Random Curiosity

OP Sequence

OP: 「祈り ~You Raise Me Up」 (Inori ~You Raise Me Up) by Lena Park
Watch the OP! Mirror 1, Mirror 2

Summary:

One bloody night on the sky continent of Neo Verona, Montague kills Capulet and the rest of the Capulet family. Capulet’s daughter Juliet witnesses the death of her father and is led away by Cordelia, but the two girls are captured and almost killed. Fortunately, they are saved by a group of loyal knights and are taken away on flying-horseback. Fourteen years later, the Montague family and its men are still searching for the remaining Capulet daughter. They’ve tied up one particular girl in the middle of a crowd, but then a man dressed in red interrupts the soldiers. The people recognize this man as the Red Whirlwind, and he quickly gets to work freeing the girl and beating up the leader of the soldiers. The Red Whirlwind then makes his escape and happens to recognize Cordelia buying something from a street vendor, so he pulls her along in the getaway. The two make their way through the alleys and up to a bridge, but they get cornered on a broken path.

When the fragile ground gives away, the Red Whirlwind suddenly finds himself falling into the abyss below. Luckily, a boy named Romeo had seen what was going on and now flies in on top of his horse to save the Red Whirlwind. His friend Benvolio saves Cordelia, and the two land their horses at a safe spot far away from where they left the soldiers. Without even a word of thanks, the Red Whirlwind starts walking away, so Romeo tries to stop him. Although the Red Whirlwind chides Romeo for acting important, he does end up thanking Romeo. In truth, the identity of the Red Whirlwind is a boy named Odin, and he returns home to a theater with Cordelia. As he starts to change out of his clothes, Odin’s mind dwells a little on Romeo. It seems that Odin doesn’t remember his past very well, though he does recall being saved in a similar manner a long time ago. Cordelia says that he will understand everything when he turns 16 tomorrow, and she takes off Odin’s wig to reveal a head full of long hair. In fact, Odin is actually a girl - Juliet.

Meanwhile, Romeo returns to his father, and after getting lectured, Romeo gets paid a visit by Hermione. His father wants him to dance with her tonight at the Rose Ball, but when Romeo touches her hand, he’s reminded of the Red Whirlwind. As he’s getting dressed later, Romeo admits to Benvolio that Hermione is pretty, but he feels no love towards her. He then asks his friend about love, and Benvolio answers that it’s feeling that it’s okay to die with a certain person. Back at the theater, Juliet is also thinking about love, and she asks William the theater owner about it. William explains that love is something you don’t mind risking your life for. Juliet then checks in with the actress Emilia and finds out about the Rose Ball because Emilia wants her to come too. Letting down her hair, Juliet gets in a dress reluctantly, but after Emilia goes to get a hat, Juliet happily puts on makeup and twirls around a few times. A noble then arrives to pick Emilia up for the ball, but he accidentally takes Juliet instead, leaving the real Emilia behind.

Arriving at estate where the Rose Ball is being held, Juliet recognizes the architecture and has a brief flashback of her childhood. Seeing Montague on top of the stairs in front of her, Juliet drops her rose and runs outside. She stops at a fountain in which there are petals and flowers floating around. As she picks one up and smells it, a male voice behind her asks her if she’s okay. Juliet turns around and is shocked to see the boy who had saved her earlier: Romeo.

ED Sequence

ED: 「サイクロン」 (Cyclone) by 12012
Watch the ED!: Mirror 1, Mirror 2
I find it rare these days that I like both an opening and ending song, but that’s exactly the case here. Lena Park sings a beautiful ballad to start the show (which, as many people have pointed out, is an internationally popular song that’s taken on many different forms), while the band 12012 does a high-energy rock ending.

I got goosebumps watching this because it was so good. Forget about knowing the classic Romeo and Juliet story because aside from the character names and the basic premise, this is completely different - and I’m loving it. Music and animation were superb, and the action sequences in the first half of the episode were awesome. Heck, I was hooked after the first two minutes when the Capulets died to Montague. I’m sure that it’ll end tragically, but the question is where GONZO will take the story in getting to that ending. At the very least, all signs point to Juliet getting plenty of action screentime since she seems to be quite well trained martially. In any case, I think this one’s definitely a keeper, and I’m almost positive I’ll be blogging it.