Set against the backdrop of pre-Revolution France, Le Chevalier D’Eon, by Production I.G, really is a series that earns the right to superlatives like ‘sweeping’ and ‘gripping’. The period in which it is set – the ambiance of pre-Revolution Eighteenth Century Paris – immediately identifies it as something different, something with aspirations. Of course, period settings in anime are hardly uncommon, and certainly there are plenty of series where style elements have been borrowed from foreign sources (the Grecian pseudo technology of Rah Xephon, for instance), but it is less common for a series to locate itself quite firmly in a period of non-Japanese history. Not only does Le Chevalier do this – boldly – but it also lives up to every one of the expectations that go along with it.
Based loosely on an actual historical figure – a lawyer, diplomat and envoy for Louis XI who was reportedly one of the best swordsmen in Europe and whose actual gender was much in question until his death – Le Chevalier is in a sense more of a fantasy than many other series you could name. This is Eighteenth Century Europe as understood by a Japanese animation studio, but if there are any unforgivable inaccuracies (aside from the presence of the tangible occult) it’s certainly nothing that the average anime viewer would pick up on. The ornate detail of each scene, from the palace at Versailles to the court of the Russian Empire, contrasted with the dark, grimy underbelly of life on the streets and in the back alleys of Paris and England, is precisely evocative of the spirit of the time – opulence contrasted with poverty and disease, the divide between rich, royal and the rest. There is a tension running through this series, always in the background, a conviction that what you are looking at is the pregnant calm before the storm of the coming, inevitable revolution.
Which is hardly surprising when you discover that the antagonists of the story seem to be plotting to overthrow the French King. And they’re doing it with mercury-bloated zombies. Allusions to alchemy, religion, evil plots involving a Book of Kings and men able to engrave words of power in the hearts of others provide the mystery that d’Eon struggles to uncover as he searches for his sister’s killer. But in the most crucial moments his desire for justice is sublimated by his dead sister’s need for vengeance; he is literally possessed by her angry spirit as it confronts the people (and creatures) connected to her murder.
This is where the series, already a dashing action adventure with sword fights and chases across roof tops and through alleys – finds its depth, in the connection between loyalty and identity on several levels. d’Eon is in conflict between the answers he seeks and the overwhelming otherworldly desire for vengeance that his sister’s restless spirit seeks. He cared for her as any good brother would, and wants to find her killers, but the demands she makes on him as an external, undeniable entity, and the subsequent identity crisis he begins to experience because of her control over him, are a heavy burden to bear.
Then there is the higher conflict of duty versus privately held opinion. D’Eon and his friends are sworn servants of the King of France, but during the course of the series, that loyalty is sometimes examined, sometimes tested, and it becomes clear that soldiers are also men, doing for the individuals or ideals they serve things that they do not necessarily approve of or are entirely comfortable with on a personal level. It’s this that drives the greater story – there are two sides to any argument. Is d’Eon protecting his country against those who would have it descend into chaos, or is he helping to preserve a way of life which simultaneously represses those less fortunate than him, and perhaps more interestingly, are the sparks of revolutionary thought the only way in which the country can continue to exist? Such questions turn bad guys to good – it’s all a matter of perspective.
Thankfully the truly complex philosophical thinking regarding social change is kept in check by d’Eon’s more personal conflicts with himself and those he loves, and the series moves along at a cracking pace – with twists and turns and engaging, likable characters aplenty – towards its possibly unexpected conclusion. Serious and refreshing, painted in soft, glossy pastels gilded with Rococo detailing, this is a murder mystery that uses all the right words to tell a solid, entertaining and even thought provoking story.