Versailles no Bara

In a time of class stratification and rising tensions amongst the impoverished population, the Austrian Empire sends Princess Marie Antoinette to France to be wed to Crown Prince Louis XVI. The political marriage is arranged to strengthen the alliance between both countries, but the future queen is deeply unsatisfied with her fate being decided for her. Upon arrival in the country, Marie Antoinette is acquainted with Oscar Fançois de Jarjayes—Commander of the Royal Guard.

Due to her father's desire for a son, Oscar is raised as a boy with an expectation to inherit his title as The Commander. Though she is revered by both men and women alike, Oscar cannot help but desire to live life as a woman instead of masquerading as a man. As Oscar reluctantly serves the young, spoiled queen, the growing resentment and suffering of the poor become harder for her to ignore—especially when Marie Antoinette frivolously spends her wealth.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

de Jarjayes, Oscar François Main

Tajima, Reiko Japanese

Grandier, André Main

Shigaki, Taro Japanese

Antoinette, Marie Main

Ueda, Miyuki Japanese

Lamorlière, Rosalie Main

Yoshida, Rihoko Japanese

von Fersen, Hans Axel Main

Hori, Katsunosuke Japanese

Valois de la Motte, Jeanne Supporting

Matsukane, Yoneko Japanese

de Soisson, Alain Supporting

Yamada, Keaton Japanese

de Robespierre, Maximilien Supporting

Mori, Katsuji Japanese

du Barry, Jeanne Becu Supporting

Kinomiya, Ryouko Japanese

de Polignac, Charlotte Supporting

Komiya, Kazue Japanese

Dezaki, Osamu Director, Storyboard

Nagahama, Tadao Director, Sound Director, Chief Animation Director

Nishikubo, Mizuho Episode Director

Nagaoka, Akinori Episode Director

Reviews

Aug 25, 2007

mistress_reebi

Recommended

Since when did history become interesting? Lady Oscar (The Rose of Versailles) may seem like it came from the French Revolution judging by the animation style, but the storyline is extremely well written. There is an excellent cast of characters each with their own personality. Lady Oscar is a classic and should be viewed by every anime fan, especially those who are into shojo.It's similar to the Hollywood movie, "Marie-Antoinette," however, it shows the events going on inside and outside of Versailles with a plot that is more enjoyable. (It isn't an anime showing the day and the life of Marie-Antoinette partying. Also, her personality ... is kinder in Lady Oscar.)

The characterisation is perfect with a strong female lead. Though Marie-Antoinette's character is childish, she isn't a cookie-cutter cliché. Each personality is different and doesn't fall into the anime stereotypes. With experiences, characters grow and develop; it isn't hard to grasp the cast's characters. Lady Oscar is a strong female raised a man, but she has femininity in her: she's a balance in character.

The sound and animation is from the 1970s so those who aren't into the retro look may not like the series. However, the storyline is main aspect for the show. The costumes with their many frills are pleasant to the eye, while the character design is between realistic and exaggerated. (But, more on the realistic side. In other words: shojo.) Cosplaying as a Lady Oscar characters isn't something one should be surprise since the clothing is from the 18th century. The sound quality isn't great because of the time period, but the sound effects aren't terrible. The background music uses strings, but there isn't a lot.

The storyline describes the French Revolution far more interesting than a history teacher. It's accurate in events, but has some original characters to add to the plot. It's almost as if one is living the events at the start of the French Revolution, pre The Reign of Terror. There are suspenseful episodes with a plot that keeps the viewer on their toes. The story procresses with time adding detail, and though it is a drama, the pacing is perfect. There is some added romance with many possible couples, but in the end the romantic troubles are fixed. (Most viewers will be pleased)

Those who are into classic shojo would love this anime. Some younger viewers may find this anime a little boring, but for those who are in love with historical fiction must watch this anime. It was released in most languages besides English, which is why it's obscure. Must be on every anime fans 'to watch' or 'to buy' list.

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by mistress_reebi (9)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Sep 4, 2016

Gundroog

Mixed Feelings

Rose of Versailles is a typical shoujo romance set not long before and during French Revolution. It executes both badly. There are gonna be spoilers here.

One of the big problems with this show is presentation, large part of the french revolution revolves around royalty and nobility treating common people like animals and disregarding their rights or wishes despite them making up majority of the population. However in RoV for some reason a lot of time is spent showing her going to balls, spending money, gambling and generally acting deplorably but they way it's shown it's almost as if you're suppose to empathize with her and ... feel sympathy. Even at the very end when Oscar finally parts way it's said obstacle for their friendship was her being a Queen of France which couldn't be further away from being accurate without being random. The rift in their relationship was caused by Marie's complete disregard for commoners and greed for status and luxury.

Aside from that this focus on one character leads into another issue with the show. It's heavily based on history but at the same time it treats it like a backdrop for typical shoujo melodrama instead of properly focusing on it. More time spent on a scene of character crying about how unfortunate they are for being born a noble or a commoner then on retelling some of the most important events in French history so it very much does this aspect a disservice. When it finally comes around to actually getting deeper into history it treats it with all complexity of a saturday morning cartoon. The great part of history is that it doesn't tell you "these guys are evil, these guys are good", history simply presents actions and motivations behind them, observer then can draw a conclusion. Here there's barely any depth to any side of the conflict, nobles are all evil unless they support commoners, commoners are pretty much exclusively right no matter what they do aside from one edgy terrorist.
Another thing to note is that even when repeating historical events such as the necklace incident the show goes through it so briefly that it makes real events that made sense seem overly dramatic and ridiculous.

As far as melodrama goes it's no better than any random soap opera. Main motif in the narrative is downside of class system and social status. All of this doesn't really go anywhere, people cry a bit over unrequited love and move on without it having much of an effect on story or characters themselves and characters themselves are not that interesting to begin with.

When it comes to art this show really shines. Great character designs that change a little as time passes, great color coordination and beautiful backgrounds. Music is just as good and it making shallow but emotionally manipulative scenes feel as they almost have impact.

Overall enjoyment is rather poor but I'm also not the audience for this type of show, not that I think being into it makes writing better.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by Gundroog (92)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Dec 13, 2017

ktulu007

Not Recommended

The Rose of Versailles is an old school anime. It aired from 1979-1980 and was based off of a manga from the early 70s. It was brought to us by TMS, the same studio behind the mediocre Magic Knight Rayearth, the excellent Glass no Kamen & the decent enough Kousetsu Hyaku Monogatari. Is this one a classic worth revisiting? Let's find out.

Story:

In the years leading up to the French revolution, a young woman works as the Captain of the Royal guards, as she was raised like a boy. This is our heroine, Oscar François de Jarjeyes. Can she navigate through the turbulent times?

Okay, I'm ... going to ignore that this series has about as much relation to actual history as the Abrams films have to do with Star Trek. It's historical fiction, we can forgive it for only vaguely resembling the reality and even then you have to squint a lot and use magnifying lenses to find the similarities. The issue is with the kinds of liberties it takes. Speaking in the very broadest of strokes, there are two basic types of alterations. The first are changes made to simplify things. This series doesn't seem to be cognisant of grey morality. Instead, it boils things down to the “right” and the “wrong.” The nobles, save a select few, are portrayed as outright evil people who shoot children and run people over without caring in the slightest.

The second types of changes are those designed to make things painfully melodramatic. This series loves to take relatively minor things, like Marie Antoinette snubbing Madame Du Barry, and act like they're massive events that could totally lead to the end of everything that is. Because Ikeda Riyoko doesn't quite understand how treaties actually work and thinks they can fall apart like wet tissue paper when an important person from one nation doesn't get on with a kind of important person from another.

Speaking of an unfettered love of melodramatic nonsense, this series loves to take little twists and turns that don't make a lot of sense but they're “dramatic.” A big example is that there is a character who suffers an injury and loses the use of one of their eyes. We then discover that they're losing the use of their other one because “it's a strain to just have one functional eye.” Which basically translates to “anatomy, how does it work?” Here's a hint, not like that. There's a bit with a terminal illness, but it's pretty pointless since the character in question is barely affected by it before they die from something unrelated. It's good that they wasted our time with that sub-plot that goes nowhere. There's also the attempted sexual assault scene which leads to an apology and is never mentioned again. Speaking of romance bits, there's a part where Oscar's father tries to marry her off and there's an attempt to have drama with it for a very short period before it's over. Because that's how to have effective romantic drama. The romance in this is just rubbish in general. On the plus side, the slow, tedious execution of the “big, dramatic” scenes does lead to some unintentionally funny bits.

The pacing in this is pretty bad too. There are long, tedious segments where nothing of value is accomplished and when it finally gets to the revolution, which should be the interesting bit, we get a very small bit about the start and then it skips right to the end. Because why would you want real drama when you can have melodrama?

Characters:

Earlier, I mentioned that the morality in this is very one-dimensional. And the characterisation is where that creates the biggest problem. Those historical figures who are selected as antagonists are so unambiguously “evil for the evils” that if this weren't historical-based they'd have snake pun names and be taking orders from a bloke with a metal mask and raspy voice.

With the royal couple, the effort put into trying to make them sympathetic just gets absurd. Everything they do has to be justified, including engaging in the upper class twit past time known as fox hunting. Because foxes are vicious and will lunge for your throat. They certainly don't hide in burrows. And Marie Antoinette’s mild pettiness is presented as demonstrative of strength of character. The sad part is that it's not hard to portray them sympathetically. He s[pent his entire reign trying to make things better for the common folk but he ruled at a time when the king couldn't make unilateral decisions and he didn't have the political savvy to get the nobles on board. While she didn't have any real power because the woman in power at the French Court at that time was the king's mistress, which Louis XVI didn't have. And then they were both executed, as were their children. They may not have been saints, but they did nothing worth killing them.

Our protagonist is a very one-note “noble” protagonist. She always does the right thing and stays on the right side of history. It gets to the point where she comes across as an incompetent moron because there are scenes where her work requires her to deal with someone causing trouble but she'll let them go because “well, they're doing good” or she'll try to talk them down without anyone to watch her back and she'll get taken by surprise. It really comes across as Ikeda being afraid to have her do anything that someone might find objectionable. After all, if she went in and used her authority as the captain to do her job, she might seem like a bit of an authoritarian.

The ultimate consequence is that the characters come across more like they belong in a simple work for children than in a drama we're supposed to be taking seriously. Which is even worse when you factor in that these are based on real people, not a Hasbro toy line.

Art:

I don't want to be too harsh on the animation for this, since it was made a very long time ago. I won't say it looks bad. It really doesn't. I will, however, say that it's very lazy. All the standard cost cutting measures are used. Minimal movement with some motion blur to try and craft the illusion that more's happening on screen than actually is, recycled frames, very slow and awkward action sequences, tedious bits with a lot of sparkle vision to try and spice them up.

Sound:

The performances in this are decent enough. They aren't good performances but they're a bit above average. The biggest thing holding them back is just that the characters are very bland and don't demand much range. The music is passable.

Ho-yay:

There are quite a few female characters who express interest in Oscar, thinking that she's so cool and it's a pity she's not a man. They also include some of the spurious rumours about Marie Antoinette sleeping with everyone, including women.

Final Thoughts:

Overall, the big problem with this series is that it wants to be a serious drama but it doesn't want to include any real complexity. So, we get very stock characters who could be at home in a work for small children and we get a total lack of nuance or subtlety, which would also be suitable for a work made for small children. But we also get very poor attempts at tackling more serious subjects. Which makes it decidedly not for small children. And, ultimately, there are a lot of better portrayals of the French Revolution in media. Like a Tale of Two Cities, The Scarlet Pimpernel, The Reign of Terror Serial from Doctor Who, The Glass Blowers and quite a few more. Rose of Versailles simply doesn't use its subject matter in a compelling way. Unless you really like boring melodrama. For myself, I have to give it a 3/10. Next week I'll look at Youjo Senki.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by ktulu007 (661)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Osamu Dezaki Directed Anime Watchlist

by TheCoolGuy82

34 Entries · 59 Restacks

yuri 👩‍❤️‍💋‍👩👭

by grrrlsrevolution

50 Entries · 96 Restacks

Decent anime but not favorites

by mydaddy

18 Entries · 6 Restacks

Manga 'Versailles no Bara' Gets New Anime Movie

Avex Pictures opened an official website for a new anime movie adaptation for Riyoko Ikeda's Versailles no Bara (The Rose of Versailles) manga on Wednesday, rev...read more

Sep 6, 2022 4:29 PM by Vindstot | Discuss (41 comments)

North American Anime & Manga Releases for June

Here are the North American anime, manga, and light novel releases for June Week 1: June 1 - 7 Anime Releases Appare-Ranman! Blu-ray Black Clover Season 3 Part 4 Blu...read more

Jun 1, 2021 1:15 AM by ImperfectBlue | Discuss (13 comments)

	Poll: Rose of Versailles Episode 34 Discussion DonKangolJones - Nov 30, 2008	28 replies	by JKam57 »» 43 minutes ago
	Poll: Rose of Versailles Episode 33 Discussion DonKangolJones - Nov 30, 2008	34 replies	by JKam57 »» 1 hour ago
	Poll: Rose of Versailles Episode 32 Discussion ( 1 2 ) DonKangolJones - Nov 30, 2008	50 replies	by JKam57 »» 2 hours ago
	Poll: Rose of Versailles Episode 31 Discussion DonKangolJones - Nov 30, 2008	27 replies	by JKam57 »» 2 hours ago
	Poll: Rose of Versailles Episode 30 Discussion Yonatay - Oct 5, 2010	38 replies	by JKam57 »» 3 hours ago

Shueisha to Market Manga Art of One Piece and Other Series Worldwide!

First of all, what is “manga art”? Manga art is a new initiative to shine a spotlight on the illustrations that manga artists draw for their comics and give them lasting value as “works of art.”

by MAL_editing_team

24,898 views

Advertorial

Girls' Love and Its Diversity

Fictional love between girls can be found blooming across a growing field of genres and settings.

by MAL_Articles

94,917 views