Watch 'Lady Oscar: The Rose of Versailles'!

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There is a new anime series that was recently added on RetroCrush titled Lady Oscar: The Rose of Versailles. You can view it for free here. I have been watching the first few episodes, and I am enjoying it immensely!

For the uninitiated, I will explain what it is. Lady Oscar: The Rose of Versailles is the 1979 anime adaptation of the smash-hit 1973 manga series Rose of Versailles by Riyoko Ikeda. The main character is Oscar François de Jarjayes, a woman born in 18th-century France who is raised as a man by her father so that he has an heir to his position as captain of the royal guard. Once Oscar comes of age, she is tasked with guarding Marie Antionette, the Austrian-born noble who marries Louis XVI and is the dauphine and later queen of France. The setting is the late 1700s, the time period before and during the French Revolution. Basically, this is Les Misérables but from the perspective of the nobility. As the series progresses, you will see how the decadence, corruption, and selfishness of the high class led to the poor lower classes rising up and initiating the Revolution.

I first came to know about this series through Revolutionary Girl Utena. Utena's dueling outfit and those of the Student Council are directly inspired by the military outfits worn by Oscar. Soon after, I began reading the first-ever official English translation of the manga which was recently published by Udon Entertainment. It's awesome. If you love manga and well-told stories with complex characters and beautiful artwork, look no further than this. It's five volumes and worth every page. The surprise success of the manga very likely led to the anime's addition to the RetroCrush catalogue.

Back to the anime. From what I've seen so far, it's not much different than the manga. The advantage of watching this as opposed to reading the manga is that I can tell who the characters are when they are in full color. Manga tends to be published in black-and-white, so sometimes it is hard to differentiate the characters, especially when they are wearing similar outfits and hair-dos. But that is a minor complaint. If you love history, animation and/or anime, or just good stories in general, this is a must-see.