The Rose of Versailles, Vol. 1

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By Riyoko Ikeda. Released in Japan as “Versailles no Bara” by Shueisha, serialized in the magazine Margaret. Released in North America by Udon Entertainment. Translated by Mari Morimoto.

At last, one of the most iconic manga ever has reached the shores of North America. It’s been a long wait since the license was first announced, and I’m sure there are some asking whether it was worth it. I am here to tell you that yes, it was. The volume of Rose of Versailles I am holding in my hands (both hands, it’s quite heavy) is gorgeous, a hardcover with high-quality paper, the first of five omnibus volumes (the “Complete Edition” from Japan). The art is breathtaking – I normally read manga fairly quickly, but it took me days to get through this book, as I kept stopping every panel to look at some fresh new detail. The characters are all compelling and drive the story well, although I admit that I like some of them more than others. The dialogue is also fantastic and will make you go back and reread when you aren’t going back to reread because of the art. It’s just… really amazing, folks.

The story frames itself as being about three people born the same year: Hans Axel von Fersen, a Swedish prince; Oscar Francois de Jarjayes, a noblewoman raised as a man; and Marie Antoinette Josephe Jeanne de Lorraine D’Autriche, better known as just Marie Antoinette, future Queen of France. The first half of the volume is very much about Marie Antoinette in its entirety; Oscar is there, but as a mere supporting player, popping up to snark at the other nobles and then getting back to her job with the Royal Guards. We see Marie as a well-meaning but naive and gullible teenager, thrust into the spotlight far too soon, and later in the book this gets even worse when Louis XV dies and she becomes Queen. Oscar is there at timees to try to guide her towards being more mature, but is not very successful at it, mostly as there are any number of hangers-on who are trying to manipulate a lonely and innocent Queen. And then there’s Fersen, who arrives at court and falls deeply in love with Marie Antoinette.

This is soap opera, of course, but of the best kind – if you’re going to go big and overdramatic, the court of Louis XV and XVI is the place to do it. Marie Antoinette is both sympathetic and frustrating, and you can see how difficult it can be to do the right thing when you have so many people who are standing besides you “giving helpful advice”. There’s also a subplot involving a pair of poor sisters, Jeanne and Rosalie; one manipulates men to move up into nobility, the other ends up attached to Oscar after her mother is killed by a mysterious noblewoman. I was, I admit, less enamored of these two; Rosalie, in particular, can grate. And then there’s the art. Rose of Versailles is most familiar for its iconic shoujo poses, and those do look beautiful and dramatic, but there’s also lots of silliness as well, and much of the humor in the volume comes from over the top comedy reactions to everyone’s antics. (Oscar, in particular, gets some magnificent funny faces.)

I hope I don’t need to tell everyone that this is worth reading immediately. If you were beginning to despair worrying it would never come out, fear not; it’s here, and it’s magnificent. Immerse yourself in it.

The Asterisk War: Resurgence of Savagery

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By Yuu Miyazaki and okiura. Released in Japan by MF Bunko J. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Haydn Trowell.

Sometimes I jinx myself. Last time I was happily going on about how Asterisk War may have been cliched but hit all the right notes and was really fun to read. So it’s no surprise that here I am, reading the 12th volume, and finding things that I’m dissatisfied with. This is the last ‘setup’ volume before the next battle, the Lindvolus, and so the author is dragging the characters to where they need to be. For Ayato, who isn’t taking part in the battle (after all, it’s Julis who needs to win it), this will involve getting threatened and blackmailed. For the rest of the cast, it will involve learning about the new Big Bad and what he’s trying to do… well, actually, no one is quite sure what he is trying to do. For Orphelia, it’s starting to look like all she’ll be getting is a merciful death. And for Julis, who likely will have to administer that death, this volume is basically terrible, and it’s no surprise that she ends it distancing herself from her friends.

Firstly, Haruka is awake, and actually fulfilling a plot function, which is nice. Less nice is that the plot function she is filling is damsel in distress, though she has more agency than most of those. She’s up and telling people about the bad guy (her real father), and the scenes where she trains Ayato to realize why he’s still coming up short in controlling his powers are quite good. But the blackmail scene, where Ayato is threatened by revealing that Haruka essentially has a bomb next to her heart that will go off if Ayato doesn’t obey orders, feels like a cliche in the bad way, which Asterisk War doesn’t normally do. In addition, while I enjoyed the flashbacks to bad guy’s school years and him meeting a mysterious student with great powers (who seems very familiar), we only get one chapter of it, and it felt a bit out of place towards the start of the book.

There’s no additional confessions in the Ayatobowl sweepstakes, though his sister is happy he has so many girls after him. Instead, everyone is training for the Lindvolus, which promises to be at least the next three books, so we’d better get ready. We get a look at some of the other participants, some of whom we’ve seen before, and some of whom are new characters. Which is good, because this is a series with a tiny cast that absolutely needed more new characters. Yes, I’m joking. Actually, a lot of these little scenes were quite good, and were probably the parts of the book I enjoyed the most. But in the end the main thing this book was after was the break Julis, and also to drive her away from her friends, and it succeeded admirably. Which is fine, but a little depressing. I like Julis.

Next volume opens the tournament, so expect our heroes to be beating on a lot of supposedly strong folks who will nevertheless be sacrificed to the plot. Asterisk War continues to be a light breezy read that loves its cliches. For good and ill.

Invaders of the Rokujouma!?, Vol. 30

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By Takehaya and Poco. Released in Japan as “Rokujouma no Shinryakusha!?” by HJ Bunko. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by Warnis.

I’ve been trying to catch up with Rokujouma, which threw me off my schedule by coming out in packs of 3 for a while. This is the first of the “post-finale” volumes, except of course it isn’t post-finale at all, there’s still stuff to be done. Forthorthe has “come out” to Earth, and now all sort of treaty negotiations have to take place, which will involve not screwing things up on either end. Third parties are trying to “fix” things on either side, they still can’t quite admit the presence of the magical world and the underground dwellers as well just yet, and even the yakuza is getting involved, thanks to finding a well-meaning chump – you can probably guess who that chump is. It’s also the start of a new school year. Mackenzie’s sister is now a first year, and is horrified to find her brother dates around. And we also meet a new transfer student from Forthorthe, seemingly the sister of a reporter who’s there as part of an initial exchange program, but boy, she sure seems familiar…

This book was not quite as solid as the last few have been – three’s a sense of “your series is too popular to end, please write more” to a degree. The bad guy is nephew of the bad guy from Forthorthe, and is there to be a bad guy and not much more – likewise the big battle near the end, while it is nice to see all the girls joining together to fight, felt like nothing we hadn’t seen before. And much as I love Yurika no matter what, I’m not as much a fan of her when she’s in Big Stupid mode, so seeing her happily running drugs and weapons for the yakuza, having not bothered to ask what’s in the suspicious boxes, made me feel a bit annoyed. That said, I did really like the bit where it’s pointed out to a despairing Yurika that Koutarou is being mean to her, meaning he’s not actually worried she’s in real trouble with the law here.

More interesting are the two new students. Nalfa Laren is, of course, the goddess whose plot we resolved in 29. She erased everyone’s memories, including her own (with an escape hatch for Kiriha in case of an emergency) and is living the life of a happy-go-lucky student – perhaps a bit TOO happy-go-lucky, given her clumsy tendencies which even make Yurika worry. We also get to meet McKinley, who idolized her brother till she found out he dares to date multiple women and is now furious with him. Alas, her adoration of Koutarou is fully justified, because Koutarou really IS that awesome – after all, he may have 9 (10?) women in love with him, but that doesn’t mean he’s dating any of them. Yet. She is basically a little sister character who is overly romantic, and that’s fine.

The next volume is another “half short-stories, half book” one, only in this case the half-book is the promised alternate universe, this first one being “Koutarou chooses to date Harumi”. We’ll see how that goes. Till then, enjoy Rokujouma 30, which is dancing a bit too fast to justify the ongoing plot, but is still decent.