A few news items and updates – which you may or may not have already heard about – on this tenth day of December.

  • Neo Verona… A winged horse… An armored Juliet fighting with a sword… Well, this is a lot different from the Romeo and Juliet I remember reading years ago in junior high. For those of you who haven’t heard, GONZO is going to be animating a version of Shakespeare’s work and is calling it RomeoXJuliet. They still credit Shakespeare for the original story, but this really couldn’t be more different. GONZO’s version is about Romeo as the son of the oppressive Montague dictator and Juliet as the daughter in the Capulet family who rebels against them, all set in an aerial city. It would seem that they’re really only keeping the names and the basic star-crossed lovers concept the same. The reason I’m mentioning this now is because the official site now features a trailer for the show, and it really made me sit up and pay attention. I assume the tragic ending will still be kept intact, but that doesn’t mean that this won’t still be interesting to watch because of all the changes. RomeoXJuliet is set to air April of next year.
  • The official GEASS site and blog have announced that Jinn (of Blood+ OP4) fame will be handling the upcoming second OP and SunSet Swish (of Bleach ED6) fame will be performing the second ED. I’m a bit uncomfortable with Jinn because OP4 was my least favorite out of all the Blood+ songs, but I have high hopes for SunSet Swish.
  • The few of you who still watch Ayakashi Ayashi may have noticed that I didn’t blog yesterday’s episode (never mind last week). I’ve been fairly busy with finals and have an important one coming up Monday, so I decided to go ahead and do OtoBoku in the time I had to spare. Hopefully winter break will allow me some time to catch up.
  • AnimeBlogger needs Donations! Our network administrator Maestro has recently hit some hard times, so I’m once again asking for donations on his behalf to help keep these sites going. All donations would go directly towards our hosting bill, so there’s no danger of money being misused. Even a small bit will go a long way. More information can be found on Maestro’s own blog, which also explains alternate ways to donate if you don’t have a Paypal account through which to do so.
  • 64 Comments

    1. I quote someone significant in my life, “Anything with Kawasumi Ayako is worth a look”, and I’m a sucker for classical works, even if it’s a way outta there spin-off, so I’ll watch an episode or two of Romeo X Juliet at least.

    2. The trailer looks really good, and that’s something to look forward to. The character designs are much simpler than I thought, especially the 2 protagonists. Anyway, will give this series a shot once it’s aired.

      shojo
    3. What? I love Jinn’s Raion for Blood+! I like SunSet Swish’s My Pace fine, just didn’t like the Mod Souls so much. (I mean the ending for Bleach. But heh, that was out of the topic.)

      Naga
    4. New OP and ED for Code Geass sound kind of… ugh. They’re probably my least favorite songs from Bleach and Blood+ (plus you can hardly get better than FLOW and Ali Project). Here’s hoping some good new animation may come and make up for that. Or maybe I’ll just be able to stand Jinn’s singing this time…

      Ahuri
    5. Cute girl wielding a sword? Check. Nice animation? Check. An interesting spin off a classic literary work? Check. Needless to say I’m intrigued. 🙂 The choice of background music was a nice touch, and though the character designs seemed simpler than first glance, the animation quality and presentation were pretty slick. I like how they seem to be going with Juliet as the main protagonist and having her go out in what I can only guess is her alter ego (very Zorro-esque) and kicking some mucho butt with a sword. Damsel in distress? I think not. Go Gonzo!

      As for Jinn… the beat for Raion actually wasn’t too bad, but the vocals… I’ll take Uverworld’s Colors of the Heart, thanks.

      Ryuma
    6. I quote myself from Code GEASS – 09 post…
      OP by Jinn, ewww. V_V

      The return of the horrible screeching vocal!!

      Anywho, at least RomeoxJuliet is going to use a language I understand. I didn’t remember a thing from when I deciphered the damn Shakespearian language in the original version of Romeo and Juliet…

      Rasmiel
    7. Jinn’s singing for Code Geass?! I pray hard it won’t turn out like OP4 of Blood+. Raion was just one of least favourite OPs EVER out of the many anime series I’ve watched, though it was catchy (albeit in annoying way).
      I hope the new OP and ED will be around the standard of the current ones, because I really like COLORS and Yuukyou Seishunka. ;p

      RomeoxJuliet looks really interesting, I’ll definitely watch. Kinda wish it was starting earlier than in April…

      krazy
    8. thanks for the heads up on the trailer omni. A random question Omni, are you going to blog the bleach special that airs today? Or at least post screens from it if you dont have time to do a whole write up?

      scootarski
    9. GONZO’s Gankutsuou(The Count of Monte Cristo) alone is a well enough reason for me to highly anticipate this upcoming Shakespeare adaption.

      Gankutsuou is one of the best all-time anime in my list 🙂 Too bad that it’s one of the most under-rated anime out there. You guys should try to watch it.

      TTT
    10. This is either gonna be kinda cool or good ol’ Billy will rise from his grave and kill everyone at Gonzo.

      IMO the Capulet’s always seemed like the more aggressive of the two families and would seem to fit that dictator role much better than the Montagues who you see all of about 3 times throughout the entire damn story. Plus the Capulet’s have a physco like Tybalt.

      Although assuming they keep the major points the same (which they kinda have to in order for it to stay Romeo and Juliet) it will be interesting to see how the whole Romeo killing Tybalt in a fit of rage thing will go down.

      Digital Masta
    11. This certainly looks interesting albeit the character design looks rather simplidied. Still, Juliet wielding a sword and looking like Zorro seems very interesting and I’m really curious about that last scene in the trailing where Juliet is fighting Romeo. o_0 Could it be a case of mistaken identity? Whatever the case, if Gonzo can remodel the most cliched romance plot into something original and tear jerking then I am all for it.

      mangaka-chan
    12. Floating castles, Pegasus, Zoro-like costume, huge walls that surround the city, they got everything…
      Since Gonzo’s doing this, don’t expect much from it; character designs don’t look too good either. The evil dude in the trailer looked much better than the two main characters.

      Ookuji-kun
    13. i might be excited but wtf man it’s shakespear. I did romeo and julet too many times and have totaly lost intrest in it… but if they release something elese like the tempest or A.M.S.N.D. i might have some intrest in it.
      so 4 now i would give this a pass

      Eld
    14. Donated! It’s a small donation though, but I hope it might be useful to keep animeblogger alive and kickin’.

      As for Romeo x Juliet, I am still somewhat skeptic. I did like the trailer, but I wonder if GONZO will actually maintain the same quality during the anime (since they do have a reputation for litterally degrading most of their productions as the episodes progress). And I find it positive that plot, characters and settings are getting altered and adapted. I mean, It’d be too boring if they simply portrayed identically the original version. Some change (positive ones of course) will give a new flavour and will make the anime interesting even for the people who have read or watched Shakespear’s play.

    15. Last year Gonzo made Garasu no Kantai (Based on Noah’s Arc).. and now they’re on Romeo X Juliet! W00T~!! this is just too cool.. XD I love it when they remake Classic Stories..

      About Code Geass 2nd OP.. we’ll just have to hear it ourselves i think… =(

      man3k
    16. “if Gonzo can remodel the most cliched romance plot into something original and tear jerking then I am all for it.”

      Things inspired my R&J are can be cliche but R&J pretty much set the standard for this type of story.

      Digital Masta
    17. Gonzo CAN produces really awesome anime sometimes , just like Gankutsuou and Red Garden this season (seriously , this serie is heavily under-rated T_T). So I hope that their RxJ wuold turn out as nice as Gankutsuou ^^. If this anime is scheduled in Jan so that make 2 series I want to watch in Jan now : RxJ and Nodame

      stranger
    18. …Gonzo + Romeo and Juliet = heh..hehe..hehehe…heheheHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA…

      …seriously though…Romeo and Juliet is pure garbage to begin with…it is the worst of Shakespeare’s tragedies…

      …having a Gonzo re-adapt it might actually make it better…

      …now if it was MacBeth, Othello, or King Lear I would be seriously pissed off right now…

      Zzz...
    19. Gonzo.. heck now we’re having another great anime comming^^
      I really loved Gankotsou(sp?) that was based on the Conde de Montecristo (hehe I don’tb know how’s it spelled in English, supposedly count of montcrist but I dont know -__-‘)and now we have this RomeoxJuliet! Nice!
      now on Code geass, Jinn made a bad song, however the tv cut was realy good so I’ll have to see how they handle the op.

      RickaZ
    20. Another news/item regarding Ayakashi Ayashi, for those of you who did not view it on Ayakashi Ayashi – 09:

      2nd Opening Theme:
      #2: “LONE STAR” by Captain Straydum

      2nd Ending Theme:
      “Ai Toiu Kotoba (愛という言葉)” by Saki

      ^Those are going to be the new theme songs for the show. Anyone recognize these groups/singers and what their music is like?

      Destinyblade

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