Otakuism

EDMOND DANTES YOUR ALIVE?!

In the aerial city of Neo-Verona, a coup by the Montagues has wrestled power from the ruling Capulets and the entire royal family was slaughtered. Except, that is, for the daughter of Lord Capulet, Juliet. It is now fourteen years later and Neo-Verona is still under the control of the cruel Lord Montague, a world where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Juliet lives under the male disguise of Odin, unaware of her origins, and fights for justice as the Kamen Rider Red Whirlwind. After saving a girl about to to be executed she runs away from the authorities only to end up in a very tight spot. Fortunately, Romeo and Benvolio come to save her and her companions on thier flying Pegasi. Juliet leaves with a curt thank you, but is obviously smitten with Romeo, as is Romeo with her/him. Wait, what? Juliet, and the rest of the exiled Capulets, are hiding at a theater owned by William aka. a flamboyantly gay Shakespeare. Juliet is again forbidden to go fight, but doesn’t listen.

Back at the Montagues, Romeo is introduced to Hermione, a young noble lady who obviously is meant to be his arranged wife. Romeo also asks Benvolio what love is, to which Benvolio answers that it’s the kind of feeling where you wouldn’t mind dying for your love. Juliet also asks William about love and gets a similar reply. Forshadowing much? Later her friend at the theater, Emilia, is preparing for a ball at the Montague’s palace and decides to drag Juliet along and dresses her up as a girl (she’s been dressed like a guy the whole time). Juliet is mistaken as Emilia and taken to the Montague Ball. There she briefly sees Lord Montague, which frightens her for reasons she doesn’t know, and runs outside. Where, of course, she runs into Romeo. It’s love at first sight, in case you didn’t notice the falling rose petals.

So it’s Shakespeare, but it isn’t. Gonzo has clearly taken the word “adaption” to its greatest limits with Romeo X Juliet, but, you know, it works. It’s a strong series even without the Shakespeare name. It’s still at its heart a love story between the naive Romeo and Juliet, who are still naively stupid, though the roles have been reversed. Romeo is now the guy with the arranged marriage and Juliet breaks into parties. Juliet as Kamen Rider is quite interesting. I’d rather see her fight with her hair down more. It kind of makes sense that she’s been dressed as a boy the whole time, but then again it has the feeling of “this is popular right now let’s throw it in.” Oddly enough, William is my favorite character in the show. The mind-bending qualities of a playwright commenting on his own plays in his play are just awesome. Seriously need him to recite the entire opening sonnet of Romeo and Juliet at some point. And Benvolio is just as useless as he was in the play. Just felt like I had to point that out.

The animation is superb. The character designs are nice and the fight scenes flow very well. I love the level of background detail, like the horserace in the crumbling colloseum. It really feels like I’m looking at a fifteenth century Italian city, albeit one in the air. Music is great. Classical really works well with this stuff. It took me a moment to get used to a Josh Groban song as the OP, but everything’s good. The imagery is the really cool part, like the mysterious girl who looks like a witch. I wonder if she may act as a Friar Lawrence? I really think Romeo and Juliet will have a sad ending, whether Romeo and Juliet die or not. I forsee massive destruction ahead. It’s telling when every scene of Neo-Verona in the OP shows it falling apart. But OP’s have lied before. Romeo X Juliet is giving me a very good feeling so far, much like Gonzo’s other classical anime Gankutsuou. It’s probably the second best show I’ve watched all season, after Bokurano. I’m very eager to see where Gonzo will go with this and how it will deviate/stick to the source material.