The Rose of Versailles Vs. Baseball
Viewer and broadcaster response to 'Portrait of a Burned Out Rose' and the series' abrupt conclusion...
The mail room has been flooded with letters from Animage readers from Niigata, Nagano, Fukushima, Kagoshima, Oita, and other prefectures The Rose of Versailles has suddenly ended at the end of March. We have decided to publish some of those letters and have asked the broadcasting stations to explain what has happened.
Is "The Rose of Versailles" still airing where you live? Here, it ended on March 27th.
Even though only 23 episodes have been broadcast so far, it suddenly became a a compilation episode. One final episode of highlights put together out of the best parts that lead up to the finale, and then it ended.
Since there are only two commercial broadcasters in Niigata, this has happened before. Whenever a program has to be sacrificed for some reason, it is always the anime that gets cut. I am sure that is what has happened again. It makes me really angry.
Anime fans all across the country, what do you think?!?!?!?
Ryoko Hamada, Niigata Prefecture (16)
On March 27, "The Rose of Versailles" ended on Fukushima Central Television. Why did it end? Why did it have to end? I am so disappointed, only half of it has aired so far. Furthermore, the final episode was some kind of compilation episode, the story jumped all over the place, Oscar's face was all distorted, and it was very sloppy.
Even though "The Rose of Versailles" is an anime, I think it is a magnificent story set against the backdrop of the French Revolution. This series gave junior high and high school students a way to learn history in an enjoyable way.
Things had just started to pick up and get interesting, only to have the series end like this. As a fan I can't stay silent about it. I don't think the ratings were that bad, so what could the reason be? Just because it is a local broadcast doesn't mean something like this should be allowed.
Keiko Suzuki, Fukushima Prefecture (14)
Everyone, please listen. In Nagano Prefecture, "The Rose of Versailles" broadcast ended on March 23. Right after episode 23 'Cunning And Tough', they broadcast a compilation episode titled 'Portrait of a Burned Out Rose', and then it was over. On top of that, the most unforgiveable thing is how awful the characters look. Oscar's eyes are slanted upward and she looks like a completely different person. It is so terrible I am left dumbfounded. This cannot be. Please broadcast all of "The Rose of Versailles" episodes.
Miyuki Yoshikawa, Miyuki Yoshikawa (17)
Response from Akita Broadcasting:
We would like to explain why our station has ended the broadcast of The Rose of Versailles at episode 24. Starting this April, as a part of energy saving measures, the Yomiuri Giants' professional baseball night games have been moved up and will now start at 6pm. In accordance with this change, Nippon TV's nighttime game broadcast has been moved up by 30 minuets from its unusual time. As a result The Rose of Versailles will now be the standby program that will only be aired if the Wednesday night game is canceled.
Our station airs The Rose of Versailles three days behind schedule, the issue is whenever there was a Wednesday night baseball game, the episode would not arrive on time. This created an empty time slot in the schedule where the episode was supposed to air, making it impossible to continue broadcasting the series. For this reason we have broadcast a shorter version of The Rose of Versailles (concluding the story in 24 episodes).
Our broadcasting company, nine stations, which includes, Yamagata Broadcasting, Fukushima Central Television, and Kitanihon Broadcasting, have all ended The Rose of Versailles at the end of March. Stations that started airing the series later will also conclude their broadcasts with episode 24 by the end of June.
Additionally, Nippon TV, which had originally planned to broadcast 52 episodes, also shortened it to 40, due to the earlier start time for its night baseball broadcasts.
We contacted not only Akita Broadcasting, but also Niigata Broadcasting and a few others, and received the same response back.
However, it should be noted that some regional stations such as, Shizuoka Daiichi, Nihonkai Television, and Hiroshima Television, which broadcast simultaneously with Nippon TV, have had no issues and will still be airing the program even after the nighttime baseball broadcasts begin.
Since the night baseball game broadcasts will now be at 7pm starting April 23rd, we have no choice but to discontinue the program due to the local broadcaster's programming schedule. If there are enough requests we may rebroadcast it at a different time slot.
According to the producer of Nippon TV's The Rose of Versailles, when professional baseball night games began, episode reels could no longer make their rounds to regional stations on time. The stations informed them that they planed to end The Rose of Versailles by the end of March. Instead of abruptly cutting the story off, they thought it would be better to let viewers know what happens next. So, separate from the main series, they created a special episode 24 for those regional stations. They have expressed their regret at not being able to air the full series.
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