ANI-MOVIES, *The Rose Of Versailles

Somewhat inspired by Osamu Tezuka's Princess Knight, manga creator Riyoko Ikeda took a new approach to historical fiction with her 1970s series of The Rose Of Versailles. Ikeda was part of a new movement of shojo artists in the 60s who made the genre more fitting for older readers largely caused by new political movements in Japan, and she incorporated this into her retelling of the French Revolution with original characters added to the mix to give it more drama. What set this manga aside from any other ones at the time was that the main character was a female soldier in the Royal Guard who was raised as a boy since her father was dead set on having a son. This turned the idea of the main girl character on its head with them taking a larger part in forging the story and not just acting like a helpless damsel waiting for some handsome prince to save her. The manga was so popular that it not only got its own legendary anime TV series, but also a live-action cult movie, and several awarded stage musicals which set the path for other titles like Sailor Moon and Death Note to also get the Broadway treatment. Finally, after 50 years, a brand-new anime based on the manga came out in 2025, but this time they took the 40-episode TV series and folded it into a feature-length film, along with some original musical numbers. So, they took the influence of both the existing anime and the lineage of the popular musical based on it and throw them all into one large bag which makes it more like a compilation movie than an original adaptation. The music is honestly good in both the English and Japanese dubs and considering how few anime movies that are a full-fledged musical, it's a slight shame even though the animation by Mappa is exceptional. When the story had the luxury of an ongoing TV series it had more room to flex itself, but here its condensed down to a 113-minute-long movie and added some musical breaks in it, which here are more like mini-music videos, making the whole film like the bullet points of the story complete with a historical narrator.

During the late 1700s, Oscar Francois is a woman general in the Royal Guard who was raised as a man and everyone in the service of Marie Antoinette treated her as another male despite her radiant blonde hair. Oscar has to balance the Queen's secret relationship with a Swedish count a secret from the King, so she eventually leaves the Royal Guard to join the French Army. The men under her command don't respect her at first because of her gender and noble background, but Oscar quickly wins over their loyalty. Oscar's duty is questioned further when she tries to break off her arranged marriage and finally gives into the deep feelings for her longtime companion Andre who has served as her friend and colleague since they were children. With the French people rebelling against the monarchy after years of poverty, Oscar finally seals her love with Andre, and they help lead the French citizens against the rule of Louis XVI on a final raid on the Bastille.

Riyoko Ikeda eventually did not only a manga prequel to The Rose Of Versailles but also a sequel chronicling Napoleon's rise to power, even though neither of them made the impact that the original story did. This led to shojo manga evolving to handling elements like same-sex romances along with speculative fiction. Mappa's treatment of the characters doesn't stray too far off from the 70s TV series designs with Oscar seeming as bishojo as ever, plus the animation is very smooth although not up to anything on Ghibli's level of quality. The main problems are the tight script which leaves entire characters and subplots dangling in the air, as well as the addition of the musical scenes which is not like something from a theatrical production but like a musical vignette told from perspective of the characters' inner voice. This modern take on the classic tale makes for a decent enough abridgement of the entire saga with a sweeping soundtrack that probably won't stick with most fans of musicals.