The Rose of Versailles, Put This on your Radar!
Articl at a glance:
- The Rose of Versailles, Mappa’s upcoming movie adaptation, brings the classic 1970s manga back with stunning visuals and a talented cast, premiering January 31, 2025.
- The story follows Marie Antoinette and her fictional friend Oscar, blending historical events with compelling, character-driven narratives that highlight the political tensions of the time.
- Directed by Yoshimura Ai (Oregairu), the movie retains the vintage art style while showcasing Mappa’s signature top-tier animation.
We all know that Mappa had an isane 2023, I don;t think we have such a public meltdown of studio staff like before. Well, 8Bit is repeating the same thing this year aside from the meltdown part. Regarless, 2024 was a relatively quiet year for Mappa so you know they have some big plans for 2025. And The Rose of Versailles is one of those animes they have been working on. I am pretty sure it their first anime out next year too. This an anime movie adaptation of a very old manga and it is also not the first anime adaptation for the series either lol.
I was randomly going over anime news and I did not know that this movie was being made by Mappa. But as I read about it, I became interested. Now, I have not read the manga or anything, I just liked the premise so I wanted to talk about it. So yeah, let’s talk about The Rose of Versailles today!
About The Rose of Versailles
The manga was originally published from May 1972 to December 1973. Yes, it is that old. This manga was a product of growing Japanese interest in French history. The French government even acknowledged its impact and presented the author, Riyoko Ikeda with the Legion of Honor in 2009. As you may expect, the manga is set during the French revolution. It follows a young Marie Antoinette and her friend, Oscar.
From what I understand, it is not fully historically accurate as it focuses on compelling narrative rather than a documentary-style experience. And the manga takes some creative liberties with Marie Antoinette and of course, Oscar is a fictional character. But the manga does get the major things like political tensions and the downfall of the monarchy right.
About the Mappa Adaptation
So the Mappa version is not the first anime adaptation for Versailles no Bara. There was a 40-episode TV adaptation for it made all the way back in October 1979 by Tokyo Movie Shinsa. And then Toei animation wanted to make a movie as well but that ended up getting canned. That brings to 2025 and the Mappa adaptation. So far, it looks great. It will be directed by Yoshimura Ai who has worked on things like Gintama, Anohana and most notably, directed Oregairu.
Of course, it is Mappa so the animations so far look awesome as well. Hopefully no employees were harmed in the making of this movie lol. The movie is set to release in Japanese theatres on 31st January, The global release will of course come later. The movie features Hirano Aya, Sawashiro Miyuki, Kato Kazuki and Toyonaga Toshiyuki as the main cast. You can check out the teaser for the movie here. I really the fact that they’re still keeping the old-school art style.
That is all for now
I am fairly excited about this movie. The premise for the manga seems interesting and from what I’ve seen so far, the movie looks like it is in good hands. But yeah, that was another edition of Put this on Your Radar – the series where I talk about upcoming animes that caught my eye. Let me know what you guys think I look forward to The Rose of Versailles. With that said, I will take my leave here… I need sleep. See ya!
