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Seriously, one of the best anime. A lot of interesting plots packed into the 3-4 main characters' life. 1st ep does not show the full potential. By the ep4 you'll be hooked with the 1st female villain - madame du Barry. All female villains are very interesting. The most interesting history-based piece of media. No wonder it inspired the live-action movie filmed in the palace of Versailles. It did not age bad at all. Visuals are stunning, I took 2074 screenshots. A lot of the scenes look like paintings. I don't remember a show that particular about each single visual scene. While you can see ... its its late 80s/early 90s, it did excellent artistic job! Most of the scenes are storyboarded with the great symbolism. A lot of rain, roses, pidgeons flying above, shining sky and roses. The tears, water dripping from a handheld cloth and jewels are glistening. Oscar, Antoinette and Andre's hair look beautiful. There are few characters that feel they are form a different cheaper/uglier anime, like the Oscar's father (and other mature men with wigs drawn the same way) and the nanny. The first is not designed so well, he should have much smaller eyes, the unappealing big Disney eyes make those "not youthfully handsome" men in wigs cheep and dated, like from Astro Boy or Kimba the white Lion. The nanny looks like a 70s anime Disney-like cliché "good auntie character. That's my only ick. But after few episodes (as the characters got older) they are drawn more realistically and finally fit into the style. I did not like the character design and the plot of Rosalie at first, she was the weaker point of the show for me. Perhaps the anime team did not like her that much to and got a bit lazy with her scenes? She looks like a generic girl character from the 70s TV anime.
Music is very good. The opening song I never skipped. One of the greatest openings. The song is beautiful and very symbolic, nostalgic. The animation only shows a meadow, a rose and Oscar standing, not much happens, compared to a typical anime opening, but it feels very deep, it's very artistic and purposeful. The beginning shot of the still & naked Oscar (her body & hair panted red) captured by the thorny bush which must have happen over a long time as it looks almost metallic, that opens the show is one of the most beautiful pieces of art. Backed up by the intense first sound of the opening music.

The 40 episodes did not feel to me like a lot. Watching 74 episodes of "Monster" felt like a struggle at times, even though I was hooked, but I did feel like I'm waiting to finally reach the ending. Here on the other way, it was the opposite, I was hoping for it to take longer, and was savoring each episode.

Visually very nice. Characters are great. Storytelling is very well done and got me hooked.. for the first 3 episodes, which are awesome. The rest... is a filler without an ending. The main theme of rivalry and the love triangle just suddenly got sent to the back seat. None of the characters dare to make any move romantically, almost as if they decided off screen to behave "professionally" when the cameras roll. This really feels weird, a sudden change to clearly filler episodes, which might be understandable for a long-running TV series, but this is a OVA. Those who bought the VHS tapes must have ... felt teased with the first 3 eps. I though we will get back to the plot after a special/filler vacation episode. But no, another filler ep for a visiting character, special/filler eating contest episode (focused more on a childish side character), and the last episode being a backstory for the 2 side characters that until now used to be almost pure comedic relief characters and introduces new flashback characters. After the ep3 the main three characters feel like the side characters "paused" for later. But they never come back.
However, still watchable (and I'm easy to be bored). The episodes 4-7 come close to be cliché eyeroll boring stupid anime, but don't cross that line. Beautiful visuals and characters save it.
The first 3 episodes are worth watching!
The opening theme song is nice.
It's partially about the airplanes and pilots. There are show-off fly tests that end up dangerously, and air fights with the enemy jets. But it does not bore you with technicalities if you're not into airplanes. The show is more centered on the characters.