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#91 - Anime Review: Romeo x Juliet.
Title: Romeo x Juliet.
Original story by: William Shakespeare. And before him, some anonymous Italian person.
Studio: Gonzo.
Demographic: Shoujo.
Genre: Fantasy, dystopia, romance, drama.
Number of episodes: 24.
Story: Fourteen years ago, on the floating continent of Neo Verona, the Capulets were overthrown in a bloody revolution by the Montagues. The only surviving member of the clan, Juliet, lives life as a boy, swordfighting in the streets of Neo Verona as a vigilante figure known as the Red Whirlwind. Once she turns sixteen, however, she must make the choice to lead a band of loyal Capulet vassals to march against the Montague house, the family of her new love, Romeo.
Grade: B.
For those of you who are familiar with the...wait, what the fuck am I saying, everyone's familiar with the source material! Thus, everyone should watch this series just so you can see Juliet kick ass and essentially steal the entire show. It's only 24 episodes, so we're not looking at Naruto or One Piece or Dragonball Z here. Also, the ending is considerably happier and more hopeful than in the play, even though Romeo and Juliet still both die (nomg not a spoiler!!!1! act five scene three, trufax!!!). It's not a perfect series by any means, but it won't make you want to tear out your hair. Unless you're a Shakespeare fanboy/fangirl, in which case, maybe you should just dig out the original and curl up with it in a plush, dusty armchair, because Romeo x Juliet diverges from the source material quite a bit.
I mentioned before that Juliet is essentially the main character in this series and benefits a lot from this version of the story, so if you read the play and thought that maybe you'd like to see more of her, Romeo x Juliet might be your thing. She gets a good amount of character development, and her initial impulsiveness is demonstrated not only by her love-at-first-sight with Romeo but also when she first takes on her role as the heir to the Capulet name. Romeo, unfortunately, is a little on the bland side: he's likable but not distinctive. Tybalt gets a total makeover, but aside from mentioning that holy hell he's kinda hot, I can't say how he got made over because that would involve spoilers. He could've been really badass if he had more of a chance to show off, but since this is Romeo x Juliet and not Romeo x Juliet x Tybalt (although I was actually kind of hoping for something like that), I can't really complain. (He totally gives off a Sasuke Uchiha vibe, though.) Lord Montague, a.k.a. Royal Asshole of the Year, gets some backstory as well, but by the time you get there you just want him to diediedie so it really just ends up being more of a footnote. Mercutio is Royal Asshole the Second, for more reasons than one, but he doesn't really get that way until the second half of the series. Benvolio is...well, he's still Romeo's friend, at least.
There's a plethora of new characters involved, and a lot of them are named after various characters from Shakespeare's other plays. Shakespeare himself - or so you may assume based on clues scattered throughout the series - appears as Willy, a struggling playwright whose family ties to the Montague line combined with a secret sympathy for the Capulet cause allow the Capulet vassals to hide under his roof until the time comes for them to rise up against Grand Duke Montague. Funnily enough, the Capulet vassals, save for Juliet's childhood friend Cordelia, aren't named after Shakespeare characters, at least not to my knowledge. There's Conrad, the former leader of the Capulet guard, who was the one who originally saved Juliet and Cordelia from the Capulet slaughter, and is the Grandfather Figure. Francisco and Curio, both former members of the Capulet guard, are respectively the Effeminate But Badass Fighter with a Hidden Intellect and the Spiky-Haired Rude Swordsman with a Heart of Gold. On the Montague side, Hermione is Romeo's intended fiancee, who later becomes jealous of Juliet's involvement with Romeo.
The story is still the same basic Romeo and Juliet - love at first sight, 'til death do us part. The only difference is that you at least get to see more interaction between the two, so even if you're like me and hate that entire "love at first sight" trope with a fucking burning passion, you can at least empathize with the characters. (It helps that Juliet can kick ass.) One of the biggest changes, though, is the addition of a certain fantastical element that I - surprisingly - didn't really like. I'll discuss why under the cut.
Animation and art is great, and some of the backgrounds really are quite beautiful. There's a couple of places where CGI is used, like when there's a shot of the Montague crest banners flapping in the wind, and while it's nicely done it's also seems a little pasteded on yey. The only thing I can remember about the music is that the opening theme is essentially an adaptation of "You Raise Me Up", which is actually sung in the original English at some point early on in the series (episode 8, maybe?). Also, one of the endings is some rock number ("Cyclone" by 12012), which made me go "bzuh"? Not to worry, shoujo fans, they change to a more appropriately romantic piece ("Good Bye, Yesterday" by Mizrock) about halfway through the series, with an equally shoujo animation sequence.
So is this cool? Yes. But not as could as it could be, which is why I gave it a B - a good series, but not good enough to wow me.
Y'all can have bullet points because I can't string together a coherent, insightful discussion of them to save my life.
-Reileen
the howls are sending chills down my spine
Original story by: William Shakespeare. And before him, some anonymous Italian person.
Studio: Gonzo.
Demographic: Shoujo.
Genre: Fantasy, dystopia, romance, drama.
Number of episodes: 24.
Story: Fourteen years ago, on the floating continent of Neo Verona, the Capulets were overthrown in a bloody revolution by the Montagues. The only surviving member of the clan, Juliet, lives life as a boy, swordfighting in the streets of Neo Verona as a vigilante figure known as the Red Whirlwind. Once she turns sixteen, however, she must make the choice to lead a band of loyal Capulet vassals to march against the Montague house, the family of her new love, Romeo.
Grade: B.
For those of you who are familiar with the...wait, what the fuck am I saying, everyone's familiar with the source material! Thus, everyone should watch this series just so you can see Juliet kick ass and essentially steal the entire show. It's only 24 episodes, so we're not looking at Naruto or One Piece or Dragonball Z here. Also, the ending is considerably happier and more hopeful than in the play, even though Romeo and Juliet still both die (nomg not a spoiler!!!1! act five scene three, trufax!!!). It's not a perfect series by any means, but it won't make you want to tear out your hair. Unless you're a Shakespeare fanboy/fangirl, in which case, maybe you should just dig out the original and curl up with it in a plush, dusty armchair, because Romeo x Juliet diverges from the source material quite a bit.
I mentioned before that Juliet is essentially the main character in this series and benefits a lot from this version of the story, so if you read the play and thought that maybe you'd like to see more of her, Romeo x Juliet might be your thing. She gets a good amount of character development, and her initial impulsiveness is demonstrated not only by her love-at-first-sight with Romeo but also when she first takes on her role as the heir to the Capulet name. Romeo, unfortunately, is a little on the bland side: he's likable but not distinctive. Tybalt gets a total makeover, but aside from mentioning that holy hell he's kinda hot, I can't say how he got made over because that would involve spoilers. He could've been really badass if he had more of a chance to show off, but since this is Romeo x Juliet and not Romeo x Juliet x Tybalt (although I was actually kind of hoping for something like that), I can't really complain. (He totally gives off a Sasuke Uchiha vibe, though.) Lord Montague, a.k.a. Royal Asshole of the Year, gets some backstory as well, but by the time you get there you just want him to diediedie so it really just ends up being more of a footnote. Mercutio is Royal Asshole the Second, for more reasons than one, but he doesn't really get that way until the second half of the series. Benvolio is...well, he's still Romeo's friend, at least.
There's a plethora of new characters involved, and a lot of them are named after various characters from Shakespeare's other plays. Shakespeare himself - or so you may assume based on clues scattered throughout the series - appears as Willy, a struggling playwright whose family ties to the Montague line combined with a secret sympathy for the Capulet cause allow the Capulet vassals to hide under his roof until the time comes for them to rise up against Grand Duke Montague. Funnily enough, the Capulet vassals, save for Juliet's childhood friend Cordelia, aren't named after Shakespeare characters, at least not to my knowledge. There's Conrad, the former leader of the Capulet guard, who was the one who originally saved Juliet and Cordelia from the Capulet slaughter, and is the Grandfather Figure. Francisco and Curio, both former members of the Capulet guard, are respectively the Effeminate But Badass Fighter with a Hidden Intellect and the Spiky-Haired Rude Swordsman with a Heart of Gold. On the Montague side, Hermione is Romeo's intended fiancee, who later becomes jealous of Juliet's involvement with Romeo.
The story is still the same basic Romeo and Juliet - love at first sight, 'til death do us part. The only difference is that you at least get to see more interaction between the two, so even if you're like me and hate that entire "love at first sight" trope with a fucking burning passion, you can at least empathize with the characters. (It helps that Juliet can kick ass.) One of the biggest changes, though, is the addition of a certain fantastical element that I - surprisingly - didn't really like. I'll discuss why under the cut.
Animation and art is great, and some of the backgrounds really are quite beautiful. There's a couple of places where CGI is used, like when there's a shot of the Montague crest banners flapping in the wind, and while it's nicely done it's also seems a little pasteded on yey. The only thing I can remember about the music is that the opening theme is essentially an adaptation of "You Raise Me Up", which is actually sung in the original English at some point early on in the series (episode 8, maybe?). Also, one of the endings is some rock number ("Cyclone" by 12012), which made me go "bzuh"? Not to worry, shoujo fans, they change to a more appropriately romantic piece ("Good Bye, Yesterday" by Mizrock) about halfway through the series, with an equally shoujo animation sequence.
So is this cool? Yes. But not as could as it could be, which is why I gave it a B - a good series, but not good enough to wow me.
Y'all can have bullet points because I can't string together a coherent, insightful discussion of them to save my life.
- Regarding ep.11: ROMEO, YOU IDIOT. YOU DO NOT GIVE UP YOUR MEANS OF EASY TRANSPORTATION WHEN YOU AND JULIET ARE OUT IN THE MIDDLE OF BUMFUCK NOWHERE RUNNING FOR YOUR LIVES. I MEAN SERIOUSLY. YOU ARE A DUMBASS.
- Ophelia's voice annoyed the fuck out of me, you have no idea. And I would have appreciated it more if we had more of an idea of who - or what - exactly she was. And why the hell did all the Capulet girls have to be sacrificed to Escalus, anyway? What I mean is, what made the Capulets so special?
- Speaking of
YggdrasillEscalus, I really found that element to be tacked on a superficial - didn't like it at all except for the fact that it allowed for a more triumphant ending to the story of Romeo x Juliet. I accepted it in Tales of Phantasia because we understood early on that the Yggdrasil Tree was the source of mana, and mana was an important, ubiquitous part of the characters' lives. In Romeo x Juliet, the Escalus Tree wasn't really introduced until more than halfway through, and it wasn't fully explained until the last few episodes of the series. It just didn't feel like it belonged, not even in this R&J AU. - Romeo vs. Juliet in the end = WIN. Even if the fight was mostly composed of shots of two swords clanging into each other overlaid with translucent flashbacks of more peaceful times between the two, accompanied by heartfelt voiceovers. Just. Dude. Romeo in a swordfight with Juliet. I THINK I CAN SAFELY SAY THAT THIS IS WHERE THE ANIME COMPLETELY OWNS THE PLAY, AMIRITE?
- Adult Swim parodied this fact a long time ago with Inuyasha anad Kagome, but I must mention it again because it's totally true: characters in anime speak each others' names more than possible be healthy or logical. It's like the Japanese have a name fetish that's worse than mine, and that's a bit scary.
-Reileen
the howls are sending chills down my spine