Le Chevalier D'Eon

Information of Anime

During the era where Louis XV was ruling France, a coffin floating down the Seine River carried a dead woman's body.  The woman is Lia de Beaumont, sister of D'Eon de Beaumont.  Working in a special undercover force for the king, D'Eon is determined to find his sister's killer.  During his investigations, he finds France in trouble with mysterious monsters roaming the city at night.  Even worse is when Lia's soul enters inside D'Eon's body.

Storyline (CONTAINS SPOILERS)

Below is a summary of the storyline I've seen.  If you haven't seen the series yet & don't want to be spoiled, skip this section.  If you want to know the story & want to see how I viewed it, read on.

As D'Eon searches for Lia's murderer, he discovers that a cult group is trying to takeover France & create a new era.  The group abbreviated as H.O. uses strange powers to create gargoyles from their dead victims.  D'Eon finds that this group is part of his sister's death as her soul enters into his body.  Her soul takes over his body when D'Eon is faced with members of the cult.  With some assistance of three ally members, forming the four musketeers, they discover that Russia is involved in overthrowing France.  However, it's later revealed on how Russia is also a victim to the cult as the four knights assist Russia in restoring their order.  During this trip, France is having troubles of its own as Louis XV is about to be overthrown from the inside.  After helping Russia, D'Eon learns about what Lia did in Russia & who is her killer.  A former knight of France who betrayed his country for the Resistance Force, the cult of Poets behind all this & using the powers of H.O..  Also, the traitor carries the Verse of the Royal Family book with him that would later be deadly.  Under the order of Louis XV, the four knights head to England as their next stop & try to meet Maximilien there.

In England, D'Eon starts to see bits of Lia's past in her memories.  A lot of them involve Maximilien.  Putting the pieces together, D'Eon learns that Lia's soul is needed for the Verse of the Royal Family.  Seeing all the visions & clearing up their suspicions from the England Palace, D'Eon & his crew managed to put an end to the Poets & retrieve the Verse of the Royal Family.  This manages to stop the debate of England & France trying to go to war with each other & obtain peace between them.  In returning to France, D'Eon's party becomes smaller with one member dead & another betraying him who would later die.  The mist of all these internal wars in France would later present D'Eon with the truth about Lia's death as we see visions on how she was sent to Russia & came about with the Verse of the Royal Family.  When D'Eon discovers that Louis XV was the murderer, things have already become messy with the death of the queen & Anna in the king's hands.

Things gets interesting in the last episode as the truth is revealed.  Turns out that Maximilien & Lia are brother & sister from the same father that carried the royal bloodline.  They are illegitimate children to the previous king. This is why they were not to suppose to meet each other.  Plus, Louis XV who is now rotting away after burning a page of him form the Verse of the Royal Family is not from a royal bloodline & isn't French.  He was switched with Maximilien to become king.  The truth would lead to the death of the current king & Maximilien as well.  D'Eon finishes the job by burning Lia's body when it's been discover that Lia's dead body contained the last verse of the Royal Family which would be transferred to D'Eon's body.

The story ends with D'Eon giving a narration from his words of how France got a new king.  He now dresses in women's clothing as he's being hunted by the royal family.  His last comrade, Robin, who took the Verse of the Royal Family with him & recalls it the Verse of Revolution, renames himself as Maximilien & starts a revolution in France.  All these events, plus the dissolving of the Secret Bureau, would lead to problems with revenges running around the place & turning the land into a bloodbath.  D'Eon leaves Frances to visit an old friend & stays with her until old age.

My Personal Review

Le Chevalier D'Eon is a pretty interesting show.  Although the characters in the show are mostly real, the story is no doubt loosely based on this historical timeline.  It's actually pretty good if you are into simple horror stuff that designed for a mature audience.

Animation

The character designs aren't really Japanese style.  They do have that French look, but the eyes on the males do have that Japanese feel to it.  Also, they look a bit feminine at times.  The clothing designs really have that elegant French touch to it.  D'Eon's appearance did disturb me at times since he was the only male with colour on his lips.  I guess it would make it easier for the transforming of Lia into his body with seeing a manly face having a female voice.

The backgrounds aren't bad.  There are some 3DCGs in there such as the lighting equipment & tiled floors.  But the waves of the water was very fake looking.  It was almost like a piece of Jello jiggling when you hit it.  As the show progress, they show some realistic old French style.  For the other objects, it's pretty simple  & barely give off some life.

The colours are pretty dull with very little bright colours.  The bold colours come from the characters mostly as they do stand out a bit sharply from the background.  Also, it seems to make them a bit flat as in one dimensional.  There is very little shading & toning on the characters.

In terms of the animation movement, it's realistic & smooth.  The fights are quite intense & don't seem to show any choppy or missing frames.

Sound       

The sound effects are crisp & cued on the mark.  The swords clashing is clean & doesn't sound fake.

The seiyuus here are average to me.  They are ok really.  There isn't a favourite voice that I liked from the show.  They perform their roles very well, but I just don't seem to get a hold of them.  Probably because it's a bit weird to see French people speaking Japanese fluently.

The music really helps create the mood well.  It has the French & gothic feeling to them.  I like the opening & ending theme songs with its rock style.

Story

Although it's loosely based on D'Eon who was a real person living in that actual timeline, the show presents the history quite interesting with the horror theme. The plans of overthrowing Louis XV & changing France for a new era is appealling.  However, it can be very dry for some people as there are a lot of talking involved here.  The story is quite easy to follow, but some may think the amount of dialogue may be a bit too much as the amount of monster slaying gets little & little.

Aside from the story, the characters may not attract a lot of people.  The cast here is quite large & each have their own unique personalities.  This is good really, but the fact of D'Eon changing into a female may shock some viewers that don't like to see that kind of stuff.  It was a bit hard to swallow for me at the start.  Also, we rarely see D'Eon kicking some butt as it looks like he's very weak in fighting.  But his fencing skills improves later on as the fights get very exciting to watch.  They also seem to throw some martial arts in it with the flips.  Don't know if old Europe did have skills like that for fighting.

The show wraps up very nicely, leaving history intact on how France had some corruption with its revolution.  Although I don't know if D'Eon did live the rest of his life like that, it was a fitting ending to say the least.  Very enjoyable & one of the best endings I have seen from an anime show in ages!

Overall Conclusion

Le Chevalier D'Eon is a great show with a good horror theme in it.  The writers did a good job portraying a French era with monsters in it; even though the story isn't fully true.  However, the fact that D'Eon changes to Lia may disturb some people.  If you are looking for a anime with a non-Japanese historical theme with monsters & a lot of dialogue, this show would be of interest.

Le Chevalier D'Eon marks a nine out of ten.  The anime sports a nice theme that isn't related to Japan & uses the French history very well with some supernatural stuff on the side.  The characters are unique, but don't have anything developing until the last arc where France starts to fall into a revolution.  With a strong storyline & excellent ending, I was very pleased with the show even though it took me a long time to actually finish it.

Last updated on December 26, 2007