Raven of the Inner Palace, Vol. 1

Last year I kept saying I wanted to watch the anime adaptation of this series. I never finished it in the end, and instead here I am picking up the light novel series. Oops.

Raven of the Inner Palace is a refreshing take on the inner court concept, in the sense that it has ghosts. Like, actual ghosts. Supernatural phenomenons. The main character, Jusetsu, is special in the sense that she's a consort who specializes in this sort of things. Obviously that's not the only thing that makes her special, but the other reasons would be major spoilers. Sometimes special doesn't always mean good though, and that's definitely the case here because her situation complicates things. A lot of things.

Anyway, this book has an episodic format. Each chapter deals with a separate case, except it always brings in more details about Jusetsu, Koshun the Emperor, and their backgrounds. Information about these two are revealed slowly and gradually, while also forming a bond between the stoic Koshun and the socially awkward Jusetsu. The cases are mostly sad instead of scary, so the book has an overall somber tone with light comedic moments sprinkled all over to balance it out. Mainly through Jusetsu's interactions with people.

Being the first volume, this book serves as an introduction to the characters and the world, and it does a pretty nice job at doing so. It's very easy to get into, even if the chapters are on the longer side. The translation has some issues, but not bad enough to bother my reading experience.