Romeo X Juliet

I shouldn't be posting at this time, much less still be up at this ungodly hour. But I just have to.

The love story of the year = Gonzo's Romeo X Juliet

The final episode for Romeo X Juliet aired this week, and as expected, it ended tragically. What is Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet without the death of our star-crossed lovers??

Although it sounds like a cookie-cutter series, I applaud Gonzo's brilliant re-telling of the story in an interesting adaptation. While they essentially followed every signature events in the original play, each of these events were portrayed uniquely in this series. For example, Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet died in the Capulet crypt in a state of high-strung lover anguish over miscommunication and teenage lust. However, Gonzo's version of their death in the Escalus room was rather elegant, in that Romeo fought Ophelia to protect Juliet and his vow to her, and Juliet, in keeping her vow to be with Romeo for eternity, accepted her fate and sacrificed her life to protect the people of Neo-Verona.

While the original Shakespearean play is literally legendary, I like the moral inputs in Gonzo's improvised Romeo X Juliet. The whole series was beautifully summarized in the final line delivered by the character William:

「争い、憎しみ、悲しみ、痛み
　それがのすべてを終わらせることができる物
　それは。。。愛
　人を愛する喜び　そのことを
　あなた達は教えてくれた」

"Strife, hatred, sadness, pain
The one thing capable of ending all of these
That is... love
The joy of loving another person,
Is what both of you have taught us"

I like how they play with themes such as revenge, justice, naiveity, idealism, innocence, loyalty, responsibility, choice-making, and of course, love. Gonzo was able to drive home their point on these themes by transforming them into the adversities Romeo and Juliet had to face. In this sense, their adaptation has far more depth and maturity in comparison to the original play. Furthermore, Gonzo's Juliet is no damsel-in-distress, she can kick villian butts. However, the best Juliet-sword-brandishing scene would have to be the one where Romeo and Juliet fought each other using their family swords in the penultimate episode. It was a fight not of hatred, but of love.

Apart from the unique story-telling, I also thoroughly enjoyed the animation and soundtrack of Romeo X Juliet. Although the animation at certain episodes were not up to mark, episodes creating great impact were marvelously drawn and animated. The soundtrack is something I cannot describe, but can only say that without it, the whole series would be dead. The theme song, "祈り～You Raise Me Up" by Lena Park was of course excellent and extremely appropriate, especially when it was played in the end, where Juliet requested for Escalus to grant her prayer to save the land she fatefully met Romeo (祈り... geddit?). The voice acting was also pretty satisfactory.

Another thing that I thought was lovely is that Gonzo had cleverly represented the two feuding families with a signature flower icon. The Capulets were the family of Irises, whereas the Montagues were represented by the classy Rose. This floral signature gave a very "Awwww" ending where we see people who hold Romeo and Juliet dear, such as Curio, Conrad, Hermione and William, whilst continuing their lives post-RxJ yet forever commemorating their love with a bouquet of a single iris and a single rose.

The ending of Romeo X Juliet was very well done, and so necessarily tragic that tears had to roll out of my eyes. I would think that the sadness of this tragic tale had been portrayed with greater impact by Gonzo than the original play would have. Those who have not watched Gonzo's Romeo X Juliet have NOT experience the great-ness of the most popular tragic love story of all time. So..... go watch it already!!

Image from Random Curiosity. Please visit them for excellent reviews.
Official site Romeo X Juliet

～みはる～