To let me know that this series was going to be worth my time, within the first few pages, a small child is attacked by a bear, which somehow (his mother thinks this is because he was cursed by the Gods) spreads a plague that kills most of the young men in Japan. On one hand, that’s totally sweet. On the other hand, it’s extremely unlike Yoshinaga to use such a strange plot device. But the premise of the series is just that, that most of the young men in Japan were wiped out and that those who remain are valuable commodities that are kept like princes, with women taking over manual labor and all other tasks traditionally performed by men. It’s a great idea, and especially interesting that the setting is feudal Japan. This first volume only dips its toes in the possibilities of a gender role reversal like that, so I’m very much looking forward to where that idea goes in the future.

I first heard of Ōoku about a year ago from a friend. The premise, she said, was that due to a disease that targets only men, the power hierarchy in Japan was genderflipped. Women filled roles that had, up until the disease struck the male population, been traditionally done only by men — including that of the Tokugawa shoguns. It sounded completely like something I would like but since I’m unable to read Japanese, it was one of those things I resigned myself to never having access to. Thankfully, other people thought it sounded interesting too and it’s now available in English.

Fumi Yoshinaga has quite the fan following based on her short series Antique Bakery and Flower of Life, as well as her yaoi works. With its strong, science fiction-like concept and old-fashioned flavor, Ooku: The Inner Chambers has the potential to make fans of even more manga readers.

Volume 2 opens several decades before, when the Redface Pox was beginning to spread through Japan and before Yoshimune assumed the title of shogun. In this early pages, we witness the death of Iemitsu, the third Tokugawa shogun, at the hands of the plague. For a bit of historical context, such an event would have catastrophic had it happened in reality. As being only the third shogun, it was his task to continue solidifying Tokugawa rule. His death in such a precarious time would have been disastrous.