Review for Romeo X Juliet: Volume 2 (Review)
Friday, 12th March 2010, 17:49

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Introduction
Romeo X Juliet turned out to be quite the pleasant surprise last month, when the first volume came to UK shores. The Gonzo adaptation of the Shakespeare play takes an infinite number of liberties with the plot and the characters, but stays true and honest to the fundamental themes of the play. It's an all-new story, but charmingly familiar with it. It's also one of those rare Gonzo animations where the story receives just as much attention as the usual eye-candy, if not more. To top it all off, Funimation give the show one of the best English dubs that I have heard in years. This is truly the consummate anime package, and I have been anticipating this second volume with unseemly avarice, yet masochistically putting off watching it as long as possible to get those anime taste buds salivating profusely.

Romeo X Juliet is set in a fantasy realm of indeterminate time period, where Neo Verona is the centre of a vast continent, floating high in the sky, and where noblemen travel in style atop Pegasus like dragonhorses. It was 14 years previously that the Capulet family, rulers of Neo Verona were brutally slain by the Montagues, who usurped their throne and began a reign of tyranny. Only one heir to the Capulet name survived that night, a young girl named Juliet, and now as she nears her sixteenth birthday, she hides among the citizens of Neo Verona, disguised as a boy, protected by the surviving retainers of the Capulet family. And while Prince Montague's grip on the city ever tightens, his son Romeo is about to come of age. These two young hearts are set on a tragic collision course.

In Regions 1 and 4, Funimation and Madman released Romeo X Juliet in 2 two-disc sets. MVM have opted for four single volumes, released at a disc a month. This second release bears the legacy of the US and Australian discs. It's subtitled Romeo Disc 2, and next month we'll get Juliet Disc 1. This disc has the next six episodes. When we left the story, Benvolio and his family had just been banished by Montague from the city, and were being pursued by assassins. Juliet's group had heard rumours of this and went to rescue a potential future ally, but the battle quickly turned against them.

7. Warmth ~Just for Now~
Rescue comes in the form of a mysterious dragonhorse rider, who obviously knows who Juliet is, but only lets slip his name, Tybalt, before vanishing. Having rescued Benvolio, and more importantly his father, the former Mayor of Neo Verona, attention now turns to turning him to their cause. After all, the ex-Mayor is one of the few people who know the truth about the Capulets, while the rest of the city has been fed years of false propaganda about their tyrannical ways. Meanwhile, the Midsummer Day Flower Festival is impending, the one day each year that the doors to the inner city are opened, the common folk can mingle with the nobility, and true love is confessed with a bunch of flowers. Odin's friend Emilia wants him to accompany her, as her beau has let her down, so Juliet reluctantly dons the disguise. Hermione wants to use the celebration to mark her engagement to Romeo, but Romeo's thoughts turn to irises once more, and he wanders into the city hoping to run into Juliet.

8. Naivety ~What Justice Is~
Juliet is testing herself even more now, dealing with her confusion with sword training. There's more of a reason too, as she finally decides to take up her father's sword and assume his legacy. This heralds the reappearance of Tybalt, who is chasing his own vengeance, and wants to measure just how ready Juliet is to take on her father's mantle. His test is a brutal one though. Romeo on the other hand is facing brutality of his own, brutality from his father who is quickly tiring of his waywardness, brutality towards Hermione when he tells her that he loves another, and brutality from Benvolio, who gets in touch with Romeo, wishing to tell him the truth about his father. But most brutal of all is when Romeo sees Juliet in Tybalt's embrace…

9. Rise to Action ~Hesitation Quelled~
Events are moving on apace for the Capulet sympathisers. With Juliet taking up her father's sword, that's just the call to arms that they needed, and soon they are gathering at a secret location and formulating their plans. They even have support from one of the nobles, Camillo, a good friend of Juliet's sponsor Conrad, and one of the few Capulet sympathisers to survive the purge of the nobility. He assures them that there are still many nobles who privately think that the Montagues are a bad idea. The Montagues have their own problems. Romeo's still tormented about what he saw, while the strange dead leaves in the castle pond have an odd effect on his father, sending the prince racing out of the castle. It's just the opportunity that Juliet and her men have been waiting for, but they have a traitor in their midst.

10. Tears ~To Have Met You~
Juliet manages to escape the mayhem, with the aid of Tybalt who shows a canny knack for timing. Following the disaster, Juliet is dispirited, broken, and distraught, and while Tybalt finds a place for her to lie low, she takes to wandering the streets. It's just the opportunity that Montague needs to break the back of the rebellion, and urges the nobles to invest even more funds into finding the final Capulet. But there is a surprising voice of dissent in the council chambers. Meanwhile, Juliet somehow finds her way to the nunnery where Lady Portia, Romeo's mother now lives in seclusion.

11. The Vows ~The Blessing of the Morning Sun~
What are two young lovers to do against a world of adversity? Try to find another world of course, which is exactly what Romeo and Juliet do when they leave the city atop Romeo's trusty dragonhorse Cielo, and search for an idyll to live their new lives together. It isn't easy of course, with what looks like a forest refuge turning out to be anything but. Yet when you find an abandoned church in a field of irises, what else are you to do?

12. Solace ~To Stay This Way~
It's a short honeymoon. Their new happy home is made uneasy by Juliet's conscience, and exploring their surroundings leads to an ominous discovery of giant dead tree roots. An enigmatic old man implies that these roots have something to do with the very existence of the world itself, and the fact that they are dead and dying is worrying indeed. But back in Neo Verona, the prince has two problems instead of one. His desire to find the missing Capulet girl is as heated as ever, but now his son is missing as well. Search parties are sent out, but little do they know that when they find one, they'll find the other as well.

Picture
Romeo X Juliet gets a 1.78:1 anamorphic transfer, which as usual is an NTSC-PAL standards conversion, with all the associated issues. In addition to that, with 6 episodes, plus extras on one disc, compression artefacts were a tad more noticeable, particularly around scenes with busy motion, cloudy or foggy scenes, or fade outs and fade ins. It isn't all that pleasant when noticed, but thankfully it can be ignored. Otherwise the image is clear and vivid enough, although there is an overall softness to it, which I believe is intentional. The animation is astounding, approaching theatrical quality in terms of detail and vibrancy. There are very few static scenes here, the camera is used effectively and the fantasy world of Neo Verona is brought to striking life, with Gonzo's usual efficacy when it comes to combining 3D CG and traditional 2D animation. Value for money has to be balanced with quality transfers, and the trend in recent years has been towards value for money, hence the high episode count per disc. This series may have been better served across 6 discs, but of late, Funimation have been bringing out their series on Blu-ray as well. Upscales they may be, but it may be worth seeing how Romeo X Juliet looks in higher definition, and Romeo X Juliet was animated in native HD by Gonzo.

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