Romeo x Juliet, ep. 01-02

[oyceter]

First, argh! New file format! I had to retinker with all my assorted media players before getting the .mkv to work, and even now, VLC is displaying the subtitles somewhat wonkily at times.

Anyway. On to the important things!

Whoever had the idea of redoing Romeo and Juliet as a fantasy complete with cross-dressing, mask-wearing, Robin Hood Juliet, flying horses that look more like Thestrals than pegasuses (pegasii?), a FLOATING CITY IN THE SKY, and a giant tale of two warring clans wins for life!

To wit: Neo-Verona is a floating city! In the sky! I know, the two mean the same thing, but it is cooler if said twice! Apparently Neo-Verona was once ruled by the Capulet family, until the evil head of the Montague family slaughtered all the Capulets.

All, of course, except one.

Fourteen years later, the Montagues have been ruling Neo-Verona quite some time, and apparently not to satisfactorially for the non-nobles, as is evident by a masked man in a red cape running around helping people. Aforementioned masked man gets into a bit of a mishap and is rescued by Romeo and his winged horse!

Naturally, masked man turns out to be the long-thought-dead Juliet Capulet, only now she goes around as a boy named Odin. Alas, she still has both eyes (that would have been a nice break in the all-male all-right-eye-missing trend) and no ravens at her shoulder. And currently, she seems to be leaning much more into the spunky and cute side of the spectrum, as opposed to bitter and angry avenger, which I think would be much more interesting.

There is a masked ball, in which Romeo finds himself suddenly stuck with a woman named Hermione (I assume this is the Rosalind-equivalent). And there are new and different flowers of DOOM! Whoo!

So far, many of the characters are being drawn with pretty broad strokes: Juliet is a cute young ingenue with a regal past, like all romance heroines; Romeo is a cute young guy who doesn't know what he's doing and is pressured by his family; William Shakespeare is a fidgety high-pitched playwright; the Duke of Montague is EEEEVIL; Antonio is Juliet's cute and spunky young friend; and etc.

I suspect much of this will be smoothed out later; anime tends give me silly characters and then proceed to break my heart with them. I am also making the random predictions that long blonde-haired dude is Tybalt. Or Paris. And Benvolio and Hermione will end up falling in love and feeling horribly guilty.

Comments

[shewhohashope.livejournal.com]

They seem to have essentially given Romeo Juliet's role. She gets much more of the action and Romeo gets to mope around the Keep about Juliet/The Crimson Whirlwind and an unwanted engagement to Paris Hermione.

Although Hermione reminds of Eleanor from the Emma anime, both in appearance and character thus far.

The way things are going they may not even have the traditional ending, which is great as I'm already rooting for those two crazy kids to make it.

That's a great deal more than I can say for the Shakespeare version.

[oyceter]

They seem to have essentially given Romeo Juliet's role.

Oh! I didn't think of that, but it is so clear! I didn't think of Hermione as the Paris analogue as opposed to Rosalind or whoever Romeo's first crush-object in the play was, but I like your interpretation much better.

I can't decide if they'll go with the traditional ending or not! Mostly I want Juliet to start kicking ass while in girls' clothes too, be it politically or physically or emotionally or whatnot.

[shewhohashope.livejournal.com]

Mostly I want Juliet to start kicking ass while in girls' clothes too, be it politically or physically or emotionally or whatnot.

I think that at this point it's pretty much a given that her and her followers will attempt a coup from their graveyard headquarters.

I live in hope for the 'Wherefore art thou Juliet?/'Tis the East and Romeo is the Sun' scene. Balcony optional.

[oyceter]

Clearly the only solution to this is... FLYING BALCONIES!

[mystickeeper.livejournal.com]

I instantly thought of Eleanor, too!

And yeah, it really does seem like Romeo and Juliet have switched roles. In the play, didn't Romeo crash Juliet's family's ball, instead of the reverse which is presented in the anime?

[shewhohashope.livejournal.com]

I really hope both Eleanor and Hermione get their own happy endings, they seem like such sweet animated people.

Yes, Romeo is the kind of guy who'll crash a party hosted by his family's worst enemies with all his friends while on the rebound from a nun. Maybe that's why I didn't warm to him in the play?

[oyceter]

Huh, have not gotten to that part of Emma yet. *throws up spoiler-guard just in case*

Ooo, you're right about the ball. I haven't read the play in years, as I was completely underwhelmed when I read it as a teen.

[mystickeeper.livejournal.com]

*will not spoil Emma* Actually, I couldn't anyway - I've only read through volume 3 of the manga!

I just read Romeo & Juliet last semester, and am taking another Shakespeare class this semester. Which is probably mostly why I'm so excited about this anime, :D

[oyceter]

You're only one volume ahead of me! Possibly I have forgotten who Eleanor was during the times between volumes coming out.

[octopedingenue]

Hermione also has the same voice actress as Eleanor! Poor, poor tossed-aside second-best filthy-rich heroines.

[oyceter]

Heeee. They can buy themselves furs to comfort themselves?

[darkelf105.livejournal.com]

I, too, am guessing that the blonde haired mystery guy is the Prince of Cats. At least I hope :).

[oyceter]

Me too! I am actually vaguely fond of him right now and am curious to see what he'll end up doing. I suspect he will be the underdog who has a mad crush on Juliet that will never come to fruition and he will die tragically swearing his eternal devotion.

Uh, is that my id hanging out there? Yes, let me put it back.

[darkelf105.livejournal.com]

Mercutio is my favorite character from Romeo and Juliet. However, since my favoritist of characters seems a bit blah in this rendition, I have transferred all of my fixation onto blonde haired pretty guy with the hopes that he will be Tybalt, who is my second favorite character from the play. I do so hope that he shows himself soonish.

[oyceter]

Yeah, I like Mercutio in the play too, but here he seems pretty dull and under the Duke's thumb. Maybe he will be wild and tragic a little later on.

[ginny-t.livejournal.com]

mplayer works fairly well with .mkv files. It's also a little easier on system resources, which is a big consideration for the Little Computer that Could™. (You hit J to cycle through the subtitles.)

I don't like this .mkv trend - several of the new shows I'm watching are coming out in that format. :/

[oyceter]

Siiigh. I downloaded the newest version of VLC, which seems to be sucking up system resources like no other, which is annoying. And I am trying not to download yet another media player; I was hoping VLC would be the one-size-fits-all.

Warghity.

[ginny-t.livejournal.com]

With a little tweaking, mplayer could be that one-size player for you. I don't know it in a windows environment, but it works very nicely on OS X.

[rayechu.livejournal.com]

I have been using Media Player Classic (http://www.free-codecs.com/download/Media_Player_Classic.htm) and it displays the .mkv files better. I've been following this since I saw the trailer months ago, but I wish they would hurry and sub episode 3.

[oyceter]

Aw man, I really don't want to download yet another player. How does MPC work with other files?

[rayechu.livejournal.com]

I use it for everything and haven't had a problem yet. I just downloaded the VLC player because I heard everyone saying how great it was, but I liked MPC much better. It plays everything to my knowledge, takes screencaps, and has a shortcut pause and fullscreen key. I couldn't find anything similar on VLC.

[oyceter]

Huh... Will think about it, as VLC is running really slow after the upgrade. FYI, VLC's shortcut pause/play is the spacebar and fullscreen is "f." (yay keyboard shortcuts!)

[steelehearts.livejournal.com]

Shakespeare as a fidgety, high-pitched playwright... reminds me of Neil Gaiman's Sandman series, where Shakespeare is depicted as somewhat fidgety and high-pitched. Have you read those?

[oyceter]

I have indeed read those!

This portrayal goes waaaaay beyond Gaiman's though; Gaiman's Shakespeare is sort of fidgety and nervous, but the anime's is over the top and really more of a caricature than a character.