Few people have heard of Isabelle of Paris, and not without reason. In fact, I am convinced that if it was not for the cultic Rose of Versailles manga getting its just as cultic anime adaptation that same year, noone would have bothered making this show. But it was made and their inspiration is evident: the heroine of both shows is a woman stepping outside the confines of what is seen as proper behaviour by taking on a more active and vocal role in their own lives and public events, going as far as fighting with a sword etc. Both have a love interest whohas been present since childhood. But the tone and structure of the two tragedies differ so much, only the location of Paris and the period of major turmoil termed a revolution is what stays the same.

The problem with Isabelle is firstly that they don't dwell on the story at large, but only move from point A to B and in this all characters are secondary to the plot; everybody merely reacts to events, the story is fragmented and lacks cohesion or a proper theme. It is also drawn poorly and animated in a bad way. When there's dancing, they skip frames but the wrong ones so the legs just teleport about weirdly. Even the title card wears the name Isabell [sic] where the two letters L are given in different typefaces. However the many action scenes can be entertaining; a good few feature a minor character named Karlov, a la Boris Karloff of old Hollywood monster movie fame. This is when it becomes clear that this is in fact the kind of cartoon where it is only natural that the antagonist has a clearly green face.

But where the show is strongest is melodramatic tragedy - dynamic and colourful still panes slowly moving across the screen as Chopin plays with great virtuosity! I do not joke, the still pane is an art, and Isabelle uses it well. But that is all. Our heroine is just a girl from Paris who survives all these turbulent and tragic events, without a proper story of her own. She isn't a great sword-wielding hero, nor a cunning spy, not even a rebellious youth who takes on the establishment or the patriarchy - other, also episodal characters more readily take on these roles. So in retrospect, Isabelle tried to tell the grand story of revolution and loss, but couldn't decide who's story to tell. And here we are with all these events that don't really make a story. But this is a short series - you can watch it before you watch Rose of Versailles, it will make you appreciate it more. Watching it after only made Isabelle look worse in comparison.