Although I tend to buy plain stamps, the Japan Post sells some beautiful limited edition series of stamps–everything from flowers to anime heroes and heroines. Starting on 10 June 2011, the post offices started selling a stamp set featuring characters and scenes from The Rose of Versailles （『ベルサイユのバラ』, a.k.a. BeruBara (『ベルバラ』).
Image from Japan Post.
All my friends know I’m a huge BeruBara fan, and lots of people emailed me to say that they had seen the stamps. On the day when I was planning to buy them, I had a horrible allergic reaction caused by exposure to pine-processionary caterpillars (more on this later) and went home sick. That night, I discovered that a good friend had mailed me a set when he was passing through southwestern Japan for research. 感度した！
The set is the 16th in the Anime Heroines series, and features Oscar, Rosalie, Andre, Antoinette, Fersen, and Jeanne on individual stamps, as well as pair stamps–Fersen and Oscar dancing on the night when she dresses as a woman for the first time, and Antoinette and Fersen meeting in the winter woods on the day they consummate their affair.
The stamp set is a limited run of 150,000 sheets. The set, which costs 800 yen, can be ordered online from Japan Post or purchased at post offices while supplies last.
Now I just have to find a frame for my treasure!
See original on the Japan Post website.
The Lobster Dance 
Cool! I don’t collect stamps but I would buy these 🙂
You know, one is definetely missing: Oscar with André! How could they design a couple of stamps about Oscar and Fersen at the ball and NOT one of our beloved together?!?! 🙂
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ps: I mean, I see that there are two stamps about O&A, but I want one when they are a couple!
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I know, right?! I would much rather trade the first Antoinette and the Jeanne for an Oscar/Andre pair of stamps. What gives, Japan Post?
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Ah! They’re limited edition…I hadn’t read that far. I had sent a letter to my mother’s stamp-collecting pen-pal and asked for a Beru Bara stamp just for fun, but I guess I should go and buy a whole sheet for her.
Actually, the clerk matched that stamp very nicely with a butterfly stamp to make up the difference of the cost. ^o^
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[…] stamps. Odorunara has pictures, but be warned: you may feel a sudden urge to buy postage. [The Lobster Dance] Filed Under: NEWS Tagged With: Keiko Takemiya, Manga Industry Jobs, Obon, SDCC, Shigeru Mizuki, […]
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I was a huge fan of what in Italy was called “Lady Oscar”. I remember I was very, very sad at the end of the story. Thee stamps are so cool.
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I might have mentioned in this prior posts, but I wanted to read this series since I was 16. It never got an English release, so I couldn’t read any of it till I studied abroad, but since I was a beginner, I really couldn’t read it! It took me seven years of Japanese and a year of reading it (it’s long…), but I managed it before my 26th birthday. 🙂 One of my favorite manga and one of my favorite love stories.
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