Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)
Look, even if you haven’t read the original manga by Riyoko Ikeda, it’s very evident from the 2025 Netflix film The Rose of Versailles that it omits a lot of material from the original series! Studio MAPPA has done a fantastic job with the sparkly animation of this grand, historical series that reimagines the extravagant life of Marie Antoinette, juxtaposing it with the struggles of a fictional, cross-dressing female military commander called Lady Oscar.
Directed by Ai Yoshimura, The Rose of Versailles starts off by introducing a teen Marie Antoinette arriving in France to live with her husband, Louis XVI, the heir apparent to the French throne. Marie is portrayed as a young, beautiful, romantic heroine who doesn’t feel butterflies for her husband and falls in love with a Swedish count, Axel von Fersen (a real historical figure, although there’s no concrete record of his having had an affair with the Queen). Oscar François de Jarjayes, a woman raised as a man by her father so she can inherit his position as the military commander, becomes Marie’s first friend in France.
While at first you’re led to believe that both Marie and Oscar will serve as dual protagonists in The Rose of Versailles, the second half of the film heavily focuses on the military commander’s disillusionment with the monarchy and her active role in the French Revolution. Marie Antoinette is all but forgotten by the end, with some key arcs from the manga missing in the story. The disparate attention to the protagonists is disappointing, even though Riyoko Ikeda’s attempts to humanize the larger-than-life personality of Marie Antoinette through this re-imagination still works.
Viewers may briefly empathize with a young teenage girl, married off by her empress mother to the future King of France for diplomatic gain. But due to its limited runtime, The Rose of Versailles fails to convincingly chart Marie’s transformation from a sweet, dreamy Dauphine in search of true love to a self-indulgent, hedonistic Queen. Oscar’s ideological shift is smoother, as she confronts the crushing poverty and misery in the streets of Paris. In contrast, Marie and her courtiers remain blissfully detached from reality – a disconnect that ultimately seals their fate. The stark contrast between royal opulence and common suffering is briefly but memorably portrayed.
The animation for the film is by MAPPA studios, which captures the sparkle and glamour of the French court with dazzling, glossy animation. But since MAPPA has been in news for overworking its animators on the smash-hit anime series ‘Jujutsu Kaisen’, maybe they didn’t want to commit to a longer series for ‘The Rose of Versailles’ and opted for a shorter feature film version. Well, given that the manga came out in the 1970s, they should’ve taken all the time in the world and delivered a more faithful adaptation.
In its current form – especially for those who haven’t read the original manga – The Rose of Versailles film is a decent one-time watch.
Rating: 6 on 10. Watch it on Netflix.
Read Next: The Royals Netflix Series Review (Short Audio Version Below)