Requiem of the Rose King: Richard and Henry

- If you can't escape your fate... Then become The Devil. - Richard.

Wanna see a really dark but also queer anime on Halloween? Well, this is it - Requiem of the Rose King (Bara Ou no Souretsu).

Other recommendations:
1. Kuroshitsuji ("Black Butler").
2. Vanitas no Carte ("The Case Study of Vanitas").

Requiem of the Rose King (薔薇王の葬列, Bara-ō no sōretsu) is a manga written and illustrated by Aya Kanno.
Loosely based on the Shakespearean plays Richard III and Henry VI, Part 3, the series follows the character of Richard III during the tumultuous Wars of the Roses (1455–1487) period in English history.

Richard
Richard is intersex and displays both male and female anatomy, but has a fairly ambiguous body shape due to him binding his chest.
Richard has heterochromia iridium, making his left eye yellow and his right eye purple. He is sensitive about this, so he covers his left eye with his hair. He is noted by other characters to have a "feminine face”.

Henry
Henry VI is the head of the House of Lancaster. A devout Christian, who hates war and killing. He yearns to be a shepherd, and meets Richard III in the forest, and they are drawn to each other without knowing each other's true identity.

History:
Wars of the Roses, (1455–85), in English history, the series of dynastic civil wars whose violence and civil strife preceded the strong government of the Tudors. Fought between the houses of Lancaster and York for the English throne, the wars were named many years afterward from the supposed badges of the contending parties: the white rose of York and the red rose of Lancaster.

Anime was inspired by William Shakespeare play "Richard III".
It was probably written c. 1592–1594. It is labelled a history in the First Folio, and is usually considered one, but it is sometimes called a tragedy, as in the quarto edition. "Richard III" depicts the Machiavellian rise to power and subsequent short reign of King Richard III of England.
One of the central themes of Richard III is the idea of fate, especially as it is seen through the tension between free will and fatalism in Richard's actions and speech, as well as the reactions to him by other characters. There is no doubt that Shakespeare drew heavily on Sir Thomas More's account of Richard III as a criminal and tyrant as inspiration for his own rendering.

#requiemoftheroseking #boyslove #baraounosouretsu