Versailles no Bara (The Rose of Versailles)

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Alternative Titles

Synonyms: Berusaiyu no Bara

Japanese: ベルサイユのばら

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Information

Type: TV

Episodes: 40

Status: Finished Airing

Aired: Oct 10, 1979 to Sep 3, 1980

Premiered: Fall 1979

Broadcast: Wednesdays at 19:00 (JST)

Producers: Nippon Television Network

Licensors: Nozomi Entertainment, Discotek Media

Studios: Tokyo Movie Shinsha

Source: Manga

Genres: Drama, Romance

Themes: Historical, Military

Demographic: Shoujo

Duration: 24 min. per ep.

Rating: PG-13 - Teens 13 or older

Statistics

Score: 8.34¹ (scored by 29,761 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #222²

² based on the top anime page. Please note that 'Not yet aired' and 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #2103

Members: 97,859

Favorites: 3,014

Resources

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Synopsis

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]

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Related Anime

Adaptation:	Versailles no Bara
Summary:	Versailles no Bara: Seimei Aru Kagiri Aishite, Versailles no Bara to Onna-tachi
Alternative version:	La Rose de Versailles, Versailles no Bara (Movie), Versailles no Bara: Moetsukita Bara no Shouzou

Komiya, Kazue
Japanese

More staff

Staff

Dezaki, Osamu

Director, Storyboard

Nagahama, Tadao

Director, Sound Director, Chief Animation Director

Nishikubo, Mizuho

Episode Director

Nagaoka, Akinori

Episode Director

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Opening Theme

"Bara wa Utsukushiku Chiru" by Hiroko Suzuki

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Ending Theme

"Ai no Hikari to Kage" by Hiroko Suzuki

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 ...

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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.

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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 ...

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Poll: Rose of Versailles Episode 1 Discussion ( 1 2 ) yma981 - Sep 23, 2008	65 replies	by ArtimesGamer »» Today, 2:36 AM
Poll: Rose of Versailles Episode 8 Discussion removed-user - Apr 19, 2009	41 replies	by Natt_5cents »» Yesterday, 9:01 AM
Poll: Rose of Versailles Episode 32 Discussion DonKangolJones - Nov 30, 2008	48 replies	by 5hadow17 »» Apr 4, 12:30 PM
Poll: Rose of Versailles Episode 17 Discussion Alcoholicide - Sep 6, 2011	24 replies	by ryougi_shiki07 »» Apr 2, 6:08 PM
Poll: Rose of Versailles Episode 16 Discussion MagEarwhig - May 26, 2009	33 replies	by ryougi_shiki07 »» Apr 2, 4:32 PM

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Versailles no Bara

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Characters & Voice Actors

de Jarjayes, Oscar François

Grandier, André

Antoinette, Marie

Lamorlière, Rosalie

Fersen, Hans Axel von

Valois de la Motte, Jeanne

de Soisson, Alain

Robespierre, Maximilien

du Barry, Jeanne Becu

de Polignac, Charlotte

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Versailles no Bara

Alternative Titles

Information

Statistics

Resources

Synopsis

Background

Visit MALxJapan MALxJapan -More than just anime-

Related Anime

Characters & Voice Actors

Staff

Opening Theme

Ending Theme

Reviews

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Recent News

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