The 6th volume of Ooku will be sold in Japan on August 28. According to Comic Natalie, along with the manga is a separate special volume which serves as a guidebook to the world of both the movie and the comic. It features interviews with the cast and Yoshinaga Fumi herself. I’m personally most intrigued by the Yoshinaga-sensei’s interview because I’ve always been fascinated at how she built the story for this one.

My interest for Japanese history is completely challenged by this series. While I do know it’s fiction, Yoshinaga showcases the emotions of real people. I do see the subtleties of Japanese court life in every page and also the passing reality of Japanese life at that period. It is surreal that it’s not real because for me, it would have passed off as something quite true if I read through my books. I hope in that interview, I get to see the wealth of research Yoshinaga-sensei does with every page. It’s really a brilliant series. I think the world would appreciate it more without its Fakespeare.

That aside, the guidebook also contains special illustrations and images for the movie. I’m excited for the movie as well and wish I could be in Japan on October just to catch. Oh well, we may not have that for now, but we can always just look at these lovely covers and hope it’ll get to our shores soon. The guidebook and volume 6 will be available in Japan on August 28.