Using a combination of historical personages and original characters, The Rose of Versailles focuses primarily on the lives of two women: the Queen of France Marie Antoinette, and Oscar François de Jarjayes, who serves as commander of the Royal Guard.

An English-language translation of the manga has been published by Udon Entertainment, while the anime adaptation is currently licensed in North America by Discotek Media.

The primary character of the story is Marie Antoinette, the teenaged Dauphine and later Queen of France, and the co-protagonist of the series a woman named Oscar François de Jarjayes only until her death.

As the youngest of six daughters, Oscar was raised like a son from birth by her military general father to succeed him as commander of the Royal Guard at the Palace of Versailles.

The primary action of the story revolves around Oscar's growing realization of how France is governed, and of the plight of the country's poor.

After von Fersen leaves Europe to fight in the American Revolutionary War, a distraught Antoinette begins spending lavishly on jewellery and clothing to distract herself from his absence.

Her spending mires France in debt, while the Affair of the Diamond Necklace and the machinations of the scheming Duchess of Polignac further aggravate public sentiment toward the monarchy.

[4][5] Ikeda made her debut as a manga artist in 1967, with her early works generally falling into one of two categories: romantic stories typical of shōjo manga of the era, and socially and politically motivated stories that addressed themes such as poverty, diseases caused by nuclear weapons, and discrimination against Japan's burakumin population.

[8] As the New Left declined in the early 1970s, Ikeda decided to create a manga focused on themes of revolution and populist uprising.

[9] After researching the French Revolution for two years,[10] Ikeda proposed a manga series that would be a biography of Marie Antoinette to her editors at the Japanese publishing company Shueisha.

[13] Ikeda based the character's appearance on Swedish actor Björn Andrésen, who became immensely popular in Japan in the early 1970s after starring in the film Death in Venice.

[15] Ikeda derived the historical elements of The Rose of Versailles from the 1932 biography Marie Antoinette: The Portrait of an Average Woman by Stefan Zweig.

The depiction of Marie Antoinette in The Rose of Versailles is largely rendered as it is narrated in the biography: her close relationship with her mother Maria Theresa, her loveless marriage with Louis XVI, her rivalry with Madame du Barry, her friendship with the Duchess of Polignac, the Affair of the Diamond Necklace, and her love for Axel von Fersen.

The chronology of certain historical events are also slightly altered for dramatic purposes (for example, von Fersen is not present during the Affair of the Diamond Necklace in the manga), and the manga contains some visual inaccuracies (for example, Oscar's French Guard uniform is actually the uniform worn by the Royal Guard during the Napoleonic era in the early 19th century).

[29] Ikeda's depiction of the events of the French Revolution are informed by both her feminist and communist political leanings, and are personified in the story by Oscar.

[30] The narrative of The Rose of Versailles dramatizes the social realist doctrine advocated by the Japanese communist movement, addressing issues such as class consciousness, inequality between economic classes, the subordinate status of women, the duties of citizens, the material conditions of labor,[31] and the manner in which rights for citizens arise from a mass and spontaneous revolt.

[33] Following the Asama-Sansō incident of February 1972, in which fourteen members of the United Red Army were killed in a purge, an increasing proportion of Japanese feminists rejected socialism in favor of consumerism.

[35] Ikeda has stated that she saw Marie Antoinette as a compelling figure in the way that she symbolized insubordination against the patriarchy, specifically her reluctance to accept the social impositions of Versailles, her loveless marriage, and the hatred that she aroused from both the court and public.

[36] However, Antoinette is limited in her ability to resist patriarchal forces by the imposition of motherhood; indeed, the abolition of the social obligation to become a mother was one of the main demands of the Japanese feminist movement at the time.

[37] Deborah Shamoon argues that Oscar's popularity relative to Antoinette can be owed to her more complex characterization: first, that she is torn between her affection for Antoinette and the realization that she perpetuates a corrupt system; and second, that she "questions the assumptions of heterosexual romance and gender roles" through her androgyny and her search for an equal romantic partner who respects both her femininity and her masculinity.

[45][46] The film is produced by MAPPA and directed by Ai Yoshimura, with Tomoko Konparu writing the script, Mariko Oka designing the characters, and Hiroyuki Sawano and Kohta Yamamoto composing the music.

It stars Miyuki Sawashiro as Oscar, Aya Hirano as Marie Antoinette, Toshiyuki Toyonaga as André, and Kazuki Kato as von Fersen.

[56] Reviewing the anime adaptation of The Rose of Versailles for IndieWire, Charles Solomon noted that while the series "makes American daytime soap operas feel restrained", he cites it as "an intriguing example of cross-cultural cross-pollination".

[1] Oscar inspired multiple other "feisty cross-dressing heroines" in manga and anime, in series such as Hayate × Blade and Revolutionary Girl Utena.