Le Pavillon des hommes

A mysterious disease kills most of young males in feudal Japan. Women are forced to assume male work and the political rule of the empire. The male which are still alive sell their bodies for sexual intercourse or are used by their parents (usually the mother at the anime) for making money as a reproductive being. This last phenomena is explained by the desire of women of all social classes to get pregnant, because marriage and stable relationships are not possible anymore. As the society "protects" men from the disease, males become lazy, useless, weak and dependent.

Although the anime seems to have a feminist plot at the first glance, it can be read from another viewpoint. There is a balance between masculine and feminine "energy" in any society. When something disturb this balance, consequences are inevitable. At the anime, as men are lacking as workforce, women are fully capable of taking the job, but at a higher mental and physical cost. Be an independent and strong women do not resolve the loneliness of a life whithout a partner or family. Power, not gender rules the world, and the women in command (lady Kasuga) will force another women (lady Iemitsu) to suffer and be sexually ubused in order to keep political domination.

Comparing to the anime, in our real world, a "mysterious" disease is trying to kill the masculine spirit. As occurs in the anime, men are becoming lazy, weak, dependent and afraid. Our society is starting to feel the consequences of this.

In resume, the anime can be viewed as a reflexive story of the necessity of the harmonic balance between feminine and masculine. Man and woman need to work together for the development of humanity.

This is an interesting take on alternative history. I liked it all in all but if you're used to watching explosive (mostly shonen) anime series such as myself (the likes of AoT, Demon Slayer, Death Note etc.) please take into consideration that this series is as similar to those as The Dead Poet's Society is to Mission Impossible. It's just a completely different genre of anime with a much greater emphasis on very subtle character driven plotlines and grounded philosophical themes than your run of the mill shonen anime. This series does not rely on the power of friendship/love tropes you find in Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh! This does not have the bombastic action scenes of Attack on Titan, the witty humour of Demon Slayer or the thrilling, clever plot line of Death Note. This series does however have its own mysterious charm. It asks questions such as "What would happen if women had to replace men in most matters of business and politics?" and "Is a person either good or evil or can they be a little bit of both?". It explores humanity, human emotions and the reasons for why we do the things we do and why we are the way we are. Most of the characters have both redeemable and reprehensible character traits; there is no good side and bad side, it's all a question of survival and making the best of the hand you're dealt.

The animation was mostly good, although there were a few scenes scattered in between where you could clearly see they switched from traditional hand animation to CGI, but nothing too jarring. I watched it with the English dub and I think they did a pretty good job, although the dialog was a little bit coerced in some scenes and a lot of very poorly disguised exposition forced into it (which, to be honest, I don't know is the fault of the English translators or if the script was just written that way originally). For example, in one of the scenes a boy talking to his mother says something along the lines of "You'll leave my little brother Niko behind." No child speaks to their mother about their sibling like that; they both know Niko is his younger brother, there's no need to elaborate on that, it just sounds very exposition-y, if you ask me. Anyways, I digress.

I would recommend people give this series a chance, at least the first couple of episodes, bearing in mind that this is neither and action- nor an adventure series but a somber, even melancholy exploration of human nature. If you enjoyed Violet Evergarden I think you might definitely like this one.

The story is an alternate history anime. It's not meant to be an action or fighting anime. The story has a slice of life feel from the Edo Period. The content has more adult themes than other anime but the story needs these to build into the crisis being experienced. The Ooku being a real entity within the historic Edo Castle lends weight to the story, making the story closer to reality than other anime. Go into this not expecting anything other than alternate historical drama and you'll be pleasantly surprised. Wish there were a couple more episodes in the season but definitely more material for another season.

Japanese anime can be hit or miss for me. Sometimes the characters or themes don't work, but this wasn't the case in Ooku: The Inner Chambers. It's an interesting interpretation of female and male roles in one of the most traditional societies to be found on earth. Not only are you as the viewer given an interesting look at Japanese culture, which is always a treat when done right. You are given this view through the premise of an alternate society where female's rule by necessity and then by choice because of a strange disease that wipes out most of the men. Actual Japanese history is interspersed through this tale, so the saga feels very "real" and down to earth. I have never read the manga associated with this, and I doubt I ever will, but I truly enjoyed this anime as a fan and as a person who enjoys a good story. It's not overblown, and the themes and characters work so well in the story you find yourself just watching things play out. I hope there are more seasons because this is a well done anime and I hope to see more of it.

8/10.

I really wanted to like this Japanese anime is a lot more. I really did. While the premise of "Ooku" is very interesting - though not quite unique - it did not manage to turn it into a compelling story.

The Good: The animation is satisfactory. The character design is also good. Use of music is not bad. The premise, as mentioned, is the strongest element, and had a lot of promise.

The Bad: However, the plot based on that premise simply did not deliver. The "action" of the entire series is simply palace intrigues, which, ultimately was boring and made it difficult to keep watching.

Without going heavily into spoilers, all that I can say is that if you are expecting to see a "what if" kind of story that shows interesting consequences to an entire civilization, you would be disappointed.

In the end, this was a mediocre story but I gave it an extra one or two stars for the premise and only somewhat interesting, albeit limited, story line.