Edo-period Japan stands strong and proud, decades after its imminent doom was prophesied. The new shogun, Yoshimune "Nobu" Tokugawa, encounters an array of traditions that, to her modern judgment, make little sense. An epidemic exclusively rages among men, resulting in men making up only one-fifth of the population. Still, three thousand young, agile, and beautiful men serve in the Oooku—the shogun's Inner Chambers.
To unearth the origins of the existing hierarchy where women head their families and govern the nation, Nobu reviews the chronicles of the odd disease. Customs and traditions have changed to accommodate for the plague; these new laws dictate the current culture and reflect the cruel story of the first female shogun, Iemitsu Tokugawa. Most notably, these customs seem to lead back to the moment a young monk, Arikoto Madenokoji, must abandon his way of life and devote his remaining days to the shogun and her Oooku.
[Written by MAL Rewrite]
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Comentários
KurochuDeviluke
Studio DEEN has always been one of the most criticized animation studios for being too inconsistent. Sometimes they make awful adaptations with pitiful animation quality and other times they just produce brilliant and cared series like this. Imagine that suddenly world turns around and a huge percentage of men simply die due to a pandemic disease. Women now has the power and young men became a valuable treasure due to their capacity to procreate with so many women. Even being prostituted and sold for a lot of money. And everything setted in Edo period. That's what Oooku is about. One of the things that impressedme the most was how the author wasn't afraid of anything. She didn't care of any kind of controversy, she felt just free enough to draw the story she wanted without avoiding any kind of subject. Prostitution, LGTB issues, empowerment of women... Oooku is such a well-written and complete work that cover whatever you can think of.
When it comes to animation quality and sound, I have to congratulate Studio DEEN again for this. Obviously, this isn't a crazy visual spectacle like Ufotable or KyoAni shows, but the dedication that animators put on this series is clear. And the OST suits it pretty well.
To sum up, this is such an interesting and dramatic story that could get anyone easily addicted to it. Especially for those interested in historic series. It has been an amazing surprise. I really hope to see more seasons coming soon.
AveryFB
I Will Write Write This Review Spoiler Free I feel very conflicted on how to rate this, on the one hand, it doesn't leave you feeling good in the end, its like My Lie In April but more depressing. On the other hand, very few anime make me feel such emotion even if that emotion isn't a good one. Oooku: The Inner Chambers is only worth watching for a very specific type of person. If you like a Tragic Romance anime that is very dark than this may appeal to you. If you are person who would like to watch an anime and not feel likecrap than I would avoid this one.
FNAleex
This show was really unique—definitely not your average anime. If you are into Japanese culture and traditions, you'll like this show. If you are looking for your classic Isekai, sorry, this is probably not the right show for you. The story takes place in the Edo period of Japan, where a disease killed the majority of men,so now women have taken on all the roles traditionally granted to men. Characters are well designed,especially their personalities; everybody has their own goal in the show and a motive for why they are acting like that (something very rare in most anime). However, be aware that the show becomes very dark,with people being killed, a lot of abuse of power, rape and sex scenes (mostly non-explicit) and so on.
The animation is really good;with the only exception of combat scenes,those are quite bad,but this show doesn't revolve around fighting or battle, so there's not much to complain about.
I enjoyed the show for two main reasons:
1) Madenokoji, Arikoto: I can see this character really exists in the old Japanese Edo period,like this person has a reason for acting like that,he changes as the show progresses,he has passions and weaknesses even when described as perfect (Arikoto is incredible).
2) I appreciate Japanese culture; I think the Edo period is super fascinating,and this anime did a perfect job, in my opinion, to portray that time,the appreciation for literature and art, and everything that gives this sense of "beauty".
Some years ago I read this book, "In the Forest, Under Cherries in Full Bloom," by Ango Sakaguchi. He described two different types of beauty: one from "nature," which man cannot understand and never reaches, and the second, "artificial," made by men to imitate nature. This show is a prime example of that second one.
Koiwaihomare
Feels like something that would be much more enjoyable if you are familiar with the source material. Watched this because someone online said Miyano’s acting was really good in it. And it was. The acting is great. The animation is good. Only a few scenes had that obvious CGI that takes you out of it. Very much a Josei. That’s the audience it’s made for. Not probably going to like it if you really don’t jive with Josei. It falls into that common alternate history trope where the characters are written more like historical figures than like fictional characters. They grow and change but not ina way that’s really in service of a character arc. Things just happen to them and they have to respond. The world isn’t shaped to facilitate rewarding payoffs and character moments. And the narrative is very focused on the progression of history. This works great if you’re primarily invested in the lore, but not as much if you are really getting invested in the characters.
Not really spoilers, but the premise is that a plague that only effects men has decimated the male population, forcing women to take up male roles including that of the Shogun. The first episode takes place well into this era, and even though you know what kicked it off, it’s not entirely why things are presently the way they are. It’s an interesting stand alone story. The remainder of the series goes more into how things got here and it sufficiently explains it. Sometimes it over explains but that could be due to condensing the source material.
Netflix flagged it for nudity but I think it’s only because of a fisherwoman in traditional fishing attire that shows up once. The sexual violence tag is the one to take seriously. Little is actually shown but it is really clear what will/has taken place, and this could be a big issue for some viewers. They really should’ve flagged it for violence and gore too instead of “smoking”. Lot more katana action than smoking.
It’s been called feminist but it’s not really pushing an agenda here. Things suck so much for men and women in this story and we see both men and women inflict pretty brutal stuff on the other sex. It outright states that the new status of men isn’t really anything like that of women previously, so it’s really not direct commentary. It just asks a lot of questions and leaves it up to the viewer. It can be very sympathetic to the unique struggles of both sexes.
Yoonzino_03
If you're here because you thought the synopsis was intriguing, you made the right choice. This offers a lot more than what you initially expected. STORY (10/10) Oooku: The Inner Chambers is set in the Edo period or the period in medieval Japan marked by the Tokugawa shogunate's reign. The male population is reduced to 1/5th of the female population due to a fatal disease that affects only males. The anime starts with the appointment of the eighth Tokugawa shogun Yoshimune who goes on to uncover the secrets and the origin of the Oooku, or the residence of the 'harem' of young men for the shogun throughthe journal maintained since its creation "The Chronicles of the Dying Day."
ANIMATION/ART AND MUSIC (8/10)
The animation was satisfactory. It remained true to its source material, i.e. manga. The music however wasn't remarkable or memorable. The voice acting was amazing. Great choice with the castings. Every voice actor involved in this project did a wonderful job of bringing the characters to life by aptly conveying their thoughts and emotions.
CHARACTER (10/10)
Oooku has many characters and each of them is complex and interesting in their own ways. Only a few characters are fleshed out thoroughly but I guarantee you that the supporting cast does a wonderful job in driving the circumstances of the plot or bringing about notable developments in the main characters. The author does an incredible job at making the watchers/readers empathize with the characters.
ENJOYMENT (10/10)
Having read and immensely loved the manga, upon receiving the information about its anime adaptation, I was greatly surprised and elated. It wasn't very popular despite it winning several awards in Japan (or at least that's the impression I got because it wasn't known in the manga forums). I enjoyed this anime a lot and the fact that there's so much more this series has to offer makes me even more thrilled.
From a critical standpoint, I give it a 9/10. But, coming from a fan whose expectations were met satisfactorily, it's a masterpiece 10/10. All I hope is that more people watch this show to experience peak fiction.
Enjyu
Recommended for viewers in need of a fresh story, lacking in tropes and recycled content. (Don't be put off by the "josei" tag", I nearly missed it because of that) The last 15 or so years of the anime industry have been very heavy and insistant on the same story, art and characters, the same technique has been so overused that the line between so many series becomes blurred in the eyes of a viewer that has grown up with the classics, is certainly grown tired of the same droppings, different season, and has a solid base for comparison. The factors for that are many, buta major one to mention is the very basic consupmtion = demand = production correlation, so naturaly at some point quantity inevitably overwhelms quality, as in many other products on the market. It's like authors and producers saw a collosal "Unsubscribe from creativity" button and agreed to hit it for good, truly a tragic story for another time and place.
So, anyone who glorifies anime like CSM or Tokyo Revengers, please leave now and take your cry-me-a-river-no-jutsu along, as either: too young/uneducated/biased; or brain cell count is too low to understand why Oooku is actually good! (I'll gratefully take your confused or funny ratings instead).
The story and the characters are not what you would call the buttercream of sophistication but both are multi-dimensional, have various depths, and progress proportionally. Even in a fictional setting, what is done exceptionally well here, and what constitutes the majority of my high appraisal, is the feel of reallity and relatability, where people are both strong and weak at the same time, have morals but also ignore them for the sake of something more important to them, fight to prevail but submit to the more powerful person or situatuon, each has their own motivation, convictions and goal but none is set in stone, and undergoes changes, and while each carries their own trauma and burden, none of those become the driving force behind their actions.
In the end of the day it's just a fictional story and there's so much reality one can expect and demand, but if you've seen enough chosen-ones or 10 year-olds saving the world, regardless how exciting it is, you're bound to yearn for some adults adulting adult stuff, and no, not necessarily erotic (which was by the way nicely included in this gem). If "reason" is your thing, you'll find it here, so there...
What you will not see the character do here is: being over-dramatic/aggressive/stupid/naive/stubborn/the epitome of good or evil. There is no one true "hero" and his respective "antagonist" counterpart, characters are not black versus white, they are sometimes influenced by others, or inspired, think on their own and make decisions, mistakes, learn, grow and change. Males do not fall under one of two classic categories: 1.macho/hero or 2.wimp/incompetent, and neither do the females, respectively: 1.tomboy/over-energetic or 2.damsel in permanent distress/can't think, can't walk or run without tripping and falling.
Complaints are thrown around about the time setting and how it doesn't live up to period dramas, as well as how historically accurate it is or isn't, but was that really the point, and is it really that important? While the When and Where the action takes places does inevitably dictate some narrative, it feels like much less of a centre piece and more of a plot device. The premise is an interesting one, in the same way anime with their own unique worlds have charmed us before, an excellent food for thought and brain excercise in my opinion. Of course it's levels away from being perfect, but serves its role for the development of the story flawlessly. Not to mention what a breath of freshness is the break from school, isekai, harem/ecchi, teenagers overflooded themes/settings.
The ending is really well-rounded, considering the anime doesn't cover even half the manga. You can leave it at that and still have a great, satisfactory, no-bull, completed story with an open to interpretation ending. And considering how little was covered from the manga, plenty of room was left to expand for more seasons, or even your own imagination.
I found a very fulfilling balance in the execution, characters, story and development, setting, and overall was around the 8-9/10 mark, but plot holes, unexplained things and few bits and pieces here and there dropped a point (based purely on objective and constructive critisim, and by no means on enjoyment), which will not stop me from picking up the manga in the future.
Belsel
This anime has surprised me and I liked it a lot, but it has left a bittersweet taste in me because halfway through the series I thought it might deserve a 10, but it is deflating and the last chapter is very rushed, so I had to give it a thumbs up. 8. If anyone is interested, I am a man. What is most surprising at first is the exchange of roles (although the series itself reveals that there has not been a reversal of roles; and it is true, since basically the women deal with what they already dealt with, in addition to working andMen only dedicate themselves to procreate and are in great demand for it). The first chapter lasts almost 1h and 20 minutes and is truly captivating, where a story is presented. But in the following 9 standard-length episodes, they present another related but different story, with different protagonists. It's a shame, because I expected the series to have a more agile development to pick up the present and close both stories, but it didn't. The first story goes completely into oblivion and the second story develops at a good pace, but from chapter 6-7 there is hardly any big development, mostly consists of concubines, pregnancies and simple romances... the story becomes very superficial, although the key themes of the anime continue to be dealt with, which are prostitution, LGTB issues, empowerment of women, gender violence, new masculinities and exploitation of men... and for this reason the series continues to be very interesting even if it loses some strength.
Among other lessons, logically, related to the role of women and that are obvious, I would like to highlight the lessons related to men. The series evidences the exploitation that men suffer, working in the hardest jobs and carrying the responsibility of the family, which consumes their lives because it is socially accepted and established that they are the ones who must deal with these heavy burdens.
Overall, I liked the anime, but I think it had more potential and that it needs a second season, where more weighty events take place. It would be nice if they brought back the story of the first chapter, so we know how it progresses from there (which is supposed to be the current time). Also to say that the setting is great, the whole theme of kimonos, samurais and other characteristic aspects of the time, which makes it a very immersive anime.
i-like-this
The Japanese YMCA. Ōoku: The Inner Chambers is a fascinatingly dark alternative look at an Edo-era Japan where a disease called the Redface Pox has ravished the country, decimating the male population to around a fifth and leaving the women to pick up the pieces by working the male roles such as farming, smithing, running the family business and even taking charge as the Shogun. The narrative revolves around the inner chambers of the Ōoku, where eight hundred of Japan's most beautiful men are sealed off from the outside world and the Redface Pox only to be seen and used by the Shogun as concubines. Whilst thefirst episode is a mighty 75 minutes, it sets the stage and atmosphere of the palace's inner walls and what life has become after years of disastrous events. Episode two then swings into the main narrative back to when the disease began, following a love story between a Buddhist monk forced to abandon his life and indoctrinated into the hellish life of the Ōoku and the first lady Shogun, forced to sit upon the throne as the daughter of the late Shogun and forced to bare children until she births a son.
The script is incredibly well thought out. What’s striking about the story is how believable the characters feel which makes the overall level feel more tragic and depressing. Even side characters, especially the peasants outside of the place, must sink into incredibly dark lows to survive. Selling sons to the red light district, and abandoning sick or elderly family members because they’re seen as dead weight in an unrelenting new world, the story examines and explains in meticulous detail why and how these alternative historical events happen like they were a documentary. Life isn’t much easier in the inner chambers of the palace either as it could be more comparable to a prison. The environment has turned once proud men and samurai into little more than kitty bitches to win favours with the Shogun and her higher-ups, forming cliques for protection and to ostracise seemingly weaker members of the Ōoku. A bit like the Shawshank Redemption… uncomfortable sexual assaults included. Meanwhile, the members of the inner circle are clinging to traditions and bloodlines as they try to hide the fact the Shogun is a woman from the world, completely unaware of how dire the situation actually is.
However, the show is stolen by the two leads. Shogun Iemitsu Tokugawa and former monk Arikoto Madenokoji's relationship is very twisted due to all the madness and tragedy forced upon them. It’s incredibly painful to watch their stories unfold within the walls of the palace because of how much their lives are interfered with, whether it would be the evil grandmother who is actually in control or other members of the Ōoku. Even when there is room for their relationship to breathe and blossom it doesn’t take long for your heart to sink for them again.
The art, animation and presentation are good overall. There isn’t a lot of action that needs heavy, sakuga animation for Studio Deen to worry over, however, there are moments where faces will be off-model, or a background character will move peculiarly or use of some bad CGI animation that will leave you un-immersed to remind you that “Yep, this sure is a Studio Deen anime.” Also because this is a Netflix-produced show there is only one English subtitle option for the English dub and not one for a Japanese sub. Not only is it annoying for someone like me who likes to watch shows like this with the original Japanese voice actors, but the English subtitles have multiple spelling errors and random numbers and “@“ thrown in which is completely absurd. There are multiple spell and grammar checkers available. There's no excuse for this.
Overall, Ōoku: The Inner Chambers is fantastic. It’s not going to be an anime for everyone and I wouldn’t advise bingeing it all in one day (I limited myself to an episode weekly), but if you’re into your Japanese history and “what if” scenarios and enjoy tragic love stories then I highly recommend it. Viewer discretion is advised though. It does get pretty dark and bleak.
8/10 Great.
fishblanket
This show literally felt like a #NoBetaReaderWeDieLikeMen or w/e tag on Ao3 put in anime form. It had an interesting concept but went about it so backwards it was honestly a hot mess.. and yet I binged it in a day so like it was semi entertaining to say the least. The ending was so disappointing it honestly felt like it just ended in the middle of an episode, no resolution or cliff hanger or anything, it just ended full stop which bothered me. If you're looking for a classic romance, look somewhere else. However if you're looking for something more akin to a greektragedy, this might be more your style.
danrsilva
The first episode is an '1 hour 20 minutes long film that will introduce us the main character of the anime: The Ooku. It was for me a nice choice, telling a hole story to show us the manner that place works and make us wonder how thigs get to this point, as it did it to the xogun. At same time most of the people showed in theis first episode (and was a lot), make the viewer more confused than bringing something to the table. In the following episodes the characters hasn't the maniqueist aprouch we used see in most anime, they have depthand meaning to the story telling and meke the audience sympathize, and hate them at the same time. Tho, so much subjetcts are introduced that they lost the capacity to keeping tracking, losing the meaning and make the anime looks like a soap opera.
In short, Oooku has a good story, but it's so complex that they couldn't bring the way it deserve and turns tacky. Could be such a great work, but at the and of the day it's just ok(ish).
d_t_a0811
READING TIME: ~2 minutes INTRODUCTION Ooku is a moving period piece on an alternate-history Edo era Japan. It promises nuanced character relationships, compelling themes, and consistent tone and exceeded my expectations in all these categories. Despite a somewhat awkward transition from its first episode to the remainder of the story and some disturbing scenes of sexual violence, this show is certainly worth your time to watch. NOTE ON THE FIRST EPISODE First, anyone’s experience with the show will be better if they understand that the first episode is 1) over an hour long and 2) is mostly an unrelated framing story to introduce episodes 2 – 10. The remainderof the show does tie to one major plot point of the first episode, but the transition from episode 1 to 2 may ultimately feel disjointed and awkward.
This is likely because Episode 1 devotes a lot of time setting up an interesting lead character and then slams on the breaks to transition to an entirely new story. Episode 2 also re-establishes lore points from Episode 1, which makes the first half of Episode 2 relatively unengaging.
WHY YOU MAY ENJOY OOKU
Regardless, the two main reasons why someone ought to watch this show is for its fascinating character relationships and the compelling themes that arise from them. The male and female leads are complicated and tragic characters whose actions affect everyone within the Ooku in dynamic and unexpected ways.
Sprouting from this relationship are really nuanced themes of fulfilling one’s duty versus their personal desires; how people respond to dire circumstances beyond their control; how political entities respond to national hardships; how powerful people justify actions that are normatively unacceptable; forgiving in lieu of evil actions or jealousy; and the centrality of sexuality and sexual relationships within societies.
WHY YOU MAY NOT ENJOY OOKU
This show will not provide a light, easy-going experience. This season’s My Happy Marriage is a much better contender for that kind of show with a period piece element. Additionally, this show does depict scenes of sexual violence multiple times. Though I think Ooku avoids portraying these scenes in a Goblin Slayer-esque manner, victims of sexual violence and those sensitive to it may be disturbed by them. Less seriously, there are also some predictable, but oddly out of place CGI shots that can be distracting. Finally, the show has a relatively large cast of characters, so some are fleshed out better than others.
CONCLUSION
All in all, I think this OVA ought to be rated higher than it currently is and provides a very moving experience.
gingerholic
Having watched the live-action Japanese drama and movie starring Sakai Masato over a decade ago, I was shocked to see that Ōoku wasn't animated until recently (the manga itself began in 2004 and ended in 2020). Set in the Edo period governed by the Tokugawa shogunate, this anime portrays an alternate universe where a traditional patriarchy becomes dominated by women due to a red-face smallpox pandemic that wipes out 75-80% of young men. Women are rainmakers while men are preciously preserved behind closed doors serving as fertility storks or left to thrive in the Yoshiwara red-light district as male courtesans. I was constantly reminded while watchingthis anime that the live-action drama/movie from over a decade ago is deeply ingrained in my mind as I still vividly recall the plot surrounding an illegitimate child turned female shogun Iemitsu and her ikemen monk turned consort Arikoto residing in a prison known as the Ōoku, that's how impactful the story is.
Although I have never read the manga, the genre is clearly geared towards the Josei audience with bishounen galore in the inner chambers aka a reverse harem but blended in near perfection with elements of Japanese history and culture. I have to admit this anime can be a bit heavy with doses of murder, rape, and neglect etc but the darkness is offset with sprinkles of personal growth, love, and parenthood (or the lack there of). All in all, Ōoku is an excellent addition to your typical weeknight anime-watching marathon that everyone craves once in a while (or at least some of us do).
Truck-kunArrives
No spoilers review- If you’re looking for something even remotely cute, heartwarming, or happy romance, this is not for you. This is a fair warning as to what kind of story it is so you don’t have different expectations going in. It’s definitely not wholesome or uplifting. This is on the morose and depressing side. Personally, I wouldn’t even categorize it as a romance even though it technically is. I wouldn’t say it’s a court drama about consorts either (examples of what it is not like in terms of court drama: Apothecary Diaries, No Doubt in Us, Psychic Princess). It has several dark themes. Content warnings forsexual violence (throughout the show), violence (many overt murders), and suicide. Sexual violence is done by both genders and often in same gender situations.
It left me feeling empty. I wasn’t expecting a sugary show, but definitely not this either. Immediately after I had to watch a cute romance with a happy ending to cleanse my palate (Tonikawa).
whiteflame55
This isn't a series I was expecting to pick up this season. It popped up on my Netflix and, while it looked like a decent historical drama, it flew under my radar until I heard about it in a couple of reviews. The premise of the show is a bit of alternate history where most of the men in Edo era Japan are wiped out by a strange disease called Redface Pox that only affects them leaving women untouched. This results in a big shift in the dynamics of sex in Japan at this time, making women the dominant sex in society for quite awhile. The series starts out with a triple length episode covering events that happened many years after the pox took its toll, and then spends the rest of its run examining the transition period as the pox was ravaging society, emphasizing events taking place in the Ōoku, the inner chambers of the shogun of Japan at this time, which shift from being populated chiefly by female concubines serving a male shogun to the opposite.
There's a lot to appreciate here, though if I had to pick one thing that was executed excellently, I'd say it's the central romance of the series. The reslationship between Iemitsu and Arikoto is the central driving dynamic of the series and it's done shockingly well. It's not easy to pull that off since Arikoto was effectively forced into this role, and honestly, if he were female... yeah, it wouldn't work. It's one of those situations where it's hard to see the flip on this being something worth watching without being incredibly problematic. Still, the way their relationship changes over the course of the series is really impressive.
The historical elements are more of a mixed bag. We flip between seeing what's going on outside of the Ōoku and inside, and the latter is far better established, doing a lot of work in showing the political dynamics and the eventual shift to embracing matriarchal societies.
As for events outside, we get some brief insights, but the larger dynamics are largely just exposited. I think this might have worked better if they had jumped to more than one family's experience outside the Ōoku, since I think that would have been more organic. Beyond all that, there are some pretty ick moments in the series, including... well, what do you think happens when a whole bunch of young, verile men are effectively imprisoned in an opulent setting with virtually no access to women? It's realistic, I'll give it that. I also don't really think the first romance between Yunoshin and Yoshimune works all that well, mainly because they skip past a lot of the character development that Arikoto showcased over the series run. He ends up in a similar place, but it's harder to buy. Kasuga is an interesting character on multiple levels, but I think getting to spend a little more time getting into her headspace would have helped, given that we only got part of one episode looking at her background.
Overall, it's a slow burn of a series that nonetheless dragged me in. Netflix has a hit-and-miss history with anime, but this is definitely a hit.
BYZANTIUMN
Fans of Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju will get a taste of something they may enjoy again, but may be left wanting for more. Many of the best of Deen's longtime VA talent join together and give perhaps their most emotional and heartfelt performances in a decade. But the story almost seems hostile to the viewer in that it wants you to get invested over and over again only to never give any payoff, aside from a few moments. That describes much of every episode, but also the series at large. I wanted to LOVE it, but I come away just liking it. Not bad, notamazing.
The voice acting is what makes this worth watching at all to be frank.
While the direction was overall phenomenal, the sound design aside from the spoken words was extremely lacking, and the story was just plain awful.
So much they could have done with a premise that interesting and they just had to commit to forcing it to play out as lame as possible, all the while trying to give these sly winks and nods to the audience that come off as extremely cringe and kind of moment breaking.
Overall, If you were a fan of the works that put Deen on the map for many people, you will find something to enjoy in this series. But unfortunately it fails to live up to, or surpass, the works and performing history that lead to it.
Ri-chan
The fatal flaw of this anime is that it adheres too closely to the manga. The high rating this show receives is due to the high quality of the source material: Ooku is one of the better manga of the 21st century, a unique and fascinating bit of historical fiction. The anime works very hard to honor the excellence of the manga by not deviating from it, but the limitations of anime as a medium make it come short. Aside from color, very little is added by bringing this manga to the screen in this manner. By copying frame-by-frame, scene-by-scene, the anime loses the powerto explore movement and pacing choices. The slower pacing of a manga makes sense for a monthly serialization over two decades. For a 10 episode series, more can be summed up in those frequent VOs to allow for other parts of this excellent manga to make it to screen.
This anime is very good because it stuck close to the source material. But it could have been spectacular if it deviated in a few key ways. All we can hope is that they get 8 more seasons: just enough to cover the manga all the way through to its resolution.
Sprynthl
As a story, this has a fascinating concept. It was impressive how the most common omitted subjects/themes discussed in historical anime are daringly used in the series. And, it is quite dark and political. Those who are interested enough to watch this should tread carefully. It's an alternate history of Japan which instead of leading a patriarchal society becomes quite matriarchal, reversing circumstances from what happened. For the pandemic, it should be logical to have doctors, researchers, and medical personnel working on it to prevent more infections and isolate the infected. They should at least have an idea of how such a disease spread so fastand wide over 80 years, yet we don't even see a doctor or an apothecary to help care for the sick in the castle. How are samurai to know how to treat the sick when all they know is swinging a sword? Medicine should be administered by medical practitioners but what we see is a samurai and the head of state convincing the sick to take it instead. They neglected people dying as if there was nothing else to be done than watch and despair. Even the Black Death during its time only lasted half a decade in Europe where it never discriminated against age and gender killing up to around 200 million people compared to this. The timeline of this series even happened a few centuries after the Black Death. News of such widespread disease should have reached eastern nations and influenced their medicinal technology and knowledge which could be used as a reference to this pandemic. What kind of shogun do you let your people die while you sit and wait for your country's demise?
I was hoping they'd come up with some sort of treatment or miraculously a cure for the disease but they certainly did nothing all those years.
Worldbuilding is necessary in every story and it is difficult to create a perfect one. Every worldbuilding, even if it is based on Earth and our universe, should at least be feasible and realistic enough to effectively create a suspension of disbelief from the audience's perspective. Illogical concepts present in a story could serve only as plot holes reflecting poor writing.
Nevertheless, it is interesting which is why I gave such a rating.
Plozinho
Translated with Google Translate: Portuguese We often see romance anime that are extremely poor when it comes to the story, or the characters are completely poorly written or simply have the personality of a 5 year old. In oooku we are blessed with a good script and what appears to be a very extensive universe creation. The art often leaves something to be desired, but compared to the offensiveness of anime today... it's not that bothersome. If the only romance-related thing you want to see is a cute little girl getting shy every time she sees her senpai, find a girlfriend.
jijimusai
If you're into alternative history dramas, this is a great one. It intersperses little pieces of historical context for the era, but diverges from history in an interesting way. If you're interested in gender studies, then give it a watch, because it's realistic in its depiction of gender disparities, for both men and women. The pace is fairly good, and it holds interest. There's a diverse cast of characters with a web of drama between them, in different geographical locations. The way it weaves a present and past story, slowly revealing the mystery of how culture ended up in the present tent by depictingthe past tense. It's narratively sound.
