Le Chevalier D'Eon

Another post about an old series today.  I haven't watched enough of the new series to post about them yet.

Le Chevalier D’Eon takes place in 18^th century Europe, predominately in France, as you can probably assume from the title.  The story follows the events in the life on a young man named D’Eon de Beaumont.  As the story begins, D’Eon has just found out that his older sister Lia has been murdered.  The plot basically follows his attempts to find her murderers and bring them to justice.

Lia, it turns out, was working for the King of France, Louis 15^th, so D’Eon is recruited by Louis also.  His quest for justice for his sister can also be of service to the Crown.  He gains three friends/comrades along the way, another knight named Durand, an older knight who also taught D’Eon and Lia to fight, named Teillagory, and a young boy named Robin, who is also a servant of the French Queen, Marie.  These four follow the bad guys trail from the French Court, to the Court of Elizaveta and then Catherine in Russia and the Court of King George III and Queen Mary in England. 

This anime is full of the intrigue and plotting in all the major courts in Europe and England and has a host of characters related to each court.  D’Eon-tachi encounter, and sometimes get involved in, plots in all the courts as they follow a Russian spy and then later Maximilien Robespierre, following the trail of intrigue and death.

The anime is also full of magic.  D’Eon channels his dead sister Lia, and she often takes over his consciousness, especially during fights.  Several of the characters, notably Robespierre, are referred to as Poets, and can wield the magical Power of the Psalms.  Lia was also a Poet and could wield that Power and continues to do so when she’s in control of D’Eon’s body.  A book of power called the Royal Psalms is one of the items the four comrades eventually try to recover.  It belongs to the French royal family, but seems to spend a lot of time being passed around by multiple people.

In the end, everyone betrays everyone in this anime.  Durand and Teillagory both betray D’Eon.  The French King Louis kills his own Queen, Marie, which turns Robin into a revolutionary rather than a supporter of the Crown.  D’Eon finds that Lia and Robespierre were at one time lovers, and that Louis has been using D’Eon.  Louis isn’t even actually of royal blood and Robespierre is – one of the reasons Robespierre works against the crown.  Yet even with all this intrigue, D’Eon maintains his loyalty to his King – the only character who does basically.    The plot is often convoluted.

This series was okay.  The music and animation style are good. It’s not a great series, but the story kept me interested, probably because I spent so much time trying to figure out exactly what was going on while D’Eon stumbled from one intrigue to the next.  I didn’t like that everyone betrayed everyone eventually.  There was also a lot of death in this anime, including main characters.  D’Eon survives it, and Robin moves on as a revolutionary.  It didn’t feel like a satisfying ending though.