited to see just what this show will transform into next.
