While preparing my regular overview of what anime shows J-List will be paying attention to in the new season, I was happy to see Requiem of the Rose King, a manga based on the dramatic War of the Roses era of English history, was getting animated. Being an English major and fan of the works of William Shakespeare, I was happy to check out the show and see how this period of history would be translated into modern anime form.
Requiem of the Rose King is the Richard III: The Anime
It’s the 15th century, and the houses of York and Lancaster are in fierce competition for the English throne. The story focuses on young Richard Plantagenet, the future Richard III, who urges his father Richard Duke of York to continue the fight for the throne of England, causing drama in his family. Where will they all end up?
The story departs from the familiar histories by Shakespeare in one important way: young Richard is an intersex character, neither entirely male nor female. As a result of this, he feels cut off from his family, and his mother despises him. The drama of Richard’s situation is quite intense and is a big part of why his story is interesting.
There was some fear that this aspect of the story might cause problems with certain corners of the Interwebs, though a quick gander at Twitter and Tumblr seems to show only positive responses to the story, which is good. It should go without saying, but manga and anime are and should always be free to tell whatever stories they wish, just as fans are free to watch or not watch.
You can’t tell a good story without good characters, and I find myself really liking Richard, as we see the struggles he’s up against. I’m looking forward to the complex story to unfold further, since this is the closest thing we’ll ever get to a BL version of Game of Thrones.
The Japanese Love to Study History Through Manga
Mrs. J-List believes she has an excellent grasp of history, because she read historical manga growing up, learning the details of the French Revolution through The Rose of Versailles, the era of Cleopatra and Mark Antony in Ouke no Monshou, and the tale of Genji Monogatari in Nante Suteki na Japanesque, which all make the details of history seem less difficult by blending them with interesting fictional tales. This strikes me as a great way to make history more accessible to as many people as possible
The Japanese also have a long history of jidai geki or period dramas, the most famous being the annual Taiga Drama, which takes an important era of Japanese history and turns it into a high-budget historical drama that runs all year. Viewership for each year’s Taiga Drama is very high, and always seems to bring Japan’s rich history closer to fans. I’ve always lamented that there are so few shows capturing the history of America.
(The big drama for 2022 is called The 13 Lords of the Shogun, and focuses on Kamakura Period in Japanese history, when Japan’s first military government was formed in the 12th century.)
Anime and Manga Have Always Featured Non-Standard Gender Roles
It’s always been a hallmark of anime stories to feature characters who break the traditional rules of gender or relationships. Some examples:
- Oscar from The Rose of Versailles, who was born female but raised as a boy so she could take over as commander of the Royal Guards from her father.
- Ranma from Ranma 1/2, who is cursed to change gender whenever he gets wet with cold or hot water. Ranma certainly opened a lot of minds back in the 80s.
- The famous “cousins with benefits” from Sailor Moon, Haruka and Michiru.
- Various shows, like Is This a Zombie? and Magical Girl Raising Project, give magical girl powers to boys, with interesting results.
- Stories about people switching gender or body-swapping are also common, the most famous being Your Name, which caused some serious challenges when translating Japanese gender pronouns to English.
Really, there are so many examples of this kind of creativity in anime, it’s almost harder to come up with examples of shows that don’t feature some kind of twist.
Will You Be Watching The Requiem of the Rose King?
Thanks for reading this post about the new Requiem of the Rose King. Are you watching the show? Tell us below, or reply to us on Twitter!
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