Berusaiyu no Bara/The Rose of Versailles

Hmm... I'm not an expert, but MKV is, as far as I know, a "container format". Basically the file can contain more than one audio channel (eg. Jap and Eng) and also subtitles. Players which recognize the format correctly should give the option of switching on the subtitles and/or choosing audio format. I usually use MediaPlayer Classic or, if the file is really misbehaving, VLC. You might be able to play the file through Windows Media Player through some DirectShow filter, but it might not pick up the subtitles/extra audio. I know that the copy I got (and which I watched only a couple of episodes of, I got it for a teacher of mine I liked) was Japanese with English subtitles.

Berusaiyu no Bara was shown on Italian TV, and I kind of liked it. I got turned off by the female lead (hey, I was young at the time!) and the fact that it was quite melodramatic (again, not something I liked when I was younger). Nowadays I know that I'm an imbecile, because it would be exactly one of the things I'd like to watch - I love history, especially the French Revolution, and there is, as far as I know, quite a lot of political intrigue going on.* I did watch the ending, funnily enough - it was on its last rerun on TV, and I didn't know it was the last episode. Still, one of these days I'm going to watch it, hopefully.

All I can say is give it a try. Don't be put off by the art, which to most people might appear dated. From the little I've seen it's a very good series which should be better known.

* This is from stuff my teacher told me, and from websites...

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I might have not made myself clear, or I have misunderstood your last post, Taegueki ^^;. I wasn't disgusted by Oscar when I was young... I just didn't like to "cheer for" a female companion in anime. I remember watching the first episode when I was young, where the reason why she dressed and acted as a man was explained, so I wasn't too put off by that aspect. Rather I think I merely thought "Female character = girly stuff" and went back to watching Saint Seiya, Robotech and other shonen stuff ^^;.

I do still have some problems with Oscar (the character, that is), but I don't want to go into them now for fear of spoiling things for those who want to watch it and because, not having watched the whole anime, I don't want to say something stupid ^^;.

Incidentally, I remember a little of Galaxy Express. I used to watch it on Italian TV, but I didn't watch it religiously and couldn't understand anything. I don't have too many memories of it, except that it depressed me a little, that there was this boy and a blonde lady wearing a coat and a fur hat, and that it had a beautiful (Italian) OP song. I can't remember what happened during a typical episode, though... I'd like to watch it again, though. I just don't want to watch all of the rest of Matsumoto's works, since from what I hear most of his works are set in the same universe and therefore interconnect to a certain degree. I have a very short attention span, so the less "extra" stuff to watch, the better ^^;.

How ya doing, buddy?

Yeah, she was forced . I agree that the fact that every young woman was crazy about Oscar was somewhat... well... strange, let's leave it at that (I don't want to offend anybody). I don't remember if it was toned down a little in the Italian dub I watched, though... there's a tendency to consider anime as something for children even in Italy (at least by the TV channels), so I would expect it was.

Also, I don't think it was generally known that Oscar was a woman, right? I think most courtiers thought she was male (she certainly was 'handsome' in a masculine way, not particularly pretty though).

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Originally Posted by seanne

Yes, that was the whole point, remember:

Oscar's father never had the son he wanted, so he decides to raise his youngest daughter as if she was a boy. And as a woman would have never gotten the job that Oscar gets it's only natural that the members of the court, as well as most others, have no idea that she is really a woman.

Ah right, I still remembered correctly then .

Spoiler:

The scene where she's born and a maid tells her father that the baby is yet another girl was so funny, in a strange way, that I remember it after all these years. It wasn't comedy or anything, but seeing her father angrily saying that she would be a boy no matter what cracked me up .

@ Arkhangelsk: I seem to remember reading somewhere that Utena was inspired in some small degree by BeruBara, at least as far as the male/female thing, as you rightly say . I've never seen Utena though, so I can't really comment.

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