It’s been about two months since I reviewed the first half of Romeo X Juliet. I meant to review the second half sooner, but distractions kept coming up and preventing me from watching it. Well I finally had a few nights without mountains of school work taking up my time, and have decided to halt my quest to unify sengoku period Japan long enough to finally watch it.

This half of the series starts off a little disappointing. That last half left off with Juliet and Romeo being found by Prince Montague’s soldiers, and Juliet being taken prisoner. You would think that this would lead to a large conflict spanning a few episodes where the Capulet loyalists plan an attack to rescue her, but instead the entire issue is wrapped up in one episode. What we do end up getting is several episodes of nothing at all really happening. Romeo works in a mine, Juliet flees to another city, William Shakespeare (who is actually a character in this series) writes a play, but nothing really happens.

Fortunately, things do get better. In my review of the first half I had mentioned that Prince Montague wasn’t a very well written villain. He had no real motivation for anything he was doing, and just seemed to be evil for the sake of being evil. Well there’s an entire episode in this half devoted to his back-story, and his motivation for killing the Capulet’s and taking control of Neo Verona. The story itself is told in an interesting way, constantly cutting between narration by Prince Montague and Tybalt, emphasizing the similarities between the two characters. It gets a little silly once they start getting into who is related to who, but it’s still a good episode.

And then things start to go down hill yet again. During the last few episodes the show just starts throwing plot points into the mix without really trying to make them fit. Even then it can hardly manage to focus on what’s going on and tends to meander about. When Juliet and her men finally mount their attack on Montague things just stop right in the middle of it so we can watch two side characters, who haven’t been relevant to the plot for at least ten episodes, get married. Along with this Juliet wanders around Neo Verona reminiscing about everything that’s happened so far. I understand why they chose to do these things, they’re making one last attempt to endear us to the character to make future events have more impact, because if you’ve ever read Romeo and Juliet you can easily guess what’s going to end up happening.

The final confrontation with Prince Montague is also very anti-climactic. The entire series has built him up to be some monstrous villain, ruining the lives of the people he rules over, and constantly coming between the romance of Romeo and Juliet. If there was ever a character whose demise you were meant to look forward to, it was Prince Montague. But when he’s finally confronted, there’s no amazing final fight, there’s barely a fight at all. The intervention of another side character ends the confrontation, essentially ruining any satisfaction to be had from it. It’s clear with the way things unfold that it was meant to show Montague being undone by his own actions, but the same could have been accomplished by having Romeo, Juliet, or even Tybalt be the one to end it. The actual ending itself is fittingly tragic and emotional, and by itself is a good end to the series, but everything preceding it in the last few episodes is just disappointing.

Even though Gonzo is known to have sharp drops in animation quality in later episodes of their works (as was the case with Welcome to the NHK), Romeo X Juliet manages to maintain its quality throughout the series. The animation and art themselves aren’t spectacular, but it never really devolves into anything bad enough to be noticeable. The only real issue I noticed was they always seemed to avoid animating weapons connecting with a target, except for arrows. That sort of thing always seems to happen off screen, usually by making it a point-of-view shot where the weapon comes toward the camera, meaning you can’t see the target. It makes some of the fights kind of disappointing when you never really get to see what’s happening.

Despite showing promise in the beginning, Romeo X Juliet ultimately disappoints. It tries to do too much in the last few episodes and gets too caught up in unnecessary fantasy elements. It does have a satisfactory ending, but it hardly makes up for everything that went wrong in the final stretch. It really ends up being one of the worst kinds of disappointing, when something starts out good and eventually starts to unravel completely.

Romeo X Juliet is licensed by FUNimation Entertainment. Watch it now at funimation.com.

ENJOYMENT

A few good episodes and a good ending, but unravelling story and poor plot points weigh it down

2 / 5

RECOMMENDATION VALUE

Only for the sake of completion if you’ve been watching up until and don’t want to leave it unfinished

2 / 5

REWATCH VALUE

Barely worth watching a first time

1 / 5

Purchase Romeo X Juliet at Rightstuf

Like most people out there, while I was in high school I had to read William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. It’s one of the most well known love stories in fiction and has been a mainstay of pop culture throughout the years. Obviously, someone was going to turn it into an anime eventually. I have no idea how any of you reacted to the play when you read it, but my cynical 16-year-old self hated it. I don’t hate it now, but I still wasn’t exactly going into this expecting much. But I like to keep an open mind and give everything a fair chance, because sometimes things can surprise you.

Romeo X Juliet is more than just a simple anime version of the classic love story, for a few reasons. The biggest reason is because it’s barely Romeo and Juliet at all. It does share some common elements and scenes from the original, mostly in character names and relationships, but it deviates greatly. In the original story, Romeo and Juliet are simply children from two families that hate each other. In this version, Romeo is the son of Prince Montague, who came into his position by killing the former ruler of Neo-Verona, Prince Capulet, the father of Juliet. This adds another level of tragedy to the love that forms between the two. Instead of Juliet simply falling in love with a boy her family hates, she’s fallen in love with the son of the man who killed her father, a man she swore revenge against.

The bulk of the story is also changed from its source material. It’s about more than just the romance between Romeo and Juliet, focusing partially on the supporters of the Capulet family and their plan to overthrow the Prince Montague. Juliet had to spend her life disguised as a boy to stay hidden from the Montagues after they killed her family 14 years ago. She even has a hero persona she takes on to help the common citizens, complete with silly hat and ridiculous cape. The beginning of the story is chiefly concerned with her suddenly being thrust into the position of leading a revolution, and learning to deal with this responsibility. She’s become a much more complex character than the one she’s based upon. Romeo gets a similar treatment as well. Given that he’s a protagonist and the son of the story’s antagonist, he spends much of his time becoming disgusted with the way his father mistreats the citizens of Neo-Verona, and suffering his father’s punishment for disobeying him.

This actually leads me to my one chief complaint with the series, and that is the way it handles Prince Montague. It’s clear that he is meant to be the villain of the story, but they seem to be laying it on a little thick. It’s bad enough that he smacks Romeo in the face every other episode for something as little as showing up late, but there are times where it seems like they’re trying too hard to make him look evil. For instance, at one point he has someone in the council removed from their position and exiled from Neo-Verona, using intimidation to force the other council members to support him on this. That would have been enough to make him evil, given the actual reason the person was removed, but they had to take it a step further. Prince Montague decides to have this council member, along with his wife and son, murdered. Why? Just because he can, I guess. There really isn’t a reason given for this, other than him being really really evil. He’s just a poorly handled character, and at this point in the series seems to have no motivation other than gaining power.

The second reason this is more than just “Romeo and Juliet: The Anime” is the fact that the series doesn’t succumb to any of the normal trappings of the average anime series. There are no exaggerated reaction shots, next to no fanservice, no cringe-worthy attempts at humour, and no physics-defying fights. There are a few moments where gravity is given the middle finger, but those are sparse and are simply used to add some flare to the scenes. The series is actually taken quite seriously, and despite the liberties taken with the story, it’s clear that Gonzo has some amount of respect for the source material. This is something I honestly feel I could show to someone who doesn’t watch anime and they would probably like it, assuming they don’t swear some fealty to the original story and hate this for being different.

The dub for this series is exceptional, but not for the acting. There’s nothing wrong with the acting, but what really stands out is the script. When writing the script for the English dub, FUNimation decided to have it written like a Shakespearean play. Not entirely like that mind you, there are parts that are written in more contemporary English. The use of Shakespearean English adds something to the English script that’s somewhat lacking in the original Japanese. This isn’t the fault of the writers of the Japanese script though, as you can’t really write Shakespeare in Japanese, so the English writers had somewhat of an advantage. There ends up being a fair mix of both Shakespearean and contemporary English, so whether or not you can actually understand Shakespeare, you’ll still be able to understand this series.

Romeo X Juliet gets off to a great start, and this set ends on a cliffhanger that really makes you want to see more. The changes to the story do however make it more of a fantasy series rather than a romance. It’s not the best of its kind out there, but it’s still a great show and definitely worth watching if you’re a fantasy fan like I am. We rarely get any really good fantasy series in anime these days, with most of them being bad eroge adaptations, or comedy/adventure series like Slayers. I want more series like Berserk, but Romeo X Juliet will tide me over until that happens.

Romeo X Juliet is licensed by FUNimation Entertainment. Watch it now at funimation.com.

ENJOYMENT
Decent story, characters, and occasional fight make it a fun watch

4/5

RECOMMENDATION VALUE
Great series for fantasy and romance fans, or people who aren’t into anime

4/5

REWATCH VALUE
Fairly good story that’s worth revisiting

3/5

Purcahse Romeo X Juliet at Rightstuf

The story centers around an awkward girl named Sawako Kuronuma, who is referred to as “Sadako” by her classmates because of her striking resemblance to the character of the same name from the Ringu movie series. Every time she tries to greet people, she comes off looking creepy, and her fellow students are convinced that she is possessed, has ghosts following her around, and can curse people just by having them look into her eyes. She is pained by her loneliness, and the only reprieve from that pain comes in the form of Shota Kazehaya, the most popular and handsome boy in school who also happens to be a downright nice guy, as he treats Sawako like any other person. As she gets to know him and his words help her gain more confidence, she begins to fall for him, unaware that Kazehaya himself has been interested in her for quite some time, and just isn’t able to voice how he feels.

What follows is an endless stream of quirky misunderstandings and awkward situations. While some of them are funny, it becomes fairly repetitive after a while, and I found myself wishing at several points that the characters would just bite the bullet and talk to each other, which would resolve their issues in a matter of seconds. But then we wouldn’t have any story, now would we?

The characters themselves are pretty run-of-the-mill. However, there are a few things about them that seem pretty unrealistic to me. Besides Sawako and Kazehaya, two other girls become Sawako’s friends and wind up being rather protective of her very quickly– too quickly in my opinion. Also, Kazehaya is almost too perfect, his only flaw being that he can’t seem to voice his affections to Sawako. While these things are normal stuff for shoujo manga, it did make me pause a few times and question the validity of their actions.

Another thing that bugged me was the insane amount of text in the manga. During her many freak-out sessions, Sawako has a lot of thoughts running through her head, and every single one is plastered on the pages in tiny font, which can hurt your eyes and make the books more harrowing to read than most other manga. It personally almost took me twice as long as it normally does for me to read manga when I read these two volumes because I had to keep stopping to read all of the little text bubbles.

There is one thing I can’t complain about though, and that is the art. It’s pretty typical art for a shoujo manga, but its very nicely done and the covers of the volumes are sweet and colorful, which give a good indication of the vibe of the story.

Oh yes, the story. The summary I wrote above pretty much sums it up. It seems to me like a pretty standard manga story of awkward teenagers falling in love and dealing with the trials of high school life in both touching and comedic ways. The big difference with Kimi ni Todoke however is that the story constantly beats the message of how horrible Sawako’s life is into the ground.

A lot.

I personally get the feeling that they fell into this trap while trying to set this manga apart from other shoujo manga and by trying to make us really, really sympathetic towards Sawako. It didn’t work. Instead, what we get is an almost fake feeling, as if all of these terrible things cannot possibly be happening to one girl, especially one who is as innocent as Sawako. It’s purely for entertainment value of course, but it was enough to make me roll my eyes more than once.

In the end, Kimi ni Todoke is a very typical and almost boring addition to the world of shoujo manga, served with a big side-order of nagging. It is fairly popular however, so something within it must be working as a product, but personally, I just don’t see it. If you’re a big fan of shoujo, you may find it worth picking up, but even casual shoujo fans will most likely, in my opinion, be irked by the way the story is handled.

Kimi ni Todoke is licensed and distributed by VIZ Media.

ENJOYMENT
It’s hard to enjoy something so irritating

2/5

RECOMMENDATION VALUE
If you’re a hardcore shoujo fan, it might be worth a try. Otherwise, leave it on the shelf.

2/5

REREAD VALUE
I can’t imagine having to tread through this again!

1/5

Purchase Kimi ni Todoke Vol. 1 at RightStuf

Purchase Kimi ni Todoke Vol.2 at RightStuf

Only One Wish is a one-volume manga by Mia Ikumi that centers around the rumor of a dark angel who grants wishes via a cell phone. All you have to do is text her your wish at a specific time and place and it will come true. The manga is broken up into 4 chapters, each containing a different story about a wish that was made that didn’t quite go the way the people involved intended. All four of these stories center around high-school romance, which was charming at first but quickly became predictable and mundane. The characters were pretty much cardboard cutouts of any high-school character you’d find in a manga, and the dark angel herself had absolutely no development whatsoever, so much so that she’s never even given a name!

As far as the pace of the story is concerned, it is far too fast. I understand that this is a one volume manga and that you’d want to keep it under a certain size, but it makes the relationships forged in the story hard to believe since most of the pivotal scenes that would actually show characters bonding are glazed over with small pictures and text in the background of one or two panels. This leaves out a lot of important information and details that would have a chance at making you feel for the characters or relate to the story. You feel as if you’re being dragged by the arm and rushed through it all, which really only makes this manga good for a short burst of reading. I personally read the whole thing in under an hour.

There are a few good things about this manga, though. The art is good and the four romantic wishes are handled differently, which gives the story a bit more variety. Also, we see a few scenes of the dark angel chatting with her pet cat that gives us the impression that while outwardly cold, this dark angel isn’t completely heartless. It made me want to learn more about her, but unfortunately this is all we get. I liked her better at first when her promises of the (very unoriginal) warning ‘be careful what you wish for’ was looming over the story, but her softer side quickly convinces you that she is never going to actually teach this lesson to those who make a wish with the severity that the message deserves to be taught with.

In fact, now that think about it, the lack of details and overclocked pace of the story doesn’t bother me nearly as much as the fact that these positive aspects of the manga are never fully developed. It seems as if this manga had so much potential and it ruined it all by rushing through the plot. I would have rather had this series be 2 volumes with 2 stories each, giving each story double the space to develop. I think that probably would have done this manga a lot of good. They gave so little time for each story that they actually were able to squish a side-story of the manga-ka’s more famous work Tokyo Mew Mew in at the end. I tried to read it but I know nothing about that series so it only served to confuse me, but it seemed as erratic and quick-paced as the rest of the manga did.

So, if you’re looking for a quick romantic read and don’t want to spend money on a whole bunch of books, you might want to take a chance and pick up Only One Wish. If you go into it without many expectations you might even find it a fairly enjoyable way to waste a bit of time, but don’t expect too much out of this manga because it just doesn’t give itself enough space to truly deliver.

Only One Wish is currently on sale and is licensed and distributed by Del Rey. Review copy provided by The Anime Almanac.

ENJOYMENT
The frustration of the wasted potential of this story makes it hard to enjoy

RECOMMENDATION VALUE
Unless you’re not expecting much, I wouldn’t advise reading it

REREAD VALUE
There isn’t much there to reread!