One gets the sense that Oooku is going to be basically an episodic series.  It’s partly a function of the fact that this version is effectively an extended teaser trailer for the manga, offering a glimpse of the larger series but no more.  Whether any more is to follow I have no idea – normally I would call it unlikely but anime has never been more sequel-friendly than it is now.  The effect, then, seems to discourage getting too attached to individual characters as they’re unlikely to be around for too long (though perhaps will have have recurring appearances, given the skipping around on the timeline).

Yuunoshin certainly made an engaging protagonist for the premiere, and his story an engaging one.  Now the focus turns to Arikto Madenokouji (Miyano Mamoru) – and the clock rolls back a few generations, to the onset of the red-face smallpox pandemic.  Arikoto is the beautiful 18 year-old newly anointed abbot of Keiko-in (which is either fictional or long-gone) temple in Kyoto.  He’s been sent to Edo to thank the shogun Iemitsu, making the trip along with two young monks.  Arikoto is one of those “walk the walk” holy men – not a monk covertly (or even openly) whoring and drinking.  Still, he has a sense of humor and an appreciation for the material world around him.7

At this point in the story the shogun is still male, and Iemitsu a man who prefers the company of other men.  This, we’re led to believe, is the impetus for the creation of the Oooku.  Iemitsu’s chief enforcer is the Lady Kasuga (a memorable Inoue Kikuko), and it’s she who’s in charge of making sure Arikoto never leaves Edo Castle again.  Thus begins a showdown between Arikoto and Kasuga, as the latter attempts to break the former’s will and make him submit (both to Iemitsu’s desires and to her).

There was certainly a power struggle between the emperor and the shogunate at this time.  And for a shogun to effectively kidnap a Kyoto nobleman with imperial connections is pretty brazen.  But that’s what the balance of power was then, and even had Arikoto managed to get word to his father (which Kasuga would never have allowed to happen) it seems unlikely he or even the emperor would have been able to secure Arikoto’s release.  Still, the pious young man holds out, resisting the worldly pleasures Kasuga dangles before him to try and get him to break his vows.

It was only a matter of time before Kasuga resorted to the course she did, that much was obvious.  Of course, with one of his companions (along with one of the prostitutes sent to tempt him) already dead, Arikoto actually has a tiny bit of leverage here.  He only came with two companions, and one is dead  – if Kasuga kills the other one, she loses that method of coercion.

The deep unfairness of what’s happening to Arikoto is obvious, though hardly unrealistic historically speaking.  The question is how all this will directly tie into the overarching plot.  Kasuga was name-dropped in the premiere, and it certainly seems possible that this incident will segue directly into the transition to female control of the shogunate.