After reading Innocent i felt really happy with the work that Shinici Sakamoto handed down to us. It was a complete and cohesive work of art that was both faithful to its source material (that beeing Mémoires de Sanson) and creative enough to build an engaging plot while creating characters that were complex and realistic to the bone.
Unfortunately that changed with Rouge

Rouge focusses on the one thing i disliked from the 1st Innocent: Marie.
Now, let me explaing why.
First of all, i find Marie character just really flat and boring. Its THE MOST predictable character in the entire manga. Whenever Charles-Henri faces a new obstacle or a change of setting, he is influenced by it and changes accordingly to the events that take place, while still following his dream. Marie doesn't do that. She is just "me free me do what i want" to every situation she faces, and thus her actions are always predictable, like she was a caricature. Expect when she's not, and it's not even justified.
Marie joining the revolutionary forces is so out of character i feel like icouldn't understand her completly. If her character was written to always seek freedom and remove every possible bind that would affect her negatively, joining a "righteous" group that is trying to impose new rules to a society is just out of character. And that should be because she's following the dream of her dead lover? When Marie was supposed not to be tied by anything? No. Just no.

Another thing that i particularly didn't enjoy in this manga was the amount of time skips and how they were implemented into the story.
In a work of fiction that tries to be as hystorically accurate as possible, and that describes event with a straight-forwarded narrative up until this point, i can't understand why putting that much numerous timeskips and flashbacks was necessary.
Also i feel like some events were too flashed out.
The assault to the Bastille, the Diamond Necklace scandal and the figure of Napoleone felt a bit rushed. Or at least they'd have needed more time to be poured in to feel more cohesive to the narrative

Also can we talk about Marie Antoniette? She has some really good chapters that make her feel like a complex and mature character, and then she goes back to beeing a whiny immature teenager girl who really feels out of place in Versailles

That beein said, there are some things i enjoyed
The art is gorgeous, no need to say it.
Charles Henry and his relationships with his relatives is really likeable, as he's the most complex and heavly developed character in the whole manga, and seeing him from his position as the head of the family, to his 67ish years old figure is heart breaking
Marie has SOME decent moments, but they were mostly because Charles was there
Really enjoyed the Marat chapters and watching Luis spending some time with his children


The manga is definetly worth a read, don't get me wrong, But i can't bring myself to call it Amazing or Very Good, even if i deeply love some characters. The focus on the caricature Marie becomes is really burdening the manga, and some parts were really tough to read through because of characters beeing really boring and not interesing.
If it was for the art and Charles alone, this manga'd get an easy 9.
But as it is, it's just "7- Good" for me