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

Nov 7, 2024

GRozek

Recommended

Seriously, one of the best anime. A lot of interesting plots packed into the 3-4 main characters' life. 1st ep does not show the full potential. By the ep4 you'll be hooked with the 1st female villain - madame du Barry. All female villains are very interesting. The most interesting history-based piece of media. No wonder it inspired the live-action movie filmed in the palace of Versailles. It did not age bad at all. Visuals are stunning, I took 2074 screenshots. A lot of the scenes look like paintings. I don't remember a show that particular about each single visual scene. While you can see ... its its late 80s/early 90s, it did excellent artistic job! Most of the scenes are storyboarded with the great symbolism. A lot of rain, roses, pidgeons flying above, shining sky and roses. The tears, water dripping from a handheld cloth and jewels are glistening. Oscar, Antoinette and Andre's hair look beautiful. There are few characters that feel they are form a different cheaper/uglier anime, like the Oscar's father (and other mature men with wigs drawn the same way) and the nanny. The first is not designed so well, he should have much smaller eyes, the unappealing big Disney eyes make those "not youthfully handsome" men in wigs cheep and dated, like from Astro Boy or Kimba the white Lion. The nanny looks like a 70s anime Disney-like cliché "good auntie character. That's my only ick. But after few episodes (as the characters got older) they are drawn more realistically and finally fit into the style. I did not like the character design and the plot of Rosalie at first, she was the weaker point of the show for me. Perhaps the anime team did not like her that much to and got a bit lazy with her scenes? She looks like a generic girl character from the 70s TV anime.
Music is very good. The opening song I never skipped. One of the greatest openings. The song is beautiful and very symbolic, nostalgic. The animation only shows a meadow, a rose and Oscar standing, not much happens, compared to a typical anime opening, but it feels very deep, it's very artistic and purposeful. The beginning shot of the still & naked Oscar (her body & hair panted red) captured by the thorny bush which must have happen over a long time as it looks almost metallic, that opens the show is one of the most beautiful pieces of art. Backed up by the intense first sound of the opening music.

The 40 episodes did not feel to me like a lot. Watching 74 episodes of "Monster" felt like a struggle at times, even though I was hooked, but I did feel like I'm waiting to finally reach the ending. Here on the other way, it was the opposite, I was hoping for it to take longer, and was savoring each episode.

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

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Mar 17, 2022

WitchFromMercury

Mixed Feelings

It's kind of cheesy and very old fashioned show but the art is still nice (maybe not so much the animation though) and it can be boring at times too.

I very much enjoyed the girl on girl drama parts but I found the war and soldier scenes to be boring and those characters were hard to sympathize with. I felt the series was at its best when it was about how Marie would endure the schemes of villains like Madame du Barry and Jeanne.

I will also mention that it's obvious that Oscar inspired Reinahrd from LotGH so that was interesting to see as a fan ... of LotGH.

My favorite part was the Madame du Barry arc from the beginning, and I learned a lot about the French Revolution. I would say that the climax of the story was the trial of Jeanne and the conclusion of the affair of the diamond necklace. After that, the characters become too hard for me to sympathize with, save for Andre, who very well could be considered the protagonist by then.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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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

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