The Rose of Versailles

Is a manga/anime made in the 70's; it consist of 10 volumes for the manga, and 41 episodes for the anime. The story takes place in France before and during the French revolution. The main protagonist is a woman named Oscar François de Jarjayes. She is the daughter of the general in charge of the royal guard. Since her father never had a baby boy, he decided to train Oscar to take his place. She was train in different martial arts, and she was left in charge of protecting the royal family. The story deals in part with the problems that Oscar is having; she feels the need to obey her father, and stay like the leader of the royal guard, but she also wants to help the people that are suffering, and poor because of the unnecessary expenses of the queen Marie Antoinette. The queen is expending an enormous amount of money because she is love sick; Oscar had to send a conde that was having an affair with the queen to try to save the name of the royal family. Also, Oscar deals with her needs to express herlself like a woman, and stop behaving like a man. So at some level this manga/anime deals with a bisexual struggle. At the end of the plot she helps orgnize the people in the taking of the Bastille to end the french monarchy. She is shot, and killed; the royal family is captured and guillotined. This manga/anime was a pioneer dealing with themes as strong as bisexuality. The story is superb having an always impressive reference to history. Overall even if its and old production, its still enjoyable and I'm pretty sure that many can relate to her story.