Archive for the Rose of Versailles Category


The Rose of Versailles Manga, Volume 1 (English)

December 8th, 2019

The Rose of Versailles, Volume 1 is a definitive edition of Riyoko Ikeda’s magnum opus. I say this with absolute conviction in and knowledge of the amount of work – and love – that went into it’s making. 

Oscar François de Jarjeyes is a young noblewoman raised as a son by her father. As commander of Marie Antoinette’s palace guard, Oscar is brought face-to-face with the luxury of King Louis XVI’s court at Versailles. Joined by her servant André, Oscar is privy to the intrigue and deceit of France’s last great royal regime.

I am quoting the editorial slug for this book because I wrote it in the first place and I think it stands as a perfectly fine synopsis. ^_^

Volume 1 begins at the beginning, with the births of three of the main players in our drama, Hans Axel Von Fersen in Sweden,  Oscar François De Jarjayes in France and Royal Highness Marie Antoinette Josèphe Jeanne de Lorraine D’Autriche, in Austria, known to her family as Maria Antonia and to history as Marie Antoinette, Queen of France.

The story takes us through Oscar and Maria’s childhoods, through the moment their lives converge upon Maria’s arrival in France to marry Louis-Auguste Bourbon, the Dauphin of France all the way to Fersen’s confession to Oscar of his love for Marie and Oscar’s patronage of Rosalie Lamorliére, an orphaned Parisian girl. It’s 498 pages of high drama. And, for the first time ever, color pages have been restored to their original chapters, as they were seen in the original magazine run. (For those of you wondering why there was a such a long delay between the license and the printing, finding good quality versions of these images was among the many things the publisher needed to do. The original magazine files were no longer available through the Japanese publisher. And all of the placement had to be approved by the creator. )

The book itself is gorgeous. Hardcover, with raised red and gold lettering, and a truly brilliant cover design by Andy Tsang. The only touch it is missing is gilt-edging, but I guessed (and the publisher has confirmed) that that would have pushed the cost per book up significantly. Still… it would have looked sweet.

The biggest surprise to me, having never read the entirety of the story before editing it, was how much less decent a person General De Jarjayes is in the manga than the anime.

As I edited the book, I kept capturing Oscar’s face from various panels. The end result is a fantastic short version of her evolution as a character. ^_^ Here she is at the beginning and the end of Volume 1.

The art is very of its time, the story more compelling for the characters we meet and begin to care about. Translation was done with painstaking research, and I sure as heck did my best with the editing!

If ever you have thought that you want to buy the kind of book that will be with us 40 years later and still be as timely and meaningful…this is that book.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 9
Characters – 9
Service – Uhhhh, Oscar in a uniform is service, so 6
Yuri – 1 for the court scenes, 2 for Rosalie

Overall – 9

The Rose of Versailles is a remarkably accurate telling of a true story from the perspective of a wholly fictitious character. It is also disturbingly timely as we move inexorably towards a similar climax here in the USA and, based on other protests we’re seeing globally, we can be pretty sure which way the cannons will point.





The Rose of Versailles – Behind the Scenes

July 18th, 2019

Today I am writing about something near and dear to my heart – the upcoming publication of shoujo manga classic The Rose of Versailles, by Riyoko Ikeda! There is a single, specific reason I want to write about this, but it’s going to take a while to get to, so buckle in for a story. ^_^

For one thing, I was absolutely thrilled to be able to assist with this production, and I want to be really honest about this, because I didn’t do fuck all to get this job. That this job landed in my lap is an example of the single most important piece of advice I have ever received from my mother – It’s not what you know, it’s who you know. This is one of the ugliest truths in the world, but it is a TruthTM. I happen to be friends with key people on this project; people who know me, know my skills and strengths and who trusted me to do something for them.

Which brings me to the next thing I want to point out – this series was translated by two different translators, both of whom I adore and consider good friends, Mari Morimoto and Jocylene Allen. Mari has been responsible for some of the best known and best-selling manga on the market, including Naruto. You’ve read Jocylene’s work in a ton of Yuri manga. Both of these women are incredibly talented and I have immense respect for their work – no ‘but’s. They are geniuses. Put a pin in this, because we will swing back here towards the end. In this case, one of the translators, Mari Morimoto asked me to edit/adapt their script as a hire by her, personally. She needed someone to bounce some concepts/choices off of. Again, let me be clear – I did not make any translation choices. I made suggestions of ways to make things sound better. In the end, the translation is the translator’s work, but where there are three ways to say the same thing, as an adapter, I’m looking at the voice of the character, the tone of the story, and suggesting a way to say it that reads more consistently.

I was in discussion with the publisher one day who was bemoaning some extraordinarily tedious work he had to do as part of getting things organized and simply offered to do some of the grunty bullshit that was needed. ^_^ Editorial assist crap. Like, here’s a 5 page Excel spreadsheet, fill-it-in-for-me stuff. When people say they want to work in publishing I’m not sure what they think they’ll be doing, but let me assure you – this is what you are doing. ^_^ My editorial assistant is taking pieces I write, and incredibly tediously adding in footnotes. I do not envy her this work – which is why I hired her! I hate footnoting things. It’s boring shit that has to be done.

Sometime later, when the series was close to completed, I was once again talking to the publisher and he commented that he needed someone to go back and just read the whole thing and make sure all the names were consistent. This seems obvious, but there were two translator shifts, from one person to another, then back. Sure it seems like it might be easy, Marquis de Lafayette isn’t going to be spelled differently because he’s a real person, barring an honest typo. How about Girodelle who was wholly made up and whose name is not Girodelle nor Girodel, but ジェローデル? So I had the honor and pleasure of reading the whole thing in the most tedious and painstaking manner I could, not paying attention to the story, per se, but all the individual words. I ended up fixing some stuff and caught a few typos, which brings me to an important point:

There will always be typos.

Are you, like me, one of those people who cannot not edit as they read? I get it, I really do. As a reviewer if I catch a minor typo and I can tell the publisher, I do. But generally I, like you, am reading the retail copy (on purpose. I don’t often remember to ask for review copies, because I also want to support the work with my money. I do note when I get a review copy, but it’s not all that common.)

Yes, some typos are worse than others. Inconsistency in names can be annoying, misspellings of important words likewise. But I know from translators that sometimes something is explained in Volume 21 that they had to do their best for Volume 1-20 on. And the explanation might make their choice seem stupid but how were they to know the future? Or what if the publisher or creator wants that spelling? Yes, Zolo is meant to be Zorro. BUT, copyright is a thing, so Zolo it is. Jeanne d’Arc’s name misspelled in a popular series franchise pissed me off no end, BUT what if were intentional and not just the translator making a mistake as we, in our ignorance might assume? You get my point? And still, typos just happen. My famous story is that in the first printing of Rica ‘tte Kanji!? I had 2 editors, 2 proofreaders and I personally read it over like 5 times…and there was still a typo.

I have friends in book publishing who do editing and proofreading. They have been responsible recently for several reprinted classic works that have been re-read for hardcover, paperback, trade and deluxe editions…and they still find typos. AND, more importantly, they know they’ve missed some typos, AS WELL. If you are reading RoV and you come across a typo, you can certainly let the publisher know. But don’t get snotty about how dare there be a typo. We worked really hard and long and really hope there are no typos.

There will always be typos.

At last, I get to my specific point. I will be speaking about translation in October at Michigan State University and one of the things I’ll be talking about is The Rose of Versailles. Because the translators made really terrific choices. At least one of which will annoy the proverbial “some people.” It will annoy them because they are used to one version of the story (the anime) which makes a different choice, and they will ignore that the why for the choice is literally stated in the manga. It won’t matter, because as I have commented recently the old adage, “every asshole has an opinion” has become commutative and nowadays every opinion has an asshole. ^_^ Some of you will tell me that you don’t like the choice, and that is fine, you are allowed to not like it. But I am going to tell you right now that this is the right choice – the manga itself tells you that. Trust the artist to know her own intent. Every word, every image and every page of this book was approved by Riyoko Ikeda. Other choices may also be something you personally might not have made. That is also fine. I stand by the translator choices.

And, with that, I present the covers to Udon Entertainment’s upcoming release of The Rose of Versailles.

 





Live Action: Rose of Versailles Digital Remaster Blu-ray (ベルサイユのばら デジタルリマスター版)

December 24th, 2018

What better way is there to celebrate a holiday, than to watch Lady Oscar, the French live action movie with English cast and audio, Japanese subtitles, based on a Japanese manga about the French Revolution that is being translated into English?

Rose of Versailles Digital Remaster (ベルサイユのばら デジタルリマスター版) is Schrodinger’s movie – not bad, not good, not inaccurate, not accurate. I think I like it but I cannot be sure. ^_^

On second thought, I think I like it.

As a live-action version of the manga classic, it’s really not bad. It follows the key pieces of the story in a condensed fashion. The Affair of the Necklace has a chunk of the story and the end rush to tragedy plays out at increasing speed. 

The major changes are in the characterizations. 

Andre is a freedom fighter and tends to chide Oscar, demanding she be one, too. He’s not lovelorn, he’s vexed that his woman is so gosh-darn delusional. He’s kind of a mix of Bernard and Andre.

Girodel is another changed character, but at least he is in purple, which I thought was funny. Instead of being a self-proclaimed rival, Girodel is a jerk, but his marriage offer provides us with a scene in which Oscar strides into Versailles in white and silver and cape and dances with one of the court ladies, then kisses her, so I am not complaining. ^_^

General de Jarjayes is not nice to either Oscar nor Andre, which is a shame. I much preferred the General of the anime.

Jeanne and Rosalie are exactly as we remember them, although we don’t get to spend too much time with them. (I also feel that the actresses were too old for the roles by about 25 years, but that might be me.)

Marie Antoinette is overblown and likewise delusional right to the very end. They do a fine job of making her unrepentant through the final moments. 

And finally, there’s Oscar. Catriona MacColl plays the role exactly as it is written and does a fine job of it. 

I also want to shout out Granny, who is the only sane character in the movie. When Fersen is praising Oscar as a fine young man, Granny looks at him like he’s an idiot and says, “How could anyone see Oscar and not realize she’s a woman?” Thank you Granny. Oscar could not have passed for a man if she were trying.  In fact, the issue of her sex and gender presentation is a running thread throughout the story and is one of the reasons General de Jarjayes comes off as such an asshole. For a man who called Oscar his son for two decades, he marries his daughter off pretty quickly. It was a vexing moment.

The movie ends with a nice little scene of Oscar and Andre shouting each other’s names, but fades on Oscar unable to find Andre, who has been killed. She does not die at the storming as she did in the manga and anime. It kills some of the epic feel of the story.

Ratings:

Overall – Not bad

I wouldn’t probably recommend this movie to someone who isn’t already a fan of the story, but if you are, how could you pass up this chance to see this classic manga as a live-action movie?

 





Rose of Versailles Manga, Volume 14 (ベルサイユのばら)

October 21st, 2018

Begun in 1972, in the pages of Margaret magazine, Riyoko Ikeda’s historical epic of the French Revolution has finally come to an end. The final chapters of Rose of Versailles, Volume 14 (ベルサイユのばら), follows the last of the players on the stage of this drama.

The volume follows Rosalie, the commoner rescued from poverty and death by Oscar Francois de Jarjayes, and given entré into French noble society, adopted by a lady of Marie Antionette’s court and, finally, happily married to former thief, now revolutionary Bernard Chatelet. As the final days of the revolution wear on, the revolutionaries turn on one other and Bernard is caught and killed.  Rosalie and her son escape Paris with the the help of Girodel and eventually find their way to Sweden, where Hans Axel von Fersen’s star has ascended. Given shelter in Fersen’s home, his sister Sophie is not overjoyed to have them there, but is kind enough.

Rosalie’s son Francois (named after Oscar) enters university, where he is befriended by Fabian Nobel and is kept closely informed of revolutionary thinking in their adopted country. When the young king of Sweden falls from his horse, rumors say it was an assassination attempt – and that Fersen was involved. 

Tensions rise as the Swedish people demand an end to royal rule, Fabian and Francois are caught up in the riots. Francois saves Fabian, but Fersen is pulled from his carriage and beaten to death by a lynch mob. A few months after his death, his name was cleared and Fersen was given a state burial.

The book ends with the succession of Swedish King Oscar 1 in the mid-19th century. Rosalie, now an old woman, reminisces about the people she loved and lost, including her beloved Oscar. That’s the only Yuri in this book – her eternal affection for the woman who changed her life and for whom she fell, very hard.

She dies peacefully and is reunited once again with her husband, Bernard. 

With that, the last person involved in the narrative of Rose of Versailles passes out of even the fictitious realm of existence. 

It helped – as it always does- to have Wikipedia open as I read this volume. Today’s review is brought to you by the entry on Hans Axel von Fersen. And, in the way the universe has of giggling at me, one of Marie Antoinette’s necklaces was unveiled just yesterday for the first time, (this video is in French) before it was auctioned off. Here’s another article (in English) about the jewelry that will be auctioned.  I don’t think it is too much of a stretch to imagine just how many people these jewels might have fed when you look at what they go for now. 

As we look back at 40+ years of Rose of Versailles, I think it’s safe to say that was exactly the story – we were never supposed to sympathize with Marie Anthoinette. The nobles could have, at any time, simply eased up on the commoners and would have almost immediately averted a revolution, but they never even considered it. As we sit precariously balanced in between rapacious capitalism and oligarchy, we’re looking at a mirror, however darkly tinted, not all that much distorted. It’s not a fun place to be, when we are reminded that even the heroes of this story died ugly.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 8 Strikingly historical when it can be
Characters – 8 I always liked Rosalie

Overall – 8

Rose of Versailles is over, but history moves on. And there are so, so many tears in both.

 





Rose of Versailles Manga, Volume 13 (ベルサイユのばら)

May 4th, 2017

Rose of Versailles, Volume 13 (ベルサイユのばら) is both a touching story and a really ridiculous, overblown melodramatic piece of nonsense. ^_^

In the first half, Oscar’s feelings towards Fersen become complicated by a melodramatic overblown psychological examination of her fears and desired around being raised as a man, complete with fantasy self dooming her to misery. This part of the book was a missed opportunity to really have Oscar delve into gender politics, but no, it’s all about one-sided love for a man she hardly knows.

The second half of the book was far more interesting, focusing on a watch that was beloved by Marie Antoinette, the circumstances around which it came into her possession and the tale of how General de Jarjayes recovers it for her, to give her comfort in her final hours in prison. It also tells the story of the watchmaker and France at the same time. The bits in prison with Marie were the best parts, showing her, not as a clueless Kardashian-like creature, but as a woman who loved what she knew of France as much as anyone. That her experience of France was vastly different to common people’s is plain. And we get to see Marie standing before the guillotine with a thought for France to prosper, which were in fact not her last words at all. (She is purported to have apologized to the executioner for stepping on his foot.)

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 7
Characters – 8
Service – 2
Yuri – 0 This is a very straight book.

Overall – 8

Frustrating and touching, melodramatic and epic, Volume 13 is perfect example of the breed. Although, in retrospect, I cannot imagine General de Jarjayes would have survived the guillotine for long enough to be around when Marie was killed. Really, we can only imagine Bernard and Rosalie (who makes an appearance as Marie’s attendant in prison) to be the sole survivors of the story.