Lady Oscar

There are perhaps no days of our childhood we lived so fully as those we spent with a favorite book.-Marcel Proust

Was wondering through Youtube the other day and came across an old anime that I used to watched when I was twelve. It has such a nice storyline that even 12 years later I find myself watching it again and still loving it. The story of Lady Oscar or Rose of Versailles. It was originally a manga story that was later turned to anime.

Last time I watched it in Arabic, in a way it was one of my Arabic lesson source back then since the anime was dubbed in the 'book' Arabic instead of 'street' Arabic.

The story of Lady Oscar revolve around a lady name Oscar Francois de Jerjeyes, a fictional character that was set around the time of the French Revolution. For an anime the storyline was set to incorporate as many true events and true characters at the time. Oscar's father for example General Renier de Jerjeyes was a real character.

Her father craved for a son but didn't get it so instead he trained his youngest daughter Oscar to be his successor as the leader of the Palace Guard.

The story opens with 14 years old Oscar facing conflict wether she wants to become the Palace Guard or leads a life as a girl and woman. She eventually chose the former and became Marie Antoinette guard who was at the time just married the Crown prince of France as a peace treaty between Austria and France. It follows 20 years of French monarchy from the marriage of Marie Antoinete and the event that lead to her death during the French Revolution from Oscar's point of views.

One of the reason I love watching it is because it thought me history of the French Revolution without having me reading some heavy bounded book. But of course the story of Oscar itself who had to fought her inner demon, the conflicting emotion of trying to be a man in a woman's body, her loyalty to the royals and nobles but at the same time has to watch the suffering of the lower class in France and finding love. It has a tragic ending to it but I guess that is why after almost 30 years the anime is still some people favourite.( it was originally aired in 1979...)

I found this on Youtube, the opening credit of Lady Oscar in Arabic....the melody was from the original Japanese version but the lyrics were changed to Arabic but it wasn't a translation of the original song. Still it brings back some good memory.

We plan our lives according to a dream that came to us in our childhood, and we find that life alters our plans. And yet, at the end, from a rare height, we also see that our dream was our fate. It's just that providence had other ideas as to how we would get there. Destiny plans a different route, or turns the dream around, as if it were a riddle, and fulfills the dream in ways we couldn't have expected. - Ben Okri