Romeo X Juliet

Studio GONZO decided to do an anime adaptation of William Shakespeare’s classic tragedy, Romeo and Juliet. Of course you can expect them to take a good amount of liberties with the story (it’s anime after all).

Here’s the trailer :

http://www.romejuli.jp/g_move640.html

Although the series will follow the main storyline (Romeo and Juliet get caught up in the strife between their respective families, the Montagues and Capulets), a lot of fantasy elements seem to have been added. The setting is a floating city, for one, not to mention that Romeo rides a winged horse and that Juliet seems to be a masked swashbuckler. Still, it seems the production values are good and that this will be an enjoyable series if not a curious aid for appreciating the original play.

It’s a shame that I never took this up in 2nd year high school. We took up Rostand’s Cyrano de Bergerac instead (which is actually quite awesome), but I feel rather lacking not having taken up R&J.

R&J is probably one of the more commonly adapted Shakespeare plays—remember the modern adaptation with Leonardo diCaprio and Claire Danes? Locally there was also the “jologs” adaptation (Romeo Loves Juliet) which I hear was totally hilarious. I never got around to watching it, sadly.

In any case, I’m going to pick up Romeo X Juliet after I finish Martian Successor Nadesico. Expect a review in due time.

~ by J. R. R. Flores on April 14, 2007.