Yes, I know this is an older series. As a matter of fact one of the codifiers of Shoujo manga tropes, another one is Princess Knight...which I should try to find a way to watch it soon. (Man, you're getting a bit obsessive about the works of Osamu Tezuka.) But, still, let's see what kind of a...first impression I'll get from this old series that's new to me...
Thunder, rain (and presumably lightning)...that looks and sounds ominous...well, for the (to him) unlucky father. He who wanted a son, instead had a daughter...so he screws the rules and instead raises the girl as a boy...
Who turns out to be an awesome bad*** with a sword. (Go Oscar!) But what with the debutante ball coming up, it seems that the servant Andre's grandmother wants Oscar to wear a dress to said ball like a proper lady. Well, that depends, does 'Oscar' want to wear a dress? If yes then, ***** what the father wants she can go to the ball in a dress if she wants! If no, than he can wear whatever the **** he wants! (Not sure what pronoun to use for Oscar, how about let's go with which ever one Oscar uses.)
Oh crap, while the grandma was fussing over the flowers...and reminding Andre that Oscar is to be referred to as "Lady Oscar" in the subtitles, yet I keep hearing "Oscar-sama" which doesn't have any gender associations what-so-ever...the father pushed Oscar down the stairs (How that for literally "falling down some stairs"!?), presumably for refusing to fight some dude...
...but it turns to to be because she'd rather not embarrass him in front of such a large crowd. Oscar was referring to herself with female pronouns...in the subtitles, what I kept hearing was "Watashi", usually used by women but also acceptable for men to use...(This is what you get from watching a show using gender bender tropes.) Also, it seems that the fact that Oscar was born a woman is quite the open secret in this show. (Wow, given that this is supposed to be set twenty years before the French Revolution, either this show's going by politically correct history or the aforementioned father is delusional.)
Still, Oscar challenged the aforementioned dude (It seems his name is Girodelle, not that that matters much...) to a duel (with swords, not with guns, and most certainly not with children's trading cards none-the-less...CARD GAMES ON MOTORCYCLES!!!), the news of which was delivered by that Girodelle persons servant. Afterwards the father...(I can't believe you're going to say this...) uses Double Slap on Oscar. (It's super effective! Which shouldn't be possible since it's a Normal-type move, WTF!)
But there's another conflict, Oscar refuses to 'wear the military uniform' because she "doesn't want to baby-sit a girl"... (Read, "Act as a bodyguard for Marie Antoinette as the commander of the Royal Guard"...yes, the same lady infamous for presumably saying "Let them eat cake"...but likely didn't actually happen that way.) ...or is it more that Oscar actually wants to wear that dress after all?
Well, Oscar and Andre go horseback riding out in the countryside, and while the horses were drinking Oscar brings up the suspected reason why they're out there in the first place: To convince her to wear that uniform. But he says that Oscar doesn't have to wear the uniform if she doesn't want to, which Oscar assumes that it was an attempt at reverse psychology (because she eavesdropped on a conversation between Andre and her father where said father urged him to convince her to wear that uniform)...and a fistfight ensues, it ends in a tie. But it turns out that he didn't mention that uniform business because he respects her too much to do that (Awwww!).
But the next time we see Oscar, she's wearing that uniform; not because of any ones reasons but Oscars own.
"That day, Oscar left her womanhood behind, and took her first step into a new world of adulthood." OK, but why are you still using female pronouns? (Maybe I should just use the constructed gender-neutral pronoun "Thon" and be done with it already.)
I knew it was an older anime series going in, still the animation style did kind of remind me of when I watched Mobile Suit Gundam (the original series staring Amuro Ray) for the first time; it looked rather low-budget compared to more contemporary series, but that doesn't mean that I didn't like this series. As a matter of fact, I'm kind of looking up to Oscar as a role model. Beautiful and kind, yet brave and awesomely bad***! Although I can see all forty episodes today if I wish, I'd rather not run out of anime shows to watch during the week. So... (assuming everything goes according to plan) ...forty, or is that thirty-nine, weeks latter I'll write and publish The End of The Rose of Versailles. Hope to see you in the future.
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