Revolution, restoration or restoration? We will find out by living. Meanwhile, we can say that Lady Oscaran animated symbol of the French Revolution, is now (also) an animated film, on the debut in theaters of Japan on January 31, 2025. Produced by the map to celebrate the fiftieth of manga From 1972, directed by Ai Yoshimura, Tomoko Kontaru’s screenplay, Mariko Oka’s Character Design, Hiroyuki Sawano’s soundtrack and Kohta Yamamoto, the new film was accompanied by a remarkable advertising battice, also made of trailers released with the dropper, that in some way, although not making the whole, they fueled curiosity, but also allowed even outside Japan to get an idea at least summary of how the remake will collect the inevitable challenge of an arduous confrontation with the previous ones, the comic on the one hand, the animated series, much more present in the European collective imagination of which it represented the towing, from ‘other.
The fact that, sooner or later, versions translated to be distributed in the world -there is an audience to hook -, but it is not yet known when they will come out will have. Rumors have spoken of next spring, but they are not supported by official news.
The remake challenge in this case is as big as that of Goldrakeperhaps more, because no souls was replicated in Europe and above all in Italy how much Lady Oscarand it is likely that the Italian public, for the historical memory it represents, will be a significant test. Also in this case, as has been said for others, it will be possible to understand how a historical novel, which reflected social sensitivity of the seventies of the twentieth century, speak to a contemporary audience and in the meantime you find a way not to betray the memory of the spectators really Numerous that made their luck in Europe. On the occasion of the exit of Goldrake Grendizer u We asked Marco Pellitteri, among the greatest Japanese animation experts author, among other things, of the milestone on Japanese animation in Italy Mazinga nostalgia. History, values and languages of Goldrake-Generation since 1978 to the new century (Castelvecchi 1999, IV Ed. In 2 vols. Tunué 2018), its impressions starting from the rumors about this other remake and above all an evaluation on how it will be between old spectators fond of the drawings and voices of the first series and new, now accustomed to a different aesthetic of manga and of soulsevolved over the years: «The comparison with Grendizer U », explains Pellitteri,« is spot on, because too Versailles no coffin (the original Japanese title that means the roses of Versailles, editor’s note) It is now a classic, which in Japan has had a fortune much higher than that of Goldrake, which at home is a “robot” among many, even if fans recognize its quality. The popularity of Lady Oscar In Japan, however, it is immense: starts from manga From 1972 by Riyoko Ikeda, he passes through the multiple representations of the Takarazuka theater, a theater of women only, and then reaches the 1979 series of 40 episodes produced by TMS (Tokyo Movie Shinsha) Entertainment, and directed in the first part by Tadao Nagahama e Then, starting from the 19th episode, from the great director Osamu Dezaki, perhaps the greatest Japanese animated director of his generation ».
And in fact the difference between the two parts is noted, all right, in the much higher effectiveness of the second part of the series that has conveyed the success of unforgettable revolutionary characters in many senses in Europe: “So much so that the episodes from 19 to 40 have become one cumbersome presence for the author of the original subject, Riyoko Ikeda, to the point that every time they asked her for an opinion on the animated series she has always shrugged, a little out of jealousy of author, having had the great idea of the character of Oscar invention, which gravitates around Marie Antoinette; a little because, unlike the series, The manga He remained a little son of his time: a manga For girls who have high moments and many lower moments, from a graphic point of view it is quite average, without particular artistic caliber according to my opinion perhaps a little tranchant. The animated series of 1979, on the other hand, is the result of an exceptional team of talents from a graphic, narrative, strategic stylistic point of view, with beautiful music by Kōji Makaino. In particular, positively, you can find the director of the director Dezaki in the final part absent in the manga: a lot of space to the historical themes that lead to the French Revolution, reconstructed with a certain accuracy, the evolution of the design of the characters, with more the exceptional work done by the voice actors both in the Japanese original and in the Italian version “.
Will the remake hold the comparison? «Very glossy, the new film tries to resume in a lush way, from the point of view of colors, shadows, reflections, the best style that can be seen in mangaFor this reason Riyoko Ikeda feels in some way compensation and believes that this version is more beautiful and more faithful to the original manga of the seventies series. However, I don’t agree with this reading ».
Those who, in fact, see the previews with the souls in the eyes of the seventies recognizes the substance of the female characters, notes the accuracy enriched of the costumes, the magnificence of the scenes, but it is difficult to find in the drawing, in the ephebic leziness of the male figures of the new version, the personality and mutual differences of the original male protagonists. And the subjective impression is that the whole, while gaining details and in some ways splendor, loses a significant part of the austere drama that made the series seventies a historical novel capable of resisting the time and also to be able to be effective for a more adult audience: “An excess of patina and shine”, explains Pellitteri, “makes the” dirty “value lose added value which in the seventies series made the non -crystalline dimension of the life of the French eighteenth century, starting with the hygienic question: that scratched stroke stroke and scratchy had much more personality: In reality, the visual performance of the new film is, in my opinion, much more “older” and “stale” than the freshness of the series of the seventies, in which it is obviously seen that it is rough from the point of view of visual pasta, of the technical realization, because it is done by hand, which is its strength, while this film is animated in part with computerized aid that make the animation more fluid but also less natural and alive: we must not forget that animation in an etymological sense does not mean “Make” but “give life” ».
In debt, we will know what the European reception will be and we will be able to evaluate the whole, for the meantime the interviews given to the Japanese media in recent months by the protagonist voice actors make us understand that among other things the new film will be a sort of musical given that it contains Also 15 songs, with all the case translation problems. Will they reflect to make the drama of the historian previous or somehow betray it? We will see. Very as always in these cases it will make the dubbing, all to be imagined.
Waiting for a more accurate evaluation, a small forecast without theme of denial, between the serious and the facetious, can be made: A detail will hardly be forgiven to the new authors by the former girls wounded by the charm of the co -star André: the fact that her green eyes have been replaced by an anonymous, scialbo, brown. An artistic license that, in the virtual places where fans are found (and in this case especially the fans), usually uncompromising, the detail has already encountered very severe criticisms.
(Hereinafter the trailers taken from the official Japanese page of the film Theatrical Animation “The Rose of Versailles”which give an idea of the whole and the protagonists).
