Ooku vol. 14

This volume starts off in a way that suggests, for the first time in a very long while, we’re going to get a dose of “Ooku” that doesn’t have any depressing drama.  We’re introduced to a man from the land of Satsuma who is given the name of Taneatsu and sent to the capital to become the new consort to Emperor Iesada. The catch being that the samurai who run Satsuma have their own agenda and have given Taneatsu the mission of influencing Iesada to name a successor favorable to them.  While Taneatsu knows his mission and has his own apprehensions about the empress, having only heard about her through rumor and hearsay, he actually finds her to be quite pleasant upon actually meeting Iesada. Though she doesn’t think much of him at first, Iesada finds him to be a worthy conversational partner and gradually begins opening up to Taneatsu over time.  She even begins to take his advice regarding diet and exercise, which in turn gives her a new energy to tackle matters of state. Which is a good thing since foreign powers are banging on Japan’s door and the country is divided on whether to let them in or keep them out.

The “foreign powers” issue is nothing if not timely and the source of most of the drama in the book’s latter half.  It’s good stuff, but I was most taken with seeing the relationship between Iesada and Taneatsu develop over the course of the volume.  After vol. 13 spotlighted the awful upbringing the empress was subjected to, it was honestly great to see someone like Taneatsu come into her life and brighten it up.  I was looking forward to feeling these good vibes for the rest of the volume… until mangaka Fumi Yoshinaga threw up a bit of explicit foreshadowing indicating that things were going to get very bad in the inner chambers a generation down the line.  Couple that with some political setbacks and it looks as if “Ooku” is heading back to the days of being an involving read in spite of how depressing it got. Then Yoshinaga whips out a next-to-last-page surprise which leads me to believe that the story’s focus isn’t going to be focused as much on the politics next time around.  Iesada and Taneatsu’s world is going to get a lot more difficult, but in a way that’s more hopeful than anything else.