The third disk of part 1 of Ryoko Ikeda’s Rose of Versailles=AAARRRRGHHH.

If you had asked me what my impression of the Rose of Versailles anime was before the new release, I would have said that it was “good, but hard to watch.” Disk 3 is a perfect embodiment of why.

“The nobles make up only 4% of France. Their lifestyle is supported by the other 96%.”

“The majority of that 96% are poor and starving, unable to see a doctor when they are sick!”

Doesn’t that sound too painfully contemporary to be comfortable? It’s *way* too close to truth to be comfortable for me.

I squirm in discomfort at Marie Antoinette and the nobles, I am pained for Oscar, I’m homicidal on behalf of Rosalie and I’m more sympathetic than I could ever have imagined to Robespierre’s cause. And I’m frustrated beyond my ability to express that our 4% is doing the same exact things that the French nobility did. I find comfort only in the fact that while rampant greed and hatred by government still exists, and life is still cheaper than it ought to be in the world I imagined I would be living in now, at least statistically speaking, the world is less violent than it ever has been. Cold comfort.

Oscar fights a duel and I can’t even enjoy how cool she is.

Art – 8
Story – 9
Characters 9
Yuri – 0
Service – 2 (Oscar’s new uniform isn’t as cool as the all-white one.)

Overall – 8

The only redeeming moment, is Oscar saving Rosalie. This will bear fruit later, but otherwise this disk is tsk, dammit and AAARRRRGHHH.