The Rose of Versailles - Reviews

Alt title: Versailles no Bara

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VivisQueen's avatar
Oct 8, 2007

Story

Having first seen this series as a child of nine or ten in Germany, it was an enormous pleasure to revisit Rose of Versailles with an adult mindset. I remember it being one of my favourite childhood anime but was surprised to find that it exceeded even my adult expectations; it isn't for children at all! Told from the perspective of gender-switched Lady Oscar Jarjeyes of the elite Royal Guard, who is subsequently caught between duty and justice, we don't get a simple ‘rich baddies against poor goodies' kind of tale, but an epic and complex weaving of backgrounds and personalities.

Anyone with even a marginal understanding of history will understand that there's a rather important revolution coming at the end, so that in itself cannot be the hook. Instead, what drives the plot are the frenzied actions of the cast as they try to make the best of a stark situation. While the poor live in fear of starvation, the rich live in fear of becoming like the poor and, despite their superficial differences, each group is portrayed as drowning persons flailing against the inevitable. That's not to say everybody is flat and self-explanatory - far from it, the entire cast is a colourful pic'n'mix of personalities, with both good and bad intentions which do not necessarily lead to their predicted consequences. Let's take the aristocracy's treatment of the poor as an example. Just like the ordinary human, the rich aren't one-dimensionally selfish, but rather they make bad decisions or simply suffer from misfortune, or they realise the true nature of the situation too late to rule effectively, or all of the above. The plot is thus far from predictable, twisting and spiralling (mostly downwards) as the relationships and antagonisms develop.

Plenty of subplots are on offer too, from Marie Antoinette's stumble towards ultimate doom to the ambitious Jeanne's cut-throat grab for power; and if that's not good enough, there's always Oscar and her best friend Andre's heart-wrenching romance.


Animation

Although dated, Rose is still very watchable. The pretty character designs and bright hues, reminiscent of series like Escaflowne and spoofed in productions like Ouran, make me suspect that Rose is the anime that set the bar for my tastes later in life. Hair is golden, eyes are like lakes, tears sparkle, men are beautiful, and grass has never been greener. On the downside (for those who care about such things) there is much reliance on still shots and repeat frames but, to be fair, the sketch-like still frames are the gaming equivalent of cut scenes - they add more drama to the events and act as visual treats. Furthermore, I was pleasantly surprised by the relative competence of the combat sequences, which were detailed in movement and flowed nicely.


Sound

The sound quality leaves something to be desired; it occasionally has that shrillness which accompanies old videotape footage. However, when it comes to other things like voice-acting and soundtrack, Rose of Versailles doesn't disappoint. Although the entire cast performed well, Oscar has by far my favourite voice because she achieves a difficult balance between the feminine and masculine, meaning whether in a dress or in a soldier's uniform she is believable as the same person. The soundtrack has plenty to offer for all the different moods and settings, with my favourite being the slow harpsichord version of the opening theme used during touching or harrowing scenes. The OP is suitable, although even now I prefer the German version (hoorah for youtube!) because the Japanese vocals just seem too high and soft to set the tone for the episodes.


Characters

Oscar, the centrepiece of it all, who like the opening image in the credits suggests, is a lone rose blossoming in a rather thorny place. Her main driving motivation seems to be protecting the honour of the state of France and the people she loves no matter whom the opponent. My biggest fear with characters like hers is that creators too often fail to deliver on their promise of someone just, heroic, and kick-arse whilst being simultaneously female. Fortunately, Oscar is not one of those cases, managing to match every guy sword for sword and pride for pride.

Also, rather than ignore or destroy Oscar's femininity, the series grapples with it through her inner turmoil. She's not a transvestite or someone who particularly wishes to be sexually a male; her adopted masculinity was initially for convenience. However, later in life, it becomes apparent that she doesn't quite know what to do with the part of her that traditionally should be in a dress. Men still fall in love with her but then so do the women, who see in her the dashing hero so different from the conniving gentlemen of the Court. Watching her frustration through the relationships she develops, for instance with Andre, is a fascinating experience indeed.

Then there is the infamous Marie Antoinette, portrayed here as someone so innocently hedonistic, gullible, and incompetent, that within minutes she pissed me off something rotten; there wasn't one episode that went by with her in it that didn't make me want to pull out my hair in frustration, shouting ‘Baka!' Surprisingly, she is also one of the more complex and well-characterised personalities. In fact it's difficult to judge most of the characters one way or the other because they prove subtle in unexpected ways. I'd argue the legacy of this kind of characterisation exists in series like Nana, where behaviour is painful to watch but which, in the end, is actually a reflection of the nature of life.


Overall

Rose of Versailles, where love is tragic, greed is rife, and loyalty is absolute - it's great fun to watch but I certainly wouldn't want to live there. If you're looking for an anime where nobody gets a break and the personal and the political become intertwined in a downward-spiralling path of destruction, then this is it. It really delves into what it means to struggle and fall, providing a twisty plot with great cliff-hangers and superb characterisation.

8/10 story
7/10 animation
7/10 sound
8/10 characters
8.5/10 overall
vivafruit's avatar
Oct 19, 2009

Rose of Versailles starts strongly. Aside from introducing a likeable set of characters, the show sets the stage in a promising setting: France, in the years leading up to the French Revolution. Unfortunately, some absolutely asinine directing prevents the show from being anything but mediocre.

The major problem with Rose of Versailles is not the general story in and of itself, but the delivery. Over the course of the anime, the show is sure to include several (repetitive) segments that focus on the desperate cries of the underprivileged, the tragic oversights of the ruling class, the hungry children dying in the streets, etc. Given the setting of the show, this is a perfectly fine and probably even expected approach to take. The error, however, is that the show then focuses heavily on the largely trivial activities of Marie Antoinette.

The result is a weirdly hypocritical juxtaposition that can best be compared to some of the material found in mecha and hentai. With certain mecha, the audience must listen to heartfelt anti-war monologues in between bouts of long, drawn out battles. In hentai, many works will firmly state that rape is a Very Bad Thing, but not bad enough to actually stop animating it. Rose of Versailles, on the other hand, shows more and more forcibly that the upper class is ignoring what's REALLY important, all the while making exactly the same mistake.

Some of the most interesting episodes involve the characters on the lower rung of society. Rosalie, a thoroughly unlucky and ultimately endearing peasant, has an unexpectedly poignant quest for revenge. Her extremely ambitious sister is also an immensely interesting character, and her personal story arc is probably the best of the entire series. Unfortunately, the time spent on these stories is minimal when compared to Antoinette's longwinded tales of ballrooms, dinner parties and gossip. When all is said and done, more than half of the show is filled with meaningless shoujo that I cared absolutely nothing about. By the time the second, infinitely superior half finally rolled around, I had already lost most of my personal investment in any of the characters. Interesting things began to happen, but I was no longer interested.

That said, the series is a bit too grandiose in its sheer ambition to completely dismiss. There are moments of excellent drama, and the originality of the entire project definitely boosts its overall merit. However, in the long run, there are better works out there.

Animation

Excellent character designs contrast with some occasionally shaky action scenes. Overall, this is a top-notch job given the show's age, and a decidedly below average one when compared to titles made today. Either way, the quality of the animation was largely irrelevant to how much I enjoyed the anime as a whole. The series doesn't depend on the animation to entertain, instead relying primarily on its storyline and characters.

Sound

My impression of JPop up until this point was that the farther back on the timeline you went, the more awful the music became. Rose of Versailles' OP, while not necessarily proving this belief wrong, is at the very least a welcome exception. The song is surprisingly catchy, and actually does a nice job of setting the mood of the show.

The rest of the music is largely instrumental, and generally quite well done. While some of the songs become a tad repetitive near the end of the show, for the most part they work well with the story.

Voice acting ranges from good to excellent.

?/10 story
?/10 animation
?/10 sound
?/10 characters
6.5/10 overall
ThatAnimeSnob's avatar
Aug 21, 2012

Before this anime, the term “interesting scenario” was still science fiction because all shows that preceded it had a story that could fit in 2 episodes and all the rest was just filler. Not only that, but Rose of Versailles (ROV) happens to be amongst the top (if not the top 1) best historical anime ever made. And just think that it is over 30 years old by now and still not many can get where it did.

So just from the description alone we have a highly interesting historical backdrop; that of the times before and during the French Revolution, when the world was changed forever. You immediately feel that you are watching events that shake the world and that it all happened for real. It is not a fictional story of aliens invading Earth and a huge robot goes to stop them with a magic sword. I mean, Captain Harlock had an equally engaging setting but as I wrote in my review it was too heavily based on technology and the hero could summon a hundred different deus ex machina means to win, which mad the whole thing superficial and highly unreal.

It is an interesting topic of how anime were never meant to be historically accurate and that they are to the most part a form of escapism where we expect to see unrealistic situations, simplistic stories and superficial characters we can identify with. But that does not mean there can’t be an attempt to marry the real with the unreal and still be entertaining, as with the case of this anime. In fact, having a historical backdrop makes the drama of the story all the more powerful as nobody can reject it as far fetched. Or that even someone who already knows how things turned out to be like, will still find the inevitable fate of the characters to be highly tragic. All that without the need for the author to even foreshadow anything; it is all there from the beginning.

The thing with this anime is that it is not the first historical but the first historical with a very interesting setting. All previous works were mostly about a generic situation in some rural area, where the heroes were kids, usually poor and orphan, trying to live a happy life with friends and romance and the likes. A favorite of mine from a previous entry is Candy Candy, which encompasses everything a good historical story should be about. But as cute as all that may have been, the setting still remained overly simplistic and devoid of action or anxiety. No wonder the genres were divided in a way to have super robots with brain dead action and simplistic stories to be aimed at boys, while historical based ones with lots of everyday lives of normal people were aimed at girls.

So then ROV comes along and somewhat merges these two polar genres. The setting is now more exciting, there is some action, there is some romance, and there are tragic historical personalities. And if you so much want some poor peasant girl in a very dramatic story, well here you go, it has one in quite the grim situation. It also has many nobles and aristocrats, in full glamour and selfishness, blind to the needs of their people. Plus it has a gender bender.

Yup, as I foretold in my Ribbon no Kishi review, this anime took the next step at the topic with the case of Oscar, a woman raised to behave as a rather feminine looking young man because of social demands once again. As fun as it was back in the time Osamu Tezuka had his hero being a boy in a girl’s body doing something similar, after awhile the whole thing felt flat out silly and too heavy on unrealistic magic. Oscar is a far more down to earth character, striving to be a good swordsman in order to protect his/her noble friend/superior, as well as the peasants from the greed of the nobles and the ruthlessness of the military.

It is very graphical from time to time, showing murder and death and lies to frame someone, even cases of rape and pedophilia. The animators were not too scared to show the inhumane side of the nobles and of the dark side of humanity in general. Again, although Captain Harlock had done something similar with its setting, mankind there always ended up being conquered by aliens and then begging the hero to save them with his ship alone. Highly unrealistic before this setting where villains and victims are all normal people living in the same country and where the solution is public uproar and not super energy beams and indestructible spaceships. It makes the whole thing feel a lot more familiar and easier to identify with.

Another very good feature is how the story is not entirely focused on one character alone. Although Oscar is the main hero/ine, in reality the story continually shifts to numerous others and allows us to see things from various different perspectives. And I don’t mean filler scenes with the villains plotting their next move or a side character doing nonsense; I mean essential stuff to help you grasp the situation of the world. In fact, the first half of the show is mostly about Maria Antoinette rather than Oscar, as we see her gradually turning from a scared girl amidst the intrigues of the royal court into a snobby woman, indulged in the riches and the coldness towards the very emotions she once cared about. Frankly speaking, this was never done before in such an extent.

But it is not like I consider this anime to be perfect. Its animation has several problems around proportions and many characters do seem to be similar looking. Also, the pacing of the show seems to be terribly slow in the middle and terribly rushed in the ending, with the finale being nothing but narration to fill in all of the stuff the animators failed to show properly. But it still is quite the feat for its time and worthy to belong in the top ten best retro anime of all time, as well as the top five historical.

And it’s not like its themes were never exploited in the future, like in the case of time traveler Go Nagai’s works. Many later anime had great touches of royalty and French Revolution feeling to them, such as in the cases of Legend of Galactic Heroes, Revolutionary Girl Utena, The Count of Monte Christo, and Chevalier D’Eon. There are also some other child oriented anime around the three musketeers, such as Wanwan Sanjushi and Anime Sanjushi.

And now for some excused scorings.

ART SECTION: 8/10
General Artwork 2/2 (interesting)
Character Figures 1/2 (generic)
Backgrounds 2/2 (French beauty)
Animation 1/2 (basic)
Visual Effects 2/2 (artsy)

SOUND SECTION: 8/10
Voice Acting 2/3 (corny but fitting with the feeling of the series)
Music Themes 4/4 (catchy songs)
Sound Effects 2/3 (ok I guess)

STORY SECTION: 9/10
Premise 2/2 (interesting)
Pacing 1/2 (erratic)
Complexity 2/2 (goes back and forth in many ways)
Plausibility 2/2 (I don’t remember any internal logic problems)
Conclusion 2/2 (solid)

CHARACTER SECTION: 10/10
Presence 2/2 (extravagant)
Personality 2/2 (rather cheesy but well founded)
Backdrop 2/2 (it’s there)
Development 2/2 (you betcha!)
Catharsis 2/2 (full house)

VALUE SECTION: 9/10
Historical Value 3/3 (all-known)
Rewatchability 2/3 (high if you skip the boring parts)
Memorability 4/4 (too good to be forgotten)

ENJOYMENT SECTION: 7/10
Some parts are boring and slow but overall it is a great work.

VERDICT: 8.5/10

9/10 story
8/10 animation
8/10 sound
10/10 characters
8.5/10 overall
cm1000's avatar
Jan 2, 2019

This is an anime that I was not sure about watching before I finally gave it a chance. I came across it a few times here on Anime-planet when I was looking for a new anime to watch, but I kept looking right past it for a while. All I knew about it at the time was that that it was made in the 70s and what the cover image looked like, which gave me a glipse of what the art style was like. I originally did not give the anime a fair chance just because it was about thirty-nine years old. After I have seen it I wish I saw it sooner. This is actually the kind of anime that is right up my ally because it is a historical drama, which I did not even know for a while because I was juding it by its cover. Versailles no Bara may be an older anime, but that does no change how good it actually is.

Story:

The story of Versailles no Bara is heavily influenced by the French Revolution, and the events in Versailles and Marie Antoinette's life leading up to that point. Some of the characters, like Marie Antoinette and Robespierre, were actual key figures at the time and I thought it was cool to see that and to get a different look at these people than how they are portrayed in the history books. Or at least I find historical shows to be fascinating and honestly do enjoy seeing historical figures portrayed in different ways in media.With anime like this it is also interesting to look at the story and wonder what parts of it really did happen and what parts of it are made up ti make people more interested in the story.

This anime includes many timeskips since the story takes place in the time frame of about twenty years. Since there were probably many things that happened in those twenty so years leading up to the French Revolution, they only include the more important parts of that time period in the story. The events chosen to be included in the story seem to be good choices as they do their purpose of showing the audience what the characters are like as much as they can until the end. The story does a good job of preparing the audience for the events at the end of the anime. This anime does a great job of foreshadowing with a who appears a few times and when he does appear he is usually talking about that inevitable downfall of Versailles and of France as they currently know it as. After the revolution has started, this character is seen to be dead. I thought this was an excellent example of foreshadowing because this guy who is always shown talking about this inevitable downfall dies at the very time what he was foreshadowing had just begun. The narrator of the story also does a bit of foreshadowing with a few a the things she says mainly about how a character did not know what was to come.

Now, a majority of this story is based off real events, but Versailles no Bara knows how to take these events and make it into a story of its own. Mainly with the interesting characters it adds and how it makes the audience so interested in seeing what happens in certain scenes. I absolutely love historical stories like this and I think Versailles no Bara does an amazing job of presenting it.

Animation:

The art style of this anime is actually kind of beautiful. I especially like how the character designs look. I like seeing when a character is made to sparkle or how the light may reflect around them. It is nice how the art style will slightly change for a little bit to highlight an important or dramatic moment. The actual animation of this anime is not very good. As what to expect from a 70s anime, the animation quality is poorly done and there are many scenes that could have been animated better. For what this anime lacks in animation, it makes up for in its beautiful art style.

Sound:

Music: Versailles no Bara's soundtrack is just beautiful. A lot of the songs on the soundtrack are sad but beautiful at the same time to perfectly fit the tone of this anime. I could just listen to this soundtrack for hours on end and have. During the anime, the music fits the mood very well. When there is a fight or battle going on the music fits that mood and makes the audience more pumped for the fight and more into wanting to see what happens. When there is an ominous mood the music gives the audience a reason to feel that way and let them know that something bad is going to happen. The music is well chosen and placed to fit the scenes it is in perfectly.

The opening song, Bara wa utsukushiku chiru, is a beautiful song to start off this anime with. Hiroko Suzuki’s voice is just beautiful and was a great choice to sing this opening song. I like how the instrumentation of this song is softer in some parts and louder in others. The parts that are louder are more important and I think fit the anime well with the fighting and war aspects. The softer parts of this song better fit the calmer and sweeter moments in this anime. Together it sounds like a beautifully made song that well fits the anime.

The ending song, Ai no Hikari to Kage, is also sung by Hiroko Suzuki, so similarly to the opening this song is beautiful in every way. It feels like this song appeals more to the more tragic aspects of Versailles no Bara and is another way the anime prepares the audience for some tragic events at the end. The beautifully sad atmosphere this song gives off fits the anime perfectly and is why it is the perfect ending.

The rest of the music from the anime is mainly insturmental. Many of the songs sound very similar, which can get a bit repetitive. Some of the insert songs are very cliche for anime from this time period, especially during dramatic moments. Even so, these songs work well in their scenes and do help to bring out the mood in a particular scene.

Voice Acting:

The voice acting is alright. By alright I mean it is not bad, but it is also not great. Some of the voice acting could have been better in a few scenes or for a few characters. In some of these cases it could be the Fault of that particular voice actor, but there are other times where it just sounds like the equipment they used for recording was not very good. Sometimes in scenes with action some of the sounds the characters make (like screams or grunts in a sword fight) sound a bit off. There are also good aspects of the voice acting like when a character's voice sounds a bit dramatic when they speak as a way to get the audience to pay attention to this part. I think the scenes in this anime where some of the characters sound a bit dramatic in the way they speak are the most interesting.

 

Characters:

The characters of Versailles no Bara are very well rounded and have good character development. I could probably name a few good and bad qualities about all of the main characters. I like how some of the characters were presented in a way that I ended up both loving and hating that character. The characters in this anime really do add to the story and pull it along and make it more entertaining. There are some characters who help bring out some of the different aspects of the story: like how Rosalie helps to bring out the tragic atmosphere of France at the time, Jeanne Becu du Barry shows how low some people would go at the time to move up in status, and Charlotte de Polignac shows some ideas and customs of the time can push people to extremes and lose their mind. There are many characters from this anime that I could talk about, but I just chose four that I thought were most important.

Oscar François de Jarjayes: 

The main character of this anime is Oscar François de Jarjayes. Oscar is a young woman who was raised as a man because her father could not have any sons and he wanted someone to follow in his footsteps, so when Oscar was born he decided she was going to be his son (I know this sounds really weird. This is the beginning of the first episode and I thought it was really weird when I watched it at first). At the beginning of the anime, Oscar is a general of the French Royal Guards (I say in the beginning because her rank changes multiple times in the anime). She is an interesting character who adds things to this historical story to make it more interesting than just the events that happened. She is a very strong individual and all the fight and action scenes she has are great. I like that we also see an internal struggle within Oscar with being raised to be her father’s son, but underneath everything she is still a woman. This is nice because it is shown in episode 1 and then is shown in a few later episodes as well after many things changed, so it is nice to see that this one thing had not yet changed about her. She grows so much throughout this anime, but this one thing sticks with her throughout as a result of her upbringing.

Oscar does work for Marie Antoinette for a majority of the anime and the two of them sort of become like friends, but at some point Oscar starts to question the way Marie Antoinette rules France. It is shown that Oscar starts to question her rule, but she mainly keeps this to herself and does not try to comfort Marie Antoinette about this, which I assume is because Oscar understands that Marie Antoinette does not have bad intentions and she can see both sides. Oscar feels for the French citizens who are starving and suffering, but she also can see that Marie Antoinette is not causing this on purpose, so she mainly stays silent on the matter. I would have loved to see her do more to help the people who were suffering than she did or to do it sooner. For multiple episodes I could tell that she wanted to do something, but it is not until the last few episodes that she does.

Oscar has to be my favorite character from Versailles no Bara because of how much depth there is to her and her internal struggles: being a man even though she was born a woman and choosing between one’s duty and what is right.

Marie Antoinette:

Of course for an anime taking place in and around Versailles one of the most important characters to the plot is no other than Marie Antoinette. She was born the princess of Austria and became the Queen of France through marriage. The Marie Antoinette in the anime Versailles no Bara is based on the real historical figure. The way she is presented in this anime is like how she was, but it is also different than I remember hearing about in history class. I remember learning in history class that she was this selfish person who was a terrible ruler because she cared more about having the finer things in life than the happiness and well-being of her people. This is clearly shown in the anime, but it is shown in a way of just not knowing the best way to rule because she was so young when she became queen instead of in a way of that she did not care about her people at all. She was presented in a way that I actually cared about her a little bit and did not entirely think of her as a bad person. She is first presented as a selfish, young girl who has always had an easy life. She later uses money that France does not have to feed her extravagant lifestyle without thinking about how it might affect her people. There are a few times in the anime that she shows what I think is genuine concern for her people. In the way she is portrayed in the anime, she does care for her people and does wish them the best, but she does nothing to help them and is usually the source of their suffering. One thing I can definitely applaud this anime for is how it presents its characters because this anime made me both hate and love Marie Antoinette at the same time. There were sometimes where I felt like i wanted to strangle her and others where I actually felt a little sorry for her. Her character is very well presented in this anime.

Maximillien Robespierre:

Robespierre is another major historical figure who is also in this anime. He does not have much of an impact until the second half of the anime, closer to when the revolution happens. I wanted to talk about him in here because of he influences some of the main characters in what they later think and do about the state of things. As one of the main voices of the French Revolution, both in real life and Versailles no Bara, what he had to say had influenced many people, this includes our main characters Oscar and André. André was always interested in what Robespierre had to say and Oscar took a little while longer to decide, but also agreed with him. What I find cool about Robespierre is not what he does directly, but what happened indirectly because of his influence on people.

André Grandier:

André is Oscar’s childhood friend who is the son of a servant at the Jarjayes house. André and Oscar are very close and in the anime they are often fencing partners or will just talk when one of them is going through something. André is always there for Oscar and cares for her a lot. Something I find interesting about André is that he seems to not be accepted in either world of nobility or of the commoners. He is not accepted in the world of nobility because he is seen on the level of a servant and does not get treated like a nobleman. He is also no accepted in the world of commoners because even though he may be a servant, compared to other commoners he has had it easy like a nobleman would. I remember a scene where a character said something like this to André and he seemed surprised because there is a huge difference between him and a noble, so he never thought of his life that way. The way André supports Oscar is interesting. He is of a lower class than her, so he often tries to stay quiet about views he has that she may not agree with, but if it is something he thinks is best for her he will make his ideas vocalized. The conclusion Oscar came to about the state of things André came to much earlier and I think him thinking that way did influence Oscar to do so as well. He seems like a very smart character who adds a lot too the story.

characters overall:

Versailles no Bara does not just focus on one main character, but instead wants the audience to get to know many different characters. This anime also very rarely shows the characters in one way, but will instead show at least two sides to each character so the audience can get a more well-rounded understanding of the characters. Being able to see all the characters in this way helps to show the themes of this anime such as morality, which in this anime is shown to be very blurred. The characters is the aspect of this anime that is the strongest because the way they are presented and develop aids in presenting the themes of this anime in a very nice way and it also makes it easier for the audience to because attached to some characters and to be interested in what happens to them. How the characters are written in this story is a key part as to why it is just as good nearly fourty years after it was released.

Conclusion:

Watching this anime has probably made me more open to watching more kinds of anime. What I mean by that is mainly with older anime. Before watching Versailles no Bara I did not really watch any older anime (only a few from the 90s). I mainly did not like watching older anime because of the style of the animation. I loved the animation in Versailles no Bara though, so after watching this I think I could watch more anime made around the same time. This anime made me think differently about older anime and to not strictly judge them on the animation itself.

This is an anime that I would definitely recommend to all kinds of people. The story is set in the eighteenth century France, so I would highly recommend this to anyone who loves history, especially European history. I myself thought the historical aspect was fascinating. I loved seeing these different historical figures and how this anime portrayed them. It is also nice for shoujo or romance fans because there are some moments that seem a bit girly. It is also great for fans of action. From episode one the fight scenes are great from the sword fights, to the gun fights, and full on battles and wars. The action scenes are always interesting to watch. This anime has so much in it, so I think it is something that so many different people can enjoy.

I absolutely love this anime. It has a few flaws here and there, but overall it is an amazing anime, especially for something made in the 70s. I did not think I would enjoy this anime as much as I did because of its age and I have not seen many older anime, but I really enjoyed this one. This may be the anime that can get me into older anime. This was such a good anime that I think is very close to being a masterpiece, which I do not say about many anime. I watched for the first time a few weeks ago and I already want to rewatch to relive all of this. The Rose of Versailles is an amazing anime that I am so happy to have seen because of how much I now love it.

9/10 story
8/10 animation
9/10 sound
10/10 characters
9/10 overall
ohtoriakio's avatar
Oct 5, 2009

Before you read this I will ask of you to not judge it solely on the high ratings. I feel like I have explained the reasons for giving them quite well. Please in your rating, let me know the way to improve on it and I will promptly do so. The high animation rating is based on what could be accomplished at the time the anime was made as I realise that it would be sub-standard if it were made nowadays.

This anime is one of my favourite and I have seen many in 15 years but only a couple have managed to come close in delivering like this one does.

The animation is not the best nowadays but I am giving it a high mark because for its time, it is a remarkable achievement. I am sure that many people will agree with me on this, some of the budget episodes of Sailor Moon or Pokemon and Naruto look worse. This is because Rose of Versailles is not a show that takes shortcuts in its presentation. Unlike Naruto and Sailor Moon, the same high standard is kept through its entire run.

For its time, this anime was very ambitious and it does accomplish what it sets out to do. A scene that reflects the animation capacity (in its iconic form) of this series can be seen in the last episode. It is just stills of pencil drawings and the symbolism and emotion is so strong, one can't help but be moved.

Just that scene reflects what you have seen in emotion and intensity for 40 episodes and blows you away. The drawing style is also another one of its strengths as the characters look very elegant and royal, which fits the bill here perfectly. The character design is also great as it allows the character to grow within a time period, and slowly changes and matures them in their drawing style over time.

The sound is excellent in this series as it helps to show the range of emotion characters express. The theme song is atmospheric and also very fitting with the emotive notes and the beautiful music. The theme music is used quite often within the episodes and it is surprisingly efficient to portray the rainbow of human emotion. The best part of it is obviously the seiyuus' work here.

Main characters like Oscar, Andre and Marie Antoinette and minor ones like Mme DuBarry and Charlotte are brought to life extremely well. Even though these characters are on conflicting sides of the social spectrum, one understands their motives and sentiments to a touching degree.

The story is still one of the most engrossing I have seen in anime since I first watched it. Taking real historical figures and some fictive ones, this anime tells the story so well that you can understand why the characters acted the way they did, and the drama is strongly expressed.

Some historical events are also used as plot devices here (the affair of the necklace, the bastille, the revolution) and the result is brilliant. These are given enough detail for us to fully appreciate the situation, while letting characters shine through as the driving force. There are also plenty of heartfelt moments of yearning, loss, love, obedience and death that are so well-executed - they move you to tears.

As mentioned above the characters are amazing as were it not for them, the story would not be nearly as successful. To fully enjoy this experience one has to connect with the characters and this cast makes it extremely easy.

I felt a lot of emotions when the romantic story between Marie Antoinette and Fersen was explored and was moved to tears to see its conclusion. Same goes with the Oscar and Andre story. There are rarely animes that make you feel the way this one does and this is very much due to its affecting cast. The reason the characters seem so great overall is because their feelings are explored very convincingly and unlike other shoujos, they are not overplayed for emphasis.

The value of this anime is just excellent as I frequently revisit it for some great entertainment and it still delivers. It also paved the way for other great shows like Utena and Princess Tutu (Utena more obviously than Tutu with its theme but the detailed backgrounds of Tutu are definitely influenced by some settings here.)

I still enjoy this anime immensely even though it is 25 years old and have seen it many times over as it really aims for the heart. My guess is you will feel the same way.

10/10 story
10/10 animation
10/10 sound
9/10 characters
9.9/10 overall