Romeo x Juliet: A Review

For once, I come not to rant about something that pisses me off. For once, I am going to actually say something positive about an anime that I stumbled upon this week. I was intrigued because it was an anime adaptation of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Honestly, I thought it was going to suck, but I was hoked by the end of the first of the 24 episodes. All 24 can be found with English subtitles on Youtube, and I strongly suggest you check them out.

To summarize: the story takes place in futuristic Neo-Verona, an aerial kingdom that was once ruled but the kindly Capulet family. However, the aggresive rival Montague house usurped the archdukedom and slaughtered all of the Capulets, save for 2-year-old Juliet, who escaped via Pegasus with her 8-year-old maid, Cordelia, who eventually evolves into the Nurse-like character from the original play. Rumors soon surface that a Capulet survived the genocide, and a manhunt begins for the girl.

Fast-forward 14 years. Juliet and Cordelia have been living with a group of witty and wiley Capulet-sympathizers above an old stage. Juliet is one day off from her 16th birthday, and has spent her youth masquerading as a peasant boy in order to be safe from society. She moonlights as the Red Whirlwind, a robin-hood figure who saves the common folk from the cruelty of the Montague Dictatorship. All her life, she has not understood why she has been forced to dress in drag, and she is constantly told that on her 16th birthday she will find out. Meanwhile young Romeo Montague, the heir to the archdukedom, has become betrothed to Hermione, a soft spoken noble, and a Rose Ball is to be thrown in their favor. Romeo and his confidante Benvolio aren't so sure about the engagement, and as Romeo wanders town, he and the Red Whirlwind happen to meet for the first time.

Through some strange twists and mistaken identities, it is Juliet that is put in a dress and mask instead of a fellow outcast and taken to the Rose Ball, where she and Romeo have that chance first meeting. She and Romeo learn each other's names and, of course, are immediatley smitten. But Juliet is whisked away quickly, and she and Romeo want nothing more than to see each other again.

Of course, that gets complicated really fast. The next night at Juliet's birthday party, she is told of her history and her destiny to restore the Capulet dukedom. She is so overwhelmed she passes out, and later, when she puts two and two together, she realizes she can never love Romeo, whose father killed her family and forced her into hiding. However, Romeo pursues her regardless and the two pair up, even as times get much worse. Archduke Montague has increased his manhunt for the surviving Capulet girl and even targets Benvolio's family as potential enemies. Juliet eventually learns via an old gardner named Ophelia that the reason Neo Verona is falling apart at the seams is because the Sacred Tree Escalus is dying, and Juliet's true destiny is to let the tree take her life to restore peace to Neo Verona...

The first thing that really impressed me about this anime was the obvious and rare gender-role reversal. Romeo, the male lead, is the one who's life is being laid out for him, while Juliet is the one who isn't afraid to get her hands dirty to save her people. Also, while in all too many Shakespearean interpretations, the lady lead is the one who is the damsel in distress who needs the male to save her. Not here, which is even odd for anime. Juliet and Romeo are portrayed from the get-go as equals in strength, skill, intelligence, and courage. Sadly, this is essentially the only place this is seen, as elsewhere in the anime you see the typical weak-women and strong-men stereotype. Cordelia is the only other female in Juliet's band of rebels, and she is typically virtuous and soft-tempered while the other men in the group are the ones who always come to back Juliet during her battles.

It is certainly refreshing and it really helps with manipulating a viewer's emotions that the two main characters are relatable. Romeo isn't a whiny brat and Juliet isn't a virtuous, naive shut-in like in most interpretations. You aren't sure as you watch this whether the characters will live or die, and you actually want them to live, unlike in every other R+J remakes that are more faithful to the original and really couldn't care less about their fates and they're musing over each other gets annoying fast. This is a rare case where an update and deviation from the original is a good thing.

Another interesting aspect is the characters themselves in the anime and which roles they take on in the interpretation of the classic story itself. Friar Lawrence is actually Romeo's mother, who broke away from the Montague name after she saw how cruel her husband was. Tybalt is actually a bastard son of Montague whose mother was raped by him, and he sides with the Capulets and is therefore a good character. Mercutio is the opposite. He is another bastard son of Montague (apparently he got around a lot) and is just like his father: self-interested, ruthless, and conniving. Benvolio and his family also eventually take sides with the Capulets and he actually marries and has a child with Cordelia by the epilogue. Then there's an amusing caracature of Shakespeare himself, in the form of a writer's-block-ridden director/playwright who owns the theater where Juliet and her rebels take shelter.

The whole plot is very well conceived for both an anime and a Shakespearean-Update. It's enough separation from the archtype that you still aren't sure what's going to happen, but is still loyal enough that your emotions from reading/seeing the original are uprooted and brought to the urface all over again. The animation isn't the best I've ever seen, but I personally must say I am proud that Juliet was protrayed as a redhead! The overall grade i give this is an A- for a few flaws here and there that every show has, but still probably one of the best animes I've ever seen, and one of the best Shakespearean interpretations to date! Definitely a tear-jerking adventure that keeps your interest until the very last scene.