I think you should watch it
The first half may have a lot of plotlines that seem frivolous or melodramatic, but it provides great contrast for the actual masterpiece second half. If you're even a little entertained, watch until the end.
The story takes place in the years preceding and during the French Revolution. It's historical fiction: emphasis on fiction, a lot of the shit even with real people just didn't happen. So consider all the characters as just characters. I think the anime does a great job at development: character development and world development. Slowly over the course of 40 episodes you can see France change and the characters change with it. Oscar starts off as a noble and very loyal to the queen, but she's also a person with an extremely upstanding moral character, which, without giving too much away, doesn't lead to her staying that way.
It feels like a 70s anime for sure, but also the best 70s anime to exist.
I think Oscar may be my favorite anime character ever.
I've wanted to watch Joe for a while, I really liked the first episode when I watched it a while back. Pretty long series though, 79 episodes and then 47 for the second season. That's also kind of why I haven't watched Legend of the Galactic Heroes yet. But whatever, I should start watching it anyways. Maybe alongside something else so it doesn't feel like as big of a commitment.
For Joe you only need to watch till 54 of the first season and then go to the second one. Beggining of Season 2 covers the same content most of S1 post ep 54 of S1 with better animation and without filler. Also make sure you torrent the amazing looking HD remaster S1 got recently . Miles ahead of the DVD rips that were the only way to watch till recently