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This is a production that manages to somehow combine a number truly disparate elements into a vaguely cohesive whole. First, it's a period piece set in Louis XV's court. In most respects it does a pretty good job of this. In anime, extras and sets are cheap, so there are some inspired backgrounds and lots of little details to keep us grounded in the 16th century Europe.
In addition to Louis , there's a cast of historical personages that play strongly into the story lines, including Louis' wife, Maria Leszczyńska, Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, Madame de Pompadour, Elizabeth of Russia, and the Comte de Saint-Germain.
Saint-Germain is a clue to one of the other forces at work here, mystical cabals with working magick. The characters, setting, and politics actually don't seem to require the occult elements. Though it does provide some nice story shortcuts and a little spice. The level of flash is subdued by the apparent desire of the story to stay in our universe and not some alternate sorcery laden one.
Well, there are some zombie critters, but the common folk are blissfully unaware. Here, again, bribed guards or other villain types would work just as well. Taken as a whole, the magic doesn't drive the story as much as the people, which makes it seem extra. If even more subdued, the more historically minded might have enjoyed this more. Well, maybe.
For a certain kind of anime, it's got the basics, power politics and some kind of fantasy. Round that all off with gender bending and you have a Japanese triumvirate. For some reason, gender confusion is an excessively common theme in anime, from complete magical transformation to more mundane questionable wardrobe choices. The number of examples of this probably make it the number two anime fetish, right after the undisputed number one; school girls. A quick search turned up this list.
The title character is also an historical figure; the wikipedia entry says it all: Charles-Geneviève-Louis-Auguste-André-Timothée d'Éon de Beaumont (October 5, 1728 - May 21, 1810), usually known as the Chevalier d'Éon was a French diplomat, spy, soldier and Freemason who lived the first half of his life as a man and the second half as a woman.
D'Eon latter life gender role is uncertain, whether he really was a woman or merely asserted his belief he was. In the anime, his alternate lifestyle is brought on the channeling of the soul of his dead sister, who he's the spitting image of. The dead female sibling of course has all the answers, was a much better with the sword, and knew alchemy. You can pretty much see where this is going.
While not great, I can't heartily endorse it, on the whole it's good enough to be amusing. There's royal intrigue and a lot of musketeer style cloak and dagger. Lots of little historical tidbits and the expected liberties. With this caveat, the last few episodes are pretty awful, with the finale being absolutely horrid. Most of the loose ends do get tied up and you'll want to watch the end if you got that far. Just be aware that the final boat back to France heralds some kind of anime writer's strike for the show.
In addition to Louis , there's a cast of historical personages that play strongly into the story lines, including Louis' wife, Maria Leszczyńska, Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, Madame de Pompadour, Elizabeth of Russia, and the Comte de Saint-Germain.
Saint-Germain is a clue to one of the other forces at work here, mystical cabals with working magick. The characters, setting, and politics actually don't seem to require the occult elements. Though it does provide some nice story shortcuts and a little spice. The level of flash is subdued by the apparent desire of the story to stay in our universe and not some alternate sorcery laden one.
Well, there are some zombie critters, but the common folk are blissfully unaware. Here, again, bribed guards or other villain types would work just as well. Taken as a whole, the magic doesn't drive the story as much as the people, which makes it seem extra. If even more subdued, the more historically minded might have enjoyed this more. Well, maybe.
For a certain kind of anime, it's got the basics, power politics and some kind of fantasy. Round that all off with gender bending and you have a Japanese triumvirate. For some reason, gender confusion is an excessively common theme in anime, from complete magical transformation to more mundane questionable wardrobe choices. The number of examples of this probably make it the number two anime fetish, right after the undisputed number one; school girls. A quick search turned up this list.
The title character is also an historical figure; the wikipedia entry says it all: Charles-Geneviève-Louis-Auguste-André-Timothée d'Éon de Beaumont (October 5, 1728 - May 21, 1810), usually known as the Chevalier d'Éon was a French diplomat, spy, soldier and Freemason who lived the first half of his life as a man and the second half as a woman.
D'Eon latter life gender role is uncertain, whether he really was a woman or merely asserted his belief he was. In the anime, his alternate lifestyle is brought on the channeling of the soul of his dead sister, who he's the spitting image of. The dead female sibling of course has all the answers, was a much better with the sword, and knew alchemy. You can pretty much see where this is going.
While not great, I can't heartily endorse it, on the whole it's good enough to be amusing. There's royal intrigue and a lot of musketeer style cloak and dagger. Lots of little historical tidbits and the expected liberties. With this caveat, the last few episodes are pretty awful, with the finale being absolutely horrid. Most of the loose ends do get tied up and you'll want to watch the end if you got that far. Just be aware that the final boat back to France heralds some kind of anime writer's strike for the show.
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I lost interest as the awfulness really set it, never had the heart to watch the ending. You win.
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