Rose of Versailles [Archive]

Rebochan

2003-11-22, 02:13

Now that the two fansub groups covering this series have started releasing again, I thought I'd get a thread going. This is a GREAT series that is sadly overlooked due to it's age. For those who haven't seen it, I'll put it lightly - Utena without the headtrip. You'd never think the French Revolution would be exciting, but Oscar makes it worth the trip. OSCAAAAAAAR!

Koshiba

2003-11-22, 02:18

Rose of Versailles rocks. I love Oscar. xD

Kay Hearts

2003-11-22, 04:15

here another new-rose-of-versailles-fan ;)

I love the series, I wanted to see ROV since like 1997 when I saw an article in some Spanish mag telling it was one of the influences of Utena. I think animation is quite good for it´s time and the plot it incredibly interesting, very well told and way better than any of our best soaps here in latAm (and we do some quite fine soaps in here :D hehehe)

Knuckles

2003-11-22, 20:15

As an Utena fan and a fan of older anime, I too am happy :D to see this great series.
All thanks to :bow: Live-eviL for realsing first 12 episodes in a batch the other day.

Rebochan

2003-11-22, 20:23

All thanks to :bow: Live-eviL for realsing first 12 episodes in a batch the other day. I'll second that. :bow::bow: Also a big thanks for releasing more - the Affair of the Necklace arc, despite it's total divergence from actual French history (particularly with Jeanne's fate), is great drama.

Relentless

2003-11-22, 20:32

I've been a huge fan since it was aired on public TV in my country more than ten years ago under the title "Lady Oscar". I love the costumes, the character design and how it mixed fact and fiction. It was so dark and dramatic, and was dumbstruck by the ending.

Oddly enough, I really loathe Utena :eyebrow:

I always meant to ask: is Anime-Urchins version a DVD rip? Their filesizes are huge :confused:

Rebochan

2003-11-22, 20:43

I always meant to ask: is Anime-Urchins version a DVD rip? Their filesizes are huge :confused: Actually, it's Live-Evil using the Japanese DVD rips. Anime Urchins is using old VHS fansub releases for their sources, and the only way they can get the quality to be any good is to make gigantic encodes. They say on their site they may do a release based on the DVDs (and thus would have smaller files), but that wouldn't be until they finish encoding the VHS rips.

Rheinhard

2003-11-23, 01:51

Yes, RoV is a definite classic, well worth the time to check out.

From an annoying historical stickler standpoint, I should point out that most of the uniforms, with the epaulets and knee-high boots, are actually much more from the Napoleonic era than pre-Revolution France. But as a lover of cool looking uniforms with epaulets, who cares? :)

On the topic of "what would I have done if I were writing this show"... since he is my favorite character from american history, I was always a little disappointed that Ben Franklin never showed up in the show. He was our representative to Versailles and was hugely popular in the royal court. With being a scientist, statesman, and something of a womanizer, can't you just imagine some of the story possibilities if old Ben had spent a few episodes hanging out with Oscar and Andre? :D

To conclude with a standard plug - if you like RoV, with cool looking uniforms, high drama, and grounding in history, you may also wish to check out Legend of the Galactic Heroes (http://www.logh.net/minglogh/LoGH.html). Science fiction as opposed to historical drama, but in my experience people who like one often like the other.

Koshiba

2003-11-23, 04:35

Yeah, I really liked the uniforms and stuff in this series. ^^ I don't know too much about french history though so I can't really tell what's right and what's wrong. It doesn't really matter though, does it? :p

I plan on checking out LotGH one of these days. ^^;

Relentless

2003-11-23, 13:49

Actually, it's Live-Evil using the Japanese DVD rips. Anime Urchins is using old VHS fansub releases for their sources, and the only way they can get the quality to be any good is to make gigantic encodes. They say on their site they may do a release based on the DVDs (and thus would have smaller files), but that wouldn't be until they finish encoding the VHS rips.

Funny, I always assumed that the higher the quality, the bigger the filesize. I was dismayed to see that Live-Evil's version has so low resolution, I thought they were LD rips. I wonder (not a critic or a complaint) what's the point of using a DVD source then? :confused:

Tofusensei

2003-11-23, 14:40

I don't think putting it at a much higher resolution would increase the quality tremendously. Remember this anime is from almost 30 years ago. The encoder for ROV is the same encoder as Creamy Mami, and we've been using that encoding formula for every ep of both shows :)

When we began subtitling ROV, encoding at 640x480 was still considered extreme, and xvid was in alpha stages :P Keep that in mind ^_^;;

-Tofu

Kurara

2003-11-23, 19:07

I love Rose of Versailles as well!! ^^ It's such an addicting series.. x_x Even my friend Kevin likes it, and he usually mainly watches action or comedy anime. The funny thing is that I used to hate it when I was in elementary school. I hated the art style and I thought it looked too "mature". I still sort of think that, but I guess I hadn't watched enough of it to like it.. I really like old anime series like that.

I wonder why everyone compares it to Utena though.. I think Oscar and Utena are two completely different characters, even though they both raised themselves as a guy.. Is it because Utena is drawn a bit "old style shoujo" like Berubara?

a_nevels666

2003-11-23, 19:45

Rebochan

2003-11-23, 19:57

I wonder why everyone compares it to Utena though.. I think Oscar and Utena are two completely different characters, even though they both raised themselves as a guy.. Is it because Utena is drawn a bit "old style shoujo" like Berubara? Utena comes up so often because it's often undeniable that Utena is inspired by RoV. There are a number of cinematic shots that appear in both series, especially when it comes to uses roses for symbolism (Utena won't let you forget them!) and of course the obvious fact that both Utena and Oscar are women with deliberate masculine traits which causes them both grief as they try to find their own identities.

Count me in with the group that doesn't like Utena but loves RoV. I got sick of the weirdness and the fact that just about everyone on the show was utterly unlikable (save for Utena and Anthy) and quit after the Student Council arc. Still, there's no denying that Utena gets a lot of people interested in RoV, if only because of the comparisons.

Relentless

2003-11-23, 20:18

Count me in with the group that doesn't like Utena but loves RoV. I got sick of the weirdness and the fact that just about everyone on the show was utterly unlikable (save for Utena and Anthy) and quit after the Student Council arc. Still, there's no denying that Utena gets a lot of people interested in RoV, if only because of the comparisons.

Wow, really? Happy! I thought I was the only one :heh: Only thing I liked from Utena was the opening.

I guess RoV gets compared to Utena also because RoV was such an influential manga, popular at a time when the shoujo genre was pretty much being re-invented by a new generation of popular female manga creators. The very first shoujo manga were written by men.

If one is going to go back to the earliest example of a main character with gender identity crisis, that should be Ribbon no Kishi (Princess Knight). Like RoV, it was also aired in my country :D

I loved it when I was a kid. Fortunately, I could tape the "movie" (actually a 90min complation of the series) in Beta. One day I'll rip it and everybody will envy me, even if it's the lousiest quality :cool:

Tofusensei

2003-11-23, 23:29

Interesting tidbit of info, but the reason that we (live-evil) picked up Rose of Versailles back when we did was because we had just finished subbing the final 13 episode arc of Utena and were looking for something to fill the void, so Rose of Versailles was the obvious followup :)

We even used some of the same typesetting from Utena in ROV to pay a homage to it ^_^;;

-Tofu

Utena's inspiration most definitely came from Rose of Versailles, there's no denying that.

a_nevels666

2003-11-24, 09:25

Utena comes up so often because it's often undeniable that Utena is inspired by RoV. There are a number of cinematic shots that appear in both series, especially when it comes to uses roses for symbolism (Utena won't let you forget them!)

Every single shoujo manga/anime has roses in it. It's the law. (apparantly) ;)

maxthelostboy

2003-11-29, 16:54

Tofusensei

2003-11-29, 17:42

If you like drama and romance, you will LOVE Rose of Versailles. Just don't be put off by the older-style animation, please ^_^

-Tofu

Rheinhard

2003-12-01, 03:32

Ok i haven't seen a ep of this show. Live evil has a batch like 1-12 i want to know is it worth downloading it at all or no? Can someone give me info and their own thought on this anime thanks. I like drama and romance stuff so if thats in it i'll get it soon.

Well if you like drama and romance, RoV is a great choice. It is 20 years old now, but for me a good story has always trumped slick animation, and that is certainly true for RoV. This is also one of those groundbreaking shows that set the pattern for a lot that was to come after (like what Gundam was to the SF robot genre), and was a huge influence on many shoujo manga artists. You can see its influence in many shows, from inside joke references (in Ranma 1/2) to full scale homage (Utena).

For some good info on the show I've found that this is a good place to look (http://www.interlog.com/~dgsimmns/RoV/RoV.html).

kj1980

2003-12-01, 03:56

One of the great classic anime that I would recommend watching...and this is coming from a person who has been watching anime for more than 20 years.

Hao Asakura

2003-12-01, 04:37

If u like shoujo-type anime, then this is the right choice for you. Be prepared to watch all the shining sparkles around the characters :heh:

AmpliFyre

2003-12-01, 06:35

its pretty good. ive seen up to ep26... and i got a friend who has seen it 10 yrs ago and she loves it. i recommend you give it a shot at least

Rebochan

2003-12-01, 12:01

YES. RoV is an anime classic. Do yourself a favor and see why:)

Sugetsu

2004-01-03, 20:23

Well, as some users already know I have been advertising this anime for a short while. The truth is that I watched this anime when I was like 10 years old therefore I don't remember much is this series. I just remember that my friends my brother and I used to sit down to watch this series every afternoon at 4:00pm from Monday to Friday. This series was quite popular in South America.

Well, know that I have realized that this excellent web site has the series I didn't hesitate in downloading it, and all I can say is that I'm really surprised for how good this anime is (I just watched episode 13). This anime has very strong factors such as: A plot that embraces a lot of realism: There is no science fiction in this anime at all, it is all based on real French Revolution history. The music is excellent. The graphics are gorgeous (even though this anime is like 20 years old!!) It is a very emotional anime, it is full of envy, love, hatred, death, hope and everything else. The characters are very well developed, you really get to see how really human nature works in this anime. It is totally unpredictable; In one moment I'm like ok ok that right and then I'm like WTF! why did he do that?! and believe it or not this anime has made CRY! I haven't cry with anime in a long long time except when I watched Grave of Fireflies. Yeah it is that powerful... The best part is that I have cried of happiness. You become so involved in the story that you really get to worry about the characters fate. This anime is a classic.

I wonder if anybody else in this forum has seen this anime yet and what does he think about it?...

--------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------
Here it is some info about the series (It is taken from another post of mine :p

Rose of Versalles (1979 EXCELLENT ANIME)

(Intro)
http://cartoons.metropoliglobal.com/videos/oscar_op.rm

http://<br /> http://www.animenfo....of_versail.html (Info)

http://www.animesuki.com/series.php/92.html
You should really consider watching this anime. This anime is based on the Frensh Revolution. The protagonist is Oscar, a woman who was raised as a man, due to the fact that her father always desired to had a man but never could. When she became 14 she joined the imperial guard that protected the king of france.

http://cartoons.metropoliglobal.com/fotos/Rosa/images/Oscar23.jpg

Then it only gets worse for her... Battles, love deceptions, romance and tragedy follow her path as she grows older... without mentioning the fact that she dies protecting the king and queen of France whom later were decapitated as it is known by Frensh history.

http://galeon.com/seya12/Oscar58.jpg

-----------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------

Please excuse me if I'm being very repetitive at times, but all I'm doing is trying to show to many people how good these "hidden" animes are. They are so old that they have been sent to oblivion. But the truth is that animes like this one are really worth watching and I know that there are many people who agree with me.

boneyjellyfish

2004-01-03, 21:13

Sugetsu

2004-01-03, 21:45

Sugetsu, I know you really like advertising old anime, but could you please do a search next time? You might find out that there is already a thread (http://forums.animesuki.com/showthread.php?t=1393&highlight=versailles) about Rose of Versailles.

Good good good... That thread is also a nice advertisement for Rose Of Versailles.

Isn't this anime cool? :p

Sugetsu

2004-01-05, 03:47

*cough* *cough*

OMG OMG OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!

Guys YOU HAVE TO BELIEVE EVEN THOUGH I'M CRAZY AT THIS MOMENT BUT ROSE OF VERSAILES IS MUUUCHHHH BETTER THAN ANY OTHER REAL LIFE ANIME OUT THERE!! YOU HAVE TO BELIEVE ME! *starts jumping and dronling making a lot of nice in his room* I JUST SAW THE EPISODES FROM 14 TO 19 AND THIS STUFF KEEPS GETTING BETTER AND BETTER AND SADDER AND SADDER. MY GOD I HAVE CRIED FREAKING 4 TIMES IN ROW! (THIS HAS NEVER HAPPEN BEFORE IN MY LIFE TIME) THE PLOT IS SO CLEVER AND TWISTED THAT IT STRIKES YOU WITH GREAT FORCE! IT'LL BLOW YOU AWAY! THIS IS 12445934534 BETTER THAN GRAVE OF FIRE FLIES, SAIKANO AND KIMIGA NOZOMU EIEN... TRULLY AWESOME!!! @_@ *starts breaking stuff in his room* I JUST SAW THE ENDING OF KIMIGA NOZOMU EIEN BUT THIS IS NOT EVEN BITTERER THAN EPISODE 19 OF "ROV".

GUYS YES I'M A DAMN FREAK AN EMOTIONAL BASTART AND THAT SOME OF YOU WANNA CUT MY BALLS BUT I DON'T CARE!! JUST GO AND WATCH ROSE OF VERSAILLES UNTIL EP 19 AND CONFIRM WHAT I'M CRAZY ABOUT! *hears sirens outside of his house*

NoSanninWa

2004-01-05, 04:08

OMG! Please STOP posting all in CAPS! It seems that nearly every post you make is very CAP heavy. Stop it. It is driving me crazy!

Sugetsu, I know you really like advertising old anime, but could you please do a search next time? You might find out that there is already a thread (http://forums.animesuki.com/showthread.php?t=1393&highlight=versailles) about Rose of Versailles.
Thanks boneyjellyfish. Now everyone should know where to talk about this incredible show. Since we already have a RoV thread, I'm just gonna remainder this one.

amaru

2004-11-01, 03:35

hi guys :hmm: :hmm: :hmm:

ano..sorry 2 ask this,but does anyone here knows where can i get ROSE OF VERSAILLES OAV (special episode/eps 41) ? :confused:

i've downloaded the whole series from anime urchins & live evil...

they don't seem 2 have it though

pleeaassseee heeelp!

tasukete kureee~onegai

amaru

2004-11-01, 11:21

will someone pleeaaasseeee tell me where can i get rose of versailles oav(special/episode 41)?

i've downloaded the whole series,but anime urchins/live evil don't seem 2 have this episode :confused:

i'm desperate,onegai shimaaasu :help:

thanx

NoSanninWa

2004-11-01, 18:29

Actually, I've never heard of the special being digisubbed, so I doubt you can download it. However, it is possible that it was subbed on VHS...

nixie

2006-05-25, 02:21

Excuse me for bumping an old thread, but I would just like to ask if anyone knows what the 1990 RoV movie is about?

I just had the chance of watching this recently and I am totally astounded by the story. I haven't cried so much since Hikaru no Go; the ending was so gut-wrenching painful to watch. Ah, thank you so much Live-Evil for subbing this masterpiece.

BANANABANANA

2007-07-23, 17:28

*bump* OMG!.....old news but but i need somewhere to go and squeal. they're making a La Rose de Versailles (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Rose_de_Versailles) movie!!!!!111

youtube link to the teaser (http://youtube.com/watch?v=8nosrE2Ez-4)

SapientiSat

2007-07-26, 00:16

Great news, but I've also heard that it is delayed till 2008 or 2009. I hope that's not the case.

In any case, existence of such a project makes me happy :D

Dop

2007-08-20, 05:57

Having heard what a classic this series is meant to be, and having seen references/parodies in other series, I grabbed hold of Live-Evil's batch torrent and downloaded the lot.
So what can I say? Obviously, it's very much a thing of its time (1979-1980, I believe). Melodramatic, a bit campy, and OTT in parts. Not that there's anything wrong with that!
I did find myself thinking things like "Aha, that must be a bad guy. He has a villainous moustache!" and imagining the Animation Director standing over the animators saying things like "Sparkles! MORE Sparkles! GIVE ME MORE SPARKLES, DAMN YOUR EYES!!!"

But I did watch seven episodes yesterday, and I'm hooked.

Well worth a look, if you ask me.

Ziv

2007-08-25, 07:34

Oscaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar!

gaguri

2007-08-25, 16:06

After so much hype behind this classic, I decided to check it out and I was both disappointed and satisfied. Disappointed because it wasn't as nearly as good as I hoped it to be, but satisfied because it does pick up towards the end and has memorable characters and a strong story. But the most interesting thing for me was the setting. I mean, the time of French Revolution is still one of the most interesting thing you may find in history, and circumstances can bring out the worst in men and turn them into vultures. It also makes people's sacrifice and virtues shine. Light is only beautiful and bright under darkness after all. I think the show did well in capturing the state of that particular time period, although the validity behind the depiction of historical figures like queen antoinette is questionable. But I liked the show's fictional telling of the events.

I hope that re-make will proceed, since in my opinion, the show would benefit a lot from modern animation technique and more refined script. And this is just me, but I hated the shoujo element in the show. I hate those sparkling eyes and sparkling bubbles of light that shows how handsome and pretty characters are. I hate how the tears pool inside their eyes ridiculously everytime they are about to cry. And the melodrama especially at the beginning of the series, ugh. No wonder I hate shoujo.

Area88

2008-08-18, 09:50

Finished watching this great series, a little slow to begin with after the gloriously romatic first episode but really reaches full stride with style, around the episode 19 mark. I was watching it almost contiously by this point, desperate to find out what happens after each and every cliffhanger.

Now can someone please fansub the 1987 movie sequel 'I'll Love You As Long As I Live'.

Meirin

2008-08-20, 04:39

Good timing. I just ordered some doujinshi anthologies for this series yesterday. :)

I'll post some images from it upon arrival.

Blaat

2009-07-10, 02:52

I have to admit that I gave up on this anime after watching 15 episodes mostly because it was too melodramatic and I ugh... couldn't stand Marie Antoinette and Rosalie. So I stopped watching but I didn't delete the episodes.

Then I watched Chevalier D'Eon, that spurred me finish this anime. And you know what Rose of Versailles gets a lot better when the anime moved away from Maria Antoinette, Rosalie, Fersen and focuses on Oscar and Andre. Perhaps not so coincidentally the anime also moved towards the French revolution itself which I find more fascinating. So for me the last 15 episodes were excellent.

The only disappointment I had at the end was
the lack of focus on the 'Reign of Terror' but I understand why they had to kill off Oscar and Andre on the eve of the Revolution, it makes their deaths more dramatic. But I can't help and think that having them see their dream turn into a nightmare would have been fun to watch.

Anyway I hope the animated movie gets released, if it's popular it might lead to a new anime and heck maybe even the sequel manga might get animated (Napoleon is much more fascinating then Marie Antoinette)

Dop

2009-07-10, 06:33

Talk about reviving a thread Blaat!
I have to admit when I watched this series a while back I did spend quite a bit of time thinking "Come on you French, start revolting!"

I think a slightly more pacey remake of this series with updated animation would be brilliant. The director is still working as he recently did Genji Monogatari Sennenki which also had the same character designer, so a remake could maintain a lot of the feel of the original.

4Tran

2009-07-10, 08:36

There has been a Rose of Versailles movie in development for some time already. From http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2008-01-28/5th-precure-film-greenlit-versailles-still-in-planning:

Japan's Toei Animation has revealed during its January 28 midterm earnings announcement that the fifth Precure movie has been greenlit. The company also confirmed that the Rose of Versailles movie is still in pre-production development, and that it is planning its first computer graphics project.

ohtori_akio

2009-08-10, 06:14

Dying to see that new ROV movie, hoping it won't be in pre-production hell for years!

Zwei

2009-08-10, 06:42

Lady Oscar was my first love.