Ooku vol. 13

Vol. 12 may have ended with the promise of a new female shogun dealing with Commodore Perry’s arrival in Japan, but that seismic event only plays a small part in the political intrigue here.  Most of the focus is on newcomer Masahiro Abe, the quick-witted Baron of Ise, who rises to the position of Chief Senior Councillor to the eventual shogun, Tokugawa Iesada.  Iesada also plays a pivotal role in this volume as well, even if it happens to be that of a victim.  While mangaka Fumi Yoshinaga finally did readers of this series a favor by writing out the villain Harusada in the previous volume, we’re not done with villainy quite yet.  Iesada’s father, Ieyoshi, is initially portrayed to be a dull, simple-minded fool, yet there’s one aspect to his character which is utterly reprehensible.  This is something else that Masahiro will have to deal with over the course of the volume.  She won’t do it alone, however, as the new senior councillor of the Inner Chambers, a man with a tragic background from a samurai family named Takiyama, has something to prove as well.

Even with the skin-crawling nature of Ieyoshi’s transgressions, Harusada’s depature has made “Ooku” easier to read again.  Even better is that while the series is now without its signature villain and the constant threat of the redface pox it hasn’t lost an ounce of its drama.  I’m not trying to damn this volume with faint praise but the arrival of the Americans actually stands on par with the many other surprising developments here.  None of this comes off as drama for drama’s sake, though.  It’s all grounded in the believable actions of the characters.  Yoshinaga does cram a lot of incident into this volume and it makes for a very dense read, as is usual for this series.  It still manages to maintain the humanity at its core, even as it finds time for some welcome comic asides.  While I think it’d be nice to get new volumes of this series at a pace that is faster than “annual” vol. 13 is yet one more example that the wait between volumes of this series is usually worth it.