A Book a Day: Ooku
Every day I'm going to share a picture of a book I like EXCEPT FOR TODAY because I spent the afternoon reading it and now I'm very annoyed with it and now you have to hear about it. Now admittedly this is only the first of what wikipedia informs me is 17 volumes (plus a live-action film and 10 episode drama series), so maybe it gets better, but JFC what a waste of a good idea and also tropes. The idea is that in 17th c. Japan there's a plague that disproportionately effects men, leading to a gender ratio of 1 dude to 4 women and therefore a seismic shift in gender roles, with a woman shogun and samurai class and men as pampered concubines and husbands, or conversely sex workers use primarily by women who want children but can't afford husbands (...sure. okay.). Volume 1 is a poor samurai-class dude who opts to help his family by going into the Ooku, or the ranks of concubines for the shogun, and works his way to the top.
Now, this is a fairly standard story in Asian dramas, so I was looking forward to seeing how this would be subverted. Spoiler alert, there wasn't any subversion. There also wasn't any use of the tropes that makes these kinds of stories fun, either--there's no real palace intrigues, poisonings, getting caught in the rain and immediately getting pneumonia, or tragic star-crossed lovers. Nada. What even was the point. There's also no examination of low limiting roles based on gender actively harms society, and the way society usually copes with socially-acceptable outs of various kinds. It was just so bland and such. a. waste!
Now, this is a fairly standard story in Asian dramas, so I was looking forward to seeing how this would be subverted. Spoiler alert, there wasn't any subversion. There also wasn't any use of the tropes that makes these kinds of stories fun, either--there's no real palace intrigues, poisonings, getting caught in the rain and immediately getting pneumonia, or tragic star-crossed lovers. Nada. What even was the point. There's also no examination of low limiting roles based on gender actively harms society, and the way society usually copes with socially-acceptable outs of various kinds. It was just so bland and such. a. waste!