I can't miss to dedicate a brand-new sector of this website to the new anime LE CHEVALIER D'EON, not only because it is the greatest event of the 2006/2007 japanese animation and it's coming soon in Italy... but mainly because the story of this new anime was inspired by the real existance of a knight, who lived in France under the reign of Luis XV and Luis XVI and passed most of his life wearing feminine dresses...

BIOGRAPHY (Summary of historical facts about the Chevalier D'Eon)
Please follow the link above and read the biography in order to understand the following...
INTERNATIONAL BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE HISTORICAL FIGURE

ANIME - OVERVIEW
ANIME - IMAGES GALLERY - LANDSCAPES AND BACKGROUNDS
ANIME & MANGA - EDITIONS
ANIME - PRODUCTION CREDITS
ANIME - MUSICS

TOU HUBUKATA (or Tow Ubukata)
The CHEVALIER (Knight) D'EON, young french spy, a male with the obsession to be a female, a person who was hiding we don't know how many secrets... he was the ideal figure to construct a fantasy story around... The janese writer (historical-fantasy genre) Tow Hubukata didn't miss the occasion.

Tow Hubukata (Born in Japan in 1977) is known in Japan as being one the most brilliant writers of fantasy novels at present day; he worked as scripter for anime and videogames. Since his youth, he wished to become a writer: after graduated, he won a competition at the KADOKAWA SHOTEN, then he attented to the Waseda University and then he entered the world of videogames. One of his most famous novels was "Chas Legion" who became plot for the famous videogame by Capcom, with the same title. Another most famous title of this author is "Pilgrim Jager" (Mami Itou).
In 2003, Tow Hubukata won the "24th Japan Science Fiction Grand Prize" and confirmed himself as the brighest writer of the genre. Hubukata has particular experience in scripting wars and adventuares sagas, taking place in the medioeval age.

THE ENGLISH EDITION OF "THE CHEVALIER D'EON" MANGA COMICS IS ARRIVING !!
IN LIBRARIES FROM JUNE 2007 (By DelRey, US)!!

On 21st Oct 2005, the japanese KODANSHA Publishings (the same House who presented CANDY CANDY for the first time in 1975) releases the first volume of the new manga-comics LE CHEVALIER D'EON (The Knight of Eon), story by Tow Hubukata and drawings by Jumeji Kiriko.

Plot Summary:
"Paris, 1742... "Psalms" written in blood on the arms of a young dead lady... an evil is going around Paris killing young girls after damned rites on their bodies. D'Eon, who works as a spy at the service of Luis XV, together with his sister Lia de Beaumont, are investigating in order to discover this dark power. Lia de Beaumont falls victim of the evil. But she can't leave off fighting: her sould enters the body of his brother and she uses him as an arm to revenge her own death..."  

SO WE HAVE FRANCE, WE HAVE THE CROWN... we are near to the FRENCH REVOLUTION and a misterious Knight BRINGS HIS SWORD WHILE DRESSING AS A LADY... the japanese public suddently falls into excitement... LADY OSCAR!! The success of the new manga-comics is immediate.

While Kodansha is still releasing the other volumes of the comics (manga will be complete in 4 vols), people realize that this could be the ideal plot for an animated series. In Aug 2006, while the WOWOW broadcast is trasmitting the anime for the first time, the NikkeiBPsha Publishings releases the brand-new novel of LE CHEVALIER D'EON, written by Tow Hubukata, with the new story of the anime. The anime is inspired to the manga but the story is revisited.

THE "CHEVALIER D'EON" ARRIVES ON TV!!
THE JAPANESE EVENT OF 2006/2007

The CHEVALIER D'EON manga comics are offering the ideal plot to think to the production of a new animated series and japanese producers won't miss this opportunity. The anime comes by PRODUCTION I.G.: the first problem ecountered by the production is that there is a wide cultural distance between Japan and the historical french period in which this story takes place. So it's necessary to select a wide team of skilled artists... Among them, Tow Ubukata is always present: he cares the supervision of the projects and he advises about the direction.
It's during the development of the animated series that Tow Hubukata works to the novel of LE CHEVALIER D'EON and that the book is released into libraries.
LE CHEVALIER D'EON comes on tv in Japan, for the first time, during summer 2006: it's 24 episodes and it is trasmitted in HIGH DEFINITION by WOWOW; the fact that this anime had to be watched in high definition, also contributed to make the production harder... the final work had to be excellent!

LE CHEVALIER D'EON: ANIME SERIES, PLOT SUMMARY

LE CHEVALIER D'EON: HIROSHI ONO AND THE ANIME BACKGROUNDS [Gallery]

This artist had the role to take care of the backgrounds and landscapes: Hiroshi Ono suddenly understands that it won't be easy, above all because the story moves quickly from country to country so the backgrounds of each episode cannot be used again among the series; and also, due to fact that we are often changing country (France, England, Russia...), the landscapes must be drawn with particulars who could instantly recall the viewer to the right enviroment. A complex study of the real places is needed... and a more complex work on the tables bacause this anime is ment to become a realistic anime so the artist can't use tricks to save time... such as stylization for example.
Hiroshi Ono starts from searching inspiration from movies, classical paintings... he reviews hundreds photos into books of art. All must be done with precision because this anime is 3D: all backgounds had to be studied with attention.
This is a particular work for Mr. Ono, an hard work but even a brand-new work... whom he never done for other series in the past; of course the artist had to do all these things while keeping an eye to the time and this is the reason for which he appears to be a bit sorry at present day... because of course he draw the general visions on the landscapes but he had to leave the final touch to the other artists of the team... maybe, if having more time, he had completed them more (he said during an interview). 

Hiroshi Ono told that he paid attention to two ambients in particular: the Queen's Room and the King's Study (into Versailles). The reason was that these places are very well documented with pictures and photos in the books of art and more, there are many people who really visited these places and these people must be able to find an immediate comparison between the real places and the anime scenes.

Hiroshi Ono must be also remembered for his particular use of colors and lights in drawing the marvellous sunsets of this anime: he told he preferred to joke around 2 colors, orange and blue, while colouring the sky (instead of scaling tones of orange only, for ex.) and this came after a deep study of the landscapes in classical paintings. He also remembers that young artist should always study on the classics... he too, he thought it was not important when he was younger but with this anime, he finally understood that there is always more to know.

LE CHEVALIER D'EON: TOI8 AND WEAPONS

Toi8 comes from a japanese school of animation but before LE CHEVALIER D'EON, he was known in Japan mainly for being an illustrator of novels and magazines: this is his first opportunity to work into a real animation project.

As about drawing the accessories of the characters of this series, he told that the work was hard because he had much experience in videogames weapons and videogames are often moving in the medioeval age, a very different context; however, since the story of LE CHEVALIER D'EON is rich of gothic elements, he had the possibility to take inspiration from the great medioeval sagas, even to draw the weapons of this series. He told he loves to draw weapons and while working for this series, he thought to other series such as Berserk, who is not conceived into a precise historical period. He found a sort of compromise between the heavy weapons of the videogames and the real weapons of the XVIII century, by rendering the lines simplier and poiting the attention to some particulars of the weapons (such as the cross, in the middle of the grip of the D'Eon's sword, for ex.).
I must say that the final result is light but very impressive:

LE CHEVALIER D'EON: CHARACTERS DESIGN

The characters design of this series was by Mrs. Tomomi Ozaki, who is actually Toi8's wife and comes from the videogames genre, just like the husband. She was completely new to a project like this because she had to render characters with realism; faces and costumes had to be similar to those effectively existed in the XVIII century so she followed the same line of Hiroshi Ono and started to search for classical paintings, portraits and art books.

Of course the character of D'EON was the most important challenge for her: he had to be a man but he had also to keep his lines when dressing as the sister... so she gave him long hair, fastened by a ribbon. The ribbon was commonly used among gentlemen of the XVIII century and at the same time, it was a good trick to let him get beautiful winding hair while possessed by the sister.

The preferred characters of Mrs. Ozaki are Anna and Cagliostro: this preference comes from the fact that this is a realistic anime so the artist could not joke so much with faces. And more there are only a few females into this series so she took a paricular care of Anna: she hadn't to be a very nice girl because - she said - beautiful girls are often noising... so she preferred to make her funny with a upturned nose and a rounded face.

As for the faces of other characters, Ozaki took inspiration from some famous western actors: Count Guercy is Jack Black (School of Rock), Durand is Brad Pitt, Tellagory is Anthony Hopkins (The Mask of Zorro)... and finally she draws Robin from the photos of herself!

Tomomi Ozaki said that the hardest work was not to find a suitable face for these characters: it was to animate them, keeping attention to the particulars of their costumes... because of course these detailed costumes had to move ... and this hard work was possible thanks to the skilled team of animators who prepared the cels-between. So she recommends the viewers to pay attention to particulars, while watching the series, because any detail required time and study.

LE CHEVALIER D'EON: THE ANIME SOUNDTRACK

Released on 30th Nov 2006 (30 tracks): the sountrack of LE CHEVALIER D'EON is by the brightest composer, Michiru Oshima.

Michiru Oshima is a mostly talented composer, coming from the Department of Composition of the Kunitachi College of Music. Her career is wonderful: she started with composing musics and making arrangements for anime series, tv series and movies and she won many and many important awards in Japan: among them, we remember the Mainichi Film Competition Music Award, the 21st, 24th, 26th, 27th and 29th Japan Academy Best Music Awards and the 2006 Animation of the Year Music Award.
Among her works, i can recall the soundtrack of FullMetal Alchemist.

Michiru Oshima faced the composition of this soundtrack down to the minimum details so that we can tell that all the beauty of these musics must be simply referred to her. She loved the work with LE CHEVALIER D'EON very much because it was the first time that she had the occasion to work with pretty much classical pieces, pieces to be written for a great orchestra. She signed the composition, arrangements... she also choose the musicians who had to perform the pieces and she assisted the whole registration process. 

Michiru Oshima tells us that a composer must pay even more attention to the creation of an anime soundtrack then to the creation of a real movie soundtrack... that's because real actors are able to express feelings very well while the animated faces can't always do it... here music must come and overcome the expression of the cartoonists, by enflating the sould of the story. She told that LE CHEVALIER D'EON gave her such a great opportunity to express her own art that she was not satisfied until she checked the final result of the music on the first scenes of the first episode (something rarely done by composers, who usually leave the arrangements to others).

While speaking about the soundtrack, maybe i must remember AYA, the young japanese rock-pop singer who sings the final song of the episodes, title "Over Night" (included into the original cd sountrack). Aya made her debut in 2002 and also Nirvana and Pearl Jem anjoyed her dubut. Her first album was Senjo no hana (A Flower in the Battlefield). After 2 years, her second album was published by BMG and turned around the world, getting international success in 40 countries. A wonderful success if we think that the japanese music rarely comes out of Japan.
"Over Night" takes inspiration from the first scenes of the manga and it was written while thinking to D'Eon, walking throught Paris with the hands of the dead sister... it was written to become a warm song, full of nostalgy... "Over Night" wants to say that it doesn't mean how deep the surrounding darkness is ... finally there will be a time to see light again...

Many informations contained into this page are taken from the official LE CHEVALIER D'EON websites and from the websites of the japanese marks and producers.