Rose of Versailles: sparkes! gender confusion! alcoholism! really bad mustaches!
Rose of Versailles is a classic shoujo series from the 70s, manga and anime (though getting hold of more than a couple of volumes of the manga in English is a losing battle, I'm afraid, even in scanlation; the anime is less of a challenge). The manga is by Ikeda Riyoko. It's about the build-up to the French revolution, and centred around the figure of Oscar, a woman raised as a man who has an extensive military career. Or it's about a woman called Oscar who was raised as a man and is trying to make her sense of her own identity work with everyone else's sense of who she should be in a way that she feels comfortable with. At the time of the French revolution. Take your pick. There are other options too, I'm fairly sure. Val (who is my partner in crime for all things RoV) says it's a series about breaking free, which is pretty much the case on a lot of different levels. It's arguably very, very much about challenging the status quo and being true to yourself. Do you want to be sick yet? Sorry. It's also an epic tragedy (see "french revolution") and possibly a love story if you really want to see it like that.
It's also ridiculous sparkly shoujo. RIDICULOUS. SPARKLY.
Rose of Versailles being restrained with the sparkles. ('pologies for ugliness of screencaps.)
People sparkle at each other. And cry at each other. With sparkly tears. And shoujo-bubble at each other too. The entire animation budget vanished in this manner, so it's not the most beautifully animated thing you've ever seen; heavy on the dramatic freeze-frames and let's-pose-dramatically-a-bit-longer-because-movement-is-harder-to-draw. It also features: evil mustaches and evil laughter (both from the minor villain's textbook), epic alcoholism, frequent reminders that DOOOOOOM will be arriving soon, frequent reminders of who key players in the french revolution actually are in case you've forgotten from last episode, and MELODRAMA OH MY GOD, and sparkle!sex, and some of the stupidest evil master-plans you have ever, ever, ever seen. (Unless you've watched Weiss Kreuz, which I don't particularly recommend.) If you have the right sense of humour this will be no impediment to enjoying the whole thing; personally I find it hysterically funny. Actually, I was in hysterics from pretty much the opening scene.
Wherever there is a suspect mustache, Oscar will be there. Menacing.
But there are other reasons to like the whole thing too. To love it, in fact, if you're me.
Reason #1: Characters. OK. Not most of the characters, I grant you; but when they're good, oh hell, they're good.
Let's see. Your mileage may vary. These are the people I spend most of my time and energy playing with:
- Oscar is basically the point of the whole thing, honestly. All the other awesome starts right here. Sure, she's rather an ideal, but she's fabulous, she's handled well, and I believe in her as a character. I also go every bit as ridiculously starry-eyed as every character in the series in her presence.
Fersen offers this endorsement.
I now remember that I haven't written much about RoV until now because Oscar sort of makes my brain implode a little bit... ah.
Anyway. I don't really want to try too hard to describe Oscar; she's amazing and my favourite thing about the series is that it decides against shoe-horning her into a role which just doesn't fit. She tries things out and she makes mistakes about what she wants and what she is meant to be and there's huge drama on the way but she settles on something that feels comfortable for her rather than changing herself to fit into someone else's idea of the way things are. (This applies to gender, and to other things; of course I tend to focus on gender. I would.) Can we please have some more of that now? Anyway. She's hot-headed, loyal (but not blindly), caring, and as dense as she can be about personal issues she's really pretty sharply observant about a lot of other things. Not to mention really bloody hot. Oh Oscar! *_*
- Andre I have... issues with, actually, but that's not the poor sod's fault; anyway. Andre is the kicked puppy of the series and undyingly devoted to Oscar. He's the Canon Love Interest, and their relationship is actually a pretty interesting one, which they stumble through incredibly awkwardly and with no shortage of mistakes. Oscar spends a lot of time being confused about herself; Andre spends a lot of time being confused about Oscar. And makes mistakes, some of which are incredibly serious. Theirs isn't a perfect romance, but their attempts to find some sort of a balance - in friendship or anything else - are way more the point of the thing than the sparkly romance. Class issues, gender issues, and occasional clashes of basic ideology. Good stuff.
He also even gets beaten up by old women. But he tries very hard to be cool, and that's sort of endearing.
- Alain is perhaps the only man in the series who categorically does possess a pair of balls. He's, uh, Manly!!!11!!!1! and likes to get drunk and then have fights with people for fun. ...yeah, I actually think he's pretty awesome. Don't ask me. He's one of the only people who questions Oscar's right to be in the position she's in as a woman; he's not the only person who generates issues relating to her position by a long shot, but he's the one who faces up to her and makes her prove herself. Again, I find the clash between him and Oscar and their subsequent attitudes to each other to be something worth poking at. Yes, it does always come back to Oscar. Also - and here's where I completely lose the majority of RoV fandom - he and Andre could totally have lots of gay sex.
No, really. Look again.
It's there. >)
Depending on taste you may also get a lot of mileage out of such figures as Rosalie, Jeanne (ok, actually, Jeanne is a textbook Evil Power-Grabbing Woman with added crate-loads of gin but I have a peculiar sort of soft spot for her too), Marie Antoinette, Fersen etc.; I can totally see all of their purposes within the series, but other people can talk about them way better than me. I'd just end up posting pictures of Rosalie dancing with Oscar's uniform, Jeanne being drunk, and Marie Antoinette sparkling and make some comments about Fersen that everyone would disagree with (the bloody prat) and it'd all go terribly wrong.
Actually, let's have a picture of Jeanne being drunk anyway, since I have one uploaded already:
Fabulous.
Reason #2: gender issues. It's by far one of the most interesting manga/anime series I've seen for this; Oscar is a great example of someone who doesn't fit into any normal role, and it is something she struggles with in a way I actually do find very interesting. Anime does genderfuck a lot; it does it well, as far as I can tell, rather more rarely. Actually, the other series I can think of offhand which do something interesting with gender are mostly by Ikeda Riyoko as well. (Do correct me if I'm wrong, with full details of any series which tackle the whole thing seriously and well rather than for laughs! I will love you forever if you lead me to the secret cache of awesome.) Because the series covers a long period of time - from Oscar's teens to some time in her 30s(?) - there's a lot of space to see the way these issues and characters' perceptions of them develop.
And I do think the things it does are consistently interesting; it's definitely not a series about Oscar deciding that she's going to be a Real Woman and all the rest, though I have certainly seen it interpreted as such (which I do think is a mistake; I can't really make it fit with my personal understanding of the series); a lot of the point is that she doesn't genuinely want that and she doesn't need to be that to be with someone, and that trying to persuade herself into that isn't going to help anyone. It's fine to not fall exactly into what might be expected of a man or of a woman & it's fine to not wear dresses and swan around court but still be attracted to men. And so on.
I say again: can we have some more of this stuff now please?
Also, #2.5: I am perpetually fascinated by the way that pretty much any relationship Oscar could be in would be totally queer. I think it's wonderful. Many of the women love her manliness, but still identify her as a woman to a degree, and swoon over her anyway; and then men... generally treat her as One Of Them. But still have giant crushes on her. The way she sort of exists outside the usual lines, Iike to think, presents everyone around her with some interesting issues, especially given the nature of the society the whole thing is set in; but they all love her anyway. *GRIN*
Admittedly the lesbianism in RoV is pretty much theoretical (for more practically applicable lesbianism please see Oniisama E); there are plenty of women who are attracted to Oscar, and quite a few she flirts with, but none who really make her stop and think about the whole thing... although I am pretty convinced that something should be done on this front; to fanfic!
But I'm not done. I have more! Next time: Liz explains why Oscar, Andre and Alain should all have a lot of sex with each other. Although probably not at the same time. Or something. Yeah, it's like that. Are you sure you want to admit you know me?
Also: while I'm here, can I direct you once again to this rather more fun post by Val. With Manga pictures.
(I do not pretend to be coherent. *crawls away*)
It's also ridiculous sparkly shoujo. RIDICULOUS. SPARKLY.
Rose of Versailles being restrained with the sparkles. ('pologies for ugliness of screencaps.)
People sparkle at each other. And cry at each other. With sparkly tears. And shoujo-bubble at each other too. The entire animation budget vanished in this manner, so it's not the most beautifully animated thing you've ever seen; heavy on the dramatic freeze-frames and let's-pose-dramatically-a-bit-longer-because-movement-is-harder-to-draw. It also features: evil mustaches and evil laughter (both from the minor villain's textbook), epic alcoholism, frequent reminders that DOOOOOOM will be arriving soon, frequent reminders of who key players in the french revolution actually are in case you've forgotten from last episode, and MELODRAMA OH MY GOD, and sparkle!sex, and some of the stupidest evil master-plans you have ever, ever, ever seen. (Unless you've watched Weiss Kreuz, which I don't particularly recommend.) If you have the right sense of humour this will be no impediment to enjoying the whole thing; personally I find it hysterically funny. Actually, I was in hysterics from pretty much the opening scene.
Wherever there is a suspect mustache, Oscar will be there. Menacing.
But there are other reasons to like the whole thing too. To love it, in fact, if you're me.
Reason #1: Characters. OK. Not most of the characters, I grant you; but when they're good, oh hell, they're good.
Let's see. Your mileage may vary. These are the people I spend most of my time and energy playing with:
- Oscar is basically the point of the whole thing, honestly. All the other awesome starts right here. Sure, she's rather an ideal, but she's fabulous, she's handled well, and I believe in her as a character. I also go every bit as ridiculously starry-eyed as every character in the series in her presence.
Fersen offers this endorsement.
I now remember that I haven't written much about RoV until now because Oscar sort of makes my brain implode a little bit... ah.
Anyway. I don't really want to try too hard to describe Oscar; she's amazing and my favourite thing about the series is that it decides against shoe-horning her into a role which just doesn't fit. She tries things out and she makes mistakes about what she wants and what she is meant to be and there's huge drama on the way but she settles on something that feels comfortable for her rather than changing herself to fit into someone else's idea of the way things are. (This applies to gender, and to other things; of course I tend to focus on gender. I would.) Can we please have some more of that now? Anyway. She's hot-headed, loyal (but not blindly), caring, and as dense as she can be about personal issues she's really pretty sharply observant about a lot of other things. Not to mention really bloody hot. Oh Oscar! *_*
- Andre I have... issues with, actually, but that's not the poor sod's fault; anyway. Andre is the kicked puppy of the series and undyingly devoted to Oscar. He's the Canon Love Interest, and their relationship is actually a pretty interesting one, which they stumble through incredibly awkwardly and with no shortage of mistakes. Oscar spends a lot of time being confused about herself; Andre spends a lot of time being confused about Oscar. And makes mistakes, some of which are incredibly serious. Theirs isn't a perfect romance, but their attempts to find some sort of a balance - in friendship or anything else - are way more the point of the thing than the sparkly romance. Class issues, gender issues, and occasional clashes of basic ideology. Good stuff.
He also even gets beaten up by old women. But he tries very hard to be cool, and that's sort of endearing.
- Alain is perhaps the only man in the series who categorically does possess a pair of balls. He's, uh, Manly!!!11!!!1! and likes to get drunk and then have fights with people for fun. ...yeah, I actually think he's pretty awesome. Don't ask me. He's one of the only people who questions Oscar's right to be in the position she's in as a woman; he's not the only person who generates issues relating to her position by a long shot, but he's the one who faces up to her and makes her prove herself. Again, I find the clash between him and Oscar and their subsequent attitudes to each other to be something worth poking at. Yes, it does always come back to Oscar. Also - and here's where I completely lose the majority of RoV fandom - he and Andre could totally have lots of gay sex.
No, really. Look again.
It's there. >)
Depending on taste you may also get a lot of mileage out of such figures as Rosalie, Jeanne (ok, actually, Jeanne is a textbook Evil Power-Grabbing Woman with added crate-loads of gin but I have a peculiar sort of soft spot for her too), Marie Antoinette, Fersen etc.; I can totally see all of their purposes within the series, but other people can talk about them way better than me. I'd just end up posting pictures of Rosalie dancing with Oscar's uniform, Jeanne being drunk, and Marie Antoinette sparkling and make some comments about Fersen that everyone would disagree with (the bloody prat) and it'd all go terribly wrong.
Actually, let's have a picture of Jeanne being drunk anyway, since I have one uploaded already:
Fabulous.
Reason #2: gender issues. It's by far one of the most interesting manga/anime series I've seen for this; Oscar is a great example of someone who doesn't fit into any normal role, and it is something she struggles with in a way I actually do find very interesting. Anime does genderfuck a lot; it does it well, as far as I can tell, rather more rarely. Actually, the other series I can think of offhand which do something interesting with gender are mostly by Ikeda Riyoko as well. (Do correct me if I'm wrong, with full details of any series which tackle the whole thing seriously and well rather than for laughs! I will love you forever if you lead me to the secret cache of awesome.) Because the series covers a long period of time - from Oscar's teens to some time in her 30s(?) - there's a lot of space to see the way these issues and characters' perceptions of them develop.
And I do think the things it does are consistently interesting; it's definitely not a series about Oscar deciding that she's going to be a Real Woman and all the rest, though I have certainly seen it interpreted as such (which I do think is a mistake; I can't really make it fit with my personal understanding of the series); a lot of the point is that she doesn't genuinely want that and she doesn't need to be that to be with someone, and that trying to persuade herself into that isn't going to help anyone. It's fine to not fall exactly into what might be expected of a man or of a woman & it's fine to not wear dresses and swan around court but still be attracted to men. And so on.
I say again: can we have some more of this stuff now please?
Also, #2.5: I am perpetually fascinated by the way that pretty much any relationship Oscar could be in would be totally queer. I think it's wonderful. Many of the women love her manliness, but still identify her as a woman to a degree, and swoon over her anyway; and then men... generally treat her as One Of Them. But still have giant crushes on her. The way she sort of exists outside the usual lines, Iike to think, presents everyone around her with some interesting issues, especially given the nature of the society the whole thing is set in; but they all love her anyway. *GRIN*
Admittedly the lesbianism in RoV is pretty much theoretical (for more practically applicable lesbianism please see Oniisama E); there are plenty of women who are attracted to Oscar, and quite a few she flirts with, but none who really make her stop and think about the whole thing... although I am pretty convinced that something should be done on this front; to fanfic!
But I'm not done. I have more! Next time: Liz explains why Oscar, Andre and Alain should all have a lot of sex with each other. Although probably not at the same time. Or something. Yeah, it's like that. Are you sure you want to admit you know me?
Also: while I'm here, can I direct you once again to this rather more fun post by Val. With Manga pictures.
(I do not pretend to be coherent. *crawls away*)