Le Chevalier D'Eon made for a solid historical title mixed in magical
elements as it explores the hostile tensions between royal figures in
the monarchies of the world's powerful countries in the 18th century
mixed in with D'Eon's search for answers in discovering the cause
surrounding the death of his sister Lia, whom possesses his body in
vengeance of those who murdered her and conspire against those among
royalty that she supports. Three big things that stick out with this
series are how complex it is, its historical accuracy of the final days
of monarchy rule being the norm in 18th century Europe and having a
large number of characters that it focuses on. D'Eon's quest to recover a
stolen item for King Louis XV and find answers about Lia's death lead
him to also journey into Russia and England where he encounters inner
conflicts within the monarchies of both countries and later in his
homeland of France. Influential figures within the monarchies of these
countries are unsatisfied with the present directions of their nation's
policies under their present rulers and will do whatever they can to
claim the throne, even having to resort to assassination and abandoning
their status and loyalty to their home country.
While Le
Chevalier D'Eon presents a fictional account of these events with the
incorporation of the occult, it does accurately portray the norms and
political tensions present within 18th century European society. Besides
accuracy in designing the clothing, mannerisms and items of the era, Le
Chevalier D'Eon prominently focuses on the touchy side of having a
monarchy with royal officials abusing their power and trying to usurp
the throne, those being the ruling power becoming malcontent with
sacrificing individual desires for the needs of the country and the
touchy political relations between foreign nations over territory. The
series also touched upon signs of rebellion stirring up with the
commoners and those who gave up positions of authority in their monarchy
due to their disgust over the large divide in resources available
between the common class and those of the royal and wealthy elite. I
haven't seen a series touch upon such issues with European monarchy
since I seen
Rose of Versailles two years ago.
With
the series divided up into arcs focused on the journey of D'Eon and his
three companions across France, Russia and England, Le Chevalier D'Eon
introduces a large cast of characters who make up the ruling body and
influential positions within each country's monarchy, as well as some
antagonists trying to shake up their country's political system with
their corrupt and terrorist acts. Many of these characters are fleshed
out enough where you get a sense of their motivations and beliefs in
regards to how they view their country's present situation. Some of
these characters are even revealed to have a past connection to Lia
which allows the viewer to better understand the type of person she was
and slowly unveil more details concerning the facts surrounding her
death.
There were only a couple issues I had concerning Le
Chevalier D'Eon's plot and characters. The show doesn't give every
prominent character depth as shown through a few of the show's
antagonists such as the crazed Pyotr III. In addition, the final three
episodes of the show put out a lot of information regarding everything
that took place throughout the series which went against the slow
buildup that Le Chevalier D'Eon had with unveiling its information in
earlier episodes and it got quite daunting for me to take in every bit
of information revealed all at once.
In terms of visuals, Le
Chevalier D'Eon quite often gets inconsistent with its animation style.
Some shots feature slick looking CG renderings of the inside of palaces
like France's Palace of Versailles while settings of village locales
tend to be drawn in a watercolor style that looks rather washed up in
quality. Clothing designs for characters are great to look at and are
accurate for the time period in which this series is set, yet the facial
designs of said characters are simple and on the plain side. In terms
of animation, the series does usually resort to still shots to simulate
scenes of conflict yet also shows well choreographed and fluid sword
fighting scenes which occur quite frequently in this series.
Overall,
Le Chevalier D'Eon was a surprisingly solid and surprisingly complex
series featuring an expansive cast of characters which the series gives
focus on, an accurate depiction of the flaws to a traditional
monarchical system and the large number of plot threads that the series
tackles through D'Eon's journey. While having some issues, this is a
worthwhile watch to those craving historical fictional titles with a bit
of the occult added to the mix of things.