January 20, 2024

Language: The main difficulty here is the 後宮語 (Inner court vocabulary) and 古い名前 (archaic names). Further complicating things, if you go to check the English translation, it uses the Chinese pronunciations for everything, which often bear no resemblance to the JP pronunciations. If you want to try preparing for it, it may be a good idea to go through the jpdb deck, or even read the light novel (though that's harder than the anime).

Story: Overall, I enjoyed watching this. The aesthetic is incredible, the characters are generally likeable, and the tension between the two leads is great. That said, it has some definite flaws. In terms of the story, the two leads Jusetsu and Kōshun are pretty well developed and have very interesting relationship development over the course of the story. Jusetsu felt like the only character who really got solid development, but the others weren't irrelevant either.

The series' main flaw is its episodic nature, and the lack of connection from one episode to the next. Unlike 薬屋のひとりごと | L 32 where the episodic mysteries all form part of a larger plot, the episodic mysteries in 後宮の烏 have basically no relation to each other, and serve primarily as character development for Jusetsu. As a result, I found it hard to get emotionally invested in any of them. The only times I really felt emotionally invested were Jusetsu's personal relationships, and when the larger lore got explained. The ending of the series felt a bit underwhelming, in the "this probably isnt' getting a second season" sort of way.

Gradings:16
0
favorite_border
on November 12, 2024
on October 20, 2024
on April 11, 2024
on March 20, 2024
on March 2, 2024
on March 1, 2024
on January 20, 2024
on January 20, 2024
on January 20, 2024
on January 20, 2024
on January 20, 2024
on January 20, 2024
similar in difficulty toFate/Apocrypha S1L30
on January 20, 2024
on January 20, 2024
similar in difficulty to薬屋のひとりごと S1L34
on January 20, 2024