Summary:

Romeo is shocked that the girl lying under him is Juliet, but Cielo’s neighing snaps him out of it, and he runs back outside embarrassed. While he’s gone, Juliet gets back into her Odin clothes and offers Romeo her cloak because his clothes had gotten burned. Romeo starts to ask her about her appearance, but Juliet doesn’t want him asking her that. Back home, everyone is getting worried about where Juliet is, particularly because martial law has been imposed over the city in order to capture the Red Whirlwind. Once the rain stops, Romeo drops Juliet off the field of irises, and she apologizes for burning his shirt. When she starts to leave, he expresses his wish to see her again, and Juliet agrees. Meanwhile, Cordelia learns from the townspeople that food is being rationed from today on since they’re under martial law until the Red Whirlwind is caught. To make matters worse, the city guards publicly announce that food will be given to those who offer information on the Red Whirlwind.

As night falls, Conrad instructs Cordelia and Antonio not to tell Juliet about what’s going on in the city. Arriving back at the theater, Juliet still has her secret being exposed on her mind, and she gets seen by William coming in. When he asks her about her date, she tries to deny it, but he claims to be able to hear her throbbing heart. William doesn’t press her for details and instead says that the once the gears of love start to turn, no one can stop it. When Juliet goes back upstairs, Conrad doesn’t yell at her too much. As Cordelia is helping her back into her girl clothes, Juliet admits to that she wants to knit a shirt for that person. Cordelia thinks that a shirt is too hard and suggests a handkerchief with a name embroidered on it instead. Back at his own room, Romeo continues to wonder about why Juliet was dressed as a guy. He’s reminded of the Red Whirlwind and the smell of irises, but he thinks that it can’t be her since she’s so pretty.

Juliet spends most of the next day in her room studying an iris and trying to embroider its likeness onto a handkerchief. In town, a man is accused of being the Red Whirlwind and another is rewarded with food for the information. Lancelot sees this scene unfold in front of him, but he doesn’t blame the accuser. Rather, he feels the Montagues are responsible. The accused are gathered in a wood structure in the middle of town that’s heavily guarded, and Lancelot happens to see the local priest plotting with Cerimon, the leader of the guards. Unaware of what’s going on, Romeo notices something strange with the city as he patrols the skies. With him is Benvolio who tells Romeo about the martial law that was imposed to capture the Red Whirlwind. Romeo wants to go down into the city, but Benvolio stops him and reminds him that the Red Whirlwind is the rebel opposing his father. Benvolio doesn’t feel that this is the right way of doing things, but he also doesn’t think that he or Romeo should oppose Montague. He suggests that Romeo endure it for now until he can create something new.

Later that day, the priest returns to his church where Lancelot is waiting. Lancelot is ready to assault the priest and accuses him of betraying everyone, but the priest just laughs and says that it can’t be helped. They don’t have the power to oppose the Duke, so they have no choice except to serve the ruler – there’s no other way for them to live. A frustrated Lancelot leaves the church and returns to the wooden structure where he notices Francisco and Curio have come. He gets them to arrange a meeting with the person who protected and raised the Iris. Conrad meets with him and questions why he knows that the Iris hadn’t withered. Lancelot had just believed in it and asks if the Red Whirlwind is the remaining survivor of the Iris, so Conrad admits that they’ve been defending her for 14 years. After Conrad thanks him, Lancelot parts ways with them and asks Curio to tell the Red Whirlwind to take care.

Juliet’s just finished her embroidering when Antonio knocks on her door and informs her about Conrad’s meeting with Lancelot. When Conrad returns and won’t tell her about what’s going on, Juliet dresses up as Odin and goes out with Antonio. Worried about her, Cordelia runs after her. Juliet arrives at the center of town just as the guards are pouring oil under the wooden structure, and Antonio finally reveals that these people are being held because they’ve been mistaken as the Red Whirlwind. Juliet rushes to go help them, however Curio and Francisco suddenly appear and ask her to endure it because they’re too outnumbered to win. Refusing to let that stop her, Juliet tries to run past them, but Curio smacks her down. Curio coldly says that Juliet doesn’t notice what’s going on in the city while she’s infatuated with a noble’s son – is she going to help now just because she feels like it? That’s not the princess that they protected. Taking a softer tone, Francisco explains how they’ve all been protecting her.

Despite all this, Juliet can’t stand hearing the cries for help from the crowd and the condemned men. She starts to run away, but Lancelot appears. He tells her that this is not the place for her to risk her life, and Juliet realizes what he plans to do when he says it’s for the future of Neo Verona. However, it is too late for her to stop him. Lancelot dons a Red Whirlwind costume and jumps onto the wooden cage in front of all the waiting guards.

Preview

I really liked the scene where Curio smacked Juliet, and it wasn’t just because they animated her body dramatically spinning a little as she fell to the ground. He put in perspective her love for Romeo and showed that he’s not above hitting her and confronting her with the truth. It kind of felt like a good-cop/bad-cop routine with him and Francisco. I can just imagine what will happen when they find out Romeo’s identity. Speaking of Romeo, nothing did end up happening between him and Juliet, so their pure love continues. I find it very cute to watch.
Somehow, I don’t think Lancelot’s chances of survival are really good. I’ve been expecting him to be killed off for a while now, so him pretending to be the Red Whirlwind just adds to his likability before he dies. I guess Juliet or someone could still come to save him or he could turn the crowd against their oppressors. The preview for next week does show Curio and Francisco apparently fighting guards, but I still don’t think Lancelot’s prospects are very good since he has to show the Red Whirlwind dying somehow for martial law to be called off and things be returned to normal.
As a side note, why is it that the religious figures are always evil?

46 Comments

  1. poor Lancelot, i bet he’ll sacrifice himself to make it seem like the Red Whirlwind is dead or something. and i guess religious figures are evil because historically the church was corrupt?

    kamikaze
  2. @cyoti
    well, if we are going to be COMPLETELY technical, the original romeo and juliet isnt “historical” either, its fiction.

    and it is true historically, religion has not been pretty-reformation, crusades, spanish inquisition, witch trials, etc, etc? and even know religion is still in the midst of conflict, so….yeah.

    why do i have this weird feeling that once lancelot is out, tybalt is in (he still didnt appear)?

    mewmew
  3. @kamikaze

    dont blame the church for being evil and corrupt. The relegion itself if just a symbol of faith, the people who declare themselves as followers of the church are the ones who were corrupt and misguided

    DaRkClOuDzzz
  4. @cyoti
    so you are saying anime cant include something in history without it being entirely focused on it? o.O

    @DaRkClOuDzzz
    im not saying the religion is corrupt, im saying the church/clergy was corrupt. even my history teacher said the church was corrupt at some point. and it wasnt the followers(well clergymen are followers but anyways…), it was the clergymen and those with higher positions who were seen as corrupt because they abused their power. they would sell indulgences or seize land for themselves, which brought around the protestant reformation, etc.

    kamikaze
  5. @kamikaze

    yeah, that’s basically the point I meant, it’s just my previous choice of words were to vague. I agree with you exactly it’s just that I thought when you accused the church of being corrupt I thought you meant every aspect of it but your explanation cleared that right up.

    DaRkClOuDzzz
  6. Ha! I knew that priest was evil! He was the one who told on Lancelot in the beginning! I watched episode 3 with my friend [who started on that episode, actually] and he’s like, “No, the priest isn’t a bad guy. He’s a priest!” And I was like, “Who else would tell on Lancelot and the Red Whirlwind?”

    By the way, can we please not bicker about religion and whatnot? I think it’s a bit childish to do so because everyone is entitled to their own opinions. So please respect one another and do keep in mind that not everyone thinks in the same way. Thanks!

    Sakura
  7. @sakura

    it’s clear that everyone has a different views about religion and all we did was discuss our views to eachother. I dont ever recall telling anyone to shut the hell up or ridicule them. To call that childish shows that your the child for not being able to tell the difference between two

    DaRkClOuDzzz
  8. @DaRkClOuDzzz:

    Clearly, you took my statement as thought I implied you told someone to shut up. Clearly, I did not. People have their own way of interpreting sentences on the Internet. Perhaps carefully worded sentences will likely clear up any misunderstanding to be found.

    Sakura
  9. Uhh.. I’ll pull it a little bit back on topic.

    I thought the priest was shady, but it’s always got to be the citizens being oppressed. I hope Lancelot is rescued somehow because I like his character, and it could make Juliet go into depression or start blaming herself for everything if he gets killed. (Although, we already know that she hates the fact that she can’t fall in love with Romeo.)

    Ohh it bugs me that we know how to story starts and ends, but we don’t know what happens throughout it.

    I can’t wait for next episode. :]

  10. hehe dark i knew what u meant, what was too vague was prolly me when i just said the church rather than the clergymen of the church in the beginning. and i actually think this convo was more towards history rather than religion, with the exception of the first couple posts.

    err back to rxj.. how long do any of u guys expect this to be? im too used to the story being movie-long from the movies and remakes. cant really tell if the pace of this anime is fast or slow, plus the original story was actually pretty fast paced.

    kamikaze
  11. Well, the anime’s skipped over the play’s time frame of less than a week, but from what Omni commented on in episode 2 or 3, the series is rumored to be 2 seasons spanning 26 episodes.. It’s hard to believe that this love story could carry on that long. :0

  12. Sorry about that. I didn’t mean to make it seem like an argument here.

    Anyway, according to huzhush on Livejournal, the series is slated to be 24 episodes long. I think that’s good for character development plus plot since it seems like the plot is moving rather quickly at the moment.

    Sakura
  13. i never like that priest from the moment is aw him.I thought he has a sinister aura around him….He kind of reminds me of the priest from “The Pearl”.I like how the series progress right now

    polar bear
  14. I can’t help but feel sorry that Juliet was scolded for being in love with someone and acting feminine. By using her time to knit him something out of her infatuation (which we all know will turn into something serious :P) still harsh that she got scolded for that. She really isn’t being treated much like a lady…

    Machi
  15. “As a side note, why is it that the religious figures are always evil?”
    Well, you have to look at the time which can be described as mediaval age in this anime I think. Those times were VERY evil, I just say inquisition.

  16. Characters with designs like the priest’s are almost always evil in an anime. 🙂

    What I want to ask is, how the hell Lancelot plans to pretend as the Red Whirlwind while he and Juliet have totally different heights, voices, and hair color. It’s hard to believe they don’t know anything about the Red Whirlwind other than “his” clothings. >.>

    Rasmiel
  17. A LADY LIKE THAT SEMI-DRESSED ON THE GROUND AND WITH ME ABOVE HER…..
    ” MAN……..ROMIO IS GAY FOR SURE !!! ”
    FROM NOW ON:
    ” HE IS THE DRAMA FAGGED QUEEN ” 😛 phrases like:

    ” DON´T LOOK AT ME LIKE THAT WOMAN THAT I WON´T GIVE YOU ANYTHING ” or
    ” YOU WANT SOME….GO GET IN ANOTHER PLACE ” fills my mind if I hadn´t watched this episode before!!! T_T

    tensai_otaku
  18. ‘paris has been replaced with hermione.

    romeo is engaged here, not juliet.’

    ……..Your fucking kidding me….dammit!
    Paris was the only character I liked from the play of R and J

    Katya
  19. 1. I have a feeling Lancelot’s going to die…

    2. Nuuuu!!! Paris! Tybalt! How could they scratch those characters out? *sobs*

    3. So is Cordelia the nurse then? D:

    Shira Shira
  20. I find it interesting that as soon as Romeo backs off and goes outside, he’s immediately drawn in a less “threatening” style. His eyes get bigger and the face rounder so that he looks more like a child.
    x3 Its like Gonzo is trying to say, “Okay everyone relax! Romeo is still a nice innocent little boy. See, he even looks like one.”

    Aw. So the priest is evil.
    T___T Someone on a forum (maybe it was this blog..) noted a couple episodes back how refreshing it was to finally have a good priest in an anime since almost all priests in anime are protrayed as evil.
    So much for that. D:
    I guess anime-wise, if there is a witch, s/he will probably be a good guy, if there is a priest, s/he will probably be a bad guy. xD;;

    I can’t wait to see the entire episode.
    Thank you for the detailed blog! Its really descriptive and helps me understand what is going on when I watch the Raws. ^__^ TY!

    ChloeSong
  21. @Shira Shira
    1. T____T yea.. but I REALLY REALLY REALLY hope not. “Hope against hope” =(
    2. Paris is the magic tree and Tybalt just hasn’t been formally introduced yet. They show a picture of him during the opening. He’s the one that kinda looks like Sasuke from Naruto. xD
    3. YUP!! I finally realised that during episode 2. xD;

    ChloeSong
  22. Well, you have to look at the time which can be described as mediaval age in this anime I think. Those times were VERY evil, I just say inquisition.

    The original play took place after that in the Renaissance period, and the anime takes place during an approximation of that, so it’s not the Mediæval period. But the “Dark Ages” (which were called that due to Renaissance propaganda, not because people were living in another Stone Age) were a lot less “dark” than people think. Judging it by the Inquisition (“Inquisition” is simply a tribunal among church officials, it’s just that the Spanish one is what most people remember) would be like judging the 20th Century by the rise of Hitler in Germany. (No, I’m not invoking Godwin’s Law, just using this as an example) Both only took place in one country, and though the effects themselves spread to surrounding countries, there were many others that were relatively untouched. Compare the fact that Ireland was actually going through a renaissance during this time and has never had any history of persecution (the modern conflict is actually between native ethnic Irish — who happen to be mostly Catholic — and English settlers — who happen to be largely Anglican) to the fact that the United States pretty much ignored WWII until the invasion of Pearl Harbor.

    ANYWAY, I was more annoyed over the friar because I rather liked Friar Laurence in the original play (he had some faults but was basically a good chap) and because yes, the “evil priest” is something of a cliché in anime. (Some, such as Ghost Hunt, defy this stereotype, but it’s still annoying to keep seeing it) Ironically, they really love their nuns. Must be the same kind of mystique that maids, mikos, and schoolgirls have.

    Basilisk
  23. @ChloeSong

    You mean Escalus being the tree and Paris becoming female?

    Yea, I really like Lancelot too, but they’ll probably sacrifice him DX Poor family…

    We all know that in the book Romeo and Juliet dies at the end, but does anyone think they’ll survive in the anime? I mean, considering they’re already so off from the novel, I think there might be a chance that Romeo and Juliet marries and rule Neo Verona together? (Though I suppose that would destroy the point of calling this series Romeo x Juliet since their deat hwas what made them famous)

    By the way, I noticed a black haired guy in the OP who hasn’t made an appearance yet. Tybalt, anyone?

    Shira Shira
  24. This was an intresting episode, I’ve read the play so many times and watched the movie multiple times. I can’t wait to see Tybalt and see what they’re going to do with him in this version. I really don’t want Romeo or Juliet to die in this one. In the play, the enemy was different. The villian was the notion of “hate” itself, both sides were equally guilty and there wasn’t the oppresion of the citizens like in this version. In this version, the enemy is quite obviously Lord Montague and those who follow him. There will be a great battle here, unlike in the play. Also, the elements in the play that lead to Romeo and Juliet’s demise in the end of the play (Mecutio and Tybalt’s deaths, Juliet’s betrothal to Paris, Romeo’s banishment) are not in this show. Mercutio has not even talked to Romeo and Tybalt hasn’t even showed up. So the two won’t die as the did in the classic, and I’m hoping, from the look in the OP of Romeo, battle worn but smiling, that maybe these tragic lovers will live to rule their kingdom together.

    Irene Sharda
  25. @Shira Shira
    Yeah, I’m really hoping that they don’t kill off Romeo and Juliet, I mean, who’d rule the kingdom if they did that? No one else seems able.
    And yes the black-haired man in the OP is Tybalt, as with all the other characters, he’s does not bear much resemblance to his literary counterpart. Here, he’s a mysterious swordsman who cooperates with the Resistance in order to be free from the Montagues’ rule. He might or might not be Juliet’s cousin, like he was in the play.

    Irene Sharda
  26. IMHO, religion is a very powerful tool. It is the most widespread propaganda in the world, so it would then be the ideal way for such corrupts to hide their face behind the religion’s mask.

    Here’s a good example: Malaysia currently is in a dire state due to the corruption of the politicians. During a recent by-election, the government bribed the residents with RM32 million (USD1 = RM3.60) of developing new mosque n other religion-related stuffs. For most of the time since General Election back in 2004, that area is pretty much neglected until during the recent by-election. Of course, you’re probably thinking that’s nt too bad since the g’ment is providing development, but if u follow the dramas of M’sian politics, you wouldn’t want M’sia to be ruled by the same current, ruling party ever again. They’re nothing bt a bunch of racist, greedy pigs with 3rd world mentality. Of course, the more justice-driven Opposition lost in that by-election sadly. The citizens of Msians on a general, are too easily influenced by such offers which safeguards their religion(s), that’s all that matters to them. They don’t care if they’re living in poverty all their life as well as their sons n grandsons, while some government cronies out there are spending big-time on their 200th mansion, 500th Ferrari, Porsche, Lamborghinis etc, you get the picture.

    tokmoh

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