Le Chevalier D'Eon: Book 6

Introduction

It's been a tough slog writing about six discs in succession, although watching them has been a pleasure. I now appreciate the benefit of two-month gaps, allowing the brain a breather before having to write about the same subject again. Without that gap, I can feel my creative juices begin to evaporate. That, I believe is the reason that boxsets were invented. It's been an interesting ride, an unlikely anime subject of 18th Century European supernatural intrigue, which has taken us from the Royal Court of Versailles, to St Petersburg, and then to London, as we followed an unlikely quartet of Frenchmen investigating a mysterious murder. The story now brings us full circle, as we return to France for the conclusion, and the ultimate discovery of the truth.

For d'Eon de Beaumont, it should have been the culmination of his ascension to the highest levels of nobility, but the day he was elevated to the Royal Court at Versailles, was the day that his sister Lia's body was fished out of the river, in a coffin with the word Psalms daubed on the lid in blood. Since then, he's spent more time away from the court than not, searching for his sister's murderers, haunting the Paris back alleys, and prowling the city streets at night. But his investigation leads to a dark conspiracy indeed, one that reaches to the highest levels of European royalty, involving the invocation of dark and mysterious powers by arcane spell-casting Poets. Fortunately, d'Eon is not alone, he has allies, and chief among them is Lia's soul. She's come back from the dead to avenge her murder, although to do so she has to possess her younger brother's body.


The final four episodes are presented on this disc from ADV, and there are spoilers for the previous volumes ahead, so stop right here if you are inclined to.

21. The Price Of Honour
A prisoner of the Duc D'Orleans, d'Eon has to come to terms with Teillagory's betrayal. Robin managed to escape, and goes to the Queen for help, but Queen Marie has her own problems. With the defeat of the plan in England, Madame de Pompadour turns her attention closer to home and the Dauphin Auguste. Meanwhile Robespierre has his own agenda, getting d'Eon to read the Royal Psalms. Orleans plans for the monarchy are coming to fruition, but he isn't expecting the uprising to begin in his own back yard.

22. NQM
The Comte de Saint Germain and Madame de Pompadour, the main players in the conspiracy against the crown are finally being confronted, and it seems that the threat against the crown is subsiding. But the knowledge of the existence of the Royal Psalms is a threat in itself, and Louis attention turns closer to home. As d'Eon finally begins to learn the truth of Lia's relationship with Robespierre and the events behind her death, Anna witnesses something in the palace she shouldn't have.


23. Beloved and Therefore…
D'Eon learns an unsettling fact about Robespierre, but learning about what happened to his fiancée Anna is far greater a wound. D'Eon has to make the choice that only he can make, loyalty to the state or to the crown, but who is going to confront King Louis, Lia or d'Eon?

24. In the Beginning Was the Word
The conclusion.

Picture

The 1.78:1 anamorphic transfer is clear and sharp, although there is the usual smidgen of NTSC-PAL conversion issues to put up with. It's nowhere near as bad as it could be though, and by and large this is in the top range of anime transfers. It needs to be good, as it's a Production IG animation, with all the attention to detail and reputation for excellence that implies. The character designs are realistic rather than stylised, the costume designs are astounding, and Europe of the eighteenth century is brought to vivid life. The final result is a very high budget look. The animation is top-notch as well; it's worth seeing some of the fencing sequences as an example of the research and veracity.

Sound

You have a choice of DD 5.1 English and Japanese soundtracks, along with an optional translated English subtitle track, or simple signs to accompany the English track (The signs more often than not translate French text onscreen, not Japanese in this case). The surround is very impressive, certainly working well in the action sequences, and also conveying the orchestral music with a suitable level of grandeur. My choice as always was for the Japanese track, but from what I sampled of the English dub it is exceptional, well cast and well performed. The 5.1 Surround is also a tad more expressive in the English dub, so that may swing it if you waver over which language to listen in.

Extras

There are extras to appreciate with this disc, and after two relatively barren discs, we finally get a return of the featurettes.

There are sleeve notes offering a gallery of chibi-parody characters.

The booklet slipped inside the Amaray Case entitled Chapter 6 runs to 12 pages. There is an interview with Riza Mizuno, the Japanese voice of Lia, and the final part of a prequel side story presented in the form of a script.

On the disc, you'll find the textless credits, and trailers for Guyver, Kurau Phantom Memory, Pani Poni Dash, Utawarerumono, and Red Garden.

There are also historical notes to peruse, offering articles on five of the wars of the period, as well as something on the Holy Roman Emperor.

The featurette is a 24-minute round table interview with the Japanese voice cast, gathering the actors who portrayed d'Eon, Lia, Teillagory, Robin and Durand. They talk about their characters, the experiences they had working on the show, and their most memorable moments from the series.

Conclusion

That was one hell of an ending! Of course I'm not going to tell you a single thing about it, so you can rest easy on that score. Whatever I had hoped for from this show, whatever my expectations were, the conclusion exceeded them tenfold. The final arc of the story came to an emotional crescendo that was breathtaking in its grandiose and operatic vision. All the questions that were asked during the story were answered, and some of those answers were truly astounding and unexpected, but made absolute sense given the direction that the story has taken. If ever a concluding volume could be used as an advert for the rest of the series, this is it.


It's been a colourful journey to get to this point, and Le Chevalier D'Eon has taken a somewhat unexpected route. It started off with an obscure and complex mystery, and pretty much threw us in at the deep end in terms of the story and the characters. We've had to pick it up as we went along. Then it took us into the world of eighteenth century geopolitics, which was nowhere near as dry as it sounds, but still kept something of a distance between the audience and the story. For these final few volumes, I fully expected the politics to fade into the background, and d'Eon's more personal story come to the forefront, giving us the emotional hook that would deliver us a suitably intense conclusion. Instead, this story has kept with the politics, the conflict of ideals and the political manoeuvring in pre-revolutionary France has remained at the heart of the tale, but it still managed to provoke a strong emotional response while staying true to its core storyline. I wound up caring about the power struggle in the French Court, the battle for hearts and minds that was being played out in these lofty circles, all because it took the time to make us realise that these issues were even more important to the main characters than something as petty as simple vengeance. In the end it was far more than Lia's soul at stake.


Le Chevalier D'Eon isn't the perfect series by any means. Its subject matter certainly won't appeal to those who seek pneumatic girls and non-stop action from their anime. This is a more cerebral and thoughtful piece that by definition will have limited appeal. Given a chance though, the story is perhaps the most compelling I have seen in animated form, the period setting and atmosphere is truly resplendent. The beauty of the animation, the orchestral majesty of the score, the level of research and the attention to detail all mark this out as a singular television event. If there is a flaw with it, it's the pace. The earlier volumes are practically opaque, offering little to grasp for fresh audiences. It's a show that throws you in at the deep end, and ties weights to your ankles to make things interesting. There are a couple of false starts, and some sputtering diversions before the story begins to flow, and in those early volumes, it's very much a case of getting out what you put in.


The final volumes more than make up for it though, and if the series can't be described as perfect, this final quartet of episodes most certainly is. If ever a series could be said to have the ending that it deserves, than Le Chevalier D'Eon is the one. ADV have most certainly had their woes of late, but as one of the last series that they released, they definitely went out on a high. This is one of those must have shows. Make room on your shelf already.