Raven of the Inner Palace (後宮の烏) is a light novel series written by Kouko Shirakawa and illustrated by Ayuko. It was published by Shueisha under their Orange Bunko imprint from 2017 to 2022 for seven volumes. The novels are licensed by Seven Seas Entertainment in English. An anime adaptation by Bandai Namco Pictures started in October 2022.
For similar works set in Chinese fantasy imperial households and government written by Japanese authors, see and compare The Story of Saiunkoku.
Raven of the Inner Palace provides examples of:
- Adaptational Distillation: The anime cuts out a lot of worldbuilding and backstory in order to fit one chapter into one episode.
- Alternate Character Reading: The subtitles for the anime uses the Chinese reading for characters' names rather than the Japanese, despite them still being pronounced in Japanese (Ka Koushun becomes Xia Gaojun, Ryuu Jusetsu is Liu Shouxue and Ei Sei is Wei Qing, etc), the English dub follows suit, using the Mandarin pronunciation. The English edition of the novels in contrast uses the Japanese readings.
- Animal Motifs: Specifically, bird motifs.
- The high-ranking consorts have bird names in their titles. For example, the Raven Consort, the Magpie Consort, the Duck Consort, and the Crane Consort.
- Niao Lian and her older brother are called the Raven and the Owl, respectively.
- Gaojun makes wooden carvings of birds for Shouxue as they get closer.
- Assassination Attempt: The first chapter of the first volume revolves around one that involves Gaojun.
- Awful Truth: Poor Shin learns from his step-mother's nurse that he is actually the product of an incestuous union between his father and his father's younger sister.
- Barred from the Afterlife: The ghosts Shouxue deal with are generally this because of Unfinished Business.
- Berserk Button: Wei Qing cannot tolerate anyone disrespecting Gaojun or ordering him around.
- Dark Is Not Evil: As the Raven Consort, Shouxue wears all black and lives in a palace that is painted black. However, the Raven Consort is not a villainous position, and Shouxue is generally a nice person, if a bit cold.
- Dead All Along: In the anime, An Huilan, a court lady, comes to visit Shouxue in the middle of the night in the episode "Water's Voice" with a request concerning a dead consort whose voice she swears she still hears constantly. Throughout the episode we're given every reason to believe she's still alive, right up until the end where she tries to put her hands on Shouxue, only to find herself passing through her. Shouxue reveals that the court lady had died the night before from an illness that attacked her lungs, and was now a ghost, before banishing her under the surface of a lake so she wouldn't become a demon. The light novel reveals that she was a ghost from the beginning, losing the surprise.
- Defrosting Ice Queen: Aloof (but not entirely by choice) at first, Shouxue slowly grows used to dealing with people and learns to depend on others.
- Early-Bird Cameo: The Crane Consort, Banka, is briefly mentioned in Volume 1 before her formal introduction in Volume 3.
- Eunuchs Are Evil: Downplayed. While the eunuchs who serves directly under Emperor Gaojun, Shouxue, and Yun Huaniang are much better off thanks to their masters treating them with dignity, respect, and like family, all of them went through gruesome abuse and harassment from their upperclass/mentor eunuchs within the palace system.
- Giant Corpse World: The in-universe creation myth states that a god who sinned was dismembered and his body thrown into the sea. His torso became the continent the story is set on and his limbs and head turned into the surrounding islands. Jiujiu says she was afraid to walk on the ground for a while after her grandmother told her this story, since it was made from a corpse..
- Ghostly Animals: In the first volume, the ghost of a skylark who once belonged to Princess Skylark appears.
- God Save Us from the Queen!: The current Empress Dowager was a cruel person back when she was still in power. She killed many consorts and concubines, including Gaojun's mother, bullied her husband, seized influence along with her relatives, and deposed Gaojun as the crown prince.
- Half-Sibling Angst: It's hinted early on that Wei Qing and Liu Shouxue actually have the same father (their mothers were both prostitutes) and confirmed in Volume 6. Qing angsts over this since he dislikes Shouxue because of her growing closeness with Gaojun, but she is also his only living blood relative.
- Henpecked Husband: The previous emperor was afraid of the empress dowager, to the point where he didn't stand up for Gaojun's mother against the empress dowager's harassment, even though she was the mother of the crown prince.
- I Didn't Tell You Because You'd Be Unhappy: Shouxue didn't tell Yang Shiniang that Princess Skylark drowned in the pond because she was trying to pick herbs to make medicine for Shiniang as a peace offering after their argument (which occurred before the princess died).
- Irony: Shouxue's mother was not considered an official member of the imperial family because her mother was a servant. However, this allowed her to escape the massacre of the Luan clan since her name wasn't on the register.
- Killed Offscreen: The Empress Dowager never appears in the novels and her execution is only mentioned instead of described.
- The Lifestream: The Corridor of Stars, a "river" of stars that encircles the world, is where all souls go to reincarnate back into the world.
- Middle Child Syndrome: Seemingly inverted with Saname Kou at first, as Chouyou seems to be setting him up as his heir over his eldest son, Shin, but then it is horrifyingly played straight when it is revealed that Chouyou has always considered Shin his heir, because he is the son of the only woman he ever loved, his younger sister You.
- Mix-and-Match Critter: Niao Lian is depicted as a black bird with four wings, a pig's torso, lizard feet, and the face of a beautiful woman.
- Mystery of the Week: Combined with Woobie of the Week. Each novel consists of four short stories where Shouxue helps to fulfill someone's request.
- Platonic Life-Partners: What Shouxue and Gaojun ultimately end up being by the end of the series.
- Rightful King Returns: At age eighteen, Gaojun marches into the then-Empress's palace along with an army and seizes the throne.
- Royal Bastard: Princess Skylark was the daughter of the previous emperor and a palace lady, not a concubine, so she was shunned and forced to live alone in a corner of the inner palace.
- Royal Harem: The main setting of the series.
- Ruling Family Massacre: Gaojun's grandfather killed the previous imperial family before setting up the current dynasty. He didn't spare anyone, including the women and children. However, since Shouxue's mother was not considered an official member of the imperial family, she was able to blend into town.
- Shared Family Quirks: The members of the Luan clan all had silver hair. This was why Shouxue had to be careful to dye her hair black.
- Star-Crossed Lovers: It seems that any two people who fall in love in this series will end up with one (or both) of them dead due to circumstances beyond their control. These are just a few examples:
- In The Jade Earring, Guohao and Consort Ban were engaged since childhood, but Ban's father sent her to the inner palace in order to raise his own status. Ban was later framed for poisoning a consort and killed (made to look like a suicide). For many years, Guohao believed that she had died from illness until he started working at the imperial palace and heard rumors about what really happened.
- In The Flower Whistle, Ou Xuanyou and Yun Huaniang were engaged to get married before Xuanyou got killed in a riot in one of the provinces. To make things worse, Xuanyou's soul couldn't go to paradise because it was imprisoned in a jar by Bingyue. Gaojun knew that Huaniang would rather kill herself than marry someone else, so he offered her a place in the inner palace.
- Stars Are Souls: In volume 6, it's revealed that souls go to the river of stars that surround the world after they die. Whenever a star falls to the earth, someone is born.
- Suppressed History: According to the official history, the Raven Consort was the descendant of the priestess who served Niao Lian and was enclosed inside the inner palace by emperors who wanted to monopolize her power. The truth is much bigger. The Raven Consort is actually the Winter King, one of two kings (the other is the Summer King) chosen by Niao Lian to rule over the country of Xiao. After one Summer King killed the Winter King, everyone learned the hard way that there must be a Winter King or the country will go into ruin. Knowing this, Luan Xi, the first king of the Luan dynasty, confined his Winter King, Xiangqiang, into the inner palace, cut her off from her priests, and gave her the title of "Raven Consort" so that she'll be seen as one of his consorts. He ordered the official version to be written so that no one would suspect anything. The true version of history is kept at Ye Ming Palace, and only the Winter Minister and Raven Consort know it.
- Undying Loyalty: As the series goes on, Shouxue inspires this in more and more people through her deeds and compassion.
- Viewers Are Goldfish: The anime adaptation feels the need to repeat the same exposition about who the Raven Consort is at the start of every episode.
- Villain-Possessed Bystander: Bingyue possesses a palace lady to force Shouxue to grant his request or else he'll kill her.
- White-and-Grey Morality: There are very few outright evil characters in this series (except the empress dowager, but she was killed off in the first chapter and doesn't have much presence in the rest of the series) and the antagonists all have sympathetic backstories/motives.
