Ôoku: The Inner Chambers

This is an interesting take on alternative history. I liked it all in all but if you're used to watching explosive (mostly shonen) anime series such as myself (the likes of AoT, Demon Slayer, Death Note etc.) please take into consideration that this series is as similar to those as The Dead Poet's Society is to Mission Impossible. It's just a completely different genre of anime with a much greater emphasis on very subtle character driven plotlines and grounded philosophical themes than your run of the mill shonen anime. This series does not rely on the power of friendship/love tropes you find in Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh! This does not have the bombastic action scenes of Attack on Titan, the witty humour of Demon Slayer or the thrilling, clever plot line of Death Note. This series does however have its own mysterious charm. It asks questions such as "What would happen if women had to replace men in most matters of business and politics?" and "Is a person either good or evil or can they be a little bit of both?". It explores humanity, human emotions and the reasons for why we do the things we do and why we are the way we are. Most of the characters have both redeemable and reprehensible character traits; there is no good side and bad side, it's all a question of survival and making the best of the hand you're dealt.

The animation was mostly good, although there were a few scenes scattered in between where you could clearly see they switched from traditional hand animation to CGI, but nothing too jarring. I watched it with the English dub and I think they did a pretty good job, although the dialog was a little bit coerced in some scenes and a lot of very poorly disguised exposition forced into it (which, to be honest, I don't know is the fault of the English translators or if the script was just written that way originally). For example, in one of the scenes a boy talking to his mother says something along the lines of "You'll leave my little brother Niko behind." No child speaks to their mother about their sibling like that; they both know Niko is his younger brother, there's no need to elaborate on that, it just sounds very exposition-y, if you ask me. Anyways, I digress.

I would recommend people give this series a chance, at least the first couple of episodes, bearing in mind that this is neither and action- nor an adventure series but a somber, even melancholy exploration of human nature. If you enjoyed Violet Evergarden I think you might definitely like this one.

A mysterious disease kills most of young males in feudal Japan. Women are forced to assume male work and the political rule of the empire. The male which are still alive sell their bodies for sexual intercourse or are used by their parents (usually the mother at the anime) for making money as a reproductive being. This last phenomena is explained by the desire of women of all social classes to get pregnant, because marriage and stable relationships are not possible anymore. As the society "protects" men from the disease, males become lazy, useless, weak and dependent.

Although the anime seems to have a feminist plot at the first glance, it can be read from another viewpoint. There is a balance between masculine and feminine "energy" in any society. When something disturb this balance, consequences are inevitable. At the anime, as men are lacking as workforce, women are fully capable of taking the job, but at a higher mental and physical cost. Be an independent and strong women do not resolve the loneliness of a life whithout a partner or family. Power, not gender rules the world, and the women in command (lady Kasuga) will force another women (lady Iemitsu) to suffer and be sexually ubused in order to keep political domination.

Comparing to the anime, in our real world, a "mysterious" disease is trying to kill the masculine spirit. As occurs in the anime, men are becoming lazy, weak, dependent and afraid. Our society is starting to feel the consequences of this.

In resume, the anime can be viewed as a reflexive story of the necessity of the harmonic balance between feminine and masculine. Man and woman need to work together for the development of humanity.

I like the reverse gender control. It was a very interesting take on the idea and executed very well. The visuals were great! The plot was a bit boring and sporadic at times which made it hard to watch.

The idea of gender reversal, at this time (present history) was definitely a risky time to do this but they carried the idea well enough. It really did make men seem useless and women more naively arrogant. The flow of the story helped to lessen these things but they were still glaringly obvious. Which lowered the value in my opinion.

The visuals were beautiful! Everything looked so crisp and clean yet the colors were so vibrant it made it inviting. That was something I haven't seen in anything entertainment wise in a long time! It reminded me how it you can make the surroundings (background) more inviting not just appealing, it can really grab your audience's attention.

The plot was boring and didn't really go anywhere so it was a boring watch and a very uneventful ending.

I really wanted to like this Japanese anime is a lot more. I really did. While the premise of "Ooku" is very interesting - though not quite unique - it did not manage to turn it into a compelling story.

The Good: The animation is satisfactory. The character design is also good. Use of music is not bad. The premise, as mentioned, is the strongest element, and had a lot of promise.

The Bad: However, the plot based on that premise simply did not deliver. The "action" of the entire series is simply palace intrigues, which, ultimately was boring and made it difficult to keep watching.

Without going heavily into spoilers, all that I can say is that if you are expecting to see a "what if" kind of story that shows interesting consequences to an entire civilization, you would be disappointed.

In the end, this was a mediocre story but I gave it an extra one or two stars for the premise and only somewhat interesting, albeit limited, story line.

I'm a sucker for well-made alternate histories. This one makes the grade.

It's the Edo period in Japan. A mysterious plague decimates the male population. Women take over running the country. The plague's impact extends to the Shogun's household where there now is a male harem-the Ooku of the title-in attendance to the female Shogun. Palace intrigue ensues.

Based on just this outline you might think this was going to be just another harem-heavy comedy with fan service, adolescent jokes, and stale rom-com situations.

You would be mistaken. This series is actually an extended and sophisticated exploration of a range of serious themes such as gender identity, role reversal, sexual politics, and economic discrimination. If you like serious themes uniquely addressed, you should check this one out.