Jan 1, 2013
This is my first review so please bear with me but I felt like there were some things about this anime that I had to discuss even though I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Story - 6
I thought the story was a sweet, fresh take on Romeo and Juliet, adding some themes of magic and more of fairytale-like feel. The fact that it was hardly an adaptation at all of Romeo and Juliet is what really ruined the story. There were a lot of differences in Romeo x Juliet than the original with the setting being in Neo-Verona; a floating island in the sky, creatures called dragonhorses
...
which is literally a pegasus with a dragon tail, Juliet and a few loyal members being the last of the Capulets and not to mention a few other smaller changes. I was deeply disappointed in the balcony scene in the anime as it is one of the most famous scenes of the story of Romeo and Juliet and they screwed up the other most famous scene; the deaths of Romeo and Juliet too. I felt like they couldn't adapt any of the true parts of Shakespeare's work into the anime at all turning this into a story of it's own. I enjoyed the first 22 episodes but the last 2 episodes I felt went away from the story a bit and became too magical for my liking, they were unnecessary to the anime as a whole making me put it down a point. I sort of wish they stuck to the original idea of Romeo and Juliet's demise than the ending they did which felt like too much.
Art - 7
The art was nice, it was pretty and simple and I liked the continuous use of flowers. I did like the look of the ruins of buildings covered in flowers, the church being my favorite. The dragonhorses were beautiful also. The settings were nice and pretty but the character designs could have been better.
Sound - 8 (Japanese subbed)
The music was lovely, it matched the tone of Romeo x Juliet very well. The opening song ("You Raise Me Up" in japanese) was enjoyable and I felt it was a perfect start of each episode. The voice actors were great but I felt like Juliet could have had a better voice actor, after all she has been through in the anime I think I would have liked her to have a stronger, more determined voice but that was alright. I don't have anything to say about the english dub voice actors because I generally find them to sound cheesy so i didn't bother with that.
Characters - 6
In the beginning I did take a liking to Juliet but her character started to annoy me as I felt like she became two different people; the strong, righteous character we are first introduced to and admire and then the pathetic Juliet whom continuously cries due to love. I know that is the true essence of the story; the heartbreaks and pain of loving someone whom you can not be with but it annoyed me in how weak she was when concerning Romeo. She also was clumsy at times doing stupid mistakes, when we had seen her doing magnificent acrobatic work and fighting as the 'Red Whirlwind' so that was a bit annoying. Romeo was alright, I didn't like him that much because he was so sensitive all the time and a little boring, he was a very typical princely love interest so I found him rather dull. I really didn't like how selfish Romeo and Juliet became in the last couple of episodes especially after being portrayed as selfless throughout most of the series, It annoyed me. I did get tired of Romeo and Juliet always uttering each other's names in a pathetic, whiny voice but maybe that's because I wasn't too enthusiastic with their love. The other characters were well done and some were developed nicely. We got to see the background of a few of them which was done well (except maybe Montague's background which wasn't really elaborated and was a bit far fetched), I wish we got to learn more about how Francisco and Curio came into service with the Capulets though. I also liked how Mercutio became in the end showing that there was more to him than I had thought and it made me pity him rather than hate. Putting William Shakespeare as a character was risky but they did a good job with him so I was pleased. The characters were realistic, as the anime went on I got a true feel of each character in the anime giving them their own individual identity. The only reason why I put a low score for the character's was due to the main two character's being quite frustrating.
Enjoyment - 7
Although I got tired of the romance between Romeo and Juliet, I did enjoy the anime a lot. There was some humour that made me laugh a couple of times and there was a good amount of tragedy but also light heartedness. The fact that Romeo and Juliet were in love when they had hardly said anything to each other except each other's names and how hard it is to be together made me enjoy it less than I would have and I felt like I was forcing myself to watch the scenes with the two of them together. I was hoping to hear Juliet yell "O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo" at some point but maybe that was hoping for too much considering how little they followed the actual story. By the end of the anime I felt happy and sweet although disappointed a little with the last two episodes.
Overall - 7
If it followed the original Romeo and Juliet at all I feel like this could've been much better although saying this I did like how original it was and the new direction it went in (which mostly away from anything of the original). Overall I give Romeo x Juliet a 7 which would have been higher if they had cut the last two episodes and had more development of the revolution ending it a more traditional sense of Romeo and Juliet, and Juliet and Romeo had more depth to their relationship. If you're looking for an anime that stays true to Shakespeare's work, I would definitely not recommend this but if you don't mind at how loose this adaptation of Romeo and Juliet is then I say you may as well give it a try!
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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