Cyrano the Hero (Shonen Illustrated)

At the Theatre Bourgogne, a restless crowd awaits the commencement of a play starring the popular actor Montfleury. However, the theatre manager has delayed the start the play as he waits for the guests of honour – Chancellor Richelieu, the Compte de Guiche and the Baron de Busarai (a play on the Japanese word for gutter cleaner, “dobusarai”) – to arrive. As the three nobles enter the theatre, the Baron de Busarai arrogantly berates young Ragueneau, the baker’s apprentice, while Montfleury sucks up to them. As the play finally begins, Cyrano de Bergerac suddenly disrupts the performance as he criticizes Montfleury for being fat and untalented, and threatens to put a hole in his stomach if he doesn’t leave the stage. As Montfleury runs away in terror, the angry crowd demands a refund, but Cyrano appeases them by tossing them some coins.

After Ragueneau tells Cyrano that Montfleury is a favorite of de Busarai’s, Cyrano insults both the actor and his noble benefactors. Of course de Busarai cannot stand for such an affront to his honour, and they start to duel. After the battle, d’Artagnan, a famous swordsman congratulates Cyrano on his victory and Ragueneau tells him that he’s happy to see a member of the nobility defeated. Despite their high spirits, when a man from the theatre asks Cyrano if he wants anything to eat he refuses and whispers to Ragueneau that he is penniless. The money he threw into the crowd was all the money he had just received from his home in the countryside. Instead, Cyrano asks a young girl selling snacks for one grape and half a macaroon, and declares it a feast.

Christian, a swordsman from the country town of Neuvillette, is in Paris. His friend, Ligniere, is showing him around the city and pointing out the sights, such as the Theatre Bourgogne, and the the people, such as Madame de Boa, etc., when suddenly Christian notices the lovely Roxanne attempting to cross a muddy street. He instantly drops nearly every stitch of clothing (down to his underwear) to lay them across the puddles so that Roxanne might cross unsullied, however he’s so shy about it she barely notices. When Ligniere tells Christian that Roxanne is the most beautiful woman in Paris and that even flowers blush when they see her, he insists on being introduced to her. However, Ligniere refuses, saying he’s much too much of a country bumpkin for her. However Ligniere suggests that her long-time friend, the swordsman, Cyrano, might be able to help him get to know her.

The pair set off directly for Ragueneau’s bakery – one of Cyrano‘s favourite haunts. There Ragueneau tells Christian that while Cyrano is a swordsman in the Gascon company of cadets, who is righteous of character and a great poet, musician, and scholar. While Ragueneau agrees to ask Cyrano to help, the cautions Christian never ever to mention anything about his overly large nose. Meanwhile, Ligniere, who has been drinking the whole time, drunkenly yells out an insult about the nobility. Two aristocrats (who also happen to be loyal to de Guiche and de Busarai) take offense and want to fight Ligniere, but they only end up hurting themselves and they leave.

As Christian helps Ligniere home, he warns him to be careful of the aristocrats as they may exact their revenge. Fortunately Ragueneau – chasing after Christian and Ligniere after they forgot to pay their bill – runs in to the aristocrats and, after they beats him, overhears their plan to round up one hundred men and kill Ligniere at Porte de Nesle at midnight. Unable to find and warn Ligniere directly, instead Ragueneau tells Cyrano about the plot and he agrees to save his friend.

And so, at midnight, just as Ligniere is about to be attacked by the hundred men, Cyrano comes to the rescue. Although he tells Ligniere and Ragueneau to run away, he also instructs Ragueneau to have breakfast ready for him tomorrow. Sure enough, the next morning, Cyrano shows up as promised for breakfast while the people on the street gossip about the eight men found dead at Porte de Nesle. While Cyrano enjoys his hard earned breakfast, the Compte de Guiche shows up at the shop and offers to hire him as a swordsman. When Cyrano refuses, de Guiche admits to having ordered his men to attack Ligniere. Then, as he turns and leaves the shop, Cyrano throws the hats of the eight defeated men at de Guiche.

Although Christian is introduced to the Gascon company of cadets, he is not welcomed by the others and they ridicule him and try to rough him up. When a big fight ensues, the captain wishes Cyrano was around to put an end to it. Meanwhile Cyrano is awakened from his slumber by a group of children who are eager for him to tell them a story about the time he went to the moon. At first he tells them he tried to disguise himself as a baby stork and tried to trick the parent storks to fly him up to the moon, but that plan failed. His second plan though, was to cover smoke with glue and use that to fly, like a balloon – and it might have worked except the moon thought they were donuts, and ate them.

All the storytelling makes Cyrano realize he’s hungry, but as he starts scrounging up some food, Christian appears and tells him that the captain is calling for him. On their way back, they overhear a couple of government officials harassing a flower shop owner for not paying his taxes. Cyrano steps in, and although the officials are afraid of him, they say they’re just doing their job. So, with little other choice, Cyrano has Christian pay the taxes.

After returning to the training ground, the captain asks Cyrano to put and end to the fighting. When one cadet accuses Christian of insulting the company of cadets, Cyrano starts to get angry but then suddenly walks off. Although the captain wonders if it’s because he’s hungry, the mouthy cadet says Cyrano has turned into a wimp – which quickly gets him clobbered.

As part of their plan to overthrow the king, Chancellor Richelieu and the Compte de Guiche begin by preparing a list of people they will need to kill, including Cyrano, d’Artagnan, and several others. However, since they don’t know if Christian would oppose them or not, they summon him to Richelieu‘s mansion to try and find out. When Christian arrives and bows in greeting his hosts, he accidentally knocks over a sculpture and it falls onto Richelieu – which only compound their uncertainty as to whether he is a potential ally or enemy.

And so, the trio sit down to an awkward dinner. Unfamiliar with sophisticated table manners – such as how to tuck in a napkin – Christian is out of his element. It also doesn’t help that when Richelieu enquires about how the Gascon Cadets see him, Christian, overly honest in his reply, says “they call you a wily old badger”. So, unsurprisingly, when Richelieu tries to enlist his aid in the plot to overthrow the king, Christian wants no part of it.

Although the Compte de Guiche tries to have Christian drugged, he escapes and runs off into the forest. There he crosses paths with Roxanne and her duenna and he tells the ladies what has happened. Although Roxanne tries to warn Christian that Richelieu will likely send one of his men to challenge him to a duel, Christian is too enamoured by Roxanne to pay attention and he passes out from shyness. Luckily two passing cadets find him and toss him in the river to wake him up. They then challenge Christian to prove his courage by insulting Cyrano about his big nose, and Christian accepts.

Meanwhile Cyrano and d’Artagnan are in conversation. After d’Artagnan questions his loyalty, Cyrano says that although he will certainly come to the queen’s aid in an emergency, he prefers to be free to pursue his own interests. The pair agree to disagree and d’Artagnan is left with the feeling that he will someday have to face Cyrano in battle. Suddenly, they are interrupted by Roxanne’s duenna and she informs Cyrano that Roxanne has something very important to tell him.

Christian is napping in a field, however despite his peaceful demeanour, he’s concerned about insulting as skilled a swordsman as Cyrano. Meanwhile, for his part, Cyrano tells the Captain that he’s in a good mood because Roxanne is coming to pay him a visit. When she arrives, she tells Cyrano that she wants to get to know one of the Gascon cadets better. At first he assumes she means him, but he soon learns she it talking about Christian. Worried that Christian will be attached by Richelieu, she asks Cyrano to protect him – and he begrudgingly agrees. As Cyrano and the captain return to the other cadets, they discover Christian being taunted by the others to prove his courage. When one of the cadets asks Cyrano to demonstrate some sword techniques, Christian taunts Cyrano about his nose. In a fury, Cyrano orders all of the other cadets to leave and then tells Christian that Roxanne has asked him to help protect him. So, Cyrano suggests they be friends and Christian apologizes for his insults. When some of the other cadets see them getting along, they assume Cyrano is no longer touchy about his nose, and one of them makes a crack… and then quickly learns the error of his ways.

On a hot summer day, the captain gathers all of the cadets for a training exercise and they are made to run without food, water, rest or shade. Of course Christian eventually gives up and stops to get some ice cream. Some passing nobles, recognize Christian as someone out of favour with Richelieu and they try to goad him into a duel.

Cyrano hears about the impending duel and goes to help, however given the overwhelming numbers the other cadets are only too happy to join in – especially since the battle in the river gives them a chance to cool off.

Five hours later the captain is waiting at the finish line and none of the cadets have arrived. He goes off in search of them and finds the cadets still splashing around in the water.

As Cyrano and Christian take a walk, Cyrano bemoans the fact that there have been no incidents lately, and this hasn’t had the opportunity to use his sword skills. However Christian has more pressing thoughts on his mind. It seems the lovely Roxanne has invited him to a song/poetry party at her house, but he will be expected to recite poetry. Even though he eagerly accepted the invitation, he’s now in a bind because he can’t write poetry. Although Cyrano offers to teach him a poem, Christian simply can’t memorize the lines.

So instead, Cyrano says he will hide outside Roxanne’s home and feed Christian the lines from an open window. However when Christian arrives at the party, Roxanne foregoes the poetry and gets right to the meal. Elated, Christian rushes to the window to tell Cyrano that his help is no longer needed, but he decides to stay anyway.

After a lovely meal and the other guests have gone home, Roxanne suddenly asks Christian to recite some poetry. In a panic, he goes to check if Cyrano is still outside, but when he’s nowhere to be found, and Christian is forced to recite poetry on his own. Unimpressed, Roxanne throws him out – just as Cyrano planned it. However, Christian begs Cyrano to help and he relents.

Christian then calls Roxanne to an open window as Cyrano starts to recite poetry. Thinking it is Christian‘s doing, Roxanne is moved and invites him back inside. However, just then the Compte de Guiche and his men arrive at Roxanne‘s house intending to convince her to marry de Guiche. And so Cyrano, knowing that he needs to prevent the men from finding Christian, begins to battle them on the rooftop…  The End.