YATAGARASU: The Crow That Chose Not a Master is a work of art. That’s not just a statement about the careful detail of the visuals and animation, although they are beautiful; it’s an overall assessment of how the series is put together. While many courtly political dramas might spend too much time with old men who all look alike and have more named characters than anyone can reasonably remember, Yatagarasu constructs its story in such a way that you have to pay close attention to the shape, to the full depth of the plot and the intrigue of the characters. It’s like a folding fan with intricate imagery: the overall picture changes with each leaf that is folded or unfolded. The story ensures that we rarely see the entire picture unfold, leaving us to make our best guesses as to what the whole picture is.
Based on the first two volumes (of ten, plus two short story collections) of the novel of the same name, Yatagarasu is based on the Shinto god who acts as a messenger in mythology. In Shinto legend, Yatagarasu is a guiding deity whose name can be read as “great crow,” and different sources attribute various feats to him. Although all of the transforming crows in the story have three legs, scholars are divided on whether the myth is native to Japan or imported from China or Korea, as there is no mention of the number of legs in the text or imagery. before the mid-Heian period in Japanese literature.
This may be why the story is set in a mock Heian court, although the women are mostly dressed in period-appropriate clothing, with some of the men looking much more modern in their kimono styles. When a crow transforms, they must wear a feathered cloak, a depiction that some viewers may recognise from another genre of folktale, the Swan Lady type, ATU400. In those tales, an angelic or supernatural woman is stripped of her feathered cloak while bathing and thus unable to return home. She is eventually freed when she finds the cloak her husband had hidden from her, at which point she escapes her forced marriage to him. How this will affect Yatagarasu is not entirely clear in these first thirteen episodes, but episode twelve, as well as Shiratama's entire storyline, may point to “taking back her feather cloak” as a metaphor for taking charge of her own life, while episode thirteen's arc resolution shows that hiding one's true self rarely works. (It's still unclear how this will affect Sumi.) ATU400 can be understood as a woman losing her free will and eventually regaining it to once again take control of her own life, and that's the theme that the four women have been trapped (trapped?) in Cherry Blossom Palace's incarnation. This could fit with another use of the feathered cloak in the series, the fact that the “horses” are yatagarasu held captive in crow form either as indentured servants or as punishment for crimes committed—a reversal of the woman's situation in ATU400.
Although the kin'u, or crown prince, is more or less subject to the whims of the courtiers around him, he still has more power than any of the women. Part of how he keeps it is by keeping his thoughts to himself; when Yukiya first comes to him as a servant, he has to figure out the meaning behind the prince's seemingly meaningless directives. This is a test of his intelligence and loyalty. Yukiya is educated firsthand in the political games of the court, which are often designed to try to eliminate the crown prince in favor of his brother or to get the kin'u to do what they want. Yukiya serves as a foil to the prince in this way; as the second child himself, his trajectory is largely dictated by those who are keeping information to themselves, and like the kin'u, he has to discover his own truth and make his own choices about what he wants to do with his child. his life—and his power.
That's not for the ladies, so they have to engage in various, potentially evil tactics. The character of Shiratama, the youngest woman chosen to be one of the prince's potential brides, has the strongest storyline in these volumes as she struggles to force herself to push her desires and emotions deep inside herself and devote herself to what she is told is her duty. Shiratama nearly loses her mind trying to become someone she is not, and Cha no Hana, her overbearing servant, represents the adult forces trying to impose their will on a girl to the point where she doesn't even know how to be herself anymore. On the other hand, Hamayu is shown as the woman who takes the most control over her destiny, revealing her true nature and using it to secure her freedom (at a cost); She follows through with what she's expected to do to a degree before revealing anything, though even then the question of her freedom remains open. Masuho-no-Susuki falls somewhere in between, eventually regaining her free will after eleven episodes of fair play.
And then there’s Asebi, the woman who initially doesn’t seem to belong in the Sakura Palace. Like kin’u and Yukiya, she’s the second child, and like kin’u, she seems to be taking the place that should have gone to her older siblings. It’s easy to take her at face value, and the series does its best to encourage that; she’s perhaps the best example of the folding fan metaphor I mentioned earlier. Asebi forms a triad between Yukiya and kin’u, all three of whom embody different aspects of the “spare” second sibling, though what the final image will reveal is still unknown. The meaning of the name the queen gave her may be a hint, and Lady Macbeth’s words about innocent flowers also seem appropriate. But all three make a great argument for never trusting their words or the words of others: unless you see them with your own clear eyes, there's no way to know what's really going on, and the best answers are always in the shadows.
YATAGARASU: The Crow Who Doesn't Choose Its Master is a prime example of how to do a good court play. Yes, it has a lot of named characters, not all of them physically distinct enough, and the plot is dense. But the story is being told both on the surface and below, and it needs both to show its potential. With lush backdrops, vibrant colors, and an opening theme image that you should pay attention to for enhanced storytelling, this is a highlight of Spring 2024. It's a story that you can get lost in at its best.