Of Swords and Parasols

Le Chevalier d’Eon is a historical horror anime about the highly fictionalized life of a transgendered 18th century French spy.

d’Eon is a concerningly serious young man who works for the secret police until his sister, Lia is murdered, and she can’t be properly buried because something was done to her body when she was killed that makes it impossible for her to be buried on holy ground. Lia was a spy trusted by the queen, and d’Eon takes her place and investigates her murder, joined by his mentor, Teillagory, an attendant of the queen’s, Robin, and a shady spy named Durand, who may or may not have been in love with Lia.

Oh, and d’Eon is possessed by Lia’s vengeful spirit, who initially only emerges when d’Eon is outmatched in battle and needs rescuing, but does a bit more as the series progresses.

I was warned that there is an extremely high bodycount when it comes to women (and most Highly Fictionalized Real Women of History, at that) which is true, but I think the bodycount of men may be higher. I wasn’t keeping track.

I honestly can’t say whether or not I liked this, but I watched it rather rabidly, and not in the trainwreck way. I did rather hate the ending, largely because I didn’t like what they did with several characters. It also includes the “villain is Sekritly Noble And Planning To Save Them All trope (there are multiple villains), which is one trope I’m starting to really hate, and I was very disappointed by the reveal of who Lia loved, and bleh-ed by how that played out (more because the character annoyed me than because I spent the whole series secretly clinging to the idea of Lia and Durand as Spies In Love And Having Adventures.