by “I don’t know anything about the supremacy of the original work, and I don’t care about it!”
The animated film The Rose of Versailles, released on January 31, 2025, seems to be steadily gaining new and old fans. There are also voices from young people unfamiliar with the original work, but watching it because of its name value and cast attracted them.
The following contains descriptions that may lead to spoilers for The Rose of Versailles, [Oshi no Ko], and Mobile Suit Gundam Hathaway’s Flash. However, some so-called newcomers say they were shocked by the story’s tragic ending. And when they found out it was a faithful development of the original work, there were also voices calling for it to be changed, saying, “It doesn’t have to be faithful there.” Some wonder whether they are severe or silly, such as, “They don’t even have to kill Marie.” To be clear, although The Rose of Versailles is a work of fiction, it is based on the historical French Revolution, and the actions and life and death of real people, such as Marie Antoinette, are based on historical fact.
Aside from that, there are some anime works for which many voices say, “I would rather they change the original work” because the ending is tragic or there is too little hope. There were only a few examples like the above about The Rose of Versailles, but perhaps because it is a work with a long history, such voices are not heard very often.
A recent example is “Oshi no Ko” (original: Akasaka Aka/illustration: Yokoyari Mengo / Shueisha), whose original manga series ended in November 2024. It is still fresh in our memory that the ending of the work was talked about a lot, mainly negatively.
The fact that the “original drawing” in the final volume of the book, which was released shortly after the end of the serialization, did not reveal the truth as had been publicized added fuel to the fire. Due to this background, even though “fidelity to the original” is the mainstream these days, there have been loud cries that “we would rather have an original development in the anime.”
The anime version, which started during the serialization of this work, is scheduled to air its third season in 2026, and as of the end of the second season, the original work has only been consumed halfway. Since the story has been faithful to the original up to this point, many people seem to say it is “hard to imagine an original development.” Similarly, one of the works that people are hoping for an original anime development is “Mobile Suit Gundam Hathaway’s Flash.”
The original is a novel by the great Tomino Yoshiyuki, depicting a truly tragic ending. Above all, one of the series’s main characters, Bright Noa, has been receiving sympathy since the original work was released, with people saying, “There is no hope for Bright after all the hardships he has endured.”
The production of a trilogy of movies has been announced, with the first part being released in 2021, and as of February 2025, the second part is expected to be in production. At a talk event held on September 3, 2021, the producer said, “The second part will be the most different story from the novel out of the three movies.” In other words, it is expected that there will be no significant changes from the original work in the overall ending, but some people are saying that they want to hold on to the hope
