Gender is a trap. That’s some of the subtext in the fascinating Netflix anime series “Ōoku: The Inner Chambers,” which tells a complex love story in an alternate-reality Edo Japan in which an illness upends society’s gender norms and expectations. (Iemitsu is based on the real-life shogun of the Tokugawa clan with the same name; “Ōoku” cleverly builds up its world from select real historical characters and events.) Forced to present herself as a man, Iemitsu grows into a brutal, violent misogynist. She struggles to find her place within the limitations of the gender binary.

---

Persons: Tokugawa, Iemitsu, Ōoku ” Locations: Edo Japan, Japan, ”