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Rose of Versailles
Feb. 18th, 2008 10:12 amOne of the things that's been helping me get through this dratted cold (which I'm guessing at this point may well the 10-day Cold Of Doom that folks on my friendslist have mentioned in passing) is finding the anime The Rose of Versailles on YouTube. I first discovered the series through BitTorrent some years back, but failed to get more than about the first four episodes due to lack of reseeding. Anyway.
Rose of Versailles follows the adventures of the Lady Oscar, the captain of the royal guard in the court of Versailles. (Her dad always wanted a boy, and was irritated enough when his youngest daughter was born to declare that she wold be raised as a man, learning horsemanship, swordsmanship, and other manly arts.) I gather the thrust of the story follows the court from approximately the time of the marriage of Antoinette to Louis XVI through the taking of the Bastille. While Oscar is wholly fictional, I gather from reading this Wikipedia article on Marie Antoinette that many of the characters ancillary to the royal family (e.g. Comtesse du Barry, Axel von Fersen) are caricatures of real people and their actions are based on real historical events.
Much of the story so far (I've watched the first seven episodes) consist of royalty-wannabes scheming to kill, kidnap, or deeply embarrass the crown prince and princess, apparently in the hope that the pair will be passed over by the king in the succession (yeah, as if!). Most of the more extreme actions have little to do with reality, of course. But the general idea makes sense when you consider how in Japanese culture, face or honor can be an strong indicator of the amount of power an individual wields. If an individual is caused to lose face, he or she loses influence with those around them - and in a royal court, influence is power.
The show makes for slightly silly watching thus far. The (generally unsuccessful) plotting of embarrassments is mixed with a solid portion of action and swordplay. It's a good thing to distract myself with around 5 or 5:30 PM in the evening, when the dratted illness symptoms are making me most unhappy. You can watch the first segment of episode 1 of a total of 40 here.
Rose of Versailles follows the adventures of the Lady Oscar, the captain of the royal guard in the court of Versailles. (Her dad always wanted a boy, and was irritated enough when his youngest daughter was born to declare that she wold be raised as a man, learning horsemanship, swordsmanship, and other manly arts.) I gather the thrust of the story follows the court from approximately the time of the marriage of Antoinette to Louis XVI through the taking of the Bastille. While Oscar is wholly fictional, I gather from reading this Wikipedia article on Marie Antoinette that many of the characters ancillary to the royal family (e.g. Comtesse du Barry, Axel von Fersen) are caricatures of real people and their actions are based on real historical events.
Much of the story so far (I've watched the first seven episodes) consist of royalty-wannabes scheming to kill, kidnap, or deeply embarrass the crown prince and princess, apparently in the hope that the pair will be passed over by the king in the succession (yeah, as if!). Most of the more extreme actions have little to do with reality, of course. But the general idea makes sense when you consider how in Japanese culture, face or honor can be an strong indicator of the amount of power an individual wields. If an individual is caused to lose face, he or she loses influence with those around them - and in a royal court, influence is power.
The show makes for slightly silly watching thus far. The (generally unsuccessful) plotting of embarrassments is mixed with a solid portion of action and swordplay. It's a good thing to distract myself with around 5 or 5:30 PM in the evening, when the dratted illness symptoms are making me most unhappy. You can watch the first segment of episode 1 of a total of 40 here.
