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Rose of Versailles
(click pictures to enlargen them) AAAAAAWWWWWWW YESSSSSSSSSS I saw this series pictured on tvTropes, on the trope "Pimped out dress". My dress up senses started tingling, and when Wikipedia said it's only 10 volumes I couldn't resist. And Rose of Versailles didn't disappoint. I don't care for stories where the common everyday girl from present time is absolutely in love with dresses like that, at least if she's older than ten years old. I get that it's fun to draw frilly dresses, but I find it unrealistic if you write your 15-year-old character being all smitten over the chance to wear a pink frilly wedding-cake like monstrosity (or at least I wouldn't have been). But in a story that takes place a couple of centuries ago they get my interest instantly. Around chapter ten I had reached the point where I was more interested in saving pictures of the dresses than reading the story... And boy was there many of them! And they were big and good quality, often taking half a page, or even more! I had 24 chapters to read, and I saved over 50 pictures. That means that on average each chapter had around two detailed pictures of a brand new dress! The dresses are pretty crazy and they'd probably look hideous in real life, but in drawings I love them. They're like the dream of a five-year-old girl who loves Disney Princesses; there is ribbons and flowers and lace and jewels and poofy sleeves and a new layer of cloth with flower pattern and frill and pearls and sparkles and detailed folds and hems five times as wide as the girl and all that. And of course hairdos are all curly and they have tiaras and feathers and crowns and other stuff. Detailed outfits are my weakness no matter how bizarre they are... 
Oh, right. There is a plot too. It is the 18th century and young Marie Antoinette marries the heir of the king of France. At the same time a seventh girl is born to a general, even when he wished for a son. So he raises "Oscar" as a boy instead. And in Sweden count Fersen... does something, I don't think I paid attention. As they grow up Oscar becomes the commander of the royal guard, and Marie Antoinette becomes a self centered idi- young queen who loves to spend taxes on her own enterntainment, such as buing 100+ dresses a year and arranging lots of parties. Problems arise when Marie Antoinette falls in love with Fersen. Also, her subjects are not pleased with the way she spends money. Oscar does her best to keep things under control. The main character Oscar is, as far as I know, pretty iconic in her crossdressing role. It was nice reading about a strong female character, when anime and manga in general tend to only offer whiny brats fantasising about getting a man or cheerleaders and love interests for the male characters. I've read other people's opinions that Oscar was slightly unlikable because she is always right, always noble, always fair etc. It didn't bother me when reading, but now that I think of it, she has very little negative qualities. Not that I paid much attention to the plot though... One notable thing about the art (besides the dresses that already got a lot of attention) is that the characters actually age. Plenty of shoujo give the teenager heroine and her mother the exact same face, but despite the ever-sparkly eyes Rose of Versailles manages to make a 22-year-old Marie Antoinette really look older than her ten-something-year-old self. (that's supposed to be the same girl in the pictures if you can't tell) 
The series offers a lot of pairing drama. Marie Antoinette is married to the king, but she is a lot more interested in count Fersen, who returns her love. Oscar has plenty of admirers, including her... what was it, "servant" Andre and a yuri option in the form of Rosalie, a commoner girl she saved. Oscar of course manages to fall in love with Fersen. And I'm pretty sure that there are plenty of fans who pair Oscar with Marie Antoinette. Lots of glimmering tears are shed over love issues. Everything is serious business in the world of Rose of Versailles. The necklace is so shiny that it blinds Marie Antoinette! Motion lines and yelling for four panels when Oscar suggests that Marie Antoinette should not build a special summer house for herself! Antoinette lying on the ground in darkness with a spotlight on her when she discovers the death of a family member! Peasant girls turn out to have hidden noble heritage! While the joke scenes that were supposed to be funny were awfully awkward, scenes that were supposed to be serious were so over-the-top that they provided great unintentional humour instead. 
I'm greatly disappointed that currently I can only find the first 24 chapters online. I had so much fun that I could even consider buying all the books legally, but my manga store doesn't have such an old series. Pfft! I bet that finding the anime online would be a lot easier, but I'm sure it won't have as awesome dresses due to budget reasons. And since the outfits are pretty much the only reason I'm interested in the whole series the anime is right out. The ending does interest me; I've read enough history to know what happens to the real Marie Antoinette, so I'm very curious about how the shoujo story will deal with it. Since the story is pretty old maybe they didn't have as much of the "kids need a happy ending for everyone!" mentality back then. So what exactly does the series offer to people who don't go insane over bizarre dresses that take half a page? Uh-oh... I don't quite know, I was so distracted by all the outfits that I can't judge anything else. Okay, if you don't like shoujo style you will probably have trouble with the art, with all the frill and ribbons and flowers and sparkling eyes and all that. And the series is old, and it shows. But I won't let it bother me. Judging the series with the 1-3 tangerines scale is a bit difficult. I care very little of the plot, and I'm reading it in the "wrong" way, laughing at serious stuff and sneering at the comedy. But since the tangerine scale is supposed to represent how much I enjoyed the series, and in that light it's extremely easy to say that it's been a while since I last read a manga that entertained me this much. So a full 3/3 it is! Dress up wise there was of course a ton of material. There's too many similar dresses for a "characters of Rose of Versailles" dress up, and excluding Oscar's uniform the outfits weren't really iconic to the characters. But! There ~will~ be a Rose of Versailles dress maker! I've even drawn the doll and sketched quite a many hems and sleeves for it!
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