Summary:

Seeing Juliet holding an iris flower, Romeo asks her if she likes them. A flustered Juliet barely manages to utter a yes and then doesn’t have the chance to tell him her name when he asks because Benvolio comes looking for him. Instead, she leaves him there and runs off, extremely happy to find out that his name is Romeo. Juliet reaches the gate to leave, but the guards stop her because she’s alone. Luckily for her, Francisco and Curio happen to have a carriage waiting for her there and get her out. On the way back home, Juliet gets questioned by Francisco and Conrad about why she went to the castle. Conrad doesn’t seem to approve, but Juliet recounts how it was like a dream inside the castle. She almost tells them about Romeo, but she stops herself and doesn’t mention him. When Francisco tries to warn her against acting rashly, Juliet asks why she can’t wear dresses. Conrad says that they’ll tell her on her 16th birthday, but Juliet still isn’t happy. Back at the ball, Romeo can’t keep his mind off Juliet, but his father has other plans and announces Romeo and Hermione’s engagement to everyone. Romeo has to dance with Hermione, but he’s not really into it and soon excuses himself.

The next day is Juliet’s 16th birthday. With the way Juliet acts when she wakes up, Cordelia can tell that something happened at the ball, but Juliet claims that there wasn’t anything. Since Conrad is gone this morning, Juliet heads out as the Red Whirlwind with Antonio. The two of them end up attacking a carriage that’s carrying girls who have been taken from their families to pay for debts. Juliet easily handles two of the thug guards, but the third manages to cut her arm and cause her to drop her sword. Things are looking bad for her when Curio jumps in to help. He knocks the last thug off the carriage, but he also tells Juliet that this is the end of her coming out to play. Since Juliet is hurt, she gets taken to a trusted doctor named Lancelot who bandages her up and tells her about how Neo Verona really changed after Montague came into power because only the nobles are enjoying profit and wealth now. At home, she gets yelled at by Conrad again, though Francisco does speak up for her, saying that her feelings of wanting to help the common people are wonderful. Juliet escapes the rest of the lecture by running off to see William. The playwright is currently writing a comedy about a girl named Rosalind who disguises herself as a boy. Rosalind becomes a girl again for love, and the play is called As You Like It. As William and Antonio are arguing, Juliet wonders out loud if the love of a noble and a commoner can succeed. William responds by saying that “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players” – inside stories, social status is irrelevant to love.

On this same day, Romeo is out for a garden walk with Hermione when he notices an iris flower. At around the same time, Juliet heads home, lets down her hair, puts on a dress, and asks Cordelia if she knows a place where irises bloom. Cordelia wants to know why, so Juliet reveals that that person had said that she had the scent of iris. Though she doesn’t think that she can meet him again, she wants those flowers around. Cordelia tells her where, and by chance, this iris field is the same place that Romeo is visiting when Juliet gets there. She already knows his name, so he wants to know hers because he wants to call it out. Soon after Juliet gives him her name, a bell rings and signals to her that she has to go. She explains that today is her birthday, so Romeo looks around for a present and finally decides on an iris flower. He then asks her if they can meet here again tomorrow at this time, and she agrees. At home, Juliet has a birthday dinner with everyone as herself, though Antonio is the only one who’s shocked to find out that Odin is really a girl. Afterwards, she boards a carriage with them and gets taken to a graveyard. It is now that Conrad finally explains to Juliet about her father being the Capulet who governed Neo Verona until he was killed by Montague 14 years ago. And it wasn’t just her father – Montague killed her mother and brothers too, making Juliet the only surviving member of the Capulet family. Inside this graveyard, a group of men appear before Juliet, and much to her shock, they all bow down to her.

Preview

I still can’t get over how good a show this is. I had come into this worried that my expectations were too high thanks to the first episode, but I’m glad to say that I thoroughly enjoyed this second episode, and I absolutely love the music. I really want to hear the soundtrack for the instrumental/string version of the opening song (the one that played during the iris scene). Juliet manages to be such a great heroine because she’s got the fighting skills and yet is so naive and pure in terms of love. Romeo is too, and that’s what makes them such a cute couple to watch. Of course, the preview suggests that it’s not all happy because the two will fight in next week’s episode, and I’m sure at least Juliet recognizes Romeo. I guess the question is if she fights him before or after they meet again in the iris field.
On a side note, I find it slightly amusing that they’re using the William character so blatantly as Shakespeare with the As You Like It references. I wonder if they’re going to try to talk about his other works too and relate them to this story. Regardless, GONZO and the staff are doing a wonderful job right now, and Romeo X Juliet remains my favorite new show of the season.

57 Comments

  1. o man i’m first! i hope

    this show looks SO AMAZING!

    and wat am i gonna? I’m gonna torture myself and not watch any episodes until they ALL come out… lol. what a long wait. Thanks Omni for blogging it though! You’re awesome!

    This show looks so amazing…. sigh. (:

    jen
  2. call me sick, call me insane, but i wait in eager anticipation for the gut wrenching tear dripping “double fatality at the end of this” this set-up makes it so sweet!

    brooklyn otaku
  3. This show has thus far made me do a lot of grinning (in an idiotic fashion). I like where this is going, and hope it keeps up. The ending, though, is what I’m most worried about. I’m kinda hoping they don’t go for the tragic death scenario. If they do, I’ll see why, but if they don’t, I’ll probably be quite happy about it. >.> I’m too attached to Romeo and Juliet already.

    Belle Starlia
  4. I for one would welcome a change to the ending, Shakespeare’s double suicide, classic as though it may be, was just dumb. Plus, I’m loving Juliet, I don’t want her to die. Seeing as how Gonzo hasn’t minded changing so many other details, I actually hope they have the guts to change that rather pivotal detail as well.

    @Zzz
    Shakespeare’s original ending to me was messed up. Just because it’s been considered a classic for a few centuries doesn’t mean it’s perfect. Besides, I’ve read about 10 of Shakespeare’s plays, and Romeo & Juliet was one of the weaker ones anyway.

    p00k
  5. Gonzo’s beginning to live up to its name, though…There was a definite gap in this episode versus last episode. Sure, the fighting was nicely rendered and the iris field was beautiful, but the character designs faltered so many times as to be distracting.

    Dan
  6. i realy hope juliet doesn’t die in this version of the play, i’d much rather have Romeo die. just something about his smug grin that pisses me offf ~ don’t know what it is yet.

    Lost Seeker
  7. Juliet=NeoLelouch hahahaha the who’ll be Euphy? Hermione? hahaha
    Romeo will sure be Suzaku haha… but! he hasn’t kiled his father (yet…)
    OH and then I think the end will be double suicide together you know… in the preview on internet bot of them fall from a tower and kiss so… yeah they’ll die (unless the winged hore is waiting them at the bottom so they can escape ^^)

    another thing that can be is that Romeo rises against his father, his father injures him (badly) he somehow gets to Juliet, Juliet will go p@wn the whole Montague but in her sword is a string of Romeo’s cloak. Juliet Pawns everybody, but is deadly injured and dies (b/c she thinks that Romeo will die too), Romeo somehow manages to survive, and is happy till he knows that Juliet is dead. He wants to kill himself but then a “mysterious wind” blews through and carries Iris’ petals with it and he decides to stay alive and keep Juliet memories with him… bitter sweet end….

    dammit nobody is downloading this but I’l keep downloading the RAW anyway till someone blog this, the Subs who were supposed to do that (Umai Fansubs) haven’t started so TT__TT
    AND YES THE SONGS ARE SOO GREAT!

    RickaZ
  8. @Alice Yang.

    shakespeare in japanese sounds VERY unnatural. so im fine with the normal dialogue. hehe.
    anyways, beautiful episode. im still very curious how they are going to put tibalt into the whole picture, because the official website pretty much has him slated as a mysterious fighter-esque character…

    mewmew
  9. It isn’t only As You Like It references. The Shakespeare characters are all over the place. There’s Cordelia. There’s Hermione. I wonder if they’re going to pattern the fate of the characters in RxJ with the fate of the characters in the play. If they do (pattern them), I’d feel really sorry for the character called Ophelia.

    Definitely one of my favorites this season as well.

    Whistle
  10. I just finished watching the first episode (despite the fact that this blog is about the second episode…), I think I over-hyped myself about this retelling about my second favorite Shakespeare play…that and I just finished watching Eureka Seven and was blown away with BONES’ animation quality and got spoiled.

    I’ll keep my eyes on this. However, if the quality doesn’t really get any better, I’ll just be keep on watching Darker than BLACK.

    Knightmare213
  11. I’m with you Onmi, right now this series is one of my three favorites.

    Yeah! I found very funny the reference, almost implying that William is W. S. Maybe they what to give some credit to him; a good move…

    Damn it! Now Juliet knows the truth, but she doesn’t know that Romeo is a Montague… well, everyone else knows… so…

    Screw the subs… RAWs suki dayo

    Syaoran Li
  12. GONZo has to keep the same ending… both of them have to die in the last episode. I’m beting everything that they’ll die on the Iris garden. Mark my words Onmi, you’ll have to use it soon…

    Syaoran Li
  13. I highly doubt would derail away from the original ending (it would destroy the entire story). It’s called Romeo x Juliet for a reason and the classical suicidal ending which end of the feud between both family is truly bittersweet ending. At least their death had a good cause and does serve a purpose.

    I would very much like to see Juliet (in the anime) to lead a rebellion with the commoners against the nobles. And that it focuses more on the suffering of the people in Neo Verona and the love story of RxJ stays as a supplementary plot.

    Umai Fansubs is fabulous and I absoutely love the insertion of archaic english into the opening theme, adds to the Renaissance feelings of the show.

    aorin
  14. @knightmare213

    im not sure what you mean by quality. because if we are talking about anime quality, romeo x juliet is a very good piece of work, and its pretty obvious (for me at least >.>) that a good amount of budget is poured into it. the flower petals, the backgrounds…are considerably quite impressive. and if it wasnt that detailed it wont the ~high vision~ mark located. :/ im quite confused…

    mewmew
  15. I never was a fan of the original Romeo and Juliet, which was way to melodramic to me. I, however, am enjoying this anime. Hopefully, these characters will actually have some depth, and should they have the same fate as the orginal characters, I hope I won’t be saying: “Finally. It’s about time they died already.”

    Oh, the melodey to the opening theme sounds a little too much like Josh Groban’s song “You Raise Me Up.” I wonder if it was on purpose.

    AntiAngst
  16. The opening sounds like “you raise me up” because it is “you raise me up” just in with different language, though the lyrics may be different from the original version of this song.
    I really hope they don’t do the double suicide ending, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they did.

    luminus
  17. hola me llamo keren me en canta esa serie de romeo x juliet pero no me gusta como termina podiendo cambiar el final. pos no tienen k kedarse cortos estaria mejor k icierran una 2 o 3 temporada
    x k yo me e kedado colgada

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