The third disk of Rose of Versailles, Part 2 is brought to you by the word “clusterfuck.”
The slope towards the Revolution has become decidedly slippery. The strongest leadership is on the side of change, and the status quo just crumbles in the face of it. Perhaps, it is hard for us to understand how significant this was. Kings were not just rulers, like Presidents and Prime Ministers, who are expected to be human and flawed – they were practically gods on earth. The idea that the King of France was not a good leader seems almost obvious from our perspective. For commoners and landed classes to fight back against the established order was fairly significant.
As France descends into chaos, we’re watching Oscar, tortured by the old order and yet, not part of the new. Her life is in a tailspin, as she realizes, for the very first time,, that she has feelings for Andre’, and cares more about the health of France than about following orders. “Watashi no Andre’!”
Rosalie is back for a brief moment, so we know that she is, finally, happy.
In addition to the suffering on the macro scale, we’re getting little dollops of personal suffering on top, just to add a piquant taste to the general misery.
On the positive side, I spend a lot of time, while watching this anime doing historical research. I’m a bit more grounded now in bits of the history of the French Revolution than I was when I started.
Ratings:
Art – 8
Story – 9
Characters 9
Yuri – 0
Service – 1 (on principle)
Overall – 8
Dear gods, this series is just about all I can take in terms of drama and human suffering. No wonder I avoid watching the evening news. If I had to watch current stories like this, I’d be a wreck.
Before I finish up for today, I just want to do a piece of Okazu News. Amazon has taken a stance that is decidedly anti-publisher, anti-competition and frankly is plain assholish. So, where I can do so, I’m moving my affiliate links to RightStuf. For our purposes, this means mostly English-language anime box sets and manga. RightStuf has competitive pricing and, so far, good customer service. Japanese manga and other items will probably still have Amazon links, but where I can, I’m moving us over to TRSI. If you want your purchase to be on my affiliate code, use this link when you’re shopping and this link when you’re searching. If you’re looking for a direct link to an item, please feel free to write me and ask!
I have been reading more about the French Revolutionary period recently also! Especially from Caroline Weber’s Queen of Fashion. Its focus on fashion (especially Marie Antoinette’s) as a lens to explore the culture and changes of the time might not be as up your alley as a choice of focus (I’m not sure how interested you are in fashion history), but it’s very well-presented (I kept reading random interesting facts to my girlfriend), in case you’re ever looking for further relevant reading.
Thanks for the suggestion. ^_^
For Japanese material, you may be able to get an affiliate link for many items from CDJapan, which carries manga now, as well as CDs and DVDs.
I’m probably not going to start getting multiple new sources, but thank you.
“RightStuf has competitive pricing and, so far, good customer service.”
Great customer service, actually, not to mention no sales tax!
It’s a shame what’s going on with Amazon, even bigger shame that I have no other place to pre-order my non-anime/manga goodies.
The only local bookstore I have left is a Barnes & Noble, and they don’t really do pre-ordering (or ordering at all) very well.
Just wanted to say rightstuf over the years has been very good to me. Their sales /weekly specials are great but they blew me away with their customer service. I needed to change a credit card on a preorder they were very nice and answered any questions. The one that continues to amaze me was when I got the strawberry panic box set for under $15, it came w/ 2 disk 1’s no disk 2. I contacted rightstuf explained the problem and asked if I could get a discount on a vol 2 since it was already in their bargin bin. Before I even bothered to check for a reply, it was sitting in my mailbox. RS didn’t have to do that, it was media blasters that screwed up, but they fixed it anyway.
They were also kind enough to send me the Utena ring (probably because they still had some) even though I ordered all 3 sets on sale. It was so worth Upgrading from Central Park Media’s release.
At least I get one Benefit to living in KS, quick RS shipping!
Hey Erica get Dear Brother vol 1 yet? Mine came sat it came w return label from rightstuf are they affiliated?
Thanks for the testimonial on TRSI. Yes, I got my Dear Brother 1 Set. I’ll get to it, when I’m done with RoV. ^_^
AnimeSols used RightStuf for distribution and sales of DVDs after supporters get their copies, which was, IMHO, an incredibly smart decision. TRSI has the distribution/shipping model in place and this way AnimeSols could focus on the front end of getting the anime funded on DVD.
This is still kinda ironic that Louis XVI was probably the only one king of France that really loved his people. Any other king would just end this revolution with big slaughter.
Agreed. The anime gives us that impression. He looks torn, not because he’s confused or stupid, but because he really doesn’t want revolution, but cannot imagine another way. And, quite probably he was motivated by at least a measure of self-preservation and entitlement. He was the King, he deserved to be the King, god intended for him to be the King.
I watch this anime and find that my own politics weigh heavily on me as I do so. It’s hard to not see current events in this all-too-timeless tale.
I don’t remeber if this quote is also said in anime, but in the mid 80’s of the XVIII century, once of the most important french politicians said in discussion – “Each branch of the French royal family tree loves something else. Orleans love wars, Valois love hunts…” “And how about our king?” someone asked then. “Oh, this is different thing. King loves his people”.
He had bad luck of being king in such unstable times. If he’d be at the place of his grandpa, Louis XV, he’d be problably remebered as the best king in the history of the France.
Lady Oscar started my interest in the history of the France that resulted in choosing history at university and then, choosing the theme of my MSc thesis (it was about Saint Just and his political theories).
There’s power in anime and manga. They move us to research and learn things we’d never know anything about otherwise. ^_^
Any chance on seeing a review for the 2nd half of Princess Knight? Your review of the first half was great!
The anime? I haven’t bought the second set. In fact, I completely forgot about it. Thanks for reminding me to put it on my to-get list. ^_^
No problem!
I absolutely loved the show (Managed to watch it when the whole show was on Youtube). It easily had one of the strongest female leads I’ve seen in a long time!