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I wish to make it clear straight away: I by no means anticipated that Karasu wa Aruji o Erabanai would get a second season. It is most likely a miracle it obtained made in any respect. So my disappointment right this moment is not a lot disappointment as it’s one thing fatalistic. “Sasuga” for anime, and never in a great way. Whereas it is theoretically potential that one thing will occur sooner or later, I am extra realistically hoping that somebody decides to translate the novels (or, extra unlikely, that they will be launched in English). That is the one motive I’ve ever watched the Moribito sequence, and I feel that is the least unlikely recording with Yatagarasu.
Talking of which MoribitoI am unable to assist however speak about Moribito. Once I evaluate an anime to it, that is truly the largest praise I may give. I can depend on one hand what number of exhibits since spring 2012 have truly jogged my memory of that present, however Karasu wa Aruji o Erabanai Completely. There’s simply one thing majestic and regal in regards to the storytelling that solely actually good epic fantasy can ship on this method. You perceive that you simply’re within the presence of greatness, that you simply’re not watching one thing that rolled off a conveyor belt. High quality at all times stands out, in each period.
The decision of the Koume affair (nicely, within the broader sense it is nonetheless not resolved) was attention-grabbing. Evidently Hatsune was not solely concerned within the monkey commerce, however was additionally the ringleader. That does not appear to shock Koume all that a lot, given what she is aware of about her dad and mom’ personalities. I believe she’s idealizing Jihei’s position in all this a bit, however Hatsune makes it clear that she was the one who brokered the preliminary cope with the monkey within the nicely. Jihei primarily had no thought what he was transporting on that first enterprise journey.
Jihei undoubtedly took the autumn by alternative. Not solely to guard his daughter, but in addition to guard his daughter from the information that Hatsune was concerned (it’s higher to consider one mother or father as a assassin than two). The issue is that Koume shouldn’t be the sort to take issues at face worth, and being suspected herself pressured her into motion. Hatsune was proper that coming to see her alone and unarmed as a result of she suspected what Koume was doing was a reasonably naive transfer. Hatsune has definitely romanticized her personal position on this. In her thoughts, she’s some form of wronged sufferer who’s simply greedy for what life has denied her. If a couple of (dozen) yatagarasu needed to turn into monkey meals for that to occur, that’s an appropriate worth to pay.
Yukiya does certainly come for Koume, simply as she suspected he would—even when she had a cynical view of why it might occur. Yukiya has the integrity to be ashamed of getting assumed Koume’s guilt, however issues are hardly good between them. Quite a bit higher than they might have been in any other case, after all, since Yukiya and Nazukihiko stopped Hatsune from strangling her. However Hatsune’s new lover is an excellent larger downside, since he’s a sagecap addict and fairly far gone. Wakamiya turning his knife round and attacking with the hilt takes Yukiya without warning (defined later within the episode).
Getting stabbed with a hairpin would have been a reasonably shameful method for the true Kin’u to go, however fortunately the prince survives. Hatsune is unrepentant, stating that her fellow yatagarasu have been nowhere to be discovered when her father began promoting her physique when she was 13. Each Yukiya and Sumio blame themselves for what occurred, however Hamayu is having none of it. She tells Yukiya that it is actually inconceivable for Nazukihiko to kill one other yatagarasu, so ingrained is his love for them and wish to guard them. Additionally ingrained is his lack of emotion – although I wholeheartedly agree with Hamayu that the prince feels completely the identical feelings as the remainder of us. He merely has an excessive amount of accountability to take pleasure in it.
Because the sequence progresses, it turns into more and more clear what an enormous weight Nazukihiko carries on his shoulders. Yukiya is a really good and really perceptive boy – he definitely sees that. He learns that one of the simplest ways to guard his folks, whom he loves a lot, is to guard Wakamiya. Solely Wakamiya can finally shield anybody, and Yamauchi wants quite a lot of defending. But it surely goes deeper than that. This can be a younger man who is aware of how one can present a false face to the world for the sake of others, how one can undermine his personal emotions for the sake of his folks. He sees within the prince a kindred spirit, simply as Nazukihiko noticed in him. And what grows between them consequently is a loyalty born of affection and respect.
The revelation of what Wakamiya’s “ghost fireplace” is all about is gorgeous and terrifying, and it’s executed fantastically. Yamauchi appears doomed, definitely, even because the younger prize drags himself from his sickbed and fires his arrows into an approaching world too huge to understand. Yukiya understands his smallness unquestionably, and he can solely swear himself to Nazukihiko in essentially the most humble method. The bond between them is a lovely factor—the prince makes it completely clear what that swearing actually means to Yukiya, the boy decided to remain by his facet. Such a swearing, given freely, is the one type of loyalty Nazukihiko can belief in his state of affairs—and solely from somebody like Yukiya might such a factor be potential.
That Yukiya results in the Unbending Reed Monastery is an ironic twist on the finish of all issues. The destiny he accepted because the prince’s aide to keep away from, he now embraces as the very best method to turn into worthy of defending him. It hardly takes a eager eye to see all of the wealth of potentialities that circulation from this, each for character and plot. Such was the case on the finish of Seirei no Moribito and whereas we by no means noticed these potentialities realized in anime kind, it was nonetheless thrilling to see them revealed to us and a privilege to be part of that have.
That is just about how I give it some thought Karasu wa Aruji o Erabanai. Collection that seize our imaginations a lot are the rationale I used to be drawn to anime within the first place, and I by no means cease hoping for the following one to return quickly, whilst I’m grateful for the one which simply ended. They’re as uncommon as a cool Kyoto summer time day, however that makes all of them the extra valuable after they do come.
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