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| Overall | Art | Animation | Character Design | Music | Series Story | Episode Story | Reviewer | |
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| Watch | 8 | 7 | 8 | 7 | 5 | 5 |
 Ggultra2764
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[series:1588#1552] |
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This was a struggle for me to plow through and definitely among one of Gonzo's weaker efforts. Romeo x Juliet attempts to go for a more fantasy-based approach to Shakespeare's tragic love story of feuding families and teens in love. Instead though, this series takes far too many liberties with the source material where it completely alters the basic concepts of the original play's storytelling. Rather than the Capulets and Montagues having a rivalry with one another and both sides shown to be in the wrong for their conflict, Romeo x Juliet depicts a black-and-white storyline with the Capulets being the "good" side and the Montagues being the "bad" side (done enough times), with the former being mostly killed off and the latter ruling the kingdom of Neo Verona with an iron fist. Whatever remnants there are of the Capulet family are leading a resistance movement against the Montagues' tyranny (name enough anime titles that pull this off) with Juliet unwillingly being the leader of said movement, especially as she comes to gain a love interest in Montague family heir Romeo. My snarking in the parenthesis of the previous paragraph should clue you in what makes this take on Shakespeare's classic a major issue for me. It relies so heavily on cliches for its plot and character developments, that it's laughable. Romeo's the idealistic and courageous young boy, Lord Montague the merciless and power-hungry ruler, Tybalt the revenge-seeking loner, Mercutio the opportunistic power-snagger, and so forth. Basically, mostly everyone in the series is tacked on with an archetype and they don't really develop very much out of it. In addition, the characters tend to make very illogical decisions in many instances that the series tries playing up as dramatic yet come across more ridiculous, especially in the finale of the series. Only character I really found myself caring for was "Willy", whose foppish and flamboyant take on William Shakespeare provided some humor and sanity for me in this mess of a series. Visuals were decent for the most part with vivid color and a good amount of visual detail applied for scenery and character designs. Action scenes were somewhat engaging with the implementation of Dragon Steeds used for travel and engaging into battles, though animation wasn't a major element in their use since many such scenes were flourishes and weren't relying on regular animation shortcuts. The dramatic musical score for the series is nice to listen to featuring orchestral pieces and a nice ballad from Korean singer Lena Park for an OP and insert song, though are quite overwhelming in their implementation at points during key scenes in the series. Overall, I found Romeo x Juliet to be quite underwhelming. The anime tries being dramatic in its take on Shakespeare's tragic work, but takes too many liberties with its source material and dabbles into too many cliches to be a unique work compared to Gonzo's earlier effort with Gankutsuou. Definitely don't waste any time with this one. Last updated Monday, April 22 2013. Created Monday, April 22 2013. | ||||||||
| Watch | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 |
 Violet D
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[series:1588#1393] |
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I just started watching this one. Though I'm not a fan of Shakespeare. I am a fan of the tragic story of Romeo and Juliet. Though I know the ending will not go well. I have enjoyed the character Shakespeare writing plays and having one lady act them out.Also the depiction of him is too funny. Juliet meets Romeo by disguising herself as a boy and being an avenger against the wrongs of the world. The story is old, yet the version of it is new. A great way to look at Shakespear. agreat way to enjoy Romeo and Juliet. Oh My Gosh I watchd some more of this today and this episode 18 was excellent and the characters Romeo and Juliet are just so sweet and kind. even though I know the ending of the story. Just watching it brings me close to the characters and a feeling of emotions overtakes me. I really like how this film makes Romeo and Juliet come to life. It is a beautiful film and makes a old story new.
Last updated Wednesday, June 24 2009. Created Thursday, June 18 2009. | ||||||||
| Watch | 9 | 9 | 6 | 8 | 7 | 8 |
 Silence
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[series:1588#2939] |
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Comedy: Low
Drama: Mid/High
Action: Mid
Ecchi: Low
Sci-Fi: Mid/High Romeo x Juliet is really about star-crossed lovers, in more ways than 1. You would realise it only later in the series, but still its a good addition to the original story (which i have only heard of, so i could be wrong, though i doubt it). Other than that, the anime can be summed up in 1 word: cliche (trite, hackneyed, whatever synonyms you can find) Frankly, I forced myself to finish this. Took me really long, which is rare when it comes to anime. Most importantly, I was not able to identify with the main characters; for one, i did not buy how romeo and juliet fell in love. i must admit i am no big fan of love at first sight (which is so cliche and convenient, u do not have to explain anything else!). So this affected my viewing. Then there is a fair bit of politics involved in this, due to the setting of the coup. However, the political element is really presented in a very immature light, ie the classical evil guy assinates the good king and taking over power. Though this is not the main idea of the series, this poor representation of the human world annoyed me to no end. I shall point them out below, so if you're not interested, please feel obliged to skip it. Nowhere in the series did it really give a good account of how Montague came into sufficient power to organize the coup, and if the Capulets are really the saints that they seem to be, who would be in support of the coup unless Montague has control over the military (which was not shown either). !spoiler alert! it is also later revealed that he was not born into nobility (rather into poverty), but adopted after his mother died. Now i really do not see how that can occur. Why would any noble adopt a bum? and why him? Then montague is constantly portrayed as a evil dictator who believed in hatred and fear, even towards his own son to a certain extent. I did not buy this either. Then those who are loyal to Capulet had to wait until juliet became 16 before attempting to overthrow Montague. They gotta be total idiots. I mean, by then Montague should have a very secure grip of power, and it is very difficult to change things. It is not as if Juliet would become someone who can incite the people very well, or an expert military strategist. All she is good for is a political leverage, which means that she is as useful when she is 5 and when she is 16(maybe even less, as she has her own views by now). I do not believe that they expect her to lead them, when she is young, inexperienced and weak. Too much of a plot device, and too unrealistic for my tastes. Finnally, there are many loose bits of illogical stuff floating around. One that really annoyed me was that when the Juliet was waging war against Montague, she had time to hold a freaking wedding for her friend, with all her military commanders attending (?!?!?!) Oh please... how... poor can that be? The ending was dramatic (a plus, finnally), though once again cliche. and because i could not identify with romeo and juliet, i could not feel their tragedy as much. (well what do you expect? romeo and juliet is a tragedy) This series has failed to make me empathize with the characters at all, due to the illogical details that really distract me. So i can only recommend a watch at best, though i would not waste 8-10 hrs on this. There are many better animes out there. Last updated Tuesday, August 12 2008. Created Tuesday, August 12 2008. | ||||||||
Other Sites
| Name | URL |
|---|---|
| Japanese Language Series Web Site | http://www.romejuli.jp/ |
| Wikipedia posting for the Japanese Anime Series | http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romeo_X_Juliet |
