Ludwig Kakumei

Infobox animanga/Header
name = Ludwig Revolution


caption =
ja_name = ルードヴィッヒ革命
ja_name_trans = Rūdovihhi Kakumei
genre = Horror, romanceInfobox animanga/Manga
title =
author = Kaori Yuki
publisher = flagicon|Japan Hakusensha
publisher_other = flagicon|Germany Carlsen Comics
flagicon|Italy Planet Manga
flagicon|France Tonkam
flagicon|South Korea Daiwon C.I.
demographic = Shōjo
magazine = flagicon|Japan Hana to Yume
flagicon|Japan BetsuHana
first = 1999
last = 2007
volumes = 4

nihongo|"Ludwig Revolution"|ルードヴィッヒ革命|Rūdovihhi Kakumei is a gothic horror shōjo manga by Kaori Yuki. The story tells about Prince Ludwig who is ordered by his father to find himself a wife more suitable than the women he often brings into the castle. Along with his servant Wilhelm, they travel across the land in search of fair maidens from classic stories in hopes of finding Ludwig a wife.

Plot

Volume 1

[ cite web|url=http://www.s-book.com/plsql/com2_series?tid=459217095 |title=s-book.com - online shop of Hakusensha products |accessdate=2007-03-25 |language=Japanese ]

*Chapter 1: Snow White:Snow White is a beautiful princess with skin white as snow, lips red as a rose and more beautiful than her mother. It sounds like your childhood story, right? This Snow White is murderous and a killer, a whore who only thinks of her own beauty, wanting to be the most beautiful of all, so you better ask the mirror mirror on the wall.

*Chapter 2: Little Red Riding Hood:Lisette is a childhood friend of Will, but when she is tricked into killing her parents, thinking they sold her for a pile of gold, this little red riding hood really turns things red all over. Ah, how Little Red Riding Hood really got her hood red....

*Chapter 3: Sleeping Beauty:Ludwig journeys to a land where a princess sleeps and has been sleeping for over a hundred years. A mysterious witch claims to have put the spell on her, but when Ludwig finally wakes her from her slumber, time seems to move forward. This ends up being another tragic, twisted tale.

*Chapter 4: Bluebeard :Bluebeard seems terrifying, but the secret is that his beard is fake. When Ludwig is accidentally mistaken for one of Bluebeard's wives, Bluebeard claims to have another personality when putting on the beard.

Volume 2

*Chapter 5: Rapunzel: A beautiful girl named Rapunzel, whose hair was never cut, was taken away by a fairy at birth since her father had agreed to it, if he could have rapunzel (lettuce) for his pregnant wife to eat. Rapunzel is mean and foul-mouthed, and doesn't seem to be very same Rapunzel in the fairy tale.
* Chapter 6: Maid Maleen
* Chapter 7: The Frog King, or Iron Heinrich
* Chapter 8: The Goose Girl

Volume 3

* Chapter 9: Hansel and Gretel
* Chapter 10: Cinderella Part 1
* Chapter 11: Cinderella Part 2
* Chapter 12: Cinderella Part 3

Volume 4

* Chapter 13: The Goose-Girl at the Well Part 1
* Chapter 14: The Goose-Girl at the Well Part 2
* Chapter 15: The Goose-Girl at the Well Part 3
* Chapter 16: The Blue Light

Characters

Main characters

*Prince Ludwig: The hero (or, more accurately, anti-hero) of the manga who is known for his womanizing ways and his selfish actions. In the first chapter he is depicted as a necrophiliac and keeps a room full of female corpses in glass coffins, but by the second story he's given up on dead women and starts looking for a live bride. He has a fondness for well-endowed beauties, and chooses his wannabe-brides mostly judging their bust size. He bears an uncanny resemblance to his mother, queen Amalberga.
*Wilhelm: Lui's attendant. He is kind-hearted and easy to deceive. He is always being abused because of the prince's way of life. He and Lisette are childhood friends. It can be said that his unheartly patience and meekness keeps him with his master, and that makes him fills the role of the most prominent comical relief of the manga.
*Lisette: She is presented as a young girl in the beginning of the story, who is set up by Prince Ludwig and then deceived in believing that her parents sold her. She slaughters them with an axe, gaining the nickname "Red Riding Hood" after the massacre due to her blood-soaked mantle. After disappearing for a long time (during which, she would say, was eventually sold as a prostitute), she reappears as a grown-up, mercenary killer on the hunt for Ludwig, bearing extreme hatred towards him. It is also suggested that she may have feelings for Wilhelm (in which she pulls him close to her) because she wanted him as a reward after Lui hired her.
*Dorothea: An eccentric witch with masochistic tendencies and possibly the bustiest character in the manga (she boasts a 65G cup, as Ludwig says). She is responsible for cursing princess Friederike and initially appears as some sort of a villain, but then becomes attached to Ludwig and becomes his (unwanted) maid. As a witch she wields some impressive magical powers, with which saved Ludwig's life at the cost of her own. Only in the end it is revealed that she lived for several centuries, reincarnating every time her current corporeal vessel died out. This loop is broken when Ludwig comes to her aid and sets her free, leaving her with one last life to live.
*Friederike: A princess, born with the blessing of twelve witches but cursed by a thirteenth (this one being Dorothea, the only "true" witch among the thirteen). She grew up believing that a crayfish blessed her mother and left her pregnant with her, when in actuality she was the result of a brutal rape. This made her twisted and angry, to the point of willingly puncturing herself with a spinning wheel (drugged with a powerful narcotic) and then plunging into a century-long sleep. Already dead when Ludwig encounters her, she is a spirit that appears in his dreams, or a demonic monstrosity capable of controlling deadly thorns in reality.
*Julius: Prince Julius appears out of nowhere as the King's stepson, and thus Ludwig's step-brother. This is, however, a mere hoax plotted by his "mother" Petronella, a witch craving for the title of queen. Mistaking Amalberga for Ludwig, he bears an extreme hatred towards him for most of the series, but it is actually revealed that he fell madly in love with him some times prior to the beginning of the story. Wielder of some potent witchcraft, he is allowed to stay under Ludwig's protection in the end.
*Hansel and Gretel: Abused children who were abandoned and forced to wander and live miserably, to the point of almost dying of starvation, until they were took in by a murderous and sadistic woman. The experience left the two, brother and sister, extremely deranged and cruel, and turned them into brutal assassins. They were hired by Julius to kill Ludwig when Lisette failed the same duty twice, and were apparently killed during one of these attempt. They were saved however, and were allowed to live with Julius (whom they refer to as an "angel") in the care of Ludwig. For their assassinations, the two are by no means stealthy: Hansel wields an enormous and eerie-looking axe, while Gretel uses an oddly-shaped flamethrower.

Minor character

*Ludwig's Mother, Almaberga: Ludwig's mother and the queen of her kingdom, she appears near the end of the manga. A warlike and fierce woman, the first time is seen she wears what appears to be a Schutzstaffel uniform and wields a bazooka. It is not mere cosmetics, for the queen is exceptionally feared due to her ferocity and explosive temper, especially by his husband. She bears an extreme physical resemblance to her son, so much in fact that Julius mistook her for Ludwig when she was, actually, the murderer of his sister.
*Ludwig's Father: The King, mostly a comic relief due to his arguments with his son Ludwig and his unheartly fear of his wife, queen Almaberga.
*Petronella: A powerful witch that posed as Julius' mother and made herself known as a mistress of the King in his court. She actually took in Julius when he was exiled from the kingdom and taught him the arts of witchcraft, hoping to use him as a way to become queen herself. It is quite ironic that she never knew that the true queen never actually died or vanished, but was just waging war in nearby countries.

References