We’re continuing with recommendation mode, this time with Samu’s pick of an all-time favorite: Ooku: The Inner Chambers by Fumi Yoshinaga. This is tale as epic an detailed as they come, spanning over 200 years of the gender-flipped Tokugawa Shogunate as we follow the lives and trials of various rulers in an alternate-history Japan where a pandemic has wiped out majority of the male population, thrusting these women into the unlikely position of power with all the drama and court politicking that comes with it.

Timestamps:

0:00 Introduction - 19 volumes as dense as 19 novels

1:27 Fumi Yoshinaga’s other well-regarded works: What Did You Eat Yesterday and Antique Bakery

2:47 Ooku - an epic, award-winning retelling of the Tokugawa Shogunate with a gender-flipped twist

7:04 Enzo’s first impressions after years of Samu talking about and the anime adaptation

10:15 Anime vs the manga

10:54 A feminist story unafraid to show morally grey women in position of power

12:12 A rare approach of being a story-driven chronicle of history rather than character-driven narrative

17:40 Ooku: The Inner Chambers breaks ‘The Chrysanthemum Taboo’

20:47 Spoiler discussion begins

21:04 Did fiction and real history ever blur together at some point?

25:06 Eighth Shogun: Yoshimune - the most important ruler in the series, her daughters, and Hisamichi

30:06 Third Shogun: Iemitsu - a tragic story with Arikoto, and Lady Kasuga as the True Conservative

33:06 Fifth Shogun: Tsunayoshi - the unpopular, extravagant child of Gyokuei

35:58 Harusada, ASOIAF comparisons, other standout morally good characters

40:00 The Fourteenth Shogun: Iemochi - the kind inheritor of a failing dynasty, her relationship with Kazu

42:37 General overview of the course of the series; starting and ending with its best material

44:58 The series’ clever conceit is there to make observations about Japanese character and history

47:00 The ending - the ‘reveal’ that this could have been how history played out all along

50:47 What meaning are we supposed to take from men returning to power over women?

54:20 Samu’s Recommendation: JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure by Hirohiko Araki

55:42 Enzo’s Recommendation: Hyouge Mono by Yamada Yoshihiro

59:00 Overview and final scores