Romeo × Juliet

Japanese title: ロミオ × ジュリエット

Some info:
1) ANN
2) Wiki
3) Official Site (Japanese)

Judging from the title, I believe almost everyone can guess what the ending’s gonna become. Yeah, so why do I still watch this 24 episode series then? Well for one, looking at plot summary (ANN) or just some pictures about the show, it’s definitely gonna be quite different from the original William Shakespeare work. Perhaps the main theme and the ending is what’s more related to the original, but I’m not sure since I’ve never read the original play. Yeah.

Well, there’s also a character in the show named William and is a playwright, but of course his family name isn’t Shakespeare. I would believe some of the things he say (maybe it’s quite a bit) in the show are references to Shakespeare’s works and stuff, which I, once again, haven’t read any before, at least not the unabridged versions. Pretty comical if you ask me, though I wonder if the Japanese dialogue was also phrased in a more literary manner than the usual Japanese used in anime.

Yeah well, the story’s pretty predictable (hey, it’s Romeo and Juliet) and you can roughly see where it’s being headed for as we all know the final outcome. I’d think the later part of the show (nearing the last few episodes) are the lousier sections of the show. Somehow, the show began to lose its magic and feel as it steered towards the end, probably because of the way the story was gonna end. Even though I don’t exactly know the details of the original work, it’s probably very, very, very far off and possibly lost its literary touch as the episodes progressed. Well, after all it’s not easy making something as successful especially if you basing on some literary work that has been around for years and years and being referenced/remade/adapted umpteen times.

Not to worry, the show’s still pretty good overall, and of course being yet another 720P anime, the graphics and animation are in my opinion, very good (yes lah, I biased). The overall feel is just great, since care was taken for the smaller details and stuff. The background music is usually well chosen to suit the mood/atmosphere of the show at that point in time.

The main theme of the song would be “You Raise Me Up“, Japanese version though. I found it extremely familiar the first time I heard the OP and it had the lyrics “You Raise Me Up” among the other Japanese characters, so true enough it’s indeed a Japanese version, used in this anime series, sung by Korean singer Lena Park. The song’s nice so I believe no introduction is needed. However, I wish to add that in the last episode, the English version is also sung (by Lena Park as well) though I must say the music is quite faint in the background.

To sum up, you’ll probably should avoid this one if you’re looking for something new/different since the outcome is easily predicted given its title. However, it’s still a nice anime, at least to me =D Go watch it if you wish.

p.s. that makes 1 anime series and 1 live-action movie that I’ve watched that’s titled and based on Romeo and Juliet, and I’ve yet to read the real thing. Hehz.