THE LEGACY OF THE ROSE OF VERSAILLES

Spoiler warning: I have tried to avoid plot points, however there is character traits and thematic discussions below for Rose of Versailles, Revolutionary Girl Utena and Steven Universe.

When we think about the magical girl genre, the first images that come to mind are all Sailor Moon. Maybe a bit after that we’ll think about Cutie Honey, Card Captor Sakura then Princess Tutu, then Utena, Madoka, then some more recent releases like Steven Universe. Though thematically there is a huge range in that list, they share similar story mechanics, visuals and colour palettes that link them together as one creator inspired another, who inspired another, and so on. Rarely though, except maybe in passing, is The Rose of Versailles mentioned in any significant way, despite it being one of the motherships that spawned one of the most progressive genres in anime.

The Rose of Versailles, sometimes also known as Lady Oscar, written and drawn by Riyoko Ikeda, was first published in 1972, with an anime and live action film following in 1979, an anime film in 1980 and another in 1990. Rose of Versailles became a defining building block of yuri (“girl love” or lesbian manga/anime), and was the first prominent show to have a female character presenting as a man in a non fan service kind of way. Ikeda has gone on to write several other manga’s exploring similar themes that I highly recommend.

Set in the immediate run up to and during the French Revolution, Rose of Versailles centres around Oscar Francois de Jargeyes, a girl who is raised as a man, due to her parents having no sons. Oscar is a young noble and rises through the military ranks to become a commander of the royal guard, just as Marie Antoinette comes to France to marry the future King Louis XVI. The story covers the betrayal and infighting at court, Marie and Louis’ ascent to the throne but most significantly on Oscar’s learning of the state of France outside of Versailles. Over the course of the 40 episodes, she transforms from a zealot royalist to the commander at the storming of the Bastille.

Oscar is characterised by these main things; upstanding morality, military prowess, natural beauty and her masculine appearance and dress. These traits echo across the magical girl genre, usually focused around the main character who also has a dual identity. Revolutionary Girl Utena draws heavily from these ideas. Utena’s goal in life is to become a morally upstanding prince. Utena, like Oscar, dresses in male clothing, and is the focus of romantic attention from female characters in the show. Rose of Versailles does not have the transformational magical element that Utena does, however they are both essentially crusading against those who are harming innocents.

Visually Rose of Versailles is a feast, the rose part of the title is used for motifs throughout the series with scattering rose petals swirling around Oscar and other characters at key moments. Flowers have always been used to represent female genitals and sexuality, and even the word “yuri” in Japanese means lily. The flower themes are present in Utena as well; her ring is called the Rose Seal, and she duels the other characters to protect the Rose Bride. Petals swirl and follow Utena, too. Additionally, the conservatories in Revolutionary Girl Utena, where characters tend to the roses, appear in Steven Universe. Steven’s mother, Rose Quartz, is also portrayed as a morally upstanding warrior who is essentially worshipped by the other characters in the show (to a point, but no SU spoilers here!) Steven himself inherits the same morality as Oscar and Utena but brought forward into the 21st century, and exhibits the same gender fluidity at various points in the show.

Rose of Versailles is not easy to legally get hold of with English subtitles, as its license has now run out and all the recent rereleases have only been in Japanese. However if you’ve never seen it but are in deep in the magical girl world, not only is it a wonderful show it its own right, but it joins together the legacy of its power. Though historical melodrama isn’t for everyone, the thrall of Oscar cannot be denied, and what they brought to the table in 1972 has never been taken away. Oscar has managed to sidestep the usual downhill slide to fanservice that many other feminist icons have had happen to them in the anime world, and Ikeda has continued to produce beautiful, heart rending artwork of the RoV characters over the years. As one of the first examples of a well rounded, gender fluid character in anime coupled with wonderful art work Oscar deserves their place amongst those shows and characters that they have inspired.

Sources and references:

Rose of Versailles illustrations (imgs 1-4, 9) - Riyoko Ikeda/Udon Entertainment

Revolutionary Girl Utena illustrations (img 5,8) Chiho Saito/Be-Papas

Steven Universe illustrations (img 6,7) - Rebecca Sugar/Cartoon Network

Anan, Nobuko (February 2014). "The Rose of Versailles: Women and Revolution in Girls' Manga and the Socialist Movement in Japan" (PDF). The Journal of Popular Culture. 47 (1): 41–63. doi:10.1111/jpcu.12107. https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/12324/7/12324.pdf

Ikeda Riyoko Productions - http://www.ikeda-riyoko-pro.com/index.html

How to read or watch The Rose of Versailles (ps, good luck):

Currently (as far as I can tell) the Rose of Versailles isn’t available to legally stream anywhere in the UK. It has previously been available on Prime and Crunchyroll.

Nozomi Entertainment (who published RoV) tweeted that it’s available on their YouTube channel as its license ran out, however I can’t see it on there, though this may be because i'm in the UK.

There are new, gorgeous editions being released of the manga, the first of which you can find here: https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/The-Rose-of-Versailles-Volume-1-by-Riyoko-Ikeda-author/9781927925935