I've been watching some
Romeo x Juliet, due to some (mostly) good reviews that I read online, including some positive comments about it on my friends list. So far, the good outweighs the bad; the animation is usually very nice, and the story keeps me interested. It's a kind of a self-reflexive mix of fantasy and romance. The score is excellent too. As for the bad, well, the character of "Willy" Shakespeare is annoying, and some of the Shakespeare in-jokes or references seem pointless and distracting.
The complaint about
RxJ that I hear most often is that it bears little resemblance to the play for which it is named; in the anime, the Capulets were massacred and ousted from their aerial abode by the Montagues; Juliet has two disguises (one is a boy named Odin and the other is the Red Whirlwind, a swashbuckling vigilante); and the story is set in Neo Verona, where the divide between the ruling class and everyone else is quite evident.
That the anime deviates from the play is a problem only if it is meant to be a strict adaptation of Shakespeare's play (which is itself based on
Pyramus and Thisbe and
The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet). I think it's reasonable to say that fidelity to the play is not what
RxJ is going for here; I mean, Juliet cross-dresses, and the aristocrats all ride dragon-horses. Romeo is boyishly cute, but a little bit of a twit; I hope he grows a pair, and soon. Ugh. Juliet, on the other hand, is an interesting character; also, the cross-dressing isn't as weird as it might sound (there's a fair bit of that in other Shakespearean plays, of course). I think of
RxJ as its own story, but one that owes something to 'doomed romance' archetype. Taken as such, it's a fairly good series thus far.
The only thing that bugs me about Juliet is her unexplained ability to fight. Who taught her how to use a sword so well, and moreover, why? Did she somehow teach herself how to fight? Maybe it will be explained later.
BTW, does anyone know where to find the
RxJ subs? I can't find subs for anything after episode 3. :(
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I think that the next cosplay for my kid will be Near. This year I'll be on the ball and start looking for Near-like wigs before Hallowe'en. Also, since I got my sister into
Death Note, she should be able to look for wigs and such as well.
Below is a quick copy-and-paste of Near's anime hair onto a pic of my chibi. LOL. I think he makes a better L, but it's hard to say since it's not even a real wig.
Chibi: "I am not amused."