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Rose of Versailles Manga Revolutionizes Yogurt
posted on by Lynzee Loveridge, Jennifer Sherman
Riyoko Ikeda's classic manga The Rose of Versailles is taking part in a new campaign that has little to do with France but promises an exhilarating and delicious experience. A special "Derusailles no Bara ~Yogurt 3-kkakan Kakumei~" website opened on Tuesday that features three "Derusailles no Bara Gekijō" manga chapters. The manga and website promote the Morinaga Milk company's new Mainichi Sōkai Yogurt (Everyday Refreshing Yogurt).
The manga reimagines famous parts of The Rose of Versailles story as a campaign to promote the yogurt. The "Derusailles" in the manga and campaign's title is a combination of the words "deru" (to come out) and "Versailles." The website references "unmei," which appears to be portmanteau of the words "unko" ("poop") and "unmei" ("fate"). The site describes a story of "love and suffering" involving something that will "come out or not come out."
In the first manga chapter, titled "Shukufuku to Shukumei" (Blessing and Fate), Marie Antoinette's mother tells her Morinaga Milk's advertising department wants Marie to be the image character for a new product. Marie travels to meet Oscar and the head of the advertising department (Louis XVI, King of France). Marie is happy when she meets Louis, but her mother begins to worry about her and her place in the campaign.
In the second chapter, titled "Itsuwari no Otomegokoro" (Lies of a Girl's Heart), André runs up to Oscar and starts telling her about the yogurt's giveaway campaign that is offering free yogurt to 1,000 people. Oscar begins to cry and tells him that she wasn't chosen. The two have a passionate exchange.
In the third chapter, titled "Unmei no Tobira no Mae de" (In Front of the Door of Fate), Oscar is frantically asking a woman where a flower is. She rushes upstairs as a crowd arrives. She says there is a certain omen after three days, and there's something she can't put up with any longer. She runs away into a room by herself. She thinks, "Exactly three days after starting to eat Mainichi Sōkai...," and an explosion happens at the castle. Then, Oscar seems to be relieved and at peace.
The company lauds the yogurt for including Bifidobacterium BB536, a probiotic said to promote digestive health. The new yogurt went on sale in Japan on Tuesday.
DLE Inc.'s authorized Flash-animated parody shorts also showed a humorous side of The Rose of Versailles in 2014. Fans currently have the opportunity to kiss Oscar as part of Glico's Bitte chocolate cookie snack collaboration. Oscar also donned new hair and jumped in a bowl of udon for Nissin earlier this year.
Ikeda published a 16-page one-shot, "Rose of Versailles Episode," in Shueisha's Margaret magazine in 2013, 40 years after the end of the original series. She has since continued penning The Rose of Versailles short stories for Margaret, the most recent of which, "Episode 9," will run in two parts on October 20 and on November 5.
The original manga is inspiring the Shiritsu BeruBara Academy ~Versailles no Bara Re*imagination~ (Private BeruBara Academy: Rose of Versailles Re*imagination) project from Otomate. The project has both an unspecified "screen adaptation" and a game adaptation simultaneously in the works.
Source: Comic Natalie
