Sixty Years Since Mighty Atom: 1979
Jan. 17th, 2023 07:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
krpalmerTo bring this speedy, personal, and idiosyncratic tour of anime to the end of the 1970s, I decided to watch the first episode of The Rose of Versailles not just for the sake of “something other than giant robots.” I’d watched my way through this “intrigue, romance, and gender-bending in pre-revolutionary France” series once “fansubbed” and once via Nozomi’s DVDs; when Discotek licensed the series for Blu-Ray release I did order it again for all that apparent licensor demand had put a title used in different countries, “Lady Oscar,” on the case not that long after Udon managed to translate and release the whole of the original manga in premium hardcovers while still titling it The Rose of Versailles.
After noticing the version of Discotek’s trailer with its familiar music on this disc used “The Rose of Versailles,” though, I noticed the Japanese title cards were still being subtitled the same way. That would seem after all to be a minor detail; what was more of a surprise was that while I could remember the show opening with the frustrated General Jarjayes deciding to raise his latest newborn as a boy named Oscar for the sake of continuing his family’s military service to the French monarchy the first episode didn’t get around to focusing on Marie Antionette. I’d had thoughts before that historical figure was being presented flightily enough to come across as a genuine “anime character.” For all that the first episode struck me pretty much as “anime original” (and permitted me to suppose “that’s not a bad thing in itself even given more recent grumblings”), its tale of Oscar on the threshold of military service was compelling for being unexpected. I was inclined to suppose it looked more appealing than I recall even the most on-model episodes of the original Mobile Suit Gundam looking (and tried to recall the early-1970s art of the manga’s first chapters), although so far as other comparisons go I did wind up thinking I’d entered the 1970s with a first episode featuring a fistfight and I was leaving the 1970s with the same thing. That specific resonance, however, might have distracted me from too many attempts at articulating whether or not “1970s anime” can be called a single entity. I have been just a little conscious in these past few days of how my efforts to “enjoy ‘old’ anime, but enjoy ‘new’ anime too” have involved jumping back and forth in time; all I can do is hope I’ll keep dealing with changes as they’re glimpsed rather than end up making proclamations about how production and audience targeting “used” to work.
After noticing the version of Discotek’s trailer with its familiar music on this disc used “The Rose of Versailles,” though, I noticed the Japanese title cards were still being subtitled the same way. That would seem after all to be a minor detail; what was more of a surprise was that while I could remember the show opening with the frustrated General Jarjayes deciding to raise his latest newborn as a boy named Oscar for the sake of continuing his family’s military service to the French monarchy the first episode didn’t get around to focusing on Marie Antionette. I’d had thoughts before that historical figure was being presented flightily enough to come across as a genuine “anime character.” For all that the first episode struck me pretty much as “anime original” (and permitted me to suppose “that’s not a bad thing in itself even given more recent grumblings”), its tale of Oscar on the threshold of military service was compelling for being unexpected. I was inclined to suppose it looked more appealing than I recall even the most on-model episodes of the original Mobile Suit Gundam looking (and tried to recall the early-1970s art of the manga’s first chapters), although so far as other comparisons go I did wind up thinking I’d entered the 1970s with a first episode featuring a fistfight and I was leaving the 1970s with the same thing. That specific resonance, however, might have distracted me from too many attempts at articulating whether or not “1970s anime” can be called a single entity. I have been just a little conscious in these past few days of how my efforts to “enjoy ‘old’ anime, but enjoy ‘new’ anime too” have involved jumping back and forth in time; all I can do is hope I’ll keep dealing with changes as they’re glimpsed rather than end up making proclamations about how production and audience targeting “used” to work.