A website opened on Wednesday to announce a new movie based on Riyoko Ikeda’s The Rose of Versailles manga. The tagline for the movie reads, “They lived intensely, beautifully.” Along with the announcement, a promotional video was also posted to the official Youtube channel for the movie.
The movie was first hinted at through an illustration by Ikeda, half joking, commenting about fans not forgetting the story. Many fans quickly reassured Ikeda that they had not forgotten the story, as it was an early pioneer for sexuality, gender, and gender roles being the main focus of anime/manga.
“The Rose of Versailles” Movie: The First Comeback in 50 Years
Riyoko Ikeda first serialized The Rose of Versailles original manga in Shueisha’s Weekly Margaret magazine from 1972 to 1973. The story is based on “love and destiny” and is set in the intrigue-filled court of Queen Marie Antoinette before and during the French Revolution. Lady Oscar is a young woman raised as a man to have a spot among the palace guards. More specifically, the story is described as follows;
Oscar François de Jarjeyes is a young noblewoman raised as a son by her father. As commander of Marie Antoinette’s palace guard, Oscar is brought face to face with the luxury of King Louis XVI’s court at Versailles. Joined by her servant Andre, Oscar is privy to the intrigue and deceit of France’s last great royal regime.
The Rose of Versailles manga inspired a 40-episode anime series that ran from 1979 to 1980. It was released by Right Stuff in North America in 2013 with two DVD sets. In addition to the television anime, the manga also inspired a 1990 animated film. More upcoming, the manga has also inspired a project to be released from Otomate. The (assumed visual novel/game) is slated to be titled Private BeruBeara Academy: Rose of Versailles Re*imagination. The project had both an unspecified “screen adaptation” and a game adaptation simultaneously in the works.
Udon Entertainment then began releasing the manga in English in December 2019. Since then, the entire manga is compiled into five omnibus volumes. Udon is also planning to release The Rose of Versailles Episodes side story manga sometime next year.
The Rose of Versailles anime is available to stream on Crunchyroll. As of now, there is no release timeline for the upcoming movie.