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Romeo X Juliet, episodes 1-3
Episodes Two and Three of Romeo X Juliet are now available, though they're still in that strange .mkv format. If anyone finds other versions/some way to play those files on a mac, let me know so I can link to it.
I'm finding myself actually terribly fond of this anime. I expected to, because Romeo and Juliet is my favorite of all of Shakespeare's plays*, but it's a play that lends itself to reinterpretations as a cheesy love story, and there's certainly no shortage of overly dramatic, star-crossed lovers in anime. Though neither of the main characters have struck me as particularly interesting yet (they're both rather vapid and shy, actually, though Juliet is pretty cool while she's crossdressing as the new version of Robin Hood), I'm waiting to make a final judgment on them, because the things the anime is doing to the structure of the story are just so neat. There's a million layers of meta going on here, and I can't wait to see where it all leads. If you haven't been watching this anime, I recommend that you download it and start.
I love that Shakespeare himself is a character in the anime, but in truth, I didn't find it that new of an idea; I assumed you'd see him as a background character now and then, and at the end of the series, he would decide to write a play based on what he'd witnessed. It's been done before; there's a variant on it in Shakespeare in Love, for example. But no! That does not seem to be where Gonzo is going. I love the way other Shakespeare plays are getting woven into this story: characters have quoted Twelfth Night and Richard III, and at a party of the Montagues, someone mentioned "that rich commoner, Shylock". In the second episode, the speech Shakespeare gave Juliet about love, where he quoted one of his own plays, and then commented, "but that's only in stories, not real life"- oh my god! How many levels of meta is that? An anime based on a play where the original author is a character, talking to another character who is his own fictional creation that she should worry about love in real life, not stories... that is awesome. I adore it; I squeed while watching that scene.
I also get excited every time Mercutio comes on screen, because he's my favorite character. Unfortunately, he seems like he's going to be very different here than in the play. I predict he's going to turn out to be a sleazy, Machiavellian character who betrays Romeo's relationship with Juliet to the Duke. Though I suppose it's pretty hard to tell, considering he's only had about four lines so far.
But the things I'm really interested in are the big changes, the way the story's been drastically altered from the play to the anime. One I'm very interested in is how the tone of the rivalry between the Montagues and Capulets has been fundamentally altered. In the play, it comes off as very petty- by which I mean not that it's not important, or that there aren't terrible consequences for the people involved, but that it seems to have no real cause. There isn't a 'right' side and a 'wrong' side; there's just two groups of squabbling children. But in the anime, 'right' and 'wrong' have been drawn very clearly, and the meaning of the tension has been heightened. Here it's not just a rivalry, it's a revenge that people have devoted their lives to, it's a war. Not only has Juliet's entire family been murdered horribly, but the Montagues are keeping the populace poor and frightened and unhappy, etc, etc. The Duke is almost a caricature of the evil villain (I also predict that that extreme depiction is being done on purpose, and there will be some interesting revelation later in the series). It's not something that can be healed by the families being combined in the marriage of their children, because whether the Montagues or the Capulets are in charge has serious, meaningful consequences for the entire city. It puts Romeo and Juliet in a much different position than the play does; Juliet has real reason to resent Romeo, and she's being asked to give up much more than her name if she marries him. Romeo, too, will have to deal with a different set of decisions, once he finds out what's going on. I'm curious to see if the anime will keep this clear Evil versus Good dichotomy that it currently has, or if we'll find out something about one family or the other to complicate it. Either way, I'm really interested in the choice Gonzo made to do this. It changes the tone of the story in such a fundamental way.
I also think that Juliet has spent so much time in hiding, under different names, is neat, considering that one of the big choices she has to make in the play is 'what's in a name?' She's only been a Capulet for a week, so she's changed to become a member of the family, not changing out of it to marry Romeo.
I'm really enjoying this series. I'm so pleased that it's being subbed at such a quick speed, because I'd hate to have to wait any longer.
*I'm going to see a ballet version of it tomorrow, eeee!
I'm finding myself actually terribly fond of this anime. I expected to, because Romeo and Juliet is my favorite of all of Shakespeare's plays*, but it's a play that lends itself to reinterpretations as a cheesy love story, and there's certainly no shortage of overly dramatic, star-crossed lovers in anime. Though neither of the main characters have struck me as particularly interesting yet (they're both rather vapid and shy, actually, though Juliet is pretty cool while she's crossdressing as the new version of Robin Hood), I'm waiting to make a final judgment on them, because the things the anime is doing to the structure of the story are just so neat. There's a million layers of meta going on here, and I can't wait to see where it all leads. If you haven't been watching this anime, I recommend that you download it and start.
I love that Shakespeare himself is a character in the anime, but in truth, I didn't find it that new of an idea; I assumed you'd see him as a background character now and then, and at the end of the series, he would decide to write a play based on what he'd witnessed. It's been done before; there's a variant on it in Shakespeare in Love, for example. But no! That does not seem to be where Gonzo is going. I love the way other Shakespeare plays are getting woven into this story: characters have quoted Twelfth Night and Richard III, and at a party of the Montagues, someone mentioned "that rich commoner, Shylock". In the second episode, the speech Shakespeare gave Juliet about love, where he quoted one of his own plays, and then commented, "but that's only in stories, not real life"- oh my god! How many levels of meta is that? An anime based on a play where the original author is a character, talking to another character who is his own fictional creation that she should worry about love in real life, not stories... that is awesome. I adore it; I squeed while watching that scene.
I also get excited every time Mercutio comes on screen, because he's my favorite character. Unfortunately, he seems like he's going to be very different here than in the play. I predict he's going to turn out to be a sleazy, Machiavellian character who betrays Romeo's relationship with Juliet to the Duke. Though I suppose it's pretty hard to tell, considering he's only had about four lines so far.
But the things I'm really interested in are the big changes, the way the story's been drastically altered from the play to the anime. One I'm very interested in is how the tone of the rivalry between the Montagues and Capulets has been fundamentally altered. In the play, it comes off as very petty- by which I mean not that it's not important, or that there aren't terrible consequences for the people involved, but that it seems to have no real cause. There isn't a 'right' side and a 'wrong' side; there's just two groups of squabbling children. But in the anime, 'right' and 'wrong' have been drawn very clearly, and the meaning of the tension has been heightened. Here it's not just a rivalry, it's a revenge that people have devoted their lives to, it's a war. Not only has Juliet's entire family been murdered horribly, but the Montagues are keeping the populace poor and frightened and unhappy, etc, etc. The Duke is almost a caricature of the evil villain (I also predict that that extreme depiction is being done on purpose, and there will be some interesting revelation later in the series). It's not something that can be healed by the families being combined in the marriage of their children, because whether the Montagues or the Capulets are in charge has serious, meaningful consequences for the entire city. It puts Romeo and Juliet in a much different position than the play does; Juliet has real reason to resent Romeo, and she's being asked to give up much more than her name if she marries him. Romeo, too, will have to deal with a different set of decisions, once he finds out what's going on. I'm curious to see if the anime will keep this clear Evil versus Good dichotomy that it currently has, or if we'll find out something about one family or the other to complicate it. Either way, I'm really interested in the choice Gonzo made to do this. It changes the tone of the story in such a fundamental way.
I also think that Juliet has spent so much time in hiding, under different names, is neat, considering that one of the big choices she has to make in the play is 'what's in a name?' She's only been a Capulet for a week, so she's changed to become a member of the family, not changing out of it to marry Romeo.
I'm really enjoying this series. I'm so pleased that it's being subbed at such a quick speed, because I'd hate to have to wait any longer.
*I'm going to see a ballet version of it tomorrow, eeee!