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A review by brizreading
Ōoku: The Inner Chambers, Volume 1 by Fumi Yoshinaga
5.0
Fun, clever, refreshing. I had no idea what this was going to be about, and I was DELIGHTED when it was a strange, feminist, sci-fi alt history of 18th century Japan.
Similar to Y: The Last Man and that one short story by Ursula Le Guin about a planet with a super lopsided sex ratio leading to a weird medieval matriarchy - ARGH, WHAT IS THAT STORY CALLED, I'VE LOST IT - anyway: it's about a super lopsided sex ratio leading to a weird medieval matriarchy.
In Ooku, it happens due to a weird "pox" that kills many, many dudes in the early 18th century, and so we have a female shogun visiting her harem of pretty boys, and we follow one very pretty young man as he tries to make it and provide for his family. Just like in the (brilliant and argh what's it called!!) Ursula Le Guin story, having very, very few men turns the remaining men into studs who need to be farmed out to, ahem, spread their seed. Men are seen as fragile things, super important for procreation. Marriage is central to a man's life. Women take on all manual labor (lest men hurt themselves!), and the entire samurai and aristocratic structure is led by women. Interestingly, all women in leadership positions take male names - leading to, ahem, not a blip on the record keeping. And this matriarchy - it is just as oppressive!
In Vol. 1, we follow Mizuno, a handsome young buck who decides to join the shogun's "inner chambers" (male harem) to try to provide for his family. He is devastated to leave his girlfriend, O-Nobu, but understands that, for his poor-ish family, this is the best way. Once he's in the harem, he's confronted with the usual haremy stereotypes of eunuchs, gossip, cat fighting, and homosexuality - except it's all dudes, this time! Everyone is scrambling to get to the top and be seen by the new shogun, a tough, lusty, no-frills military lady named Yoshimune.
What I really loved about this was how deft the pacing and plot was. If you had no idea what it was about, as I did, the story orients you quickly and delightfully - from a child going into the forest and accidentally bringing the "red pox" back, to the visit by a Dutch traveller - these are wonderful little set-pieces which reveal this world without telling us. They show us! So that was masterful. I also really enjoyed how "real" the inner chambers felt; when I googled the author and saw that she's also know for manga slash fic (arghh what's that genre called; anyway I call it "slash fic" cuz I was once a fanfic person, and that just means m/m homoerotica written by women), I was like, "oh is this going to get silly". (If you've read a lot of slash fic, you know that it can get oh so very silly - pregnant Harry Potter!) But the slashiness never felt indulgent; instead, it felt restrained (considering we're in a man harem!!!) and sweet and real. For example, Mizuno's servant - a young tailor - has a GIANT, adorable crush on him, and the way this is handled feels like the way, well, it COULD be handled.
Anyway, fun, different, LUSTY (ho ho), I'm definitely going to be reading Vol. 2.
Similar to Y: The Last Man and that one short story by Ursula Le Guin about a planet with a super lopsided sex ratio leading to a weird medieval matriarchy - ARGH, WHAT IS THAT STORY CALLED, I'VE LOST IT - anyway: it's about a super lopsided sex ratio leading to a weird medieval matriarchy.
In Ooku, it happens due to a weird "pox" that kills many, many dudes in the early 18th century, and so we have a female shogun visiting her harem of pretty boys, and we follow one very pretty young man as he tries to make it and provide for his family. Just like in the (brilliant and argh what's it called!!) Ursula Le Guin story, having very, very few men turns the remaining men into studs who need to be farmed out to, ahem, spread their seed. Men are seen as fragile things, super important for procreation. Marriage is central to a man's life. Women take on all manual labor (lest men hurt themselves!), and the entire samurai and aristocratic structure is led by women. Interestingly, all women in leadership positions take male names - leading to, ahem, not a blip on the record keeping. And this matriarchy - it is just as oppressive!
In Vol. 1, we follow Mizuno, a handsome young buck who decides to join the shogun's "inner chambers" (male harem) to try to provide for his family. He is devastated to leave his girlfriend, O-Nobu, but understands that, for his poor-ish family, this is the best way. Once he's in the harem, he's confronted with the usual haremy stereotypes of eunuchs, gossip, cat fighting, and homosexuality - except it's all dudes, this time! Everyone is scrambling to get to the top and be seen by the new shogun, a tough, lusty, no-frills military lady named Yoshimune.
What I really loved about this was how deft the pacing and plot was. If you had no idea what it was about, as I did, the story orients you quickly and delightfully - from a child going into the forest and accidentally bringing the "red pox" back, to the visit by a Dutch traveller - these are wonderful little set-pieces which reveal this world without telling us. They show us! So that was masterful. I also really enjoyed how "real" the inner chambers felt; when I googled the author and saw that she's also know for manga slash fic (arghh what's that genre called; anyway I call it "slash fic" cuz I was once a fanfic person, and that just means m/m homoerotica written by women), I was like, "oh is this going to get silly". (If you've read a lot of slash fic, you know that it can get oh so very silly - pregnant Harry Potter!) But the slashiness never felt indulgent; instead, it felt restrained (considering we're in a man harem!!!) and sweet and real. For example, Mizuno's servant - a young tailor - has a GIANT, adorable crush on him, and the way this is handled feels like the way, well, it COULD be handled.
Anyway, fun, different, LUSTY (ho ho), I'm definitely going to be reading Vol. 2.