#Tokugawa Yoshimune (Oooku)

[hikikomoriheadphonegirl]

[kohlippit]

Oooku: Roundtable Presentation

Oooku (2023) is an anime set in Edo period Japan (1603-1868) during the reign of the 8th Shogun. A disease known as Redface Pox that only affects males breaks out, causing Japan’s population to be predominantly female. The narrative begins in a society where men and women’s traditional roles have been completely switched, including the Shogun. The story is about what Edo Japan would have been like had it been run by women.

What is the koinos kosmos (common world) and mutually assumed knowledge the series shares with viewers? 

During the Edo period of Japan in real life, society was largely male oriented. There was only ever one female Shogun, and this was because of her husband’s untimely death. Women were largely viewed as inferior and only there to bear children. Within the Shogun’s palace was an institution known as the “Oooku” or “great interior,” where wives and concubines of the Shogun lived. Within the series, all of these gender roles are subverted.

How does the series depict cultural hybridity through the alerted history’s role in reflecting and reshaping cultural assumptions?

The series asks us to consider how things would be different with a change in gender dynamics. In the first episode, it is a man, Mizuno, who is forced to marry off to a wealthy woman. He thanks his mother for never selling him off for sex work despite the family’s struggles with money. His dream is to become a swordsman, and with his skills and abilities he is more than qualified to be a samurai. In real life Japan, that would have been his future, yet in this world it is vastly different. We see a man being unable to pursue his desires, something that would be more associated with women in real life during this time.

How does the series depict the power of understanding world-creation?

The show focuses on the Oooku and the Shogun’s many servants and concubines. While we are given brief understanding of what life is like outside the Shogun’s walls, the world is set primarily within the palace. We are shown the competition each man in the Oooku goes through in order to raise their rank and earn more money. Many of the men in the Oooku work there so they can send money back to their families that they are unable to see.

In what ways do formulations of the past, present, and future engage with prospective realities of what might have been and what might be in the series’ alerted history?

The series plays with the past, present, and future by staying in line with real life events while changing how many of the characters behave or act. For example, the 8th Shogun shown in the series is named Tokugawa Yoshimune, the same name as the one in real life. Of course, in the anime the character is a woman from the Yoshimune family, while the real-life person does not exist. In the anime, Yoshimune is largely uninterested in concubines, instead focusing her attention on fixing Japan’s declining economy. When she is first appointed as Shogun, she immediately fires an advisor who suggests that they spend a huge sum of money on her kimono. There is a clear focus on Yoshimune wanting to serve her job properly over individual desires.

How do multiple realities or contemplations of multiple realities merge with questions of authenticity?

The show makes the viewer wonder what would take place if this plot had actually occurred. With most of the male population gone, would women be in complete power? Or would the few men left be revered and hold power on their own? If the male and female population were completely equal, yet women had held power during the Edo period of Japan, how would things have changed? The anime gets the viewer to ponder many questions about how things would be affected with gender roles switched.

#oxyspeculativetv @theuncannyprofessoro

[daeva-agas]

... I translated Edgeworth’s long-ass Steel Samurai rambling because I’m curious just what it is that he was blathering about, and nobody else seems to have a translation for it. Now we know about the Steel Samurai lore. Yay. 

I opted to Westernize the names because... There’s already terms that may need explanation, it might be even more confusing if I use the Japanese names :’D

Didn’t translate the rest of the manga because you can find it in Court Records.

“Menacing Monks”: “茶坊S”, derived from chabouzu. Didn’t have an English translation so I made one up. This is not actually a monk, but I had no better ideas. In feudal Japan a chabouzu is an attendant who entertains the guests and serves them tea. They are shaved like monks, but is part of the samurai ranks.

“Steel Samurai Smelting”: トノサマン御乱心大乱舞 Tonosaman Oranshin Dai Ranbu. Translation taken from one of the combo moves in Marvel VS Capcom (except because it’s Maya, “Tonosaman” is replaced with Mayoi)

“Inner Chambers”: 大奥 Oooku. The shogun’s harem. 

“Survivan”: サバイバン Sabaiban, the original draft for Ace Attorney’s title. Scrapped in favour of Gyakuten Saiban.

The robot LOL:

Ｂｏｎｕｓ: The Steel Samurai being specified as being the “third son” of a feudal lord might be an allusion to the famous Japanese TV drama “Abarenbou Shogun”. In this drama, the shogun Tokugawa Yoshimune often spends days in town disguised as the third son of a hatamoto (samurai vassal) and fights various evildoers (corrupt officials, corrupt merchants, fake money scams, etc). 

The shogun in the show also often carries a trademark fan with “justice” written on it.

[hikikomoriheadphonegirl]

[hikikomoriheadphonegirl]

[hikikomoriheadphonegirl]

[hikikomoriheadphonegirl]

[hikikomoriheadphonegirl]

[hikikomoriheadphonegirl]

[hikikomoriheadphonegirl]

[hikikomoriheadphonegirl]

[hikikomoriheadphonegirl]

[hikikomoriheadphonegirl]

[hikikomoriheadphonegirl]

[hikikomoriheadphonegirl]

[hikikomoriheadphonegirl]