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Reviewed by Ysabet Reinhardt MacFarlane I've read bits and pieces of Fumi Yoshinaga's work over the past few years and generally enjoyed it, but somehow I was entirely unfamiliar with Ōoku: The Inner Chambers until VIZ announced that they'd acquired it and a remarkable number of people I know just about fell over on the spot from joy. Reactions like that tend to quickly put new titles on my list of things to check out, so getting a chance to review the first volume of this highly-acclaimed series is a real treat. As the back cover proudly proclaims, Ōoku was nominated for an Eisner in 2008 and won the Osamu Tezuka Cultural Prize this year. The copy also sets the stage for the story: during the Edo period, a new disease ravages Japan and kills 75% of the male population. 80 years after the initial outbreak, societal gender roles have been turned on their heads, with men being carefully protected and sought after to father children while women perform most of the previously male-dominated roles...including holding the rank of shogun. And by extension, the Inner Chambers, which house the shogun's beautiful, cultured concubines, are now populated by men. What the cover copy doesn't talk about is the characters, which strikes me as an interesting choice. Much of volume 1 of Ōoku is devoted to setting up this alternate world where women rule Japan--and what's more, where they've done so for long enough that it apparently seems entirely normal to everyone. Yoshinaga shows us glimpses of the society through several characters' eyes, sometimes hinting at and sometimes spelling out the different restrictions placed on people's lives: we see life going on in the Inner Chambers and in the outside world; we see the politics and intrigue as a new shogun comes to power and the men who live to serve her try to adjust to her rule while vying for her favor; and we see the limited choices faced by women and families of both high and low birth as they try to ensure that their bloodlines survive in a world where only a quarter of women can find husbands. Yoshinaga's decision to change the point-of-view characters as the story unfolds is handled very smoothly; the shifts can be sudden but never seem jarring or forced. Most of the characters interest me, but I feel as if I'm holding back on really connecting with any of them until I get a bit more of a sense of which story threads will be carried into subsequent volumes. (There's a specific reason for that, which I can't discuss here without going into more spoilery territory than I'm comfortable with.) Once events take us into the Inner Chambers themselves, the politicking is the most constant thing about the story, and information about it is doled out in measured doses both to readers and to the characters who are beginning new lives in Edo Castle. There are also intriguing hints dropped regarding what the outside world knows/thinks about Japanese society and how that conflicts with the reality. I'm excited to see where it all goes, and if I have a chance to review volume 2, I'll speak more about the characters. Like all of the books I've seen from VIZ's Signature Line, Ōoku is beautifully produced. (I have only one complaint about the line overall, which is that the larger-than-usual size makes the books a bit harder to shelve with the rest of my collection. But you know, I'll get by somehow.) Vol. 1 has three color pages at the beginning of the book, and feels almost (but not quite) as if it has a dust jacket. The adaptation makes good use of an older style of English, which allows for class distinctions in different characters' dialogue and gives the impression of reading an older work. Volume 1 of Ōoku: The Inner Chambers is sold shrink-wrapped and includes four pages of translator's notes. Review copy provided by VIZ Media. Think you could have written a better review of Ōoku: The Inner Chambers v1? Write us and we'll probably let you give it a shot! --EiC PC |
12 March 2010 10 March 2010
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