Suicides, Rape, Incest, Cooking, Love triangle, More Rape, More Incest, Sex, Nudity, Violence, Socially acceptable incest, Socially unacceptable incest and Murder but enough about me. Let's talk about the manga.
The series set early in 1605 when the red pox disease that takes the lives of many men reducing the male population to 1/5th. Women outnumbering men from 5 to 1. In a patriarchal society this results in a massive shift of workforce and social behavior somewhat. The political figures become women. The breadwinners become women, the workforce in itself becomes a massive shift. This story specifically however is about the shogun. Political leaders and merchants that were originally led by men have now been replaced by women. The shogun which now have become woman. As a king or a leader of course you have an absurd of women to impregnate but with the roles reversed, the shogun now has an abundant of men to be used as stallions. These men live in the Chambers Known as Ooku. This what the manga pretty revolves around more or less.
A good aspect of the series is that you only need to read volume 1 or not to realize whether or not this manga is worth reading. Though the manga does get better it really is more of what you see in volume 1 with more characters and bigger twists and higher stakes. Its fantastic and exceptional. Genuinely I have not enjoyed a manga as much as I have in quite a long time.
The series revolves around the shogun and there love interests essentially. The main shogun (FMC depending on which year) and either the consort or Main concubine (The MMC). Now the reason I mention depending on the year is because the series does not actually have a main character. It spans an era of 300 years in 19 volumes. We go through so many characters it can become a mess but its so continuously engaging as well.
The 3 big issues I have is that, There is no Main character, No 1 person journey to follow, The dialogue is incredibly dense. If you have read western comic books you know what I'm talking. Each volume that takes me 20 minutes to read would take me 1 hour or more to read. Not to mention each volume is 220+ pages. It can get literally exhausting read that much. I recommend a bottle of water next to you and of course the reason you might have heard before. The archaic use of the Language. Old english does not bode well. But personally this is not a big deal. You can understand the words via the context given. I do believe there is very little usage of the Old English as well especially in the later volumes. Perhaps this is a show of the fact that the world in the manga has changed. So pretty clever but irrelevant as well.
There is a lot to unpack about this series. The male characters suffer from the red pox disease so we have less men and more women that need to step up. I'm a bit disappointed in the role reversal though tbh. Maybe it was the author's point that power and money is what changes the world not the gender but regardless there is a little change. Since men did most of the heavy lifting type work they have set a precedent on how much work needs to be done. To make up this gap there has been slight technological advances to gain the same rewards as men but that was it.
The characters are by far the most enjoyable aspect. Each character has a finesse or is followed by character development that makes them have finesse. It is such a joy reading each story about every character. Like I mentioned before there is no main character but there is tons of individual arcs to follow. Some of the stories you read are insane filled with incest, rape and just a whole bunch of addictive nonsense. It is an excellent that takes its time (perhaps too much sometimes) to develop and showcase each character's individual personalities and characteristics and this is exactly despite not having a main character, each character went through that I wanted to see fully.
There is a character that is no nonsense business. Dealing with political rifts while giving birth to a baby. A women in love with her mother's lover, A women molested by her father and it just goes on. Either with events that occur to them, or be the events that occur due to them shift them into the character they become and we see that change and its glorious.
When we get a stereotypically unattractive character that is meant to be the focus the series focuses on other things such as cooking with a more sexually enticing cast instead. The political battles are just as entertaining but it is more hard to keep track due to the confusing names and similar character designs that some characters end up being plagued by.
I also love the costume designs in this series. the costume designs are chefs Kiss. Fantastico in every way. So many call backs when you least expect it. The series hooks you in far deeper than i anticipated.
Also Threesomes. Not tell me this series isn't a masterpiece.
I love this series I really do. This is why I read manga. Yeah it has its problems but these are nitpicks in regards to overall quality. I truly believe this is one of the better manga I have read to this day. Do yourself a favour and read this manga.
