"In the beginning was the Word. Those were the days when King Louis XV ruled... Versailles shone in all its glory, and upon the course of the Seine, flourished the city of Paris, pervaded by beauty and chaos. Time changes everything. Only the words remain. That is why I, D'Eon de Beaumont, tell the story of myself, and my comrades who believed in the spirit of France. I shall relate the events which ended an era, and of the woman's body found floating in the Seine. Her name was Lia de Beaumont. My elder sister."
Le Chevalier D'eon is a 24-episode anime TV series set in the era of King Louis XV in 18th century France with Versailles shimmering in its full glory. The story opens when Lia de Beaumont's lifeless body was found inside a casket - the word "Psalms" written in blood on its lid - floating along the banks of the River Seine. The story's main protagonist, D'Eon de Beaumont, Lia's younger brother and a nobleman/knight in the service of the king, embarked on a journey with three friends - Durand, Teillagory, and Robin - to solve the mystery of his sister's death. D'Eon soon found himself entangled in a realm of spiritual energy, embroiled in a deadly struggle with revolutionaries and spell casters called "Poets" who recite Psalms to control gargoyles*, and a vessel to his deceased sister's wrathful spirit.
"Less talk, more action" can never be true for this anime series, thus, resulting to a few overly long dialogues which tended to be dragging. Nevertheless, there are more aspects to applaud this series for. The characters' facial expressions, mouth movements when talking, gestures, and most especially sword fights are almost flawlessly animated. No parts of the various backgrounds are spared from lavish rococo details in truly depicting 18th century France: pastel colours, sinuous curves, and patterns based on flowers, vines, and shells - the overall sensual delights of colour and light which is the emphasis of this decorative art style.
Versailles' "Hall of Mirrors" is pictured in detail in numerous scenes in the anime from the ceiling paintings, to the floor and chandeliers as can be seen in the still above.
What is most interesting to note is that the main protagonist, D'Eon de Beaumont is actually inspired by a real life historical figure named
Charles Geneviève Louis Auguste André Timothée Éon de Beaumont (October 5, 1728 - May 21, 1810) who was a French diplomat, spy, soldier and freemason. He lived the first half of his life as a man and the other half as a woman. Certain details in the anime series remained true to the real life Chevalier D'Eon's biography: firstly, D'Eon joined a secret network of spies in 1756 called
Le Secret du Roi which worked for King Louis XV. Secondly, he was sent on a secret mission to Russia
(in reality, not to discover the truth behind his sister's death; he did not have a sister to begin with) to meet Empress Elizabeth and intrigue with the pro-French faction against the Habsburg Monarchy. Later tales claim that he disguised himself as a lady Lia de Beaumont to do so, and that he became a maid of honour to the Empress.
In the anime series, D'Eon assumes the body of a woman being the vessel that he is to his sister's vengeance-seeking spirit. The real Chevalier D'Eon was rumored to be actually a woman despite the fact that he wore his dragoon's uniform all the time. In the later part of his life, he claimed that he was not a man physically and demanded that the government recognize him as a woman. He, therefore, began wearing women's clothing in compliance to King Louis XVI who agreed to recognize him as one but insisted that he should dress appropriately and even granted him funds for a new set of wardrobe. After his death in 1810, he was discovered to be anatomically male with the possibility that he had
Kallman Syndrome, a hormonal disorder in which a person's body does not undergo puberty. The term
eonism was, therefore, coined to refer to similar cases of transgender behavior.
You may check out the rest of Chevalier D'Eon's biography at this
link. The anime series, on the other hand, is based on Tow Ubukata's historical fantasy novel of the same title. Meanwhile, two episodes of Le Chevalier D'Eon are aired back-to-back every Saturday at
Animax from 8:30PM to 9:30PM.
**Gargoyles - animated corpses that have mercury in their bodies instead of blood. The marking "H:O" is placed on the body or on a pendant worn by the corpses, which enables Poets to control them. These creatures are not referred to as gargoyles until after Robin mentions to D'Eon that they reminded him of the gargoyles found on buildings.
Hey this looks nice. May bishonen ba dito? 
