Tuesday 14 July 2015

Romeo x Juliet

Two households, both alike in dignity,
In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life;
Whose misadventured piteous overthrows
Do with their death bury their parents' strife.
The fearful passage of their death-mark'd love,
And the continuance of their parents' rage,
Which, but their children's end, nought could remove,
Is now the two hours' traffic of our stage;
The which if you with patient ears attend,
What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.


It is a great monologue, it sets the scene and warns you about the tale you are about to witness...
The anime though... it takes some liberties.... lets see if i can see how they compare


Two households, - Ok so far so good, we do infact have two households... the montegues and capulets... this is a great start.
both alike in dignity, - uh... well not quite... the Capulets actually rule the land until the Montegues come in and murder all but one...
In fair Verona, where we lay our scene, - Neo Verona in the anime but honestly close enough.
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny, - The montagues do seem to bear a little grudge towards the capulets but it's mostly just the one guy and his lifetime so it's hardly ancient
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean. - well there certain is a lot of civil blood
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes - again it's hard to be foes when 99% of one side is dead but montague does want the last remaining capulet gone so yeah ok we are still pretty close. 
A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life; - Spoilers! but um yeah... they handle it differently but pretty much the same... 
Whose misadventured piteous overthrows - they may have been piteous but at least in the anime it takes longer then a week
Do with their death bury their parents' strife. - Not so much in the anime... cause again... mostly dead...
The fearful passage of their death-mark'd love, - while everyone is against it at first most seem okay with the two together by the end
And the continuance of their parents' rage, - not so much again cause of all the death
Which, but their children's end, nought could remove,Is now the two hours' traffic of our stage; - it's a 24 episode show so about 10 hours or so...
The which if you with patient ears attend,What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend. - well... things do get mended in the anime so... point for being similar. 

what i couldn't fit into my comparison is that Neo varona is in the sky, Horses are part dragon and can fly, Juliet dresses as a boy and acts as a vigilante and that instead of romeo being sweet to Rosaline he is actually engaged to Hermione in the anime (and she has a much larger part)

oh also not every character who dis in the play dies in the show
and the one character thats kind of at fault for everything happening in my opinion (the apothocary) is nowhere to be seen. 

I will say that when i first put it in.... this is not what i expected. 
Seriously the intro song (and running theme of the show) is the wind benieth my wings... 
i don't know if they got in any trouble for that or if they got the rights but it does fit nicely with the theme.

Oh final thing... William Shakespear is a character within the anime... and he is blond for some reason. 

so yeah to say the least They took some small liberties with the story but in my opinion the changes they made were good. 

In the play Juliet is extremely Naive... in the anime she understands that there are consequences to her actions and it beings a while new meaning to some of the more iconic lines. 

Romeo is a bit of a hot head in the play but here he is willing to fight for what he believes in. 

I do find it funny that it was put out by Gonzo... who has also done Gankutsuou.... which i will argue is one of the more accurate teelings of the count of monte cristo (other then the blue space vampire thing) and this is easily the most inccorect version of romeo on juliet... i mean they took the names and base struggle... that is it. 

still i can't help but enjoy this type of story... i really like shakespear... i read many of his plays long before any of my pears... so even though this is barely the story it was a whole lot of fun and even though you know going in people are going to die i still got a little teary eyed. 

So if you get a chance i suggest giving this show a try just don't try to hold it up to the source material because they don't even try. 

Next thing i'm watching will be the "a lull in the sea" Dub which so far seemed decent (other then pronouncing Manaka as Monica but hey... minor gripe) 

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