First Look: Raven of the Inner Palace Review (Patreon)

I said I wanted to give this one more attention since it got lost in the shuffle of last season, so here we go! Raven of the Inner Palace is a supernatural mystery series set in a fantastical version of ancient China. It’s bursting with ghosts, bloody demises and courtly intrigue. It’s fast-paced, dramatic, beautiful, and has some heartwarming slow based character development at its’ core. If you want an extra reason to give it some love, it’s an adaptation of a story aimed at women, which is increasingly rare in the modern anime landscape.

The series follows a mysterious woman dubbed “The Raven Consort”. She’s isolated and confined to the inner palace, and (as the intro narration likes to remind you), she’s skilled at the mystic arts and does not have any nighttime duties despite her title (meaning she doesn’t have to sleep with the Emperor, or even answer to him). Even the new Emperor, who only just recently retook the throne after being ousted by a spiteful relative, has no idea who she is or what her true role in the court is, but he’s understandably intrigued.

If you like ghosts, episodic supernatural dramas that form a larger mythological arc, cut-throat palace politics, careful character development, and/or sweet romances that develop from a strong friendship, this a show for you. The general premise of the series is the Emperor or another court official will come to Shoxue, the Raven Consort, with news of a ghost, and she’ll figure out how to help the ghost cross to the other side (or in some cases, forcefully exorcise them). As Shoxue solves these problems, we learn more about her, how she came to be the Raven Consort, and the terrible truth behind her role. If you know anything about ancient Chinese imperial history, you have probably accurately guessed the show gets very dark. There’s tons of suicides, beheadings and other executions, people being persecuted, servants being tormented and so on. Probably the biggest thing to warn for is that one of the eunuch’s backstories involves csa. The show always treats it seriously and rarely gets graphic all about it, though the show’s final episodes have a few surprisingly bloody moments. (Also one of the problems of the week involves romanticized sibling incest- it’s easy to miss the line referencing it, and it doesn’t end well for them, but still something note).

It doesn’t feel like edginess for the sake of edginess though, just an acknowledgement of the consequences of the rigid social roles the characters adhere to, and a natural extension of the commentary on the rigid role Shoxue herself is forced into. When her backstory is revealed, it definitely feels like there’s some commentary on how women with power are punished, though we don’t get far enough in the story to see if the anything meaningful will come of it.

And amidst all the drama, there’s something sweet going on here- throughout the show, we see Shoxue slowly go from someone who’s completely isolated to someone who forms warm connections with not just the emperor, but a variety of new friends who see past the creepy stigma surrounding her. Seeing Shoxue awkwardly navigate her new relationship is part of the charm of the series.

The Emporer is definitely set up as Shoxue’s love interest. The first episode has him act a little pushier than he will for the rest of the series (they do the ‘it seems like he’s going to come on to her in bed but he actually just falls asleep” thing). During the rest of the episodes, he seems to want to be her friend first and foremost before going further and tries not to push her too much. It just becomes a sweet underlying relationship where they try to understand each other. Shoxue leans a little into mild tsundere stereotypes at times, but there’s good reasoning given for why she’s so prickly. And there’s hints at the Emperor having his own emotional struggles, and that the power he wields might cause issues that divide them down the line, so it would be interesting to see where that goes.

It's overall an elegant, slightly spooky character drama. The anime has a quick pace- often throwing a lot of information at you and insisting you keep up- but that also means it’s never boring, and the animation can be quite nice and fits the ethereal nature of the show. If anything in here sounds like your jam, I strongly recommend you check it out!