anime: Rose of Versailles eps 22-40 (end)

[meganbmoore]

I had intended to break the second half up and space it out, but ended up bulldozing through it. It’s easy to see why these parts are what made it such a classic, though I ended up rather missing the garish “impact” moments and lightning strikes once they were gone.

I was disappointed by the relative lack of Rosalie and Marie Antoinette in the second half, though. Rosalie more than Antoinette, as Antoinette at least had to be kept where history had her, which isn’t where Oscar always was. But if Rosalie isn’t going to be having adventures with Oscar and Andre, then she should be juggling politics or something, not near-living on the streets like a virtuous Madonna, and then apparently being a good little housewife. (Note: The Rebel Adventures of Bernard and Rosalie are also acceptable.)

It’s probably noteworthy that Andre’s attack on Oscar didn’t make me start hating him, as is usually the case. But then, I don’t think sex or the oft-used “what’s denied to me” bit were on his mind so much as he was trying to get her attention and get her to pay attention to what he was saying about how he felt. Not that I’m particularly comfortable with it even then, and it took a lot of chanting “Made in the 1970s about the 18th century. Made in the 1970s about the 18th century. Made in the 1970s about the 18th century.” to reach that point. It helps that he actually seemed more affected by it than she was.

Also, I’m glad the series didn’t really take a side regarding the French Revolution. I was kind of dreading that it would.

 

Comments

[starlady]

Andre assaulting Oscar was awful.

And see, I do think the anime takes a side about the French Revolution: It happened, but thank goodness it's over.

[meganbmoore]

Ha! Yes, there is that side.

I honestly couldn't believe the assault was there because it seemed horrifically out of character, but maybe that's why I can live with it in the long run.

[starlady]

I really need to finish reading the manga, though I doubt it will seem any less OOC.

And I really am serious when I say that about the anime's take on the French Revolution. Considering Ikeda's politics and when she wrote it, and Oscar's fate, I don't think there's any possible reading but that the Revolution and Oscar were both dangerous aberrations.

[meganbmoore]

I know nothing about Ikeda's politics, so I can't comment there, but I agree that the anime definitely thinks it was an awful thing that is thankfully over.

[starlady]

Ikeda was (is?) a member of the Communist party, and a lesbian; crucially, 1970 essentially marked the death of large-scale left-wing activism in Japan with the automatic renewal of the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty (AMPO) and various other things (the Narita airport battle being the notable, slightly later but fiercely local exception). So to clarify my statement I think you can see both strands of Ikeda's politics in the story--the need for a revolution in society is very much a Japanese Communist Party position, and Oscar's cross-dressing and dalliance with douseiai (same-sex love) is both feminist and non-heteronormative--and all these things are very radical in 1970s Japan, and even are still today. But Oscar being yoked to the revolution at the story level shows the futility of both the revolution and of her attempts at happiness despite her refusal to conform to gender expectations; it's very much, to me, a story of defeat--and it's crucial that Ikeda elides Marie Antoinette's historical cross-dressing, which would blur the picture intolerably.

...I may or may not have a paper in progress about this, actually. Sorry. ^^