Anime Report: Tokyo Ravens

As of episode 20, a lot of stuff has happened. A lot of people are not really the people you know them to be as they reveal their true colors in the episode. Rather than trying to eradicate spies within the Exorcism Bureau, you find that the Twin Horn Syndicate was rooted within the Bureau itself. A larger plan at work is finally in motion and a lot of secrets have been revealed. It's also interesting to see where people's loyalties lie because they are definitely keeping that to themselves. Ashiya Douman, the previous antagonist, is now a neutral character though I suspect he still has another goal in mind. A couple of humans presumed dead are alive and a lot of humans are not exactly human but shikigami. There's some family secrets in the Tsuchimikado clan still to be revealed.


The ancestor Yakou seems like a shady character to me. I'm expecting a large massacre of characters to happen like Game of Thrones, but that probably will not happen. I think the team that worked on the story will probably change these light novels into a happy ending of some sort. I've pretty much accepted that Natsume and Harutora were a couple from the beginning of the series and that still doesn't mean I like the romance going on. Harutora was way too dense and Natsume was just way too shy. It just doesn't work out that way. For Natsume who's extremely level headed and talented in exorcism techniques, the level of shyness she exhibits just doesn't match. It was way over the top.

I was very disappointed with the second OP animation. Half of the animation was recycled from the first OP and to me that reads as laziness and bad budget planning. Since the viewers now associate scenes from the opening with the first opening song, I think it would make more sense to come up with a different concept for the second opening. Even the first opening was pretty fragmented. It jumps from scene to scene and it's fairly easy to animate even though it looks complicated.

It really towards the end that the title "Tokyo Ravens" makes sense. There was no mention of ravens at all in the beginning. I was hoping they may have sprinkled in some sort of reference. Technically "karasu" is translated as crow but the light novels used raven.