The Rose of Versailles Review
Director: Ai Yoshimura
Date Created: 2025-04-30 22:55
2
The Rose of Versailles Review: Directed by Ai Yoshimura and based on the hugely popular manga by Riyoko Ikeda. The screenplay for the film was written by Tomoko Konparu. It has a star-studded voice cast that includes Miyuki Sawashiro as Oscar François de Jarjayes, Aya Hirano as Marie Antoinette, Toshiyuki Toyonaga as André Grandier and many others well-known in the seiyuu community.
The movie ベルサイユのばら, is approximately 1 hour and 54 minutes long, a dramatic musical that takes place during the last days of the French monarchy. It primarily tells the tale of two women — the Queen of France, Marie Antoinette, and Oscar, a woman born a noble, but raised as a man and spy to serve the house of France in the military.
The Rose of Versailles Review
Now that I’ve seen Netflix’s The Rose of Versailles, I can say that my feelings about this film are mixed. Visually and musically, it attempts to be distinct, yet too much is crammed into too little time.
The film Versailles no bara, no doubt replete with fancy sets and costumes — sweeping gowns, shiny palace halls, dramatic candle-lit moments. The application of colour and a classic anime look gives the animation a charming feel and nostalgia to appeal to fans of period anime. But though the visuals are a feast for the eye, they didn’t allow me to emotionally connect with the characters all that much. Everything was gorgeous, but it lacked the emotional heft that a tale of revolution, class conflict and forbidden love should have.
I did have some major issues with the storytelling. To begin with, I’d assumed that this would be a strong historical drama, peppered with romance. It felt more like a love story that occasionally remembered it was also about the fall of the French monarchy. Key events such as political unrest and revolt were only briefly alluded to. The attention was always shifting between personal love stories and sweeping moments in history, and it was difficult to keep up. It wasn’t evident whether the movie was trying to be a romance, a tragedy or a police procedural, and that lack of clarity prevented it from achieving any one of them.
The only character that really appealed to me was Oscar. She has a strength that is multilayered and really interesting. She, raised as a man in a misogynistic society, has a particular burden that makes her immediately notable. I loved her story, especially the struggles of duty vs. identity vs. love. Had this movie been more focused on her, rather than attempting to juggle two story lines, it might have been a more concise and satisfying package. It was easy to imagine a whole show about Oscar and to watch it without complaint.
Also Read: The Eternaut Review: Ricardo Darín Steals This Eerie, Emotional and Gripping Sci-Fi Series
Speaking of underwhelming, on the negative side Marie Antoinette’s personality was lacking. As significant a figure as she is in history, the movie presents her as more of a support system than a lead character. We catch glimpses of her girlhood and what she wanted from life, but not enough to fully comprehend or feel for her. I just wanted a bit more depth, and more emotion and more perspective on what it was like for her as the Queen during such a tumultuous period. Instead, her scenes were choppy and had little impact.
When I learned this movie was a musical, I was fascinated to see how that would be handled. Too bad the songs didn’t make much of an impression. They weren’t terrible, but they didn’t seem powerful or personal enough to power the story through. And there were moments when the musical numbers seemed like a break in the storytelling, rather than an integral part. Rather than adding to the drama, it left the pacing somewhat unbalanced. Some of the songs felt a bit like they were just thrown in there, and I actually wanted to fast-forward through them to get back to the story.
Perhaps the greatest flaw of The Rose of Versailles anime is that it attempts to cram a big, sprawling story into a container that’s simply too small for it. This story of war, love, duty and rebellion definitely merits the time and space to expand. This movie feels like a hurried summary, not a story that has been properly developed. Significant occurrences are brushed past with little mention, and characters are brought in and never mentioned again.
Summing Up
In the end, I didn’t hate The Rose of Versailles film, but I didn’t adore it, either. It could have been a powerful, emotive and thought-provoking picture, but in the end lost the plot. Oscar is a tremendous character who deserves better writing, and the themes of class, identity, and power are all there; they’re just never better explored past the surface level. It’s a gorgeously wrapped present that, once you tear it open, leaves you wondering why there’s nothing inside.
The Rose of Versailles 2025 is now streaming on Netflix.
Also Read: Asterix & Obelix: The Big Fight Review: Colourful, Funny, and Feel-Good Animated Series
