The final disk of part 1 of  Rose of Versailles is SO. FULL. OF. MELODRAMA.

The thing about Rose of Versailles is – we know going into it, there really can’t be too many happy endings. If we know anything about the French Revolution, we know that most of the people we are following on the screen will be dead or exiled by the end of the story. But knowing that there will be one happy ending and one alone does not make it any nicer as we watch the universe kick Rosalie around a bit for no reason. Even obnoxious little spoiled Charlotte goes from oppressor to oppressed.

Honestly, I would wonder how the leaders of the country could have been so blind, but then articles like this one pop across my desk and I shake my head and stop wondering.

The art remains as hyperbolic as the plot, but every time I think it’s all just too much to handle, I check Wikipedia, to find that that bit was actually more true than not.

Oscar faces her own conflicting desires and puts them aside for duty…again. And we watch, wishing we had an Oscar we could call on to explain their duty to our nobles. She’s too wonderful. Far too wonderful to be real.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 9
Characters 9
Yuri – 1
Service – 3 (Oscar in formal whites!)

Overall – 8

Next up, Part 2 and the Affair of the Necklace. I don’t know if I can do it….

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.

The second disk of part 1 of Ryoko Ikeda’s Rose of Versailles, is chock full of court intrigue and setting up the story by introducing many of the players in upcoming episodes. Oscar is now captain of the guard to the impulsive, vain and child-like Marie Antoinette. While she admires her Queen’s faithfulness to her emotions, Oscar is very well aware of the fact that those emotions unchecked will lead the people around her to disaster.

Madame DuBarry might have won the battle, but she loses the war. When the King dies she has no allies, no resources and nowhere to turn. By the time she leaves Versailles, she’s already an afterthought. Kids, this is why when you sign on to a start-up, make sure your exit strategy is in the contract.

Almost immediately we move on – two skeins will combine to create one tragedy. A poor family; a good daughter and an evil daughter, and a doomed love affair will set the scene for the next disk. France, as the narrator keeps pointing out, is heading towards a crisis.
Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 9
Characters 9
Yuri – 0 (So far. Wait for it.)
Service – 5 Oscar swearing to die for Andre and Marie was pretty service-y

Overall – 8

In my 21st century reboot of this story, Rosalie is a hard-working college student and Jeanne is sleeping her way up a corporate ladder. ^_^ I’m taking bids, cable TV networks. This will be a hit!