Ooku vol. 15

You know, I think you’ve got to go all the way back to the reign of Yoshimune — maybe Ieshige if you’re being generous — to find a time when it felt like the good women and men of this series weren’t constantly behind the eightball.  Since then it’s felt like things have steadily become worse for those in power who try to do the right thing for Japan and its people. They’re constantly being outmaneuvered by those who would seek to wield power for their own ends or are acting on their worst instincts.  For a while it looked like Iesada would buck that trend, until poor planning on her side gave the “Barbarians Out” contingent the upper hand in the previous volume. But wait! We found out that she was pregnant with her lover/consort Taneatsu’s child at the end of the previous volume!  Surely this was a sign of better things to come?

…

It’s become clear that one of the things that Fumi Yoshinaga wants to say in this series is that people who want society to change for the better have to be vigilant.  If they waver for even a moment then the bad guys are going to overtake them. This is a lesson that I’ve been reminded of whenever I check the daily news and to see it reiterated here with even more melodrama does not help instill it further.  For comparison’s sake: The second significant death in this volume makes a certain amount of sense given the amount of resentment the character had engendered. The first significant death, however, is just plain mean. We didn’t need something like that to remind us that the world can be a horrifically awful place sometimes, but we got it anyway.  There are some good tidings afterwards to raise the reader’s spirits before Yoshinaga gives us the ending cliffhanger with a twist to let us know the bad guys are still scheming. Which means she’s sending us out on that bummer note to let us know that things are going to get better with the next volume.

Right?