Rose of Versailles



Berusaiyu no Bara or The Rose of Versailles is a historical fantasy of the pre-French Revolution period. Its central character is Oscar François de Jarjayes, a Parisian noblewoman who has been raised as a boy to provide her father with a "son" and heir. Oscar is made head of the Royal Guards of Versailles, and her first assignment is to protect and chaperon the new Crown Princess Marie Antoinette.

If you were wondering about the scope of anime, this series places the bar well above your initial guess. Incorporating many French historical figures and the very real political nuances of the period, this series can be read either as a political (leftist and/or rightist) screed or as a heart-rending love story. Either way, it is more than worth your time.

A Takarazuka adaptation of this work is one of the most popular. There's also "Lady Oscar", an obscure Live Action Adaptation by French director Jacques Demy generally considered to be So Okay It's Average. It is notable, however, in that it came out before the manga had ever been officially translated, resulting in famed translator Frederik Schodt having to scramble to make one for the production company. He did this by blazing through the manga and writing his translations right on the pages in pencil.

The manga is notable for being highly influential for the Shoujo category. Elements of it can be seen in shows like Revolutionary Girl Utena and Le Chevalier d'Eon. In 2009 a live action series called Haken no Oscar aired in Japan, which constantly references Rose of Versailles.

Not to be confused with the Japanese Power Metal band Versailles.


 * The Abridged Series: Rose of Versailles Abridged
 * Action Girl: Oscar.
 * Adaptation Expansion: The anime has more filler in the early series to fill out Oscar's childhood adventures.
 * Animation Anatomy Aging
 * Arranged Marriage: Madame de Polignac tries to engage her kids twice to rich noble people, failing spectacularly and dramatically both times. At some point, Oscar's father attempts to engage her to Count Girodelle, but it also fails. Also, the main reason why Antoinette is the Queen of France is because of her arranged marriage to King Louis, staged by her mother.
 * The Beautiful Elite: At least when it comes to Versailles, but that was actually the point in the Real Life version
 * Beauty, Brains, and Brawn: Male version
 * Beauty: Hans Axel Von Fersen
 * Brains: Bernard Chatelet
 * Brawn: Alain de Soissons
 * ... And Andre Grandier has all three!
 * Beta Couple: Rosalie and Bernard. Jeanne and Nicolas. Louise and Renier.
 * Bifauxnen: Oscar, of course, though she stays slightly more on the female side thanks to the shape of her face and eyes.
 * Big Eater: Oscar says André is one of these.
 * Bishie Sparkle: Constantly.
 * Bishonen: Even Maximilien Robespierre is drawn as a very handsome guy in his first apparitions.
 * Which is Truth in Television, oddly. Robespierre was noted by contemporaries to be well-kept in Real Life.
 * Bi the Way: Maybe, Rosalie and Oscar, depending on your interpretation of the feelings going either way.
 * Blasting It Out of Their Hands: Oscar subverts this, because she's actually pissed at the guy, so she deliberately shoots his hand and cripples him to make sure he'll never get to shoot again. It's not like she didn't have a huge reason: she had seen him shoot a commoner child in the back just for kicks, despite Rosalie begging him to not do so.
 * Bloodless Carnage
 * Break the Cutie: Oscar, Rosalie, André, Marie Antoinette, Fersen, Charlotte as a particularly tragic example... most of the cast, really.
 * Bury Your Gays: Averted!
 * Colonel Badass: Oscar, as commander of the Royal Guards, holds rank equivalent to a Colonel's.
 * Come to Gawk
 * Costume Porn: Which actually borders on Shown Their Work. Many of the outfits were that elaborate in Real Life.
 * Cross Dresser: Oscar
 * Dan Browned: In-universe, Cardinal Rohan displaying a letter from 'Marie-Antoinette du France' to the King. By convention, royalty only use first names in signatures and Rohan belonged to a family that should've known this. This one actually happened, too.
 * Real examples, however, exist. For example, Marie Antoinette is consistently referred to as Antoinette wherever she goes, even in her homeland of Austria. Problem is her Austrian name is Maria Antonia.
 * Dances and Balls
 * Death by Sex: Subverted
 * Demoted to Extra: Poor Rosalie got this for being unpopular among Japanese readers.
 * Died Happily Ever After:.
 * Distant Finale
 * Distracted by the Luxury: Justified, since the ring given to Marie is also meant to be a memento from her mother.
 * Downer Ending: It's a historical drama set within the context of the French Revolution. Of course it's got one of these! About half of it is a Foregone Conclusion.
 * Dramatic Wind: So much
 * Driven to Suicide:
 * In the manga,
 * Drowning My Sorrows: Jeanne takes to drinking vodka by the bottle after the Affair of the Necklace plays out. Oscar is also seen surrounded by empty wine bottles now and then.
 * Ermine Cape Effect: Marie Antoinette's dresses are rarely ever plain, even by royal standards. To be sure, the pageantry and ritual was half the point of Versailles and the clothes were a big piece of that. Blame Louis XIV.
 * Even Evil Has Standards: considering Robespierre and Saint Just as villains, happens in the manga at Marie's trial: when Hebért accuses her of incest, Robespierre berates him for sullying the Revolution with the charge and Saint Just entertains with the image of executing him (historically, Hebért would give them an excuse, getting executed as a thief).
 * Even the Girls Want Her: Oh, Oscar...
 * Everything's Better with Princesses: Marie is so Wrong Genre Savvy that she acts as though this trope applies to her no matter what, which is where a lot of the Irony in the series comes from.
 * Everything's Better with Sparkles: Bishie Sparkle being just one of many types this shows uses.
 * Evil Matriarch: Madame de Polignac.
 * Eye Scream:
 * Eyepatch of Power:.
 * Faceless Masses: Grayed Colored Masses.
 * Fake Nationality: While the director of the film was an actual Frenchman, most of the actors were British.
 * Five-Man Band:
 * The Heroine: Oscar
 * The Lancer: Andre
 * The Big Guy: Alain
 * The Smart Guy: Bernard
 * The Chick: Rosalie
 * Flower Motifs: Even on dresses!.
 * Gem-Encrusted: The ermine on one of Marie's dresses, her bejeweled headdresses, and all the various dresses trimmed with pearls and jewels.
 * Gorgeous Period Dress: Naturally required in Versailles.
 * Heroic BSOD: Charlotte spends her last moments in this state, acting like a madwoman . André also suffers a BSOD of sorts when he realizes
 * Historical Beauty Update: Everyone.
 * Historical Domain Character: Everyone who actually existed; it might be shorter to list those who do not belong to this category.
 * Historical Fiction
 * Historical Villain Upgrade: Since the series is told from the perspective of Marie Antoinette, many of her political enemies got this treatment, notably Madame du Barry and Louis Phillipe II (Duke d'Orleans).
 * If You Kill Him You Will Be Just Like Him:
 * Incurable Cough of Death: Oscar gets tuberculosis, but unusually for the trope,
 * In the Past Everyone Will Be Famous: Oscar, besides working with Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI, randomly bumps into Robespierre and Louis Saint-Juste on many occasions. The manga is even more egregious, and name-drops Napoleon for zero reason, and for only a few pages, in a later chapter.
 * The Napoleon name-dropping is only gratuitous for those who haven't heard of the Napoleon-centric sequel to the manga, Eikou no Napoleon, which is admittedly obscure compared to this series. To those who do know of it, it is more of a case of Chekhov's Gunman.
 * Intrepid Reporter: Bernard, after his Character Development.
 * I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Girodelle/Gerodere.
 * King Incognito: How Marie met Fersen.
 * Knight Templar: Robespierre, in the end. Then again, he's almost always portrayed like this in the media, so...
 * Knight Templar Parent: Empress Marie Therese.
 * Lady of War: Oscar, overlapping with Action Girl.
 * Let Them Pretend Happy:
 * Limited Wardrobe: Most of the cast, especially commoners, though Oscar does go through three different uniforms.
 * Lolicon: Even though it WAS normal for the time period and the high nobility, Duke Guiche likes his women a little too young...
 * Love Dodecahedron: André<->Oscar, Rosalie->Oscar, Oscar->Rosalie to a much lesser extent, Oscar->Fersen, Fersen<->Marie Antoinette, Bernard->Rosalie, Rosalie->Bernard to an extent, Louis->Marie Antoinette, and there's something more than a guard/charge relationship between Oscar and Marie Antoinette as well.
 * Love Triangle: André/Oscar/Fersen/Marie Antoinette.
 * Luke, I Am Your Father: A gender swapped version, played straight:
 * Manipulative Bitch: Jeanne de la Motte.
 * Maria Theresa: As the Empress of Austria and the mother of...
 * Marie Antoinette: And how.
 * Melodrama: If you could bottle and sell it, you'd make a fortune from just a few episodes.
 * The Mistress: DuBarry.
 * No Export for You: Sort of. Ask any anime fan whose native language is English about Rose of Versailles, and you're more likely than not to get a blank stare. Although the anime was a hit all over Asia, Continental Europe, the Middle East, and Latin America, an official release remains conspicuously absent in the Anglosphere. That's because the original creator has vowed that her work shall never be translated into English. Why? Apparently she bought into Eagle Land paranoia and believes that everything that touches American shores is heavily censored or dumbed down, despite the fact that nowadays, nearly all anime and the vast majority of manga come over completely uncensored.
 * Only Six Faces: The real reason Orlean's henchman was able to impersonate Antoinette. Also, Jeanne and DuBarry have exactly the same face, only Jeanne is a brunette and Du-Barry is blonde.
 * The Ophelia:, after being broken. Maybe,
 * The Other Darrin: The 2008 movie brings a pretty interesting and all-star new cast: Sanae Kobayashi as Oscar, Toshiyuki Morikawa as Andre, Ayako Kawasumi as Marie Antoinette, Mamiko Noto as Rosalie, Hikaru Midorikawa as Bernard, Kazuhiko Inoue as Fersen, Rikiya Koyama as Alain, Masako Katsuki as Polignac, Akiko Yajima as Jeanne and Kenji Nojima as Louis.
 * Parental Abandonment: André is an orphan raised by his grandmother, who works as the Jarjayes caretaker. Marie Antoinette is distanced from her mother Maria Theresa, who marries her off to young Louis as a pawn in her European politics; Louis Auguste himself is being raised by his grandfather the King and his aunts. Rosalie was abandoned as a baby by her 14-year-old mother and raised by a peasant along with another girl, Jeanne; said peasant, Nicole, dies at the beginning of the story . Bernard's mother dies when he is 5. Robespierre's mother dies when he is young. Averted- and how- by Oscar being outlived by both her parents. Subverted by Alain's mother being alive until he is in his mid 20s.
 * Parents as People: Oscar's father, and how.
 * Pastel-Chalked Freeze-Frame: Any time anything really dramatic happens, it's even odds that this happens.
 * Peek-a-Bangs: Perhaps unusually, he does experience problems with his sight as a result of this, which becomes a plot point later on.
 * Pimped-Out Cape: Marie had the most, and her most pimped out was the one in the manga with the bejeweled ermine dress, because the cape was also similarly trimmed. But in the anime, it was just trimmed with thick, white fur (still enough to count as this trope of course). There is also the king's royal robes. And in the manga, Oscar even has a fur-trimmed cape she wears once. Rosalie either borrows that cape or has one of her own.
 * Pimped-Out Dress: Plenty, given the setting, but given Marie's position, she gets the grandest dresses, even before she shows up in France (the dress trimmed with jewelry-tipped ermine). Also nearly as grand are DuBarry's dresses, and Oscar's dress.
 * Please Spare Him, My Liege: Marie successfully saving André from execution.
 * Pretty in Mink: Marie wears a few other furs in addition to her ermine capes. In the manga, Oscar even has a fur she wears once, and Rosalie has a cape, and [[media:rosalie_love_9787.jpg|a jacket and muff]].
 * Princess Classic: Deconstructed through Marie.
 * Princess Curls: Marie has these, even when she changes her hairstyle.
 * Quivering Eyes: Antoinette.
 * Raised as the Opposite Gender: Oscar, of course. Oddly for this trope, she is completely open about being female and few make anything of it. But that could be due to the fact that by the time Oscar meets Andre at age 7, she already knows she is a girl.
 * Really Dead Montage
 * Redheaded Stepchild: Madame du Barry consistently refers to Marie Antoinette as a redhead even though the latter is obviously a blonde. It's clearly meant to be an insult.
 * Requisite Royal Regalia: Only occasionally worn, save for state occasions and particularly dramatic moments, like when Marie flung off her ermine cape when forced to speak to Madame DuBarry, signifying Marie's torment at having to give in to a commoner. Of course she was actually giving in to the King, but that wasn't the point.
 * Rule of Drama
 * Rule of Glamorous
 * Say My Name: "OSCAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR!"
 * Schoolgirl Lesbians: Rosalie, possibly Charlotte.
 * Shadow Archetype
 * Shoujo Demographic
 * Spoiled Brat: Little Charlotte,
 * Sweet Polly Oliver: Oscar, yet again.
 * Stab the Sky: Such as when Oscar is pleading for André's life after Marie's horse accident.
 * Standard Female Grab Area: In a dark, personal scene,
 * OTOH, this is less about, and more about
 * Star-Crossed Lovers: Oscar is a noblewoman, André is a commoner (and so is Rosalie). Marie Antoinette is the Queen, Count Fersen is a diplomatic agent from Sweden.
 * Staring Through the Sword: Done at least three times by Oscar.
 * Sugar and Ice Personality: Oscar starts out as being seen as this.
 * Tomboy and Girly Girl: Tomboy career woman Oscar- though most people can tell she is a woman from the very beginning- and Girly Girl Rosalie. Antoinette started off as tomboyish when she was a little girl, but when she became the queen she turned into a very frou frou girly girl.
 * The Tragic Rose: It's even in the name.
 * Tsundere: Version of the Type A Tsundere. Oscar is known for her stoicism and fierce Lady of War attributes, but she also has a severe crush on Fersen and later falls deeply in love with her childhood friend Andre.
 * Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. He's more pudgy and plain-looking than strictly ugly, though; in this series, no one is a Gonk.
 * Unsettling Gender Reveal:
 * Marie, when she meets Oscar. Repeated with Rosalie.
 * The Duke of Orleans tries to do this to the king and the prince in a Filler storyline in the show. They get a Cute Shotaro Boy to dress up like Marie and impersonate her, so that he marries the prince instead, thus creating a huge scandal.
 * Victorious Childhood Friend: André,.
 * Well-Intentioned Extremist: Lots of those, specially Robespierre, Saint Juste, and Bernard before his Character Development.
 * White-Haired Pretty Girl: Oscar in some art. Blonde elsewhere.
 * Wheel-O-Feet: In the manga.
 * Why Couldn't You Be Different?
 * Wig, Dress, Accent: In an anime only arc, the Duke of Orleans plots to ruin the marriage by having a boy show up in Marie's place. The boy, Jean, already looks a lot like Marie, so the addition of a wig really isn't much of a stretch.
 * Wise Beyond Their Years: The Dauphin was a nice and sweet kid..
 * The X of Y
 * The X of Y