The manga "Ooku" by Yoshinaga Fumio will be released in an animated version this summer

Today (March 25), Netflix announced that the manga "Ooku" based on Yoshinaga Fumio will be adapted into an animated version, which is expected to be released in the summer of 2023. The animation director of "Yu Yu Hakusho" Abe Nobuyuki will be in charge of the direction, and voice actors such as Miyano Mamoru, Matsui Eriko, Kaji Yuki, and Seki Tomokazu will star in the work.

"Ooku" is a manga by Japanese manga artist Fumi Yoshinaga. It is serialized in the bimonthly girls' manga "MELODY" (Hakusensha). In 2009, it won the 13th Tezuka Osamu Cultural Award for Manga, and the following year it won the Shogakukan Manga Award for Girls. It will be completed in 2021.

Story summary:

In a small village in the Kanto region of Japan, a young boy was attacked by a bear while he was picking matsutake mushrooms in the mountains. He was brought home dying and died soon after. Soon after the boy died, his brother, friends and villagers had high fevers, rashes and died of ulcers all over their bodies. Then, the epidemic spread quickly, from neighboring villages to neighboring villages, and then spread throughout Kanto and Kansai. Moreover, only young men were sick.

The symptoms of the disease were similar to those of smallpox, so it was also called "red-faced pox". Because there was no cure, it was regarded as a common and terrible disease and took root in the country. Eighty years later, the male population dropped sharply to one-fourth of the female population. Coupled with the low survival rate of male infants, men were regarded as treasures for carrying on the family line. All the rough labor was done by women, and the family business was passed from mother to daughter.

In Edo Castle, after the third shogun Iemitsu, the position of shogun was also inherited by a woman. The Ooku became the shogun's private harem, where women were not allowed to enter and where there were 3,000 handsome men.