I just watched... Le Chevalier D'eon

Cross-dressing, zombies and weird magic – can the French get any more Japanese than this?

                If I were to make a list of TV series I want to see in the foreseeable future before the dolphins decide to take over, one of the things I’d put in the list alongside ‘Requiems for Sean Bean’ would be a full-blown production-values-high-as-hell adaptation of Le Chevalier D’eon. One with luscious sets, monumental locations, great actors, great CG, multiple languages and an ironed out plot.

                If I were to describe the series’ plot in a nutshell I’d sell it as fantastic and innovative, but wrinkled to damn hell. The story is somewhat like this incredible shirt that is sitting before you, it’s gorgeous and potentially perfect. Why ‘potentially’? Because it’s wrinkled, so wrinkled that you want to pick up an iron and iron the living fuck out of it so that it reaches its true potential. But the problem is that this iron is a metaphysical entity andthe shirt is a physical entity, thus the two are destined to never meet while you sit, embittered and sipping on Old Monk while slowly turning into a French existential philosopher.

There's plenty of political chess going on in the background.

                For those not in the know, the series can be summed up as a fantastical take on the events leading to the French Revolution and the world’s first transvestite. So yes, it can be tagged as a ‘historical’ anime for all intents and purposes, but that would be as accurate as tagging ‘300’ as a very accurate historical depiction of whatever it tried to depict among a now overused line and slow-motion shots. It isn’t really ‘history’ as it is ‘using history’, since it freely shuffles events around, changes characters’ motivations and fates, and does its fair tinkering about with history… which is fine, since it’s always fun to see people play with history with the intent of telling their own story, not his story (hehe). Some people stick their tongues out, wiggle their teeth and say that ‘it’s changing history too much’ to which I respond with a resplendent slap and ask them if it’s a movie adaptation of their favourite novel. 

It follows the knight D’eon as he partakes in a mission that takes him across several countries as he tries to retrieve some stolen French documents and tries to piece together the mystery behind his sister’s sudden death, all of which are parts of the cogs leading to revolution, and the bloody Reign of Terror.

'Who should you bow before?' is one of the questions explored in the series.

                The series is about a lot of things, to the point that it often starts to lose itself in the maelstrom of things, and sometimes persistently hops between things to varying effect. Political thriller, supernatural thriller, zombies, philosophical thriller, what is a knight thriller, identity crisis thriller, revolutionary thriller, it’s history so parts of it is a foregone conclusion thriller and so on. Thriller is a word I just used a lot in the previous sentence, and unfortunate it is not to foreshadow the presence of Michael Jackson in the series, since that would be historically inaccurate, but a comment on what the series seemed to try to be. And it does succeed… in part, when the pacing is not off, since the pacing seems to shift gear like someone who appears to have a gear fetish and thus seeks every opportunity to touch it. The pacing is truly off, and the series can slow down immensely in spots and then hit a breakneck speed before returning to morning-contemplations-and-tea pace in the span of two episodes. However, the last quarter of the series is just the entire series on red bull mixed with Russian vodka and espresso, because golly does it reach some record speeds in the last quarter. A lot happens in the last quarter, arguably as much as the rest of the series, which can make it seem rushed. Though I personally loved the last quarter and it’s arguably the main reason why this anime bears its lofty place in my mind now.

The power of words.

The wishes of the dead.

                One of the major sources of wrinkles are the characters. As concepts, as skeletons and as representatives of varying viewpoints and standings, they are fantastic and had the potential to speak for a lot without saying much. But characters do not get the attention they deserve, and the side characters get the especially short end of the deal, which is a shame. While the main characters get more attention, they arguably do not get the adequate amount of attention they deserved for certain developments or actions, which can make them seem jarring and out-of-character initially. This is especially a shame since the characters try to explore several conundrums in a country and world on the verge of a great whimper. Voronstov, a knight torn between different loyalties and sources of ‘honour’. Teillagory, a knight bitter at the lack of honour and skill in new forms of combat. Robin, a youth just entering the world of loyalty and knighthood just as it is changing.

‘Metamorphoses’ is one of the arc words of the series, and is a fairly good one as the series is essentially about change, for better and for worse, as everyone and everything undergoes dramatic changes as the nation and world begin to change. And that’s what makes the series compelling, the constant sense of change and shift in dynamics – it’s a shame that the plot is held back in its entirety by the little holes and chinks – numerous enough to form wrinkles in the shirt, to the extent of being an example of something great being dragged down by the summation of its little flaws.

With: Zombies, a very unique kind of zombies, but zombies nonetheless. 

While the plot progresses comfortably and unrolls like a scroll written by Hitchcock at times, it is plague by a handful of illogical moments which are bound to leave you scratching your head – as to how they found their way into a more grounded, realistic (for what it’s worth) and serious series, moments of egregious coincidence and hyper accurate planning. Such as how character A perfectly planned some things so that character B can go to a burning building and perfectly pull out book X before it was completely engulfed in flames, with that book being one of great importance. Thankfully these moments aren’t numerous, though this where a problem with the magic in the series, Psalms and Poetry, rears its head.

                The concept behind the magic is, to be frank, brilliant. The usage of holy texts as a source of malevolent powers and the usage of lines from holy Christian texts as spells is a fascinating concept which doubles up as being incredibly stylish. Unfortunately, as the series progresses the usage of magic increases and so does the scale and intensity of it… but there is a lack of a solid, logical explanation behind it. While we are given several fleeting glances into how it works, enough to piece together a personal explanation, the lack of any proper explanation lends to the series’ wrinkles as some plot events become questionable and sometimes confusing as the magic seems to get ahead of itself and do great things without fully fleshing things out.

                The way the magic is portrayed as swirls of words swirling around the world and criss-crossing across surfaces is well done, as is most of the series. It is quite the looker, and many of the backgrounds probably possess enough detail to have driven the artists to insanity. Versailles, Paris, and all the other palaces and cities are rendered beautifully with a great sense of aesthetic detail and great CG direction, bringing these locales to life. 

The series is rather pretty. 

The same can’t be said for the characters who seem to a bit dry of life, with stiff facial expressions which can sometimes detract from the seriousness in some emotional scenes. There’s a distinct lack of expression in the characters, which is partly due to the usage of a realistic art style closer to real life than any other manga style, but even then the characters could have used more face care. The series does have some the simplest and greatest fights I have ever seen, bringing out the poetry of two people duelling with swift and smooth animation, and a detailed focus on how swordfights work – showing us things like footwork and the usage of non-sword tactics to win a fight.

What is honour? And where does one's loyalty truly lie?

                A fine platter of food, with just enough to pique your curiosity and satiate your palette just a bit, but it leaves you wanting more, but also with this haunting feeling that everything on the platter seemed to lack that ‘one’ phantom ingredient that would make it purely incredible. That’s what Le Chevalier D’eon is in the long run of things. What is honour? What is loyalty? What does it mean to be ‘a knight’? What is the cost of change? Is change a necessity? Does virtue have a place in a changing world? What is fate? There’s a lot to taste and enough to leave you somewhat satiated and grateful that you partook in this meal, but there will be that stinging realisation that it could have soared a much greater distance and become something phenomenal, flawless and utterly engrossing.

                It falls flat of greatness, but it is still a worthy and powerful watch, one that anyone interested in fantasy, alternate takes on history and mystery are bound to find easy to enjoy. Also, ‘Over Night’ (the ending theme) is one of the best songs ever, just had to put that out here.

 C’est la vie.