Review of The Rose of Versailles

Rose of Versailles is a great anime to show young people to spark an interest in European history. For the most part, the events depicted are pretty accurate, and the portrait of the doomed young Queen is pretty much spot on. A lot is made of the lead character, Oscar, being "fictional," but it should be pointed out that her place in the drama of the French Revolution is not fictional -- the role she plays is the role of Lafayette. Lafayette did, of course, fight in the American Revolution, he was appointed to commander of the Garde Nationale when things turned bad, and he was protector of the Queen, and he did try to stop the violence and ultimately switched sides in the Revolution. He was also a glamorous figure who always appeared in uniform and was quite popular with the ladies at court. It works amazingly well to have a woman as Lafayette. A lot of interesting discussion can be generated by weighing the results of re-imagining him as a woman.