Yatagarasu: The Raven Does Not Choose Its Master

烏は主を選ばない (Karasu wa Aruji wo Erabanai)

8.1(19,626)

MAL Score

Ranked #666

Popularity #3211

Drama
Fantasy
Historical
Mythology

Episodes: 20
Duration: 25 min per ep
Aired: Apr 6, 2024 to Sep 21, 2024
Status: Finished Airing

Synopsis

In the Kingdom of Yamauchi, its people can take the form of yatagarasu—three-legged crows tied to myth and tradition. At court, political maneuvering fills the days while a separate contest unfolds among the women vying to become the bride of Wakamiya, the crown prince chosen as the Kinu, servant to the Mountain God. Four young women are brought into this rivalry, among them the gentle, guileless Asebi, whose sincerity sets her apart from the others.

Wakamiya’s selection as Kinu comes with a cost. Though born the second son to a concubine, he is elevated over his elder brother by the royal priests, deepening a fracture within the family and drawing the ire of his stepmother. As tensions tighten around the throne, Yukiya—one of the village chief’s teenage sons—is dispatched to the palace as Wakamiya’s new attendant, a posting the prince rejects at first. Yet Yukiya’s arrival is far from accidental, and his role in the imperial court carries weight beyond simple service.

Otaku Consensus

Yatagarasu earned the kind of approval its modest popularity never suggested: an 8.05 MAL score and 78 AniList average point to a niche 2024 fantasy that viewers rewarded for its disciplined direction, patient political pacing, and confidence in adapting Chisato Abe’s court-intrigue material without turning it into action spectacle. Yoshiaki Kyougoku’s restrained staging and Yukiko Yamamuro’s series composition make the palace-selection and attendant threads feel like one tightening mechanism, with the early court arc standing out as the hook for fans of royal scheming. The most common drawback is the same thing many admirers prize: its slow-burn structure can feel withholding before the larger design becomes clear.

Why You Should Watch

Watch Yatagarasu if you want historical fantasy where power is argued through etiquette, bloodline, religion, and institutional pressure rather than stat screens or chosen-one bombast. It scratches a similar itch to The Apothecary Diaries and Raven of the Inner Palace, but with a colder political spine and a more mythic idea of legitimacy. The 20-episode run gives the cast room to negotiate, conceal, and misread one another, while Studio Pierrot’s adaptation leans into formal court spaces, verbal maneuvering, and ritual atmosphere. This is for viewers who enjoy adult-cast palace drama, shapeshifting folklore, and moral ambiguity without needing a joke every scene or a sword fight every episode.

Key Characters

Y
Yukiya
Yukiya works because he is not a blank audience surrogate; his position lets the series test how rural loyalty, court service, and political usefulness collide.
W
Wakamiya
Wakamiya is compelling as a prince whose authority is treated less like personal charisma and more like a legal, religious, and familial problem.
A
Asebi
Asebi’s appeal comes from how the show places apparent sincerity inside a court culture that treats every gesture as strategy.

What Makes It Stand Out

1
Studio Pierrot handles this as a dialogue-driven political fantasy rather than the action-forward work many viewers associate with the studio, emphasizing court blocking, social distance, and controlled reveals over constant motion.
2
The 20-episode format is unusual for a 2024 TV anime and gives the adaptation more room than a standard single cour to let allegiances, rituals, and status games accumulate weight.
3
The staff pairing of director Yoshiaki Kyougoku and series composer Yukiko Yamamuro gives the anime a notably structured feel, with separate palace threads designed to echo and complicate each other rather than function as isolated subplots.
4
Eishi Segawa’s music and the ending theme performance by Akiko Shikata reinforce the mythological side of Yamauchi, giving the series a ritualistic texture that distinguishes it from more conventional royal dramas.
5
Its AniList tag profile is unusually dense for a fantasy series: Royal Affairs at 100%, Shapeshifting at 90%, Politics at 80%, Philosophy at 70%, and Gore at 65% signal a court drama that does not soften its mythic violence.

Fun Facts & Trivia

Fun fact 1: The anime adapts work by Chisato Abe, credited here as the original creator, connecting the series to a literary fantasy source rather than an anime-original court drama.
Fun fact 2: It aired from April 6 to September 21, 2024 and finished at 20 episodes, a nonstandard count that sits between a compact single-cour production and a conventional two-cour run.
Fun fact 3: The opening theme is performed by Saucy Dog, while the ending theme is performed by Akiko Shikata, a contrast that pairs contemporary band energy with a more folkloric vocal identity.
Fun fact 4: Despite ranking only #3211 in MAL popularity, it holds a much stronger #666 rank by score, making it a clear example of a 2024 anime with high viewer satisfaction but limited mainstream reach.
Fun fact 5: AniList lists 454 favourites for the series, reinforcing its profile as a selective fanbase title rather than a broad seasonal phenomenon.