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New Live-Action Ōoku: The Inner Chambers 2nd Season Reveals Cast for 'Bakumatsu Arc'
posted on by Alex Mateo
NHK announced three additional cast members for the "Bakumatsu Arc" of the new live-action series of Fumi Yoshinaga's Ōoku: The Inner Chambers manga on Monday:
The newly announced cast includes (pictured above from left to right):
- Yūta Furukawa as Takiyama
- Reika Manaki as Iesada Tokugawa
- Kumi Takiuchi as Masahiro Abe
Previously announced cast for the "Cure Arc" includes:
- Nao Matsushita as Okitsugu Tanuma
- Yumi Adachi as Sadanobu Matsudaira
- Keito Okamoto as Ihei
- Misako Renbutsu as Odai (Shigehime)
- Aoi Nakamura as Ienari Tokugawa
- Yukie Nakama as Harusada Hitotsubashi
Taku Ōhara, Sō Suenaga, Hideaki Kawano, and Takafumi Kimura are directing the series' second season. Yoshiko Morishita (live-action JIN) is returning from the first season to pen the scripts.
The 10-episode first season premiered on NHK on January 10. The series primarily centers on the Iemitsu, Tsunayoshi, Yoshimune, and Imperial Restoration arcs. Kohta Yamamoto (Attack on Titan The Final Season, Kingdom) composed the music. Lilas Ikuta performed the theme song "Tanpopo" (Dandelion).
Viz Media publishes the manga in English, and it describes the story:
In Edo period Japan, a strange new disease called the Red Pox has begun to prey on the country's men. Within eighty years of the first outbreak, the male population has fallen by seventy-five percent. Women have taken on all the roles traditionally granted to men, even that of the Shogun. The men, precious providers of life, are carefully protected. And the most beautiful of the men are sent to serve in the Shogun's Inner Chamber...
Yoshinaga launched the manga in Hakusensha's Melody magazine in 2004, and ended it in December 2020. Hakusensha published the manga's 19th and final volume in February 2021, and Viz Media published the final volume in English in March 2022. The manga won the 2009 James Tiptree, Jr. Award, and won the Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize in 2009. Its other honors include the 1st anan Manga Prize, the 56th Shogakukan Manga Prize in the shōjo division, the 5th Sense of Gender Prize's Special Award, and most recently, the Grand Prize in the 42nd Nihon SF Taishō Awards.
The manga has already inspired a previous live-action film adaptation in 2010, a live-action television series titled Ōoku: Arikoto・Iemitsu Hen in October 2012, and a second live-action film titled Ōoku: Eien - Emonnosuke・Tsunayoshi Hen in December of the same year.
The manga is also inspiring an anime adaptation, which will debut on Netflix on June 29.
Sources: NHK, Comic Natalie, Mainichi Shimbun's Mantan Web
