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R2 DVD Reviews
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Written by maehara
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Monday, 17 September 2007 17:00 |
 Any show that can be losely described as "Three Musketeers meets Night of the Living Dead" has to be worth a look. Le Chevalier d'Eon, one of the highlights of my anime year so far, fits the bill, and more besides, taking a group of real historical characters from pre-revolution France and putting them in a situation they may not be able to handle...
1 - d'Eon : Lia
The time of the reign of King Louis XV of France. When a body is washed up on the banks of the Seine, contained in a coffin bearing the word "Psalms" scrawled in blood, it marks the beginning of a new phase in the life of the Chevalier d'Eon de Beaumont. The dead woman was Lia de Beaumont, his sister - and d'Eon soon finds himself on a quest to find her killers. Lia wasn't their only victim, and by prowling the dark streets of Paris' more unsavoury districts, d'Eon hopes to find some leads. Find them he does, but the trail leads back to nobility who he may not be able to touch...
2 - The Four Musketeers
A visit to the crypt brings d'Eon face to face with Bernis - once a comrade, but now changed into a vicious beast with almost no thought other than to kill the man in front of him: d'Eon. With her brother under threat, the soul of Lia emerges from the cross d'Eon had affixed to his sword, takes control of d'Eon, and proceeds to deal with the man who was once Bernis. That's just the beginning of d'Eon's problems, though - on his return to Paris, the Duc's forces attempt to pin the killings of his secret police comrades on him, but he finds some timely help in the form of fellow knight Durand, who claims to be following the wishes of Lia's soul. D'Eon doesn't exactly trust him, but at the moment he doesn't exactly have much choice...
3 - Sword of Indignation
Having just met up with d'Eon's fencing coach, Teillagory, the "four musketeers" are set upon by a large group of gargoyles. Robin quickly figures out that they're being controlled by their necklaces - necklaces that bear the symbol d'Eon had first seen on d'Orlean's walking stick - and the owner of those necklaces soon makes himself known, just in time for Lia to take control of d'Eon's body and inflict enough of an injury on him for him to be captured. During the battle, though, Teillagory recognises Lia's battle stance, and quickly realises what's happened. On hearing that he's become the vessel for his sister vengeance, though, d'Eon's not convinced. Later, interrogation of the man they'd captured comes to an early end after Durand helps him to escape...
4 - Follower of the Revolution
D'Orleans doesn't take failure kindly - as the Poet who Durand allowed to escape, Caron, is painfully discovering. A few words of power from St Germain, though, and he's sent on his way again to seek vengeance on d'Eon for the humiliation of being captured. Down in Lia's crypt, meanwhile, the King tells d'Eon why Lia may have been killed - she had been an agent in his Secret du Roi, and having been spying for him in Russia seems to have uncovered something she shouldn't have. The King now wants d'Eon to continue his sister's work (appropriately enough, under the circumstances) - d'Eon agrees, but there's still the small matter of him coming to terms with his role as vessel for his sister's soul to deal with. The bloodthirsty nature of the personality that takes control of him bothers him. Not that he gets much time to think about such things, as Caron returns...
Right. The first thing you do with Le Chevalier d'Eon is to read the extensive extras, which give a lot of detail about the setting of the series and the real-world equivalents of the characters featured. Most of the main characters are based on real people, but although the story itself is pure fiction it does play into some genuine gender-ambiguity that d'Eon de Beaumont suffered from in real life. The Living Dead aspect comes from the Gargoyles, creatures created & controlled by Poets - they're zombies to all intents and purposes. The Poets use the power of the Psalms to create Gargoyles, carry out alchemy, and generally do things they're not supposed to do. Booo.
Lia found herself in conflict with this group through her role in King Louis' 'secret service', the Secret du Roi - clearly she wasn't quite secretive enough and paid the ultimate price for her failure, but through bonding her soul to her crucifix, which is now in d'Eon's hands, she's got a way to seek her revenge against the group that killed her. I suppose possession could be said to add a little touch of The Exorcist to the mix.
It all hangs together really well. The setting of pre-revolution France, where there's a distinct sense of unhappiness in the air the the show manages to convey, adds a lot to the atmosphere, and it's all beautifully realised on-screen - although the animation quality can sometimes drop a little, it's mostly very good and very watchable. This first disc introduces the setting, the problem, and the lead characters in a logical manner, making it easy for you to follow what's going on, while the occasional attacks of the Gargoyles and the Poets provide a neat little action hook to break up all the plot exposition.
The characters are an interesting bunch, as well. From the historically-inspired bunch, there's d'Eon himself (not at all happy about being the vessel for his sister's soul), King Louis XV (by most accounts a sensible ruler who's doing his best to protect his position in difficult times), the Duc d'Orleans (a scheming noble who's making use of the Poets for his own ends) and Durand (another member of the Secret du Roi, who befriends d'Eon seemingly on the Kings instructions). Elsewhere there's d'Eon's old fencing coach Teillagory, young man Robin from the Queen's personal guard who is assigned to protect d'Eon, potential love interest Anna, and d'Orlean's Russian associate Vorontsov. That's a large cast, so there's not much time for real character development yet, even for the leads, but there's enough background given for you to get a general feel for them all and to work out the good from the bad.
I'm not usually a fan of historical series, unless they do something different. Le Chevalier d'Eon certainly does - and while the 'zombies' aspect is enough to hook you in, there's plenty else here to keep the attention. The series was produced to mark the anniversary of Japanese satellite channel WOWWOW, and as such it's had attention lavished on it, both in production values and story, and that works together to make this a truly high-class show that should appeal to most anime fans on at least some level. In a time when a lot of what's being released is thoroughly deriviate of previous works, this one stands out as at least trying to present its ideas in a different way, and gains extra points for making that effort. Hopefully the quality can be maintained for the full run - this disc at least is highly recommended.
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