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Rose of Versailles Manga Ends 'Episode' Short Story Run

The 14th compiled volume of Riyoko Ikeda's The Rose of Versailles manga confirmed that it is the last installment of Ikeda's "Episode" epilogue series.

Ikeda published the first 16-page "Rose of Versailles Episode" one-shot in Shueisha's Margaret magazine in 2013, 40 years after the end of the original series. She has since continued penning The Rose of Versailles short stories for Margaret. The 11th volume, the first volume for the series in four decades, shipped in 2014 with a compilation of the first four "episodes."

The 14th volume compiled "Rosalie-hen" (Rosalie Chapter), which began in October under the title "Episode 9." The magazine initially announced it as a two-part story, with the second part debuting in November, but two more chapters debuted in January and February. The story follows Rosalie, who served Marie Antoinette until her execution. After those events, she begins to notice suspicious activity around her husband Bernard. The chapters take the story to the death of Fersen.

Ikeda launched the original manga in Shueisha's Weekly Margaret magazine in 1972. The story is set in the intrigue-filled court of Queen Marie Antoinette before and during the upheavals of the French Revolution. Lady Oscar is a young woman raised as a man to serve in the palace guards.

Udon Entertainment announced in July 2015 that it has licensed the manga series and planned to release the first two-in-one omnibus volume in the second quarter of 2016, but has not yet announced a release date.

The manga inspired a 40-episode anime in 1979-1980 that Right Stuf released in North America in 2013 in two DVD sets. In addition to the television anime series, the manga inspired a 1990 animated film, a long-promised but unreleased animated film remake, perennial musicals by the all-female Takarazuka Revue since 1974, and a live-action 1978 French/Japanese film. Most recently, DLE Inc. created authorized parody shorts with Flash animation.

Source: Comic Natalie