Today we look at what was, until 2015, the final volume of the grand historical epic The Rose of Versailles, by Riyoko Ikeda.
After the death of Lord Oscar François de Jarjayes, one might expect a final volume of tears and recrimination as the republic she died for turns to wholesale slaughter and a new threat of empire…buuuuuut……..no.
The chapters that comprise The Rose of Versailles, Volume 5 were written a decade after the original story ended and involve Oscar and André as the comedic sidekicks to Oscar’s precocious niece Loulou de Laurencie. These 10th anniversary chapters are an epic unto themselves, known as “The Great Detective Loulou.”
Loulou (and her doll, which functions as something between a backpack and hammerspace) turns out to be incredibly perceptive. Significantly, Oscar recognizes this and after the first adventure, in which Loulou cracks a group of jewel thieves, she takes Loulou’s antics very seriously. Loulou’s influence continues to expand to André, then Rosalie and beyond. It’s a good thing, too, because Loulou proceeds to stop a human trafficking ring and an illicit drug ring.
A little side story here… translator Mari Morimoto and I had a days long conversation about exactly what drug it might have been. I think it was cocaine-laced laudanum based on the chronology and supposed effects. (Heroine wasn’t common for another few decades and opium created a lassitude that any reader of Sherlock Holmes will be acquainted with.) But it’s all speculation and we’ll never really know what Madame Heberra was selling. ^_^
Ironically, the was the first volume of the series I worked on. Mari asked to bring me on since we had been discussing the series already and she wanted someone she knew. It was a lot of fun working on these chapters with her too, as there were so many things that were really left way up in the air after those incredibly detailed, historically accurate earlier volumes.
You might ask at this point if this is where we are meant to leave it all. After all that emotion, all those tears, we’re just walking away on a bunch of stories about a child genius? No, actually. Because in 2015-18, for the 45th anniversary of the series, Ikeda-sensei drew another 4 volumes, all of which I have reviewed here, in fact. I will spoil nothing, except to say two things: 1) I had completely, totally forgotten the one thing at the end of the story and OMG, and; 2) Even as I edited these chapters for the final volume for UDON, I found myself tearing up at Rosalie. Hopefully you will, too.
I don’t know when the final volume will be released, but as soon as I know, I’ll be sure to tell you!
I want to thank all of you who have picked up these books and enjoyed them so much. And my heartfelt thanks to Udon, to Erik for trusting me with these, to Mari and Jocelyne for being awesome to work with and Jeannie Lee, for low-key killing it doing the lettering. Honest to god, she did an outstanding job, matching the s/fx to the shape and feel of the original, and you should notice this kind of artistry.
I’m going to leave you with one more anecdote. After I got the chance to work on this series, I was in Japan, at Mandarake in Nakano, as one does and I saw something I had never, ever before seen – three whole issues of Margaret magazine when Rose of Versailles was running! I was gobsmacked. I grabbed them all and gave Mari and Erik one each as thanks, and kept one for myself. Here is why.
This is the moment when Oscar, having found and lost her true love, throws herself at the Bastille, to join him as soon as possible. So….yea. I have this volume. It lives on a set of shelves I cleared for the entirely of the Rose of Versailles kanzenban, reference materials, mooks, magazines and…this magnificent collection. It’s just so lovely, I can’t get over it.
Not gonna rate this one, just want to bask in the glow. ^_^
Tell me how much you love this set in the comments!
Crowd-funded, creator-owned quarterly Yuri manga magazine, 
Doing a seasonal clean up of stuff that has accumulated, breaking down some of Bruce’s collection (we’re about half way through the boxes!) and goods from Yuri exhibits and this spring’s Yuriten means…it’s Lucky Box time!
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