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Read This! Ooku: The Inner Chambers
There's more than a few stories out there about a world where men are a rarity. Something happened somehow and now they're next to extinct or they're completely gone from the planet Earth. Women have moved into the traditionally male gender roles while men are treasured and hidden away because without them the ability to reproduce and propagate the human race would cease.
While my spiel above makes it seem like these kinds of stories are incapable of being original that's not the case at all. It's my belief that there aren't original ideas really anymore in terms of fiction. Everything has been done when it comes to plot. What matters to me is how a story is told and the depth of the characterization. Is it a believable story? Do you feel the people in the story are realistic? Do you get attached to them? Care about them? Love them? Hate them? If you say yes to these things it's a good story in my opinion.
And Ooku: The Inner Chambers? It's fucking brilliant.
I tend to be easily pleased as a reader. I was lucky to be raised by an elementary school teacher who has never budgeted when it came to trips to the bookstore. Anything I was interested in reading that was age appropriate she bought for me. My mother never judged when I started falling in love with comic books as a kid. Hell, she got me my first subscription to Captain America because she saw how much I loved that comic and it was reading and any reading is good reading to my mother. Having this sort of childhood has made me someone who is happy reading the fluffiest shoujo manga to the most serious history book. My favorite manga shifts pretty easily depending on my mood, the same goes for my favorite band of the moment but Ooku?
Ooku is probably one of the best things I'll read in 2010 and the year just started.
I'm raving about this manga and I haven't really told you too much what it's about. It's a period piece (something I love because I'm a history geek at times) and occurs during the Edo or Tokugawa period. In 1632 a plague sweeps through the country. A disease called Red Pox begins killing all of the young men in the country. Often they catch the disease after physical exertion, such as working in the fields, and with men becoming a scarcity traditional male jobs are taken over by the women while men are kept safe at home. Even the Shogun is a woman. Although this is hidden from people from other countries. The population of Japan soon levels off and by the time the Red Pox plague subsides the male population has fallen by 75%.
Seen as precious seed bearers, husbands are only granted for the richer women in society. Poorer women who want to have babies must visit a brothel. The most beautiful men are sent to the Shogun's inner chambers, the Ooku, where they are kept like pets in a harem like situation.
The first volume follows the story of Yunoshin Mizuno who comes from a poor samurai family and has been in love with his best friend, O-Nobu, for years. However, O-Nobu comes from a rich merchant family and Yunoshin is too poor to be considered a good choice of husband for her. Yunoshin is luckier than most handsome men from poor families. His mother never sold him off to brothels for his services as a seed bearer. When he finds out he is about to wed someone other than O-Nobu he says he wants to do something better than getting a simple dowry to pay back his family for all they've done for him. Yunoshin wishes to enter Ooku. Men who are accepted are given a hefty salary and well rewarded for their time and he would be able to send much more money back home.
Most of the first volume deals with Yunoshin's adjustment to the world of the Ooku where he sees more men in one place than he has in his entire life. The current Shogun is a young girl, only seven, and the men's services sexually are not sought. His first night there he's accousted by men trying to rape him. He uses their own sword against them and stops the assault. From that day forward Yunoshin becomes a talked about figure in the Ooku.
The young Shogun dies from a disease and is replaced by Shogun Yoshimune. She's probably my favorite character in the series. Her personality is forthright and earnest but there's a humor to her. A pragmatic and thoughtful ruler, she makes changes to the Ooku immediately and searches for answers in the historical texts about life before and during the great Red Pox plague. When men had the ruling roles and made the decisions in their houses instead of women.
Honestly? I could go on and on about the plot and the characters. The entire series explores the history of the Red Pox plague and the politics of the Shogunate and the inner chambers. It's really absorbing and fascinating and the characters are all so very wonderfully realistic. Ooku is one of those stories where people are portrayed in such beautiful shades of grey. They're complex and maddening creatures and while the plot has been done before I don't believe it has ever been done this well or this believably.
Unfortunately, Ooku isn't online to read for free. However, Viz has already released the first two volumes for sale. I really recommend this manga to anyone who loves period piece stories or just wants to get absorbed in a really good story with utterly brilliant characterizations.
And if you're the type who is impressed or influenced by awards Ooku was nominated for an Eisner Award and has won the Osamu Tezuka Cultural Prize. I'm also super excited to say it's being made into a live action movie.
While my spiel above makes it seem like these kinds of stories are incapable of being original that's not the case at all. It's my belief that there aren't original ideas really anymore in terms of fiction. Everything has been done when it comes to plot. What matters to me is how a story is told and the depth of the characterization. Is it a believable story? Do you feel the people in the story are realistic? Do you get attached to them? Care about them? Love them? Hate them? If you say yes to these things it's a good story in my opinion.
And Ooku: The Inner Chambers? It's fucking brilliant.
I tend to be easily pleased as a reader. I was lucky to be raised by an elementary school teacher who has never budgeted when it came to trips to the bookstore. Anything I was interested in reading that was age appropriate she bought for me. My mother never judged when I started falling in love with comic books as a kid. Hell, she got me my first subscription to Captain America because she saw how much I loved that comic and it was reading and any reading is good reading to my mother. Having this sort of childhood has made me someone who is happy reading the fluffiest shoujo manga to the most serious history book. My favorite manga shifts pretty easily depending on my mood, the same goes for my favorite band of the moment but Ooku?
Ooku is probably one of the best things I'll read in 2010 and the year just started.
I'm raving about this manga and I haven't really told you too much what it's about. It's a period piece (something I love because I'm a history geek at times) and occurs during the Edo or Tokugawa period. In 1632 a plague sweeps through the country. A disease called Red Pox begins killing all of the young men in the country. Often they catch the disease after physical exertion, such as working in the fields, and with men becoming a scarcity traditional male jobs are taken over by the women while men are kept safe at home. Even the Shogun is a woman. Although this is hidden from people from other countries. The population of Japan soon levels off and by the time the Red Pox plague subsides the male population has fallen by 75%.
Seen as precious seed bearers, husbands are only granted for the richer women in society. Poorer women who want to have babies must visit a brothel. The most beautiful men are sent to the Shogun's inner chambers, the Ooku, where they are kept like pets in a harem like situation.
The first volume follows the story of Yunoshin Mizuno who comes from a poor samurai family and has been in love with his best friend, O-Nobu, for years. However, O-Nobu comes from a rich merchant family and Yunoshin is too poor to be considered a good choice of husband for her. Yunoshin is luckier than most handsome men from poor families. His mother never sold him off to brothels for his services as a seed bearer. When he finds out he is about to wed someone other than O-Nobu he says he wants to do something better than getting a simple dowry to pay back his family for all they've done for him. Yunoshin wishes to enter Ooku. Men who are accepted are given a hefty salary and well rewarded for their time and he would be able to send much more money back home.
Most of the first volume deals with Yunoshin's adjustment to the world of the Ooku where he sees more men in one place than he has in his entire life. The current Shogun is a young girl, only seven, and the men's services sexually are not sought. His first night there he's accousted by men trying to rape him. He uses their own sword against them and stops the assault. From that day forward Yunoshin becomes a talked about figure in the Ooku.
The young Shogun dies from a disease and is replaced by Shogun Yoshimune. She's probably my favorite character in the series. Her personality is forthright and earnest but there's a humor to her. A pragmatic and thoughtful ruler, she makes changes to the Ooku immediately and searches for answers in the historical texts about life before and during the great Red Pox plague. When men had the ruling roles and made the decisions in their houses instead of women.
Honestly? I could go on and on about the plot and the characters. The entire series explores the history of the Red Pox plague and the politics of the Shogunate and the inner chambers. It's really absorbing and fascinating and the characters are all so very wonderfully realistic. Ooku is one of those stories where people are portrayed in such beautiful shades of grey. They're complex and maddening creatures and while the plot has been done before I don't believe it has ever been done this well or this believably.
Unfortunately, Ooku isn't online to read for free. However, Viz has already released the first two volumes for sale. I really recommend this manga to anyone who loves period piece stories or just wants to get absorbed in a really good story with utterly brilliant characterizations.
And if you're the type who is impressed or influenced by awards Ooku was nominated for an Eisner Award and has won the Osamu Tezuka Cultural Prize. I'm also super excited to say it's being made into a live action movie.