A new and pretty, special English edition of a classic and influential manga from the seventies that's reputedly feminist and is an inspiration for one of my favourite anime of all time, 'Revolutionary Girl Utena'? Yeah I wanted to check it out!
'The Rose of Versailles' - the first omnibus, anyway - is surprisingly accessible, timeless, engaging and entertaining. In my opinion it still holds up marvellously, and was a product ahead of its time. A Japanese manga revolving around the French Revolution (Austria, Sweden and other European countries are touched on too)? Who knew that it would work this well? This translation into English is brilliantly done.
Even for someone like me who gets bored to death easily by historical fiction and costume dramas (oh woe are the troubles of the 1%), this manga held my attention - sucked me into its world utterly - and wouldn't let me go until I'd finished its 500 pages. 'The Rose of Versailles' is an intrigue plot, like a mixture of real historical events about Marie Antoinette, 'War and Peace', and a non-fantasy 'Game of Thrones'. Add in a crossdressing female Royal Guard commander, LBGTQ overtones, class struggles, poverty struggles, and commentary on how capitalism is bullshit and rich people are literally the scum of the earth, and you have the recipe for a unique classic! Other themes include how monarchies should be selfless and responsible for the care and welfare of the poor and working class, and the evils of nepotism and favouritism.
Plus it's so pretty! The art is fantastic- shoujo at its best, brightest, funniest and most expressive.
'The Rose of Versailles' is a gorgeous and insightful manga that will take your breath away and leave you seriously thinking about world class systems and their issues. The story is intricate and complex, the worldbuilding stunning and believable - the mangaka, Riyoko Ikeda, really did her research thoroughly and carefully - and there is a giant chessboard's worth of characters. But somehow it all flows together so well and so airily, in a good way, that it never feels crowded, stuffy, confusing or boring.
Another thing I have to comment on in this classic historical fiction shoujo manga, is the strong, predominant female presence all throughout. There is a mass of female characters, each with her own individual personality, worldview and set of skills, and in varying degrees on the moral high ground scale. Good, evil, greedy, selfish, power hungry, scheming, manipulative, sensitive, motherly, caring, calm, fussy, naïve, intelligent, promiscuous, determined, cowardly, lordly, competent, incompetent - women and girls can be all of these things and more, and 'Rose of the Versailles' showcases this phenomenally.
I barely need mention the two female leads: the young, naïve, spoiled, brownnosing, superficial, easily bored, caring but thoughtless and inexperienced Marie Antoinette, whom we follow from childhood to her becoming the Queen of France (really, nothing is her fault, it's her age and poor upbringing not preparing her, and other people manipulating her - give her a break); and her guard and friend Oscar François de Jarjayes, who was raised like a boy when her father desperately wanted a male heir after having six daughters. She exists to challenge fixed gender roles and conventions; she even still openly identifies as a girl, and no one is really bothered by this. How progressive for 18th century France in a story from 1970s' Japan. By today's woke reflections Oscar could easily identify on the LBGTQ spectrum. She could be trans.
Sadly I've heard ahead of time who Oscar will eventually fall in love with, and I am disappointed. I mean, who knows how many people back then, even and especially in the French aristocracy, were queer! I know it's still a seventies manga, but it was doing great and the queerness fits and makes more sense than heteronormality! I am dissuaded from picking up the sequels now.
But for what the first omnibus's chapters are worth, the femme and yuri presence shines through. So much so that there are plenty of male characters, aside from Axel von Fersen and Oscar's servant and best friend André Grandier, who are minor, and are relatively useless and under the thumbs of the female characters. The men get browbeaten quite easily. What a magnificent display of role reversal for its time!
For its time.
'The Rose of the Versailles' is subversive - for its time - and has aged remarkably well. It is a beautiful shoujo masterpiece - a credit to the genre, and a testament to how successful and far-reaching it can be. It's intelligent, enlightening, funny, sweet and shocking. How gratifying that a popular, influential, radical and liberal manga and anime of this calibre has finally been renewed and made readily available to English speaking audiences.
A priceless, lovely jewel.
Final Score: 5/5
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