Dark Dead End

=information=

Publishers: Kodansha- Delray

years published: 2005-2007

story and art by: Tou Ubukata and Kiriko Yumeji

My thoughts:

the artwork though not accurate to 18th-century french attire was superb and very well done, same goes with the story which was very well thought out except what I don't seem to understand is why they call the main character's sister Lia De Beaumont the Chevalier sphinx in the manga when in the anime which is based off, of the manga they just call her either D'eon's sister or they call her by her name. not to mention they even changed quite a few things around adding and subtracting characters, I mean in the manga it's just D'eon, robin and their cat Nell and Lia whereas in the anime they have D'eon, Lia, robin and two of the musketeers, in fact the plot with those characters play's more on the musketeers theme then the original story which does not make any sense to me? but setting that part aside both stories are very, very good.

Synopsis: Enter D'eon De Beaumont an Agent of Le secret du roi, who is charged by his majesty Louis XIV, to find the mysterious cult known as Palms, and gain information on why they are sacrificing beautiful young virgin women, just like D'eon elder sister Lia De Beaumont was sacrificed. to a demonic force that has promised them the kingdom of France by bringing about a revolution in exchange for the blood of their victims, and in order to find out who killed his sister, D'eon must invoke her spirit and defeat the evil poets who threaten the kingdom of France and to find the mastermind behind the infamous cult.

interesting information:

D'eon De Beaumont was, in fact, real

he was a french spy, and just like in the story a member of Le secret du Roi, who also had a penchant for being the best swordsman in France, and he was also famous for being a well know cross dresser as well which came in handy when he successfully infiltrated the court of Empress Elizabeth of Russia, by presenting himself as a woman for about 33 years, which thereby basically living as a woman for a good part of his life. He also often claimed however to others that he was born as a woman and raised as a man which sparked the rumour on what his actual gender was, he even went so far as trying to convince the french government to legally recognize him as a woman, to which king Louis XIV consented as long as D'eon continued to dress like a woman.

it was only after D'eon's death at postmortem that his gender was in fact revealed to be male.

(the history information was found on the internet and various books on the subject)