Romeo x Juliet: Episode 1

Synopses: The first scene opens in the wind stricken skies and zooms into a tower of a castle in the sky. Within the stone walls, evil Duke Montague strikes down the head of the Capulet family. A red-haired child Juliet and a servant stumble across the murder. Montague orders that she and the rest of Capulets be exterminated. A servant rescues the pair from Montague warriors. They escape from the keep on a flying horse.

The next scene takes place fourteen years later. Montague standards, a gold bound shield on azure, fly over Neo-Verona, and a square serves as a impromptu court and headsman block. Montague soldiers accuse a peasant girl of being a surviving Capulet. A red garbed vigilante and his sidekick rescue the girl with derring-do worthy of Errol Flynn. After they free the girl, the soldiers give chase. The vigilante Red Whirlwind and his sidekick run away. They split up, and the Red Whirlwind pulls a blond woman from a market stall.

Far above them, the bored Romeo Montague chats with another stuck-up noble Benvolio at a cafe. He notices the chase and decides to intervene. Meanwhile, the Red Whirlwind and Cordelia accidentally run toward a collapsed skywalk, which collapses beneath their feet. Romeo and Benvolio swoop to the rescue in the nick of time on pegasii. The Red Whirlwind is ungracious about the help. He leaves Romeo with an awkward thanks.

The Red Whirlwind et al. head to the playhouse of a playwright named Willy. Behind a secret passage lives the exiled Capulets. The Red Whirlwind is introduced as a boy name Odin, who is scolded by the servant who rescued the two girls in the beginning. Odin slips away and in the privacy of her room, it is revealed (to the two audience members who hadn't realized it yet) that Odin/Red Whirlwind has a third identity of Juliet Capulet.

The scene switches from the Capulets to the Montagues. Duke Montague hold pegasii races for amusement, a past time of the rich. He upbraids Romeo for wasting his time in the city and tells his son that a sovereign must rule with an iron fist. Duke Montague turns on the charm for the rose of the nobility Lady Hermione who he intends to wed to his son. The Duke puts Romeo on the spot by announcing that the lad will take Lady Hermione to the ball that night. By silence, Romeo acquiesces to his father's decision.

The next scene starts at Willy's playhouse and rapidly cuts between the Capulet and Montague side. Juliet asks Willy about love as Romeo has nearly the same conversation with Benvolio. They receive nearly the same answer. The scene jumps back to Willy's and a brief farcical scene puts Odin into a dress to get hauled off to the ball.

Juliet is led through Neo-Verona Keep, the site of the ball, by her accidental date. She recognizes the grand old palace. She also recognizes Duke Montague. She flees from the sight of the cold man to a fountain where she meets her destined lover Romeo.

Thoughts: Gonzo has come a far, far way from an anime long, long ago known as "Zaion: I wish you were here", which was a paper thin rip off of Eva with echos of "Blue Gender". I sat for a full hour through two episodes and wished that I were somewhere else. Gonzo's stories greatly improved after "Full Metal Panic", "Kaleido Star", "Last Exile", and "Gankutsuou". I immediately bought into the Hollywood quality trailer and eagerly awaited the first episode of "Romeo x Juliet" (RxJ).

Rated GD for Grave Disappointment.

First, the good points. The animation and backgrounds were top notch for a TV series. The computer effects blended well with the traditional animation. The character designs and costumes were easy on the eyes. The city of Neo-Verona combines an eclectic collection of architecture smoothly with the fantastic. I could almost feel the sumptuous marble in the Montagues' palace and the solid sanctuary of Juliet's room. The sense of perspective and proportion is simply incredible.

Feast your eyes on these.

The action sequences did not disappoint with dynamic direction and smooth animation.

Juliet as you've never seen her.

Gonzo got into trouble with the rapid fire hodge-podge of stories. The last heir and the vigilante are both Western tropes. The cross dressing was surely a shoujo influence, while the tongue and cheek scenes with "Willy" were a bit forced, though mildly amusing. These different elements squeezed the original premise to the end with a Cinderella-type ballroom scene. The storyboarding was a helter-skelter montage, and failed as a coherent introduction.

The voice acting was another disappointment. While the Duke of the Montagues carried real gravity as the villain, Romeo and Juliet could have met at any given Tokyo high school. Make that a drama club or a culture festival to explain the costumes. The voice acting of the young Juliet and Cordelia were especially flat given the blood and drama of the rest of the scene.

I suspect that the "Big O" effect is in play (see my previous post). "Romeo and Juliet" is set in a foreign milieu with a story that the teen viewer in Japan may only be vaguely familiar with. In America, practically every middle and high schooler is exposed to some Shakespeare. "Shakespeare in Love" and the 1996 production "Romeo + Juliet" made it to cinemas in recent years. Likewise with Mel Gibson and "Hamlet". When exploring a new setting, it makes sense that the director might play the characters safely and fall back on archetypes that are familiar to the audience like the teenage boy and girl.

As the "Red Whirlwind", Odin (Juliet's alter ego) is strident and outspoken, but the girl Juliet is not elegant, fiery, or meek. She may lean on the independent side for Japanese audiences, but she does not have strong personality. Witness her argument with her old guardian. The source of the argument could have easily been breaking curfew as opposed to risking her life in a battle.

Romeo wears the costume of a mighty Capulet, but he could be a pretty boy from a shoujo manga sipping latte at a cafe in Shinjuku. His voice is not particularly spoiled, powerful, or good; he stays well within a standard deviation of the mean.

Though the opening episode disappointed me, I am willing to give the series until episode 4 or 5 before really pronouncing judgement. It still has the potential of hitting a stride and uniting the disparate elements into a single story.

Loose Ends:
1. The alternate identity of "Red Whirlwind" seems to harken back to Zorro, but the red color may be a reference to the "Scarlet Pimpernel".
2. My older brother pointed out that a woman cross-dressed to join an acting troupe in "Shakespeare in Love". Could this have inspired the "Red Whirlwind"?

Thanks to Umai for translating the fansub that I watched and double thanks to Gonzo et al.
Added synopses.