YMMV / Ōoku: The Inner Chambers

• Fridge Horror: Healthy postpubecent men are rare, and there are women who will never scrape up the money for more than a session or two with the most damaged whores. An unarmed man alone in the wrong part of town or a strange hamlet is a serious temptation to a few work-hardened sorts with access to hammers, as they only need one appendage working right.
• Harsher in Hindsight: In Volume 1, Yoshimune's first official act upon becoming shogun is to summarily fire Privy Councillor Manabe for a backhanded insult to her claim to the throne. Manabe is not mentioned again until Volume 6 where we learn that she was originally Ienobu's retainer and was maniacally devoted to ensuring that her lord would become Tsunayoshi's successor. Devoted enough that Yoshimune believed Manabe to be responsible for poisoning her two older sisters as potential rivals for Ienobu and continuing to oppose Yoshimune as Ietsugu's successor. (This turned out to be incorrect; it was Yoshimune's own personal retainer Hisamichi who was responsible.) Yoshimune retaliated by orchestrating a scandal that brought down one of Manabe's strongest supporters and assured her succession. Only Ten'nei-in's intervention assured that Manabe would even be allowed to keep her fief and title after Yoshimune took power. Suddenly EVERYTHING in that Volume 1 scene is an order of magnitude more painful.
• I Knew It!: While many theories have yet to be proven or disproven, one actually did get proven right: Shogun Ienari is male.
• Jerkass Woobie - Shogun Iemitsu the Younger (or Lady Chie, depending on who you ask), especially in Volume Two.
• Les Yay: Iemochi and Chikako. Iemochi does seem pretty devoted to making her marriage to Chikako work, even if she was the victim of a Bride and Switch. Chikako's own feelings on the matter are more complicated, but it is true that Iemochi is the only person she could call herself close to, and she's even willing to get pregnant in order to claim that Iemochi's pregnant so she could come back to Edo to be with her. When Iemochi died from beriberi her literal last word was Chikako's name, and Chikako spends the rest of her life mourning Iemochi.
• Moral Event Horizon - "Cut down the monk on the left." Earlier, Kasuga orders the killing of Chie's mother as she drags the kid away, though the reader doesn't find out until much later.
• Nightmare Fuel: That face Harusada makes when she tells Ienari off for suggesting they spread the Redface Pox vaccine.
• Spiritual Licensee: The series is essentially Y: The Last Man if it took place in (and apparently confined to) Edo-era Japan.