Ooku: The Inner Chamber by Yumi Yoshinaga

This is Yoshinaga's Antique Bakery all over again. I mean, my reaction to it, that is. Antique Bakery was unlike any manga I'd ever read. I was haunted by it and compelled. I ran out to get the next three volumes in a snowstorm because I HAD to have them. Same goes here, except, they are not out and this leads to whine!flail.

In an alternate Japan, where a deadly disease has ravished the male population, women are forced to take on the traditional roles of men, including that of the Shogun. Men become almost like a natural resource and there is swapping of gender identities and places.

The Ooku is the inner chamber of the Shogun's palace...and that's where I'm lost, Japanese history being waaaaaaaaaay out of my field of knowledge. It's like a harem, but that's too simplistic and I have no idea what the historical Ooku was like, if there was one. I suppose I should probably wiki it, but then it will lead to me reading everything I can about Edo era Japan and not get any of the other reading I need to done.

But, I digrees, back to Ooku. I really, really liked it. The art was gorgeous, of course. And the story compelling. I particularly liked the end of the first volume. The current Shogun is piecing together the parts of what appears to be a conspiracy on the part of the Shogunate eighty years ago (ALTHOUGH, I'm not sure about the timeline in this manga...). And I'm like, ha! I knew some stuff was about the way the gender roles were handled was all skeevy and yes, apparently it is on purpose.

So color me intrigued and impressed. I just bought the second volume and am trying really, really hard not to fly through it.