Well last night I have finally abandoned Celebrity Sweetheart, it was not going anywhere and the pretty was not pretty enough. God, that show is dull. But then I wondered, am I beginning to turn into a quitter? Afterall I have left Gangs of Wasseypur I halfway through, gave up on Celebrity Sweetheart wtihout even bothering to finish episode 15.
Then I have decided to watch Ooku - Tanjou Arikoto Iemitsu Hen* and despite the fact that it was not something I expected it turned out to be great. Now I thought this was going to be an AU where women have the power, after young men died from a disease called red smallpox. It turned out that it was not so. Yes men die from the disease but there is not a general role reversal. Only they are hiding that the Shogun is dead by replacing him with a loyal samurai (he wears and eleborate hood, everyone thinks it is to hide his face after the disease) and keep the only remaining bloodline of the dead Shogun in the palace so that she can copulate and produce an heir. So the female Shogun (whose Shogunate is only acknowledged by a handful of people) have an Ooku (I understand that this is Japanese harem) filled with young men but they are only there to protect the secret wihtout knowing that it is a secret. She had a total of 4 concubines to produce and one of them died by seppuku after being rather stupidly framed for an act he did not commit. Well you do not rape and torture someone without him plotting revenge on you no? But I'm dissapointed with the little sidekick. He had loads of Buddhist training and you'd expect some of them would kick in and prevent you from taking lives. But no.
Well our protagonist is Arikoto. The youngest son of a noble family from Kyoto who chose to be a Buddhist preist. And he is so good that he was chosen to be the Temple Chief. What he doesn't know is that the woman who has plotted the daring scheme explained in the previous paragraph has chosen him to be the stud who will produce a male heir and continue the Shogunate. Now we all know that if there is not a powerful Shogun there will be civil war and the people will suffer more but to lie like that to protect it? And Kasuga is a clever but ruthless manipulator. After Arikoto is chosen as the new temple chief, he was asked to go to Edo and bow to Shogun in thanks for the appointment. He takes two young monks with him and goes there. But is not allowed to leave. And Kasuga manipulates him into abandoning his wows and have sex with a prostitute. He was not going to do it but Kasuga ordered one of the monks and one of the prostitutes killed right there and then and Arikoto had no other choice but to comply with her instructions. After making sure that he is a functioning man, she waited for a year for his hair to grow back and orders him into Ooku to serve the Shogun (who everyone thinks is gay because there are not any women in the Ooku). The remaining young monk leave priesthood and follows him. There he learns the horrible truth and has to deal with the bitchy male concubines who are threatened by and jealous of him and all the warriors, bodyguards, servants around treating him with contempt thinking that he is Shogun's boy toy.
The worst of all, he will never be able to leave Ooku alive.
Well unlike his sidekick, Arikoto is truly pieous and follows his Buddhist training to overcome the obstacles. He is not a warrior but he is very intelligent, kind and gentle (can you tell I'm already falling for him). The female Shogun (I will call her Chie from now on since she is not a real Shogun) doesn't have a chance. Because unlike many of his gender, he is even more beautiful inside. He understands her sufferings (she was raped, she had a girl but the baby died, she has to have sex with those idiots and act like a man all the time and she is just 17 years old) and tries to get her to think and act good.
Kasuga is totally with him for now. It looks like as if this is exactly what she has intented.
At the end of third episode, Chie decided that her concubines and bodyguard should be dressed as women and dance for her. Three of them (the remaining two concubines and the bodyguard) do and she laughs until tears fall from her eyes but her mood turns sour and she dismisses them all. Right at this point Arikoto (called O Man by Chie) enters with the female garbs he has been given still in the box. He unties Chie's male topnot and lets her hair fall down, puts the female robe around her shoulders and says "I think this will look better on Shogun than on me". Well I was crying at this point since we hear his thoughts in voiceover. Arikoto's purpose in life was to ease people's sufferings. And now that he is forced to be in this hell hole he should quite being so selfimportant and ease the suffering of the person in front of her. He becomes aware of his mistake in thinking himself important and returns to his former humble self.
The actor Sakai Masoto is really good and I love the character.
At least it doesn't look like I'll drop this halfway.
* I'll refer this show as Ooku from now on.
Then I have decided to watch Ooku - Tanjou Arikoto Iemitsu Hen* and despite the fact that it was not something I expected it turned out to be great. Now I thought this was going to be an AU where women have the power, after young men died from a disease called red smallpox. It turned out that it was not so. Yes men die from the disease but there is not a general role reversal. Only they are hiding that the Shogun is dead by replacing him with a loyal samurai (he wears and eleborate hood, everyone thinks it is to hide his face after the disease) and keep the only remaining bloodline of the dead Shogun in the palace so that she can copulate and produce an heir. So the female Shogun (whose Shogunate is only acknowledged by a handful of people) have an Ooku (I understand that this is Japanese harem) filled with young men but they are only there to protect the secret wihtout knowing that it is a secret. She had a total of 4 concubines to produce and one of them died by seppuku after being rather stupidly framed for an act he did not commit. Well you do not rape and torture someone without him plotting revenge on you no? But I'm dissapointed with the little sidekick. He had loads of Buddhist training and you'd expect some of them would kick in and prevent you from taking lives. But no.
Well our protagonist is Arikoto. The youngest son of a noble family from Kyoto who chose to be a Buddhist preist. And he is so good that he was chosen to be the Temple Chief. What he doesn't know is that the woman who has plotted the daring scheme explained in the previous paragraph has chosen him to be the stud who will produce a male heir and continue the Shogunate. Now we all know that if there is not a powerful Shogun there will be civil war and the people will suffer more but to lie like that to protect it? And Kasuga is a clever but ruthless manipulator. After Arikoto is chosen as the new temple chief, he was asked to go to Edo and bow to Shogun in thanks for the appointment. He takes two young monks with him and goes there. But is not allowed to leave. And Kasuga manipulates him into abandoning his wows and have sex with a prostitute. He was not going to do it but Kasuga ordered one of the monks and one of the prostitutes killed right there and then and Arikoto had no other choice but to comply with her instructions. After making sure that he is a functioning man, she waited for a year for his hair to grow back and orders him into Ooku to serve the Shogun (who everyone thinks is gay because there are not any women in the Ooku). The remaining young monk leave priesthood and follows him. There he learns the horrible truth and has to deal with the bitchy male concubines who are threatened by and jealous of him and all the warriors, bodyguards, servants around treating him with contempt thinking that he is Shogun's boy toy.
The worst of all, he will never be able to leave Ooku alive.
Well unlike his sidekick, Arikoto is truly pieous and follows his Buddhist training to overcome the obstacles. He is not a warrior but he is very intelligent, kind and gentle (can you tell I'm already falling for him). The female Shogun (I will call her Chie from now on since she is not a real Shogun) doesn't have a chance. Because unlike many of his gender, he is even more beautiful inside. He understands her sufferings (she was raped, she had a girl but the baby died, she has to have sex with those idiots and act like a man all the time and she is just 17 years old) and tries to get her to think and act good.
Kasuga is totally with him for now. It looks like as if this is exactly what she has intented.
At the end of third episode, Chie decided that her concubines and bodyguard should be dressed as women and dance for her. Three of them (the remaining two concubines and the bodyguard) do and she laughs until tears fall from her eyes but her mood turns sour and she dismisses them all. Right at this point Arikoto (called O Man by Chie) enters with the female garbs he has been given still in the box. He unties Chie's male topnot and lets her hair fall down, puts the female robe around her shoulders and says "I think this will look better on Shogun than on me". Well I was crying at this point since we hear his thoughts in voiceover. Arikoto's purpose in life was to ease people's sufferings. And now that he is forced to be in this hell hole he should quite being so selfimportant and ease the suffering of the person in front of her. He becomes aware of his mistake in thinking himself important and returns to his former humble self.
The actor Sakai Masoto is really good and I love the character.
At least it doesn't look like I'll drop this halfway.
* I'll refer this show as Ooku from now on.
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