Lia de Beaumont... or Lia de Jarjayes?
A new Lady Oscar... or only a promotional trick?
(by LadyHillary)

Tou Ubukata is really one the brightest japanese writers in the genre of fantasy and he is most well known in relation with the videogames... the Chevalier D'Eon, it also could present an interesting plot for a videogame... maybe it had to be marvellous on the newest Playstation3...  still since the beginning, it was not choosen to become a game... it had to become an animation... so why?

The story of D'Eon, settled in France under Luis XV and having an honest and moral nobleman as main character... a man who appears even more trustful when he hosts the soul of the sister... this story probably convinced japanese producers to think that, after so may years, finally there were good reasons to think that an anime would be able to make viewers fall into a deepest admiration, such as Lady Oscar did all around the world in the latest 20 years.

There is not any official source to be witness of the fact that the Production I.G. (the house who signed the CHEVALIER D'EON project) wanted to take inspiration from the Lady Oscar's anime: Tomomi Ozaki (characters design) doesn't ever allude to the presence of Oscar de Jarjayes in her toughts, while thinking to the figures of this series... still... since the very first action of Lia de Beaumont into the first episode of the series, a clear comparison with Lady Oscar appears. The similarity between Lia de Beaumont and Oscar de Jarjayes is crystal and it's also the main reason for which i decided to discuss this anime among the pages of this website, so deeply... even going "out of matter" since this website should be dedicated to Riyoko Ikeda only (i remember that nor the VERSAILLES NO BARA mark nor the Riyoko Ikeda Production are involved in LE CHEVALIER D'EON in any way, formally).

If you look at the pages of the CHEVALIER manga comics, by where D'Eon and Lia were firstly known by the japanese readers, for sure you won't see any likeness between them and the Lady Oscar's figure. CHEVALIER comics are a pure expression of the fantasy genre and they are populated by monsters and awful creatures, there is quite nothing about realism and more then involving, such pages could make Oscar's admirers to leave them off, even quicker, in case they should approach for the historical period !

If we don't imagine the commercial interests who move around the figure of Lady Oscar in Japan (and not only...), we probably won't be able to understand how the character of Eon/Lia could have evolved from this to that...

Into the manga, Eon has a completely different uniform from that of the animation... and above all, into the manga, Eon not only hosts the spirit of his sister, but he even phisically wears one of her dresses and he takes care to put a wig with long curls and ribbons on, when he feels that her soul is coming...

... this material disguise is completely absent into the animated series so it's hard to think that the Eon appearance might have become so strictly similar to the Lady Oscar's figure if not after a precise decision of the animators: let's say that they were concerned in recalling not one but two ghosts to the Eon's body... the ghost of Lia de Beaumont but also the ghost of Oscar Franēois de Jarjayes!

I precise that i am not underlining such similarities in order to discuss this new title in negative, in facts it's the contrary: i try to introduce this new work as best because even if some graphic choices are instantly recalling Lady Oscar, still the story is constructed on a completely different plot and even if it's different, we can't say that it's less involving!: so they wanted to catch us with this trick...it's fine! Maybe if they had miss this occasion, some of us won't be so excited in waiting for the first episodes, when we were still knowing nothing about this story. 

It's also very curious to see that into the first episode, the similarity between Lia de Beaumont and Oscar de Jarjayes is mainly phisical... while into the next episodes, the phisical appearance starts to move and turns on a more moral level: then Lia not always will come when Eon is wearing the uniform ... but also when he is in civil dresses and we will discover some things, about the previous life of Lia, who make us realize that she was not so an innocent and suave girl as she seemed at the beginning of the story... there are really many things to discover... episode by episode...

Just from the beginning of the first scenes, viewers are able to understand that the computers graphics and virtual reality have been widely applied to this production. It is clear that the many people of this team are coming from the videogames market... However, the general climate of this series is not artificial, not at all. The art director of the series thought to each landscape after studying on the classical paintings of '700, representing views on the towns, bridges, monuments... the result is an ideal relation between hands and machine: viewers remain involved into the scenes optically (thanks to the real perspectives, you seem you are moving inside the same places where characters move) and emotionally at the same time (narrator is speaking in 1st person and beautiful views of Paris and the Seine are running...).

This anime brings us into the Versailles Palace again... and actually we enter it: on the left, for example, you can see the room of Luis XV and this one of the two places whom Hiroshi Ono (art director) took most attention to;... the other one will be the room of the Queen. I am sorry i had to resample the image of course, only when you will watch at the anime, you'll be able to really appreciate all details and particulars.

Here on the right, i put some images of the mostly well-known Glasses Gallery in Versailles; into the first episode, we run all the lenght down this marvellous gallery, right the same way as we were walking inside. The realism of this gallery into the first episode is overmuch, it seems to be viewing an interactive cd of the Versailles Palace: i think, since this is the only part of the palace to be produced with so many details and it appears into the first episode, that here there was the proper intention to impress us and to introduce the powerful graphic of this series (it's probably a part of the palace that all people know very well). Then it's true that this anime wants to be realistic but here it seems quite a true visit to the palace and if all should be like this, we would finally consider the characters as mad stickers... but this is not, fortunately. Such sequences are rare into the animation and perfectly integrated.

I remember that this anime, for all its development, is incredibly scenic: not only because it was drawn in 3D but also because it was born for HD high definition viewing.

The attention of the animators to the rooms of the Versailles Palace and to the art works in general, let us think that even if the plot keeps many of the gothic elements of the manga, also there is the will to abandon the darkest pages of the manga, pointing the attention to the beauty and not only to the blood. Into the manga, we don't see any attention to the art of the XVIII century... in fact there is quite an even more terrific attention to the details of the evil.

There is one only anime in the history of the japanese animation where the attention to the artistic details (of art in the XVIII century) has been so strict and it was Lady Oscar... add this point to the fact that the Chevalier wears quite the same uniform as our lady... and you will understand that you won't be able to stay far from Berubarąs thougts while watching these scenes.
Of course LE CHEVALIER D'EON comes 26 years after Lady Oscar so the animators of this new title are more skilled: not only they can take inspiration from the past but also they can use computers to improve special effects... in 1979, all special effects where handmade; so in some scenes i discover some quotes who could even be ment as the wish to challenge the Lady Oscar's myth with the weapons of the new technology.

But, as a Berubarąs fan, i am proud to see that the Araki's work appears excellent even when we compare it with the newest modern tricks applied into LE CHEVALIER D'EON; just look at the following sequence of images, representing the Escalier de la Reine in Versailles (the ladder who brings from the patio to the private Queen's apartments) and you will see that even with the simple hands, the Araki's team has done quite a perfect reproduction:

On one side, we have marvellous views on Paris and golden Baroque palaces, on the other side, this anime offers a plot who is thick with religious misteries and where the gothic element, so in style in these years, is having a starring role.

As suggested by the title, the CHEVALIER D'Eon is not a mere soldier... he is a Knight! with all the moral power that this term might assume. D'Eon fights for the Crown and for the Divine Justice at the same time: Eon and his companions are not only soldiers, their roles are higher because not only they defend France from terrestrial enemies but also they act as Knights of God again the Evil; this mystical and religious valence who pervades all the series is completely new and it recalls the great sagas of the role play videogames (often planned in the medieval age or in not well centered historical ages). And it seems quite to be playing with a joypad, when Eon is fighting against Gargoyles...

The same weapons finally have a double meaning: they are a way of death but even a way of redemption... the knight kills so to keep the soul free from evil and such killings are in name of God... and this is the most particular element of this adventure... so "out of limits" that the gold of the Versailles walls even finds a mirror on the mercury of the necromancers, streaming out from the body of their damned victims. Here now it's the sword of Eon, with the cross of Lia soldered on it, bringing special power to his/her hands: it's true that any good Knight must bring a special sword... (King Arthur had Excalibur from the Lady of the Lake, do you remember?...)

In facts, all the scenes of the King's spies in action are voicing images from the greatest knightly poems and from keys of the international literature such as the "4 Mosqueteers" (by Dumas) for example: but here the mot won't be "One for all, all for one" but the highest latin "SIT NOMEN DOMINI BENEDICTUM, DOMINE SALVUM FAC REGEM" ("Name of God Be Blessed, God save the King"). Manga and above all anime are often speaking in latin... as to create a deep suggestion and i must say that it's really cute to see words written in latin among japanese kanji! ...so we can easily forgive all the errors occurring into the latin grammar of these pages! It's quite obvious that this is not a manual of latin and... about the suggestion, it works the same, even if the grammar is sometimes wrong! :-)