One of the best things about shopping in a bookstore is the serendipity of finding a completely unexpected, marvelous, find. Over the years I’ve found all sorts of unexpectedly wonderful Yuri shopping in used bookstores like Mandarake and bookstores all over the world. This month I had the pleasure of coming around a corner at my localish Kinokuniya and finding a reprint of an older anime guidebook book of the Rose of Versailles anime. This is a “complete preserved edition” according to the cover. Actually, the cover has a lot to say! “A historical romance that continues to fascinate women all over Japan!” and “The fate of the Splendid Rose”.
The title of this publication is Berusaiyu no Bara Dai Kaibou (ベルサイユのばら アニメ 大解剖) which I’m translating as a “full” analysis rather than”big” but hopefully you get the point. This is one of those mooks with art from the series, character profiles, interviews, key scenes summarized with accompanying stills, a timeline, a full 40-episode synopsis, historical timeline of events and related art, character designs, scenery, and pages of series goods that are available. This volume includes title card gallery, still shot scene gallery, a color illustration gallery by Himeno Michi, interviews with Oscar’s voice actor, Tajima Reiko, Andre’s voice actor Shigaki Taro, and “Berubara Fan” and SKE48 member, Hata Sawako.
Well, that means this isn’t just an archival reproduction, but also has new content. The goods shown go at least as far current as the face masks, which I have bought for Oscar and Rosalie embracing on the packaging. ^_^
I’ve been so consumed with looking at the pretty pictures, I haven’t had a moment to read the interviews….but I’ll get there. In the meantime there’s a lot of shiny to look through.
So if the UDON edition of The Rose of Versailles manga has whetted your appetite for more, take a look at this lovely book in your spare time, while waiting for some company to re-license the anime for streaming.
Ratings:
Overall – 10
If you, like Hata-san, are a Berubara fan, this mook is a treasure chest of shiny melodrama and fun.
They released three versions of the masks, for each of the “ships”, so to speak? Hmm, what an unexpectedly interesting choice. Does this mean Rose of Versailles is now officially shoujo bisexual anime harem, lol?
The only thing that confused me was that in the Andre’s version, Oscar herself acts as a hugged girl, although if I remember, Ikeda-sensei positioned their relationship as two masculine characters… however, I probably dig too deep, sorry.