THE ROSE OF VERSAILLES / ベルサイユのばら

THE ROSE OF VERSAILLES / ベルサイユのばら

The Rose of Versailles, by Riyoko Ikeda, is originally a manga serialized in 1972. It is considered one of the most iconic Japanese shojo manga series of all time. For this blog post, I will focus on its animated adaptation.

Story / Characters

Set in late 18th century Paris, The Rose of Versailles revolves around the life of Oscar Francois de Jarjayes, a girl raised as a man to take on her father’s place as the commander of the Palace Guards, which is responsible for protecting the Palace of Versailles. Oscar spends her childhood with Andre, the grandson of her nanny, and the two grow up to become capable combatants and close friends, almost like sworn brothers.

Meanwhile, Marie Antoinette also grows up to be an exquisite young woman. Following the death of Louis XV, she is now burdened with the duties of the queen of France, yet her carefree personality and sheltered upbringing sometimes work against her place in the palace. Oscar becomes the personal bodyguard of Marie Antoinette, and the two nurtured a harmonic friendship. Oscar quickly becomes greatly adored by the court ladies of the Palace. Later, a young and handsome Swedish Count, Axel von Fersen, stays the Palace to learn how social etiquette is done in France. Marie Antoinette helplessly falls in love with Fersen – whom Oscar also harbors feelings for - and the two begin an adulterous relationship. Andre also starts to realize that the feelings he has for Oscar are of something deeper than mere friendship.

The Rose of Versailles, with the tragic backdrop of the French Revolution, mainly chronicles the romance and demise of these four characters among others.

Character Archetypes

In The Rose of Versailles, most of the main characters more or less fit into molds of archetypical characters that are especially common in historical “palace dramas.”

Marie Antoinette

Marie Antoinette is a quite typical heroine in the story. She is ravishing, sweet, innocent, and most importantly, extremely vulnerable to villainous forces. The villains (mostly females scheming for power within the court) see Marie as an easy target to manipulate, due to her straightforward sense of righteousness and her “ineptitude” and inexperience in being queen at a young age.

Madame Du Barry

The chief villains Madame du Barry, Duchess of Polignac, and Jeanne of Volois-Saint-Remy are typical antagonists in a court setting. They utilize their attractiveness to gain the favor and affection of powerful men (Louis XV, Duke of Orleans, etc.) and in turn, use this favor they gained against a vulnerable woman in the court (Marie Antoinette) whose position they want to overtake.

Oscar in uniform vs. Oscar in dress

However, Oscar’s androgynous appearance and demeanor made this series unique. She can be described as a “男装の麗人/dansou no reijin”: a beautiful, cross-dressing woman (who does so usually because the story requires her to).

Oscar embodies both the hero and heroine archetypes of melodrama in the way that she is both handsome and beautiful, both gallant and caring, and both charming and virginal. While she dresses in masculine uniform for the majority of the series, there is one key moment in the story where she attends a ball at the palace in a hyperfeminine dress and coiffure. This change is so drastic that no one at the ball recognizes her, not even Fersen – who is the reason why Oscar does it in the first place because she wants to approach him romantically and “experience being a woman for only one night.” This event makes her an incredibly intriguing character, since both her masculine and feminine performances are powerful, so she, in fact, genuinely embodies the best of both worlds.

The “Moral Occult”

According to Brooks, the melodramatic mode is first of all characterized by its moral or ethical vision. The historical context of The Rose of Versailles provides a rather augmented moral framework for the characters since most of the characters wield great power to literally change history (a lot of them are based on actual historical figures). The stakes of their actions are incredibly high, thus adding to the tragic/epic nature of the series. All the main characters have to deal with “the contradiction between obligations to society – including one’s family, villages, class, trade, or business (giri) – and individual human feelings (ninjo)” (Russell, p.146). First of all, Marie Antoinette and Fersen’s passionate affair is probably an affair of the most scandalous kind, since it involves the queen of France.

As for Oscar, her conflict stems from her obligation and loyalty to her family (in the katei sense), and to the French royalty, to which her family has sworn loyalty to. She is able to display an extremely staunch devotion to these two groups, until the arrival of Fersen who “enlightens” Oscar with the (feminine) sensations of “being a woman”: helplessly falling in love. At first, Oscar seems to be unbound by gender expectations, yet it turns out that she still feels trapped by the masculine gender conventions she performs. Andre, who is born a commoner and is well aware that he is not worthy of Oscar’s affection, tries hard to harbor his feelings towards her and remain a loyal companion. All these characters are put through great agony due to the forbidden nature of their romances.

Andre & Oscar

Another aspect of melodrama The Rose of Versailles raises is class. “Characters are either frightened of losing the status that they have or inflamed by the desire to improve it,” writes Ken K. Ito. This pretty much sums up what motivates the villains to be villains. The most vicious example is Jeanne, the adopted daughter of a commoner of aristocratic descent who believes she should return to her rightful place – by all means.

Aesthetics

Riyoko Ikeda is known for her extremely elegant illustration style, and the anime adaptation does a good job of replicating it to a reasonable extent. The ornamental style, along with vibrant color design, sets up a dream-like, romantic world for The Rose of Versailles to take place in.

Their theatrical dialogue, further exaggerated by the dramatic voice-acting typical in Japanese anime, is highly stylized as well as that is far from how real people talk like in Japanese. Japanese depictions of Early Modern European history at the time seem to share a similar speech pattern. This heightened artificiality and otherness, in fact, make The Rose of Versailles a perfect story for a theatrical adaptation. That is why Takarazuka Revue, one of the most prestigious theatre troupe in Japan, brought it on stage and it has since then become a treasured Takarazuka classic.