I've seen many versions of Romeo and Juliet, but this one has to be my favorite (this includes all live-action versions). Though Shakespeare's is artistically more profound and enduring, this mini-series is a fun reworking of the story and I would even recommend it to people who do not usually watch anime. Though I LOVE watching the original Shakespeare, I always had trouble rooting for the leads, particularly Romeo. In my opinion, the Shakespeare Romeo is a selfish idiot, who is more in love with the IDEA of being in love than he is with Juliet. I have more sympathy for Juliet since her love was more of a reaction to a sudden arranged marriage and the allure of actually marrying for love. In the end, however, Romeo's selfish reaction to Juliet's "death" leads to the death of the woman he supposedly loves. Think about it, if he had lived on and tried to change things in her honor instead of wallowing in pain and killing himself, she would have lived. Instead she has to choose between death or a becoming a nun (which is an honorable choice and I think that would have been the better one, but I'm not Juliet.) Suicide is rarely (if ever) the option. Anyway, the plot of this anime is so COMPLETELY different, I actually root for the characters. I would explain more, but I don't want to ruin any surprises! (I should also note that the animation and the score are spectacular!)

I gotta hand it to this anime - this is turning out to be a rather interesting one. The graphics are magnificient and the music is top notched as well as matching with the theme. The opening theme is nice even though the tune is a copy of Josh Groban's song "You Lift Me Up". The characters are colorful and it's a cool rendition to the Romeo and Juliet world. The only thing I hate is probably the ending theme -- the hell is up with a rock antem?! The end of the first episode was very nice -- so dramatic. Man, usually I don't go for this sort of genre but I'll give it a shot.