Because, unfortunately, Gonzo didn’t see fit to bring us an animated version of Titus Andronicus.

Ok, ok, so I’m really just bitter that The Tempest has never gotten turned into an anime… seriously, aren’t there enough adaptations of Romeo and Juliet as it is?

Romeo x Juliet takes the age-old tale of star-crossed lovers and transposes it into a fantasy-type setting, complete with pegasi and a floating continent in the sky. In this telling, in the city of Neo-Verona the Capulet family has been decimated in a coup, and the tyrannical Lord Montague has taken over. Fourteen years later, a bewildered Juliet is suddenly informed of her royal origin, having lived obliviously in drag as a boy named Odin for the intervening years. She is told at this time that those loyal to her family have been waiting ever since the collapse of the Capulet dynasty for her ‘re-awakening’, and that it is her duty to lead them in revolt to recapture control of the government. But Juliet has met a young man and fallen in love… and that young man is Romeo Montague, son of the cruel Lord Montague. Can she fulfill her duties to the Capulet retainers, and still follow her heart?

Since everyone already knows the Romeo and Juliet story, Gonzo was confronted with the issue of both re-imagining it and keeping the purists happy. However, Gonzo decided to go for the broke and spur the hardliners, giving a product that, while it shared the overarching plot of the original play, was fresh and capable of standing on its own. Although the question remains – did it stand well?

While Romeo x Juliet presents an interesting re-imagining of the play, it is overall a fairly uneven work. The middle episodes which focus on Romeo are a chore to get through, as Romeo ultimately is far less of an intriguing character than is Juliet, or even side characters like Tybalt – in fact, I’d go so far as to say that Romeo is fairly dull. While the beginning and ending portions of the series will easily hold your attention, particularly the final sprint through the last few episodes, one must also suffer through the less-inspired episodes to reach the end. There is also the problem of the way in which Lord Montague himself is presented, as he is generally an archetypical evil villain, lacking in any depth or true background.

However, one must give credit where credit is due, and the ending proves that Gonzo did it’s job – I had worried that our young lovers would get a foolish, sappy happily-ever-after scenario, but not so! Romeo and Juliet perish in the end, as they must, and Gonzo managed to make me actually care that they met with such an end. I will fully admit that I do not care for the original play, and would even say that I think its one of Shakespeare’s weaker works – and because of that, I have never been bothered by the ending. But this adaptation managed to inspire sadness in me as the final credits rolled.

The political intrigue is fairly well executed, even if Lord Montague himself is one-dimensional at best.

I also enjoyed matching all the characters’ names to their Shakespearean counterparts across all his plays, and comparing their personalities to the personalities of their namesakes (LOL Prince Escalus got turned into a mystical tree). And then there’s the Shakespeare caricature, William (most often called simply ‘Willy’ by the cast), who is a complete laugh-riot with his flamboyant ways. But I’m a bit of a Shakespeare nerd, so I have to say that I’m unsure as to whether this stuff will appeal to many viewers.

As for the technical aspects, the animation was alright, and it jumped up to impressive for the final few episodes. Character designs were solid, if not spectacular, although our leads could’ve stood to be a little cuter. Background music was decent, if forgettable. A lot of people enjoy the OP, although I must admit to finding it a bit cheesey for my tastes, and the same goes for the second ED. The first ED, Cyclone, however is an energetic song which fit surprisingly well despite its hard rock tone.

Overall, I would recommend Romeo x Juliet, with the caveat that it is a flawed work – I would advise you to skim through some of the Rome-focused episodes when he’s working at a mine, as these are largely forgettable and contribute little to the storyline. A mostly solid showing by Gonzo, something that has become quite the rarity.

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 16th, 2008 at 4:03 pm and is filed under Reviews.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.