Rose of Versailles, ep. 01-05

[oyceter]

This is the anime adaptation of Ikeda Riyoko's classic shoujo manga Rose of Versailles. I roughly know the plotline because a) I know Marie Antoinette was beheaded, b) I read some articles on the manga for my thesis way back when, and c) did I mention that whole thing with the French Revolution and history?

Oscar Francois de Jarjayes is the sixth daughter (maybe seventh) of General Jarjayes. Frustrated by all the girls, the general decides to name Oscar "Oscar" and to raise her as a boy. She learns to fence with her childhood friend Andre, despite their class differences (he's the grandson of her nurse). Eventually, Oscar becomes the captain of the guard for Marie Antoinette.

So far, a lot of the story is actually focusing on Marie Antoinette and her integration into the French court at Versailles. There have been quite a few episodes (ok, three) on her social battle with Louis XV's mistress Madame du Barry, in which Marie Antoinette refuses to talk to her. As far as I can tell, all this is historical fact, albeit with the fictional addition of Oscar and company.

The anime was made in the late seventies and early eighties, and it shows. The music is horribly outdated, the animation sucks, and whoever was directing decided that the best way to showcase dramatic moments was to have the background and characters turn interesting shades of paisley while having lightning flashes symbolize the conflict.

Alas, I kid you not.

Most of voicework also annoys me, particularly Marie Antoinette and Madame du Barry's. I also wish they didn't have Madame du Barry as an out-and-out eeeevvvilll woman set to seduce the king and have everything her way, as exemplified by the not-too-subtle scenes of her throwing things at mirrors or knocking statues over when angry.

I should also mention that I'm watching the DVDs with Chinese subtitles, which is really difficult because of the complicated court stuff.

Why am I still watching, if it sounds so awful, you ask. Oscar is awesome. Whoever's doing her voice is excellent, and I love Oscar's rigid and rather idealistic notion of nobility, how she acts on it to try to make her world a fairer place. She detests the court and its frippery, sometimes including the young queen-to-be, but she finds that she's forced into political maneuvering. Also, in the first episode, she has a cool fencing match with Andre and punches him several times.

And Marie Antoinette is an interesting character, half sympathetic and half not.

Plus, the show and manga's reputation is such that I feel like I should see this, and there have been numerous assurances that the lightning flashes and paisley eventually disappear, even as the plot gets more complex and gender-bendy.

Comments

[fmanalyst.livejournal.com]

"I should also mention that I'm watching the DVDs with Chinese subtitles, which is really difficult because of the complicated court stuff."

Aww, here I was hoping it would be available in a way that I could watch it. I have one volume of the manga, but it's in Italian, so I can't read it.

[mystickeeper.livejournal.com]

I know some people can't stand YouTube, but that's where I've been watching it.

Reading user comments is almost as entertaining as the show itself!

[oyceter]

There's also a torrent if you want (link above).

[oyceter]

Pssssst.

[oyceter]

Oh, and I forgot: more.

[mystickeeper.livejournal.com]

OMF manga!!! It needs to be summer now, so that I have time to read this stuff.

[mystickeeper.livejournal.com]

I think I've watched this through episode 35 or 36, and plan to finish it....some day (maybe Spring Break?!).

The plot does get more interesting (ie, a tad less predictable), and after a while I felt very used to the animation style. The plus-side of having such crappy animation is that there is never a sudden decrease in quality, like many current series sometimes have.

My favorite part about watching this series was running to Wikipedia after each episode and seeing which characters/plots were based on reality.

I felt like a total geek when I watched the "Marie Antoinette" movie with Kirsten Dunst in it too, because many character tendencies were present in both. I guess both authors did their homework.

[oyceter]

Yeah, I'm getting a little more used to the style, though the constant duelling of clashing color backgrounds with Antoinette and du Barry is starting to get to my eyes.

I totally did the Wikipedia look up as well! And stuck the Sofia Coppola Marie Antoinette in my Netflix queue too!

[greenapple2004.livejournal.com]

Learn to sing the theme song and impress any and all Japanese geeks on your next karaoke excursion. :-) I've only watched bits of the series piece-meal, but doing your best warble on "Bara wa! Bara wa!" will win hearts and minds on both sides of the Pacific.

[oyceter]

I am sort of! It's so old-fashioned, but it's really rather addictive, despite the weird imagery of naked Oscar among thorns.

[oracne.livejournal.com]

It's a very cool show.

Also, it gives me flashbacks--when I first started watching anime, almost all of it looked like ROSE OF VERSAILLES.

[oyceter]

Hee, yes, I remember the style. It's just the colorful backgrounds of shock that really, really amuse me.