Pretty boring and fast paced imo.
When the series is slowing down and taking its time to be artsy with its aesthetic, it's lovely.
When it's trying to do a lot of lazy expositing and injecting comedy into things, it's not fun.
Felt like the comedy made it better
I feel like I would have enjoyed the comedy more if it didn't run completely contrary to the overall tone.
The first minute of the anime is literally the palace getting stormed and people getting murdered as the rightful emperor returns. Then after the OP we get all these hints about the consort being mysterious and whatnot, juxtaposed with an annoying chicken and then bribing her with her food (not in the same scene, mind you, but still within only a couple of minutes of each other). Coupled some time later with the one inner palace girl who gossips a lot and whose character is meant to be taken as light-hearted fair, it seems odd that the series would use this character to do a LOT of infodumping about the serious drama that happened in the past. The opening framing makes it clear that the series is meant to be a drama that touches on the fantastical, and the comedy is both introduced a little late and is too weightless to balance that drama out.
TL;DR - Like a pre-arranged imperial marriage, there's no real harmony between the comedy and the drama.
What you call "comedy" it was just depecting that the oh so mysterious consort is indeed human and not a high spirit who has no terrain needs. I saw no comedy there at all. Just some normal human interactions which didn't force at all to be haha funny.
Thank you for your response.
I don't read expressions and moments like these as not comedic:
Though, I suppose I can understand why someone would say they aren't meant to be. I do also understand the argument that these moments are supposed to show that the consort is human, but the episode already did that several times outside of moments like these. She says she's not a god during the meal, she leaves her room and masquerades as a simple court lady, she involves herself in the matter with the annoying customer, etc.
While the first expression could be understood as comedy, I think this is more anime's fault than the source. You can depict someone being surprised without recurring to those kinds of gestures (note that it isn't that comedic either because there isn't onomatopeyas or the background is changed to exagerate the situation either)
2nd one is even less comedic, having a pet is not comedy, and the consort doesn't engage with it, she just laments how free spirited her companion is. Let's put an example where a pet doing something "weird" is comedy: Cop Craft. Kei's relationship with his cat is purely for comedy purposes because they always play the allergy card to make Kei yell to Tilarna and start a silly discussion or let's not mention the body swap episode. A pet can be a resource to introduce comedy, but Karasu didn't go into it. A comedy scene would be the consort trying to catch him and being seen by the emperor and his aide, thus resulting into a funny scenario.
3rd one is debatable and mostly subjective. I get your point but I think saying it ruins the atmosphere or air of the work is going too much extreme.
Also, I think a bit of light moments doesn't hurt at all the work, otherwise it would be way too dense for many people, we know the allergy to long conversation/text many people have.
Interesting first episode. Feels like a supernatural version of Apothecary Diaries
Character designs, especially Shouxue are gorgeous!
I really liked the way they presented the story of Ban Yingnu.
Lots to unpack from this episode. Will tide me over until they announce an anime of The Apothecary Diaries and/or Culinary chronicles of the court flower.