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The Rose of Versailles (ベルサイユのばら Berusaiyu no bara), by Riyoko Ikeda, is one of the best-known titles in shojo manga.
The setting is France, before and during the French revolution. The main character is a woman named Oscar François Jarjeyes. Her father, general Jarjeyes, despaired of ever getting a son (he had six daughters) and decided to raise his youngest daughter as a man. Oscar is head of the palace guards, and responsible for the safety of the young, flighty Queen of France, Marie Antoinette. The story centers on Oscar's growing realization of how France is governed, and the plight of the poor. Another important storyline is the love story between Marie Antoinette and the Swedish Count Axel von Fersen.
The manga was serialized in Shueisha's Margaret magazine in 1973, and became an instant success. It has been turned into a play, an anime series and a live-action movie. There are rumours that there will be an opera as well.
The play adaptation of the manga is also the longest-running show by the Takarazuka Revue.
In 1983, the first two volumes of The Rose of Versailles were translated in English by Frederik L. SchodtFrederik L. Schodt is an American writer, translator and interpreter. He's well known by the manganime fandom, because of his translations of works such as Osamu Tezuka's Phoenix Riyoko Ikeda's The Rose of Versailles Keiji Nakazawa's Barefoot Gen and othe for the purpose of teaching English to JapaneseThe Japanese language is a spoken and written language used mainly in Japan. The Japanese name for the language is Nihongo . History and classification Historical linguists do not all agree about the origin of the Japanese language; there are several comp speakers and released in North AmericaNorth America is the third largest continent in area and the fourth ranked in population. It is bounded on the north by the Arctic Ocean, on the east by the North Atlantic Ocean, on the south by the Caribbean Sea, and on the west by the North Pacific Ocea by the North American branch of Sanyusha . The Rose of Versailles was the first commercially translated manga to be available in North America.