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Rose of Versailles, The
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Title Info
- alias: Versailles no Bara
- seen: 1-4
- type: TV
- grade: worthy
- genre: shoujo
- made: unknown
- Review created: A while ago, i'll revise it eventually.
- mod: none
This is derived from a manga by the same author as Brother, Dear Brother and that will come as no suprise to anyone. The focus is on Oscar, the daughter of a famous french general who longs for a son and decides that Oscar will be that son. Thus Oscar is physically capable, an excellent swords-person and has elements of both the male and female mind-set. The backdrop, sumptuosly depicted, is the noble court of france at the height of its decadence before the french revolution as Oscar is the commander of the royal guard for Marie Antoinette. The ambience has a similar poisonous feel to that of BDB, with court politics, intrigue, conspiracy and out and out bitchiness the rule.
Do not underestimate the emotional unpleasantness of this environment in the hands of this capable author. As an example Oscar is truly horrified when her mother is dragged in as a playing piece, and you can fully sympathise with her as to what a terrible fate that is. I've no idea if it is historically accurate, but the environment is believable and the dates specific so it seems possible.
The animation is somewhat dated and fairly sparse, and the attempts to animate fencing are horrible but they are sufficient to carry a competent and powerful story. Personally I felt that the court politics and french history protected me from identifying as strongly with the characters as I could in BDB, thus somewhat reducing the emotional impact. I also suspect, being an older tape and fairly specialised, that it may be hard to find this material.
Words by Andrew Shelton, Web by Ticti, Last Compile: Wed Aug 5 12:39:24 WST 2009