[Anime] Romeo x Juliet

Finally caught up on this show.

Up until episode 6, the series started from an awesome introduction to the backstory and spiraled downwards into a cheesy love story where nothing really happens. The pacing up to this point has been a lot slower than what I'd been hoping for with plenty of angst, gasping, and blushing between the two parties to make me shake my head. At least with episode 6, Juliet gets a good kick in the ass to bring her back to reality and get her to realize what's at stake. It's been long overdue.

With episode 6, we get the start of some pretty good action sequences from the start and it closes really well. What I enjoyed most about this episode is how Juliet is starting to shed the childish ideas she had held and how it looks like she'll be taking her role seriously from this point onwards. The court intrigue heats up, and although I did anticipate what would happen to Vittorio, it was presented well. Hopefully this marks the point at which the series starts going into high gear and we get a good war and love story out of this.

I'm just waiting for Team Capulet to start declaring an open rebellion. Don't get me wrong, the romance is all nice and good, but the main reason I'm watching this show is to watch the rebellion take full swing against Team Montague. A good love story on top of that will sweeten the deal.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Well, to his credit, this one happens to be a good show to avoid just because so far, it's been poorly written and I find some of the character actions and dialog to be one heck of a head-scratcher.

The major problem for that series is that he premise that was promised to us was a down-and-out Juliet who had been deprived of her birthright will stand up strongly to take back what was denied to her and bring about a new age of prosperity by overthrowing the Montagues. Along the way, she would fall in love with Romeo and through conflict and resolution, the two would come to a mutual understanding and together, break the chains of fate and triumph in the end after defeating the elder Montague who had usurped the throne. The struggle was supposed to be epic with Juliet taking the lead and getting the popular support of the people who would mobilize to aid her in her quest to restore order to a corrupt regime. The battles would be glorious, the plot twists awesome and unexpected, with friends turning traitor, Tybalt being awesome and a few memorable sacrifices would be made, all for the greater good in society that would come under her reign.

What we got was a total disappointment. The show started off surprisingly well. Juliet was a strong female character with a lot of promise. She truly wanted to help the people of Neo-Verona and often went out of her way to bring aid to the poor citizens. All of that changed upon meeting Romeo. Instead of retaining her tough appearance, she yielded and became soft. When her birthright was revealed to her, there was hope that she would use her strength and resolve to effect great change upon Neo Verona, but that did not come to pass. Juliet turned out to be too idealistic to kill despite the fact that those around her were dying for her cause. Pragmatism never seemed to grab a firm hold of her and she could not take on the task despite living a life of relative poverty while seeing injustice day after day. When I stopped watching the show, she still hasn't gotten her act together. Instead of actively striding towards her cause, she opts to go running off into the countryside with Romeo, effectively turning her back to her people who were dying in the streets as Duke Montague hunted them down. It's ultimately irresponsible of her and shows that she lacks the courage and maturity required to do what needs to be done for the betterment of society. The story had been hinting at awesome battles coming forth from the rebellion which will have epic badassery in the form of Tybalt, but now, I just stopped caring. I can only stomach so much incompetence, a poor handling of the script, and irrational behavior before it just wears down on me. No matter how good the action is later on, I just don't feel like watching it anymore.

That's not to say that the series doesn't hold any shred of promise since the story does have the potential for the epicness. However, I've become disheartened in their ability to hold up their end of the story. After being repeatedly disappointed, I'm done with this series.

Besides, after hearing about the QUALITY in episode 16 (I think), I don't think I'm going to regret my decision one bit. Music is pretty awesome though. Probably the other good thing I can say about this series (aside from Tybalt).

There's nowhere I can't reach.