Comics / Manga

Ooku: The Inner Chambers Volume 1

By Leroy Douresseaux
August 13, 2009 - 20:52

Ooku Volume 1 cover image is courtesy of barnesandnoble.com

Rated “M” for “Mature”

Ōoku: The Inner Chambers is an historical fantasy series set in early 18th century Japan.  Created by esteemed manga-ka, Fumi Yoshinaga (The Moon and the Sandals, Flower of Life), Ōoku imagines a world where women have taken on the roles traditionally granted to men, including a woman being shogun.

In Ōoku: The Inner Chambers, Vol.1, readers witness the event that changes Japanese history.  In the early 1600s, a strange new disease, called the Redface Pox, appears and begins to prey on males, killing mostly young men and boys.  After the male population falls by seventy-five percent (about one-fourth of the female population), women assume all the responsibilities of men.  Women become the heads of households and their daughters inherit property and businesses.  Men are protected as precious "seed bearers."

This inversion of men’s and women’s roles means that women take the role of the shogun, and during this, the Edo period in Japan, the shogun is the true ruler of Japan (with the Emperor being a figurehead).  The most beautiful men serve the shogun in the Ōoku or “the Inner Chambers,” a male harem-like compound.  When Yunoshin Mizuno, a young man from a poor samurai family, can’t marry the woman he loves, he volunteers to enter the Ōoku.  Rather than a life of luxury and pleasure, Mizuno discovers a place of deceit and treachery, just as the stern new Shogun Yoshimune begins her reign.

THE LOWDOWN:  Although Ōoku is essentially an alternate-Earth scenario, Fumi Yoshinaga doesn’t approach this series as science fiction by delving into the specifics of the lethal male-killing plague, nor does she even consider the fantastical implications.  Is Redface Pox a curse from the gods?  Like much of Yoshinaga’s work, Ōoku focuses on the characters much more than it does the setting or even the plot.  Ōoku is a character drama played out with palace intrigue.

Never one to produce poor quality manga, Yoshinaga’s work is only occasionally ordinary and most often high quality.  In spite of its fascinating concept, Ōoku, Vol. 1 is for much of its first half rather ordinary.  It is not until the third and fourth (of four) chapters that Ōoku begins to show the creator’s deft touch at fashioning moving dramas filled with rich character interplay.  The conflicts, resolutions, and scheming are so delectable that I almost forgot my early misgivings about this book.

POSSIBLE AUDIENCE:  Anyone who has read and enjoyed Fumi Yoshinaga’s work will certainly want to try Ōoku, especially as the end of the first volume suggests that the series will become even more interesting.

B+

Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12