Hello, everyone! I'm back! To kick things off, I'm going to review a series I just finished this past April, Romeo x Juliet.
Not the usual subject matter for an anime series. The first thing I thought was Gonzo's Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo. I'll get around to reviewing that soon, so I can properly compare the two without boring you now. It makes sense that Romeo x Juliet--yes, the "x" is part of the title, much like Baz Luhrman's Romeo + Juliet--also comes from Gonzo.
From the very beginning, the series does a wonderful job of blending old and new, with my new favorite rendition of "You Raise Me Up" by Lena Park. The opening is in Japanese, but the series also uses the English version of the song as background music, most notably during one of the best anime kisses I've ever seen in episode 7. "Inori -You Raise Me Up" has solid animation, though a little less than one might expect from an opening theme. It seems to work well enough for this series, though, and I looked forward to watching it every episode.
The story itself varies greatly from the source material, as it does in The Count of Monte Cristo. Verona becomes "Neo Verona", animated beautifully as a 16th century Italian city, albeit one with flying horses. That, some floating islands in the sky, and a magical tree, are about as far as the sci-fi goes. The focus is squarely on the lovers' star-crossed romance and the fight against Montague. Juliet is the last living member of the Capulet family, and the tyrant Montague rules over Neo Verona with an iron fist. The people are oppressed, poor, and starving, while the nobles live in comfort, erecting a ridiculous golden statue for no reason whatsoever. As those loyal to Capulet are in hiding,Juliet's caretakers force her to dress as a man, which is how she is still alive at the age of 16. She uses this male identity to also become a vigilante, the Red Whirlwind, and win small justices for the citizens of Neo Verona.
While flying around the city on his dragonhorse, or pegasus, depending on your language, Romeo finds and rescues the Red Whirlwind. Juliet is not pleased with the noble boy at first, but then they meet again, when Juliet implausibly-but-we-believe-it-because-it's-anime winds up at the nobles' ball, dressed as a woman. They fall in love, and meet in various other places before the plot really gets going. Episode 7 cements the relationship. (as do episodes 10 and 11)
Meanwhile, Juliet turns 16 and Conrad, the former Capulet captain of the guard and her caretaker, reveals that she is in fact the Capulet heiress. All the living Capulet supporters swear loyalty to her. She becomes their banner, and with little choice, must fight. She does so, but it takes most of the series for her to figure out just how she wants to do it.
The series keeps a nice balance between romance and the fight for Neo Verona, but the two are almost completely separate. Juliet does inspire Romeo to stop being so useless, and Romeo leads Juliet to find a new way to fight, but most of the series' events would take place without the romance. The characters must stop their plot-significant actions to make time for romance. Even the ending would be the same if they were not lovers. Perhaps that is its point, that there is fate, and only a little room to work within that fate. After all, the lovers were starcross'd; fated to never be together. The events of the series would have little meaning to a viewer, or to the title characters, without the romance. But it could be tied together a little more tightly.
More interesting than the romance, is Juliet's struggle with her identity as a Capulet. Conrad and the Capulet supporters do wait for her to take up the mantle herself--Conrad rejoices when Juliet asks him for her father's sword--but when an entire house of wanted soldiers swears their loyalty to her, what choice does she have? All these people she has never met thrust their revenge onto her, and she's supposed to just go ahead and take down Montague. Her final decision is a beautiful one, though the awkward writing at the end of the series nulls it to some degree.
As in Shakespeare's original, Juliet is the most interesting part of this story. Romeo's story is of a rich brat trying to become someone who knows how to do something useful. While he does develop, it takes a while, and rich-brats-trying-to-not-be-brats is a difficult plot to work with because we generally don't like the rich brat. While it's noble of Romeo to save the Red Whirlwind on so many occasions, it's also a little insulting, because he has no idea what his father is doing. The Red Whirlwind could be a real villain for all he knows. It's like he's doing it for fun.
The animation is pretty even quality throughout. Character designs are excellent, especially our title characters. Montagues are in blue, Capulets in red, but the colors never feel like uniforms or shortcuts for the character designers. Each character is distinguishable without relying on their side's colors. As mentioned before, the city is gorgeous, as is the countryside, the church, and just about all the locations. The CG-flags are obviously CG, but anime is still working to integrate that in better. I've seen worse CG. (which I will get to in the next couple of reviews)
Japanese dub is what we watched in anime club and it's my favorite, but only because I happened to stumble across a scene in the dub where Romeo doesn't sound very good. I wasn't inclined to listen to more, though the script is very interesting, and is worth a listen just to hear it. They work in much more Shakespearean dialogue into the English than the Japanese. Here's a couple clips with excellent voice acting and script, courtesy of FUNimation.
I must conclude by mentioning William Shakespeare--not the author, but the character. Willy is a character himself, and a playwright. He hides the Capulets, is generally hilarious, and records the lovers' story. It was a wonderful way to work comedy into an otherwise very serious series.
Overall: B+
+Animation, opening theme, character designs, interesting story
-Balances romance and action, but doesn't tie them together as well as it could. Some characters ineffectual and not likable.
But, hey, don't just take my word for it! Watch the trailer, also courtesy of FUNimation!
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