Posted in Culture, Gender, Manga, Ôoku, tagged Gender, Oooku, genderswap, Yoshinaga Fumi, Ōoku, Ooku: The Inner Chambers, Kasuga, Arikoto, Iemitsu, Sakai Masato, Tabe Mikako, Gyokuei, Ôoku: Tanjô, alternate history, Tanaka Koki, Aso Yumi, Masakatsu, Matsudaira, gender expression, samurai, J-drama, shipping, female sexuality on 2013/05/04 | 1 Comment »
First of all, a bit of (old?) news from the entertainment world: Kanno Miho, who played Shogun Tokugawa Tsunayoshi in the film Ôoku: Eien, and Sakai Masato, who played Arikoto in the drama and Emonosuke in the film, registered their marriage on 2 April. おめでとうございます！May your work in excellent gender-based dramas lead to you happiness. (Sources: Oricon, Tokyo Hive)
Source: Oricon
Posted in Ôoku, Gender, tagged alternate history, Arikoto, Aso Yumi, Ôoku: Tanjô, Gender, gender expression, genderswap, Gyokuei, Iemitsu, J-drama, Kasuga, Masakatsu, Matsudaira, Ooku: The Inner Chambers, Oooku, Sakai Masato, samurai, Tabe Mikako, Tanaka Koki, Yoshinaga Fumi, Ōoku on 2013/03/07 | 2 Comments »
Have no fear–I didn’t forget about this project!
Aired Nov. 14, 2012, on TBS.
This recap contains spoilers for the drama and the manga. Episode 5 recap here; manga analysis here; Ôoku category (film, manga, and drama) here.
Image via TBS. http://www.tbs.co.jp/ohoku2012/gallery/p06-04.html
Posted in Ôoku, Gender, Manga, tagged alternate history, Arikoto, Ôoku: Tanjô, Chie, 男女逆転大奥, drama, Gyokuei, Iemitsu, japan, manga, Ohoku, Ooku: The Inner Chambers, Sakai Masato, Tabe Misako, Tanaka Koki, Yoshinaga Fumi, Ōoku, 大奥 誕生 on 2013/01/17 | 4 Comments »
Aired Nov. 9, 2012 on TBS.
This recap contains spoilers for the drama and the manga, including the Tsunayoshi story arc (vol. 4-6 and the film Ôoku: Eien). Episode 4 recap here; manga analysis here; Ôoku category (film, manga, and drama) here.
Before I start the recap today, I did see the Ôoku: Eien movie, and damn, is it good. Sakai is much, much better suited to playing Emonnosuke, and Kanno Miho was such a great Tsunayoshi. I need to collect my thoughts (and maybe see it again), but the sets are gorgeous, the music is great, and it’s a great “sequel” to the first film.
Image via TBS. http://www.tbs.co.jp/ohoku2012/gallery/p05-14.html
Posted in Ôoku, Gender, Manga, Visual Culture, tagged Arikoto, よしながふみ, 男女逆転大奥, drama, Gender, genderswap, graphic novel, Iemitsu, manga, Ooku: The Inner Chambers, Sakai Masato, Tabe Mikako, Tanaka Koki, Yoshinaga Fumi, Ōoku, 大奥 on 2012/12/06 | 5 Comments »
Ooku, Vol. 2, p. 205
Ooku, Ep. 3. Ain’t no party like an ooku drag party… Image via TBS
Hello to my new readers from d-addicts, where my blog was linked on the Ôoku drama thread. I know I’m rather behind on the write-ups, but I do hope you enjoy them as I get them out.
Episode 2 recap here. For other past posts about the films, manga, and drama, see the Ôoku category.
Warning: spoilers, rape, violence.
I’m a great fan of stories (regardless of medium) that make me experience a range of complex and subtle emotions. Or, as one might say, something that hits me right in the feels. The events of Vol. 2, Ch. 4 in the manga–Ep. 3 in the drama (aired 26 Oct. 2012)– are the precursor to a truly epic emotional roller coaster.
Posted in Ôoku, Culture, Gender, Media, tagged 男女逆転大奥, episode 2, Fuji Television, Ohoku, Ooku: The Inner Chambers, Sakai Masato, Tabe Mikako, Tanaka Koki, Ōoku on 2012/11/14 | 2 Comments »
A run-down and thoughts on the drama Ôoku: Tanjô, episode 2 (aired 19 Oct. 2012 at 22:00 on TBS). Spoilers and trigger warning for rape and abuse.
Episode 1 recap here. Manga review here.
Posted in Ôoku, Gender, Manga, Media, tagged Arikoto, Ôoku: Tanjô, 男女逆転大奥, drama, Iemitsu, Sakai Masato, Tabe Mikako, Tanaka Koki, TV, Yoshinaga Fumi, Ōoku on 2012/10/17 | 1 Comment »
A run-down and thoughts on the drama Ôoku: Tanjô, episode 1 (aired 12 Oct. 2012 at 22:00 on TBS). Spoilers!
Arikoto (Ôoku Vol. 2, p. 81)
Posted in Ôoku, Gender, Manga, tagged Arikoto, よしながふみ, Ôoku Eien, Ôoku: Tanjô, 男女逆転大奥, drama, Emonosuke, 誕生, film, Iemitsu, manga, Ohoku, Tokugawa, trailer, TV, Yoshinaga Fumi, Ōoku, 大奥, 永遠 on 2012/10/03 | Leave a Comment »
The official trailers for Ôoku: Tanjô and Ôoku: Eien have both been released.
Ôoku: Tanjô (Iemitsu/Arikoto)
Image from TBS. http://www.tbs.co.jp/ohoku2012/
Posted in Gender, Manga, Advertisements, Ôoku, Visual Culture, tagged alternate history, Arikoto, よしながふみ, Ôoku Eien, Ôoku: Tanjô, Birth, 男女逆転大奥, Emonosuke, Eternity, film, Gyokuei, Iemitsu, Kaneko Fuminori, KAT-TUN, manga, Ohoku, Ooku: The Inner Chambers, Oooku, Sakai Masato, speculative fiction, Tanabe Makako, TBS, Tsunayoshi, Yoshinaga Fumi, Ōoku on 2012/08/18 | 4 Comments »
Finally! I’ve been waiting and waiting for some teaser photos from the new Ôoku TV series (Ôoku Tanjô, Oct. 2012) and film (Ôoku Eien, Dec. 2012), and here they are!
TBS Drama. Ôoku: Tanjô (Arikoto/Iemitsu) (『大奥：誕生』[［有功・家光篇]). Release date: Oct. 2012.
“The Shogun is a woman; her retainers are 3000 beautiful men….” Photo from TBS: http://ohoku.jp/eien/index.html
Oh.
Let me talk about effective uses of visual media for marketing to potential viewers and to rabid fans. When you release the first promotional photos into the wild, you want your audience to have an immediate all-caps reaction Tumblr-style:
WHAT IS THAT I MUST SEE IT NOW
ALL THE FEELS
CAN’T BREATHE
John Barrowman after David Tennant kissed him at ComicCon
Posted in Ôoku, Culture, Gender, Manga, Media, tagged よしながふみ, carnivore women, 男女逆転, Gender, gender non-conformity, genderswap, herbivore men, Madenokouji Arikoto, manga, Ohoku, Oooku, Shogun, Tokugawa Iemitsu, Yoshinaga Fumi, Ōoku, 大奥 on 2011/04/09 | 1 Comment »
Part 2: Political Power and Female Daimyô
As the events happening within the ôoku reflect the changes in sexual culture this reimagined Edo Period, Yoshinaga, with her wonderful knack for world-building, shows the full societal impact that the decimation of the male population and the unbalanced sex ratio have on the greater political and social culture.
"A woman's voice?" (Vol. 3, p. 215)
Posted in Ôoku, Culture, Gender, Manga, Media, tagged Arikoto, よしながふみ, birth dearth, 男女逆転大奥, Edo period, female shogun, Gender, genderswap, Kasuga, Masako, Ohoku, Ooku: The Inner Chambers, Oraku, The Lady Shogun and Her Men, Tokugawa Iemitsu, Yoshinaga Fumi, Ōoku, 大奥 on 2011/03/07 | 12 Comments »
Part 1: The Sexual Revolution Within the Ôoku
There’s a line in Volume 1 that really defines the larger work of Ôoku, where a character notes that the men there kept like goldfish: a luxury item to have simply for the sake of having. For the third and (part of) the fourth volumes of Ôoku, I’d like to shift the focus from the narrative itself to the larger cultural issues presented in the volume. No work of art or literature exists in a vacuum, and the third and fourth volumes of Ôoku address the present issue of “herbivore men” and their counterpart, “carnivore women.” Unlike Otomen, though, the story of Ôoku is not directly about this issue, but there’s no denying the connection between contemporary culture and the work. The content of this volume is largely meant to explain the changes in Japanese (alternate history) culture caused by the Red Pox, or how the culture in the world that Yoshinaga created evolved from the Shogunate of Iemitsu to that of Yoshimune.
I’d like to address this in multiple parts—first the sexual revolution within the ôoku; next, the changing political and social world; and finally the lasting cultural impact that the revolutions within and without the castle have on the world. The issues addressed here are fairly lengthy, so I’ve divided up Part 1 into subsections. Spoilers are a given; also, one image contains some potentially NSFW cleavage.
