Anime / Isabelle of Paris

French poster

Isabelle in Paris (巴里のイザベル, Paris no Isabelle) is a 1979 Shoujo anime produced by DAX International. The anime ran from April 19, 1979 to July 12, 1979 on Tokyo Channel 12 and was thirteen episodes long. Keiji Hayakawa served as its chief director.

Isabelle Laustin is an average 15-year-old girl who lives in Paris, France. Formerly a tomboy who enjoyed rough-and-tumble play, she has since grown into a Proper Young Lady and dreams of being engaged to Captain Victor. One night, at a party, they dance the night away, feeling as if they'll be together forever...

And then they're informed that the French army led by Napoleon III has lost the Battle of Sedan and Paris is beseiged.

Forced to flee for her own good with her mother, father, best friend, and best friend's sister, Isabelle makes it to Versailles. There, she finds out that the Prussians aren't the only ones intent on making France lose. Through Attractive Bent-Gender, Isabelle works as a spy and does what she can to save her country from its enemies, and more importantly, its own government.

The anime was dubbed in French, Spanish and Arabic.

Compare The Rose of Versailles, also set in France but in a different time period; in spite of this the two anime have a lot in common.

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Isabelle of Paris provides examples of:

• 12-Episode Anime: Thirteen, actually, and one hell of a finale.
• Aristocrats Are Evil: Perhaps "evil" is a stretch for the French aristocrats, since at worst they're horribly snobby. However they do behave sociopathically, with no regard for the poor commoners left behind as they flee Ottto Van Bismarck's army. Now, Thiers, on the other hand....
• Arranged Marriage: For two years, Victor has been engaged to Geneviève. It is implied the marriage is for political purposes, since it was arranged by the latter's father, a wealthy landowner, to Victor, an army captain.
• Artistic License – History: Enough to warrant its own page.
• Anyone Can Die: The Grand Finale goes from 0 to 100 and kills off everyone who isn't named "Isabelle" or "Thiers".
• Battered Bouquet: Jean has a ritual of "daily marriage proposals" where he asks for Isabelle's hand in marriage, even though she's made it clear she doesn't like him. When Jean proposes to her with a bouquet of flowers right before they leave for Versailles, Isabelle throws them back in his face and kicks him out, yelling:
  You're ten years too young to be hitting on me!
• The Beautiful Elite: The French Bourgeoisie dress in glamorous clothing, which often includes Classy Cravats, Giant Poofy Sleeves, Fairytale Wedding Dresses, glitzy necklaces and very elaborate Ojou Ringlets.
• Big Brother Is Watching: The Prussians somehow figure out that Jules has incited anti-Prussian sentiments amongst the Parisian people and know where to find him.
• Bishie Sparkle: Both male and female characters have this. When Isabelle is ready to go to the ball and looks in the mirror, she has several in her Imagine Spot. When she dances with Victor, the sparkles surround her again.
• Bowdlerise: In the last episode, everyone except the main character is massacred by the French army. In the French edition of the anime, it never aired.
• Brick Joke: While Gambetta is flying over Paris in a hot air balloon, the Prussians, through an ammunitions camp, shoot at him and manage to puncture his hot air balloon. Once Isabelle repairs it, Gambetta tosses his lit cigar on the camp, causing them to explode.
• Bolivian Army Ending: For all the Artistic License – History in this anime, it did not shy away from depicting the Bloody Week massacre (1871) accurately. All the remaining characters not dead by that point are killed off, leaving Isabelle as the only remaining Parisian. Isabelle starts a new life elsewhere, implied to be London (since that's where Jules' contacts were).
• Capitalism Is Bad:
  • In the first episode, Jules criticizes the rich for holding a ball when their country is in the midst of war. His worries turn out to be valid when the ballgoers are informed that Otto von Bismarck's troops have completely destroyed the French army and are coming to Paris.
  • In episode two, a commoner child asks his mother why the French are fleeing en masse. She replies that the Prussians are coming, and they are doing so to protect their homes and properties. When the child asks if they will flee too, the mother replies that they have nowhere to go, and that them and the bourgeoisie live in an entirely different world than them. In the same episode, Geneviève asks Jules why they can't marry, and he replies that since she is the daughter of wealthy landowners, and he is a mere piano teacher, her parents would never approve of their inter-class romance.
  • Thiers chooses to sell out France to Prussia because as a wealthy bourgeoisie, he owns many properties that he does not want the war to mar.
• Cheese-Eating Surrender Monkeys: Averted. While the French initially lost the battle to Prussia, Victor and Andréa are skilled military commanders who are willing to fight until their last breath, and Jules and the rest of the Parisians swear to take the Prussians on their own. The main character, Isabelle, works as a spy to help aid France and liberate Paris. Even Geneviève, who's pregnant, vows to defend her country.
• Chekhov's Gun: A literal example. When the Prussian officers try to arrest Jules, one drops a gun, which Isabelle grabs, unsure if she should use it. Geneviève wrings it out of her hands and shoots the Prussian officer.
• Child of Forbidden Love: The anime starts with the Forbidden Romance of Jules Francoeur, an impoverished pianist who incites the commoners to resist the forces of the Bourgieoisie and is the leader of the Paris Commune, and Geneviève Laustin, the oldest daughter of the Laustin family. Geneviève is disowned for loving Jules, but she doesn't care and marries him. Near the Grand Finale, Geneviève reveals to Isabelle that she is pregnant with Jules' child. She states that she will fight for Paris to ensure her child's future.
• Civil War: Played straight and subverted. After Thiers makes a pact with the Prussians allowing them to have Paris in exchange for leaving the nobles' property intact, the Parisians revolt, and the French military are sent to quell them. Upon reaching Paris, an army captain orders them to open fire on the civilians, but one by one, the French soldiers drop their rifles. The captain is shocked, but Andréa remarks to him that the ordinary French people are not their enemy, the Prussians are. Back in the government, Thiers' own cabinet oppose his surrender to Prussia and refuse to follow his orders.
• Crushing the Populace: The first thing the Prussians do after winning the Battle of Sedan is engage in Rape, Pillage, and Burn and purge those that refuse to recognize them as their leaders.
• Costume Porn: Since this is set in 1870s France, this trope is in full effect. Expect almost every character to don a Gorgeous Period Dress with Giant Poofy Sleeves and sparkly jewellery.
• Deliberate Values Dissonance:
  • Geneviève's romance with Jules is full of this. Firstly, he's been her piano teacher since he was young, which would likely get him arrested had this work been set in the post-2000s. Secondly, their romance is a forbidden one since she's from a higher class than him (modern attitudes towards inter-class marriage is more lenient). And thirdly, Geneviève has been arranged to marry someone else since she was young, who she hates.
  • There's also Isabelle's Tomboyish nature being portrayed as something not to be desired by Jeanne and her parents, with the latter hoping she'd grow out of it. Jean, though, finds it endearing.
• Doomed Hometown: Paris. The heart of France and home to our heroine and her family, it is burned after riots, sold out to the Prussians, ravaged by the Secret Police and other military forces and becomes a hotbed of conflict post-Franco-Prussian war.
• Downer Ending: Paris is burned to rubble, Victor is shot, Jean is shot, Irma commits suicide, Andréa dies attempting (and failing) to kill Thiers, Jules is executed, Geneviève is shot and her baby dies with her, Jeanne and the other Parisian commoners die avenging Geneviève, Gaston is crushed to death by falling debris while mourning over Geneviève's death, but refuses to leave the building, and Thiers faces no repurcussions for his actions. The anime's final scene is of Isabelle staring at the ruins that used to be her home, having an Imagine Spot of the green and vibrant place it used to be, and she says this, before it Fades to Black.
  Isabelle: "I...live."
  • This is somewhat salvaged by the title of the episode being "Departure for a New Life", which implies that Isabelle will start a new life elsewhere and carry on the Laustin's legacy.
• Dramatic Irony: Full of it.
  • Geneviève is her parents' pride and joy, and is subsuqently disowned for falling in love with, and wanting to marry, a commoner.
  • Isabelle has a crush on Victor and he's the subject of many of her fantasies but when he finally Bridal Carries her for the first time, she's out cold from exhaustion.
  • After Geneviève is disowned, the Laustin's pride and joy of the family becomes Andréa, who is killed off in a war. But that's not the Dramatic Irony - it's that when they finally reunite and he turns out to be Alive All Along, Andréa has his mother tied to a chair, which causes a falling chandelier to hit her on the head and kill her, and as a result Léon proclaims I Have No Son!.
  • Thiers claims that the Laustins housed Count Red, when in reality, Léon blames Count Red for his wife's death and despises him. As a result of this, not many people attend Léon and Marie's funeral.
• Dutch Angle: Isabelle is often seen through one while she dons her Ojou Ringlets. After she cuts her hair and begins spying as a boy, this trope slows down.
• Fluffy Fashion Feathers: During the ball Count Red and his gang ransack jewels and money from, many Bourgeoisie don exquisite fans.
• Gratuitous French: Since this work is set in France, the newspapers are in French, and the characters sometimes uses French phrases.
• Go Out with a Smile:Everyone except Isabelle in the Grand Finale.
• Hates Rich People: The Parisian commoners view the rich as self-absorbed and full of themselves, with little to no national pride. They also despise the Bourgeoisie for running to Versailles and living luxuriously while theu have to face the brunt of the Prussians' aggression. Of course, considering Thiers, they're not entirely wrong to think this...
• Historical Domain Character: Otto von Bismarck serves as the series' Greater-Scope Villain, for commanding the Prussian army into France.
• It Always Rains at Funerals: It rains at Léon and Marie's funeral.
• Love Dodecahedron: Inhale. Geneviève loves Jules, but her father arranged for her to marry Captain Victor. Jules is forced to accept this reality, but Geneviève still wants to be with him regardless. Meanwhile, Geneviève's sister, Isabelle, loves Captain Victor, but her childhood friend Jean likes her and proposed the idea of marriage to her when they were children. She reacted by slapping him.
• Love Hurts:
  • Geneviève wants to marry Jules, but in episode 2, he tells her to marry the suitor her parents picked out for her, Victor because he knows that as a Bourgeoisie woman and a commoner man, their love would never be accepted by the other Bourgeoisie. With tensions between the two classes rising as the Franco-Prussian War worsens the country further, he doesn't want Geneviève to share the fate of the commoners and tells her he wants her to be happy. In episode 12, it turns out that before she left Paris to London, Geneviève slept with Jules and is carrying his child.
  • Victor remained in love with Geneviève, long after she broke off their engagement for Jules, his last words being her name.
  • Jean keeps asking for Isabelle's hand in marriage, which she rejects regularly. And then she watches him die after suggesting they run away together.
  • Isabelle didn't get the guy (both Jean and Victor) because they died.
• Melodrama: The anime focuses on the upcoming war in (and outside of) 1880s France, but Isabelle also angsts over her sister having it all while she's the "ugly duckling", the unrequited love triangle between her sister, the commoner Jules and the French army captain and the parental disavowment faced by both siblings from their esteemed father.
  • Also the endless arguing when Victor dies and Isabelle asks Geneviève how she can be so emotionless, given that he loved her and died thinking of her. Geneviève bluntly replies that she doesn't love him, she loves Jules.
• Kill the Poor: Well, it's more like "leave the poor to fend for themselves". While the rich have the means to leave the country and escape Prussian wrath, the poor have nowhere to go and can only stare in terror as more French wagons leave and more Prussian soldiers enter. A Vocal Minority of the Parisian commoners vow to die fighting the Prussians and liberate Paris rather than live under their rule. As the war progresses, the rich hoard all of France's food and wealth, leaving the commoners to starve and inciting them further to riot.
• One-Steve Limit: Played with.
  • Isabelle's Unlucky Childhood Friend is called Jean, and one of her maids is called Jeanne. The name is pronounced the same, but spelled differently.
  • Isabelle's father is called Léon, and General Gambetta's full name is Léon Gambetta. Of course, the latter is never said in the anime, and you'd have to be a history buff to know that.
• Patriotic Fervour: Captain Victor and his comrades refuses to abandon France to the Prussians, vowing to stay and fight. Many other Parisian commoners agree with this sentiment, saying that that they can't depend on the aristocrats, politicians and armies to defend their city, and they will do it instead.
• Princess Protagonist: The main characters of the anime are the Laustins, a wealthy land-owning family from France.
• The Purge: Thiers wants the complete annihilation of anyone who opposes him and critisizes his actions during the Franco-Prussian war, starting with the Parisian commoners.
• Red and Black Totalitarianism: Inverted. The heroic French dress in red and black (historically accurate to their real-life counterparts), while the evil Prussians wear green (not historically accurate - their outfits should have been blue).
• Shown Their Work:
  • The French military outfits are historically accurate.
  • The anime correctly names the dates of the Battle of Sedan, the Siege of Paris, and the Battle of Champigny.
  • The scene in episode 1 where Gambetta alerts the Parisians of Napoleon III's defeat is likely a reference to the speech the Real Life Gambetta gave post-Battle of Sedan.
    "Frenchmen! The people has forestalled the Chamber which was wavering."
    "To save the Nation in danger, it has asked for the Republic.
    "It has put its representatives not in power, but in peril.
    "The Republic was victorious against the invasion of 1792: the Republic is proclaimed.
    "The Revolution has been carried in the name of the right of public safety.
    "Citizens, watch over the City which is entrusted to you, tomorrow, along with the army, you shall avenge the Nation!"
  • There were indeed Romani people in France by 1870, averting Black Vikings.
  • One of the Prussian troops refers to them as them as "King William's men" and not "Crown Prince Frederick III"'s men, because in the Franco-Prussian war, King William I of Prussia personally lead the army across France.
  • In episode 12, the anime mentions the date is May 21, 1871. For those familiar with history, that's the date of Bloody Week, a.k.a. Semaine sanglate. And true to the Real Life event, it ends in a Bolivian Army Ending.
  • During Bloody Week, Isabelle and Jean go from Paris to the Père Lachaise Cemetery. In Real Life, since it was close to Paris, it was where many injured Communards went for protection. Jean being shot there could be a nod to the 147 Communards executed there.
  • The leader of the Commune was indeed executed.
• Sibling Team: Isabelle, Geneviève and Andréa. Unfortunately, since Andréa's off fighting in the war, it's usually just Isabelle and Geneviève. They're each other's Secret Keepers as well, with Geneviève knowing of Isabelle's alter ego and Isabelle knowing that Geneviève is pregnant with Jules' child.
• Shout-Out: The Laustin's carriageman is named Gaston. And like his namesake, he holds unrequited feelings for a beautiful lady.
• Title Drop: In episode 9, a drunk Martin Schmidt forgets Isabelle's name, and asks her "you're...what of Paris?". When he's reminded it's Isabelle, he drunkenly yells "To Isabelle of Paris!", which the rest of the pub repeats..
  • In the Grand Finale, Isabelle is asked what her name is by a French soldier. Guess her response.
• Too Dumb to Live: One Parisian protestor spits on a Prussian soldier with a gun. You can guess what happens next.
• War Is Glorious: The French military are portrayed as badass gunslingers, and the Parisian commoners are full of Patriotic Fervour, willing to fight even if they don't have arms. While Isabelle has roots in the upper-class, who are normally unconcerned with war, she refuses to stand idly as her country burns and joins the war effort. The series doesn't shy away from showing the ugly side of war, but it's also portrayed as a matter of national pride.
• War Is Hell: The series is from the perspective of a fifteen-year-old Bourgeoisie girl who's swept up in the bloody Franco-Prussian conflict and forcibly separated from her family after the Prussians try to gun down refugees escaping the country. In the first episode, there's a massive contrast of the wealthy elites partying at the ball against shots of the French soldiers corpses around the pillaged country, after the Prussians defeated them and advance further into the country, and the atrociousness of the Prussians is exemplified as the series goes on.
• Wartime Wedding: Geneviève and Jules get one, but sadly, it is cut short by the arrival of the Prussians. To be fair, it happened to be a coincidence - they wanted to be together long before the Franco-Prussian war, and the first thing they did after the Laustins disowned Geneviève was go to the nearest church to legitimize their relationship.
• We Are Everywhere: The Bourgeoisie flee to Versailles thinking it will be safe from war, but it turns out that the Prussians anticipated their arrival and are awaiting French refugees to kill off, much to Andréa and Victor's horror.
• While Rome Burns: As Paris is on fire, the Bourgeoisie of the government watch with apathy, holding wine glasses. Thiers then remarks that since the properties aren't theirs, they have no concern over it.