Today’s news is aimed squarely at historical fiction fans!
A premiere date and cast/crew details have been revealed for the upcoming series Raven of the Inner Palace (Japanese title: Koukyuu no Karasu) which is an adaptation of a light novel series created by Kouko Shirakawa.
Set to premiere on October 1st, the series takes place in ancient China. Deep inside the palace, there is a mysterious woman who is capable of magical feats, including exorcising spirits, locating lost items, or even killing people. One day, the emperor comes to ask her to use her magic without realizing that doing so will set events in motion which could destroy his kingdom.
Bandai Namco Pictures will produce the animation with Chizuru Miyawaki as the director. They’ll be working off series composition created by Satomi Ooshima, character designs by Shinji Takeuchi, and background music composed by Asami Tachibana.
The cast list reads as (character names first):
Jusetsu Ryō: Saku Mizuno
Kōshun Ka: Masaaki Mizunaka
Eisei: Taku Yashiro
Jiu Jiu: Marika Kōno
Onkei: Nobunaga Shimazaki
Tankai: Nobuhiko Okamoto
The original light novel series’ first volume was released in Japan in April 2018. In April 2022, the seventh volume was released in Japan while Seven Seas announced at Anime Expo that they will release the series in English beginning in February 2023.
I, like many others, love good historical fiction. The promotional video above did a great job of whetting my appetite for this story and I’m eager to check out the first episode. The only thing that gives me a slight pause with Raven of the Inner Palace is that the tone set by the video seems quite serious. Perhaps they’ll find a way to insert some levity, but for the most part, it seems like this is going to tell a dramatic story which will make for a nice change of pace.
Sources: MyAnimeList, Anime News Network
