While I dislike reading reviews of shows and exhibits that have ended or are nearly over (“Hey! I could have gone to see that!”), a comment on my articles about The Rose of Versailles reminded me that I never did end up posting about my adventures at the Kyoto International Manga Museum‘s two-part exhibit on The Rose of Versailles.
Image from the Kyoto International Manga Museum
The exhibit showcased the original drawings (原画、genga) from the manga of The Rose of Versailles in two parts: “The Rose’s Destiny” (薔薇の運命(さだめ), covered the beginning of the manga to Andre’s confession in Vol. 3, and “Amidst the Storm of Revolution” (革命の嵐の中で) finished out the manga. Also on display were original copies of the editions of Margaret from the 1970s, Ikeda’s character art pieces, and information on the adaptions for anime, Takarazuka, and film.*
The signs were bilingual (Japanese/English), and the English translation was beautifully executed, although I did giggle at Oscar being referred to as a “beautiful crossdresser,” since that seems to be too simple of a term to really encompass her character.
The exhibits were mainly the original copies of the hand-drawn pages that became the manga, but as a fan, even those were amazing to see. I could see where Ikeda had used a white pen to make the sparkles in the Oscar’s eyes; where she had changed a word or moved a wordbubble; the penciled in notes in the sidebar with instructions to the editor/printer. These were pages that Ikeda-sensei herself had touched. There was also information about the creation of the work on display, in which Ikeda described the extreme stress of continuing the work–hate mail, working herself to the point of collapse–but she says that her youth was what allowed her to finish the work. (Ikeda was all of 24 when The Rose of Versailles was published.)
A friend sent this to me a few years ago. If you have the source, please send it to me!
Almost a year has passed since I finished the manga, and I noticed how much faster I could read the text on the displays than when I started reading the first volume in 2009. To me, however, the manga was more than just a linguistic goal or a check on a list of to-read classics. Like Misawa, as a teen, I was enchanted with Oscar–I had never encountered a character like her or a relationship like hers with Andre. I wanted to become an Oscar-like person. As an adult who has read the whole manga, I still do.
池田理代子 ベルサイユのばら原画展
2011年3月19日（土）～5月8日（日）
前期：「薔薇の運命（さだめ）」 3/19（土）～4/12（火）
後期：：「革命の嵐の中で」 4/14（木）～5/8（日）
La Rose de Versailles Exhibition
March 19 – May 8, 2011
Part 1: “The Rose’s Destiny”: March 19 – April 12, 2011
Part 2:”Amidst the Storms of Revolution”: April 14 – May 8, 2011
Note
*I enjoyed the anime; I like the Takarazuka show for what it is; the film Lady Oscar is a a sad instance of “what could have been”–huge budget but the characters were all wrong, the acting was bad, and it would be impossible to cover the whole story well in 2 hours anyhow. I would support a mini-series, TV show, or another crack at the anime, though.
The Lobster Dance 
…” I was enchanted with Oscar–I had never encountered a character like her or a relationship like hers with Andre. I wanted to become an Oscar-like person. As an adult who has read the whole manga, I still do”
I feel the same! Oscar is an amazing character and her relationship with André is so intense, so well depicted, they have the power of Shakespeare characters. I really love the way Oscar grows and how she changes throughout the story. And I also love the fact that surrenders her feelings for André only when she’s ready to embrace an entire universe of new meanings, and to accept that the established world is falling apart.
She can love André cause she’s a new woman, she’s ready for a new era, where man can be equal, and the words commoner or noble don’t have meaning anymore. And she wants to be part of it.
I still hope that one day they will make a real good movie about this beautiful tragedy (the old one is unbelievably awful). Maybe a serious hollywood productioncould be the answer.
I’m also longing for an animated remake, but it seems that Toei Animation is not so willing to finish that old project. Do you know anything about that, by any chance?
The exhibition must have been sooo cool!
Bye!
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Thanks for the great comment! I wrote a bit about this in the series on RoV about love and control.
The live-action film was so terrible–what a waste! Hollywood has the budget, but I’d really be worried about whether they could get it right. Maybe an otokoyaku could play Oscar 😉
After some investigation, I discovered the Toei Animation “remake” is just a video they were making for an RoV-themed pachinko machine. (;_;) I guess some non-Japanese-speaking fans misconstrued it as a remake.
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Hi! Im new to your blog and I was reading your comment about Toei and I am confused D: I did my own thorough research on it and I think the Pachinko videos and the TOEI remake are not the same thing.Tthey are from the same company yes (apparently, Im not very sure) but the TOEI remake /is/ a full fledged movie. Ikeda mentioned it in an interview in an Italy convention once (saying she was working on a RoV movie that uses CGI effects or something), and TOEI released the pilot trailer which sported a different style to the Pachinko videos. D: Also, quite recently, I found a news article in a japanese news website with TOEI’s upcoming projects, and Rose of Versailles was scheduled for release after 2012 (no exact date, only 2012 :< I should get the website later since I had to use a translator, and you do speak japanese haha) I noticed it matches with the 40th Anniversary of RoV, so maybe that's why? I do know that the only reason there is no news about the movie is because apparently, Riyoko herself wanted no information to be given out until she was happy with the final product of the film, so I dunno D:
I need to find these links and send them to you so you can tell me what you think hahaha I may have read it all wrong :T Really enjoy your article btw ❤
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I really hope they aren’t the same thing. The problem is that on youtube, there are videos of the pachinko game that English-speaking fans seem to have misunderstood to be the movie.I poked around a bit online but couldn’t find any movie information except that it was announced at the 2007 Tokyo Anime Expo (a blurb on the BeruBara page on Japanese wikipedia.) If you do have information or links, please send them my way!
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Sorry for taking so long to reply, I didn’t get a notification! I managed to gather some of the links, I hope these help. They are in Japanese however so… maybe you can shed more light on it since translators are known to fail quite often haha!
News article that mentions the release date as being “after 2011” (I think?)
http://animeanime.jp/news/archives/2011/01/20113d.html
Here it says the Pachinko game is created by another Ace Denken, not Toei
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2004-05-08/rose-of-versailles-pachinko
This file is old but it’s a file from the TOEI website that apparently mentions or hints that RoV is going to be a theatrical release?
Click to access 20070518_all.pdf
This photo from the Tokyo Convention! LOL I dont know what it says either
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/90/senzanome9so.png/
And here’s the interview where Riyoko vaguely hinted at the movie. It’s in italian though D: It’s from 2010.
http://riyokoikeda.altervista.org/BiografiaviaggiNovello5.htm
but the translator roughly translates the part as such:
“Audience : Are you satisfied with the implementation of Lady Oscar animated in 3D?
RI . : There is a similar project. I’m working on the film in computer graphics”
There you go, if I find anything else I’ll send it your way! Let me know what you think! 😀
-Feri
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Thanks for the links!
The links, in order:
1. Just mentioned that it’s planned for after 2011, no details.
2. The link to the Ace Denken site doesn’t work, but entirely possible.
3. Just says it’s “planned.”
4. ”Theatrical work”–could be referring to Takarazuka or the film or this planned film.
5. I had to use google translate on this, too–I can’t read Italian except on menus…
I did a search in Japanese, but all I found was that apparently Movie Square let people watch BeruBara and other shows free till 8/31: http://mantan-web.jp/2011/08/26/20110826dog00m200025000c.html
One can dream…
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So here it’s the trick! I saw the pachinko videos, I thought they were just the prelude to something more, as I read a lot about this possible remake. Maybe it’s better like that.
Thank YOU, I read your posts about the “theme of love in RoV” and I… loved them. It’s so difficult to find anything that explore this masterpiece thoroughly and it was a real pleasure to discover them 🙂
I’ll go on following your blog!
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Yeah, I was really disappointed, too! I would have loved to have a remake of the film/anime.
I’m glad you liked my posts, and thank you for the kind comments! 😀 I hope you enjoy the blog!
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