Forum - View topicBoarding School Juliet (TV).
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Stark700
 Posts: 11762 Location: Earth |
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Boarding School Juliet (TV) Genres: comedy, drama, romance Themes: growing up pains, star-crossed lovers Plot Summary: At Dahlia Academy, a prestigious boarding school attended by students of two feuding countries—the eastern Nation of Touwa, and the Principality of West—Romio Inuzuka, leader of the dorms’ Touwa first-years, wishes for a romance that can never be. For his ladylove is none other than his arch-enemy, Juliet Persia, leader of the dorms’ West first-years. |
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Stark700
Posts: 11762 Location: Earth |
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Episode 1
Saw the first episode today and I got what I expected out of this. I'm ok with the OP song so far. Right off the bat, we meet the school setting with prestigious students. There's a elegant atmosphere with the high class uniforms and environment. Romio stands out because he is somewhat of a hothead. Also, there's Juliet and Hasuki introduced. Pretty much an introductory episode in general in terms of the storytelling. I think they tried to make all the guys look very gentleman-like with the exception of Romio. Only 12 episodes for this and the manga is still ongoing but I'll keep my hopes up. I actually kinda like the atmosphere of the show. |
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Chiibi
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OMG I LOVE THIS.
I LOVE THIS. IT'S SO FUNNY AND ADORABLE. I COULD NOT STOP LAUGHING AND SQUEEING. The duel was the best scene. 
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Yttrbio
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I was going to gouge my eyes out if the show decided to run with 10 episodes of "oh, I have feelings but I don't act on them and no progress is made because nobody communicates anything," but the ending saved my precious ocular fluid and now I can watch more.
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Chiibi
Posts: 4829 |
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@Yttrbio:
I KNO RIGHT. THAT'S WHY THE DUEL IS AMAZING. |
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DuskyPredator
 Posts: 15576 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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Episode 12 (finale)
Not really had any discussion here, but this has been something I have been watching, and I kind of feel like my opinion is going to be an unpopular one. First point I want to make, is I am not sure it is quite worth the whole Romeo and Juliet status, like it put quite a bit of effort of making a convoluted setting where it could kind of work, and then filled the rest of generic romcom anime that is totally separate. I won't pretend to be an expert on Romeo and Juliet, but apart from the two main characters in the show, I don't think any of the other characters are a match. This Juliet actually is an attendant to a more royal princess, rather than having say a nurse character on her side, and Romio is pretty much hostile to the guys on his side from the offset rather than having a Mercutio. What part is Hazuki even meant to be? There is not a friar character either, who sits in the middle as a confidant. What I am saying is that this really feels like it was built on a clip notes of Romeo and Juliet being secret lovers that are in opposing sides of feuding groups, like no other detail, and followed up with a bunch of ideas you would find in some reject anime. A central theme to help lead this conflict of the story, should be a focus on the heads of the houses, but the headmaster/headmistress and prefects of both sides, feel like they showed up relatively late. I am not even entirely sure I buy the conflict of the groups, because if anything it felt like they were pushed to play nice, and there was no depth in portraying them as not liking each other. A good portion of the story seems lead by it seeming like Romeo (Romio) and Juliet are the ones leading conflict between the groups, and that feels silly. By the end I can't really see what was actually stopping the lovers from coming out to reveal their feelings for each other, as in it would bring peace like it is supposed to be, if anything they are just fuelling the conflict. And then the brother comes in the end, and just seems to be built on the idea of separation because it has to be, the guy felt like a total psychopath , that left wondering why anyone was okay with him pretty much abusing Romio his entire life. More of a problem I had with relationships, is that it felt filled with what I would call toxic masculinity. Romio wants to win the sports competition so that he can force Juliet to call him a certain way? Is that romantic? Is that how relationships work? Because as much as it tries to show Romio being totally head over heels for Juliet and would do anything for her, the way his character goes seems dogged down by bullshit, like how Juliet is expected to do some cooking for him. He has to do things because he is a man, and she has to do things because she is a woman, but that feels like it is totally stupid if this show was trying to do a supposed modern take. Juliet was shown at the beginning of being quite strong, so it would have been cooler if they kind of mixed things up in terms of what would be feminine or masculine traits. Give it some meaning this idea of a relationship that is going against what the world is telling them. Romio as an addition also generally acts like a generic harem lead, solving problems of the girls, like spending time with the twins that got attached to him for reasons, or saving of the princess getting kidnapped or something. I guess the argument should be made to me that I should be critiquing a show on what it was, and not what I wanted it to be. But in the end I can't see what the point of this show was. Its setting is silly in terms of conflict with the two sides, that you can't really take it seriously outside of a play of a classic story. Although it does not feel like it is really taking enough from the classic story to have any meaning, being filled with stuff that distracts from why it should have value as this kind of story, and doing things that feel outdated to be a supposed updated version. I won't deny that there are probably plenty of people who probably enjoy this a lot. And it kind of feels like Romio and Juliet working towards becoming prefects so that they could have the more power to do what they want, would be a more interesting path, and the hinted continuation at the end for sequel, but I am not sure if it was worth it all up till now. Are these two characters just the pinnacle of romantic love for each other? It started off with Juliet hating Romio because his acts upset her, and then she is supposed to be fine with his negative attention because he really liked her? Did we really need things like Juliet being a lethal chef? Did he need a best female friend who is in love with him? Did she need a "best friend" whose action are incredibly selfish, to be in love with her? Did there need to be loli twins that grow attached to him for no reason? DId Romio need to have what appeared to be super strength, before apparently being outclassed by people who spent their time pushing papers? Did all of Romio's goals have to be about him forcing his girlfriend to do things for him, like its some award. He wanted to also win so he could force her to dance with him. He couldn't just ask? I am sure I just appear salty right now. Lots of people loved it and I am being nit picky. I probably would have been fine with some these things if they were by themselves, but taking the mantle of Romeo and Juliet, gives certain expectations, that I don't think it was worthy of. I give it a rating of Not really good (4/10), but not a total waste of time either. |
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vonPeterhof
Posts: 729 |
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@DuskyPredator Frankly, all expectations that Boarding School Juliet would strive to emulate Shakespeare's classic in anything but the barest bones of setup should have flown out of the window the moment the show/manga made clear that "changing the world" would be its overarching theme. Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy whose central characters fail at even escaping from the world of conflict, let alone try to change it through their own efforts (though it is hinted that their demise did bring about those changes). Admittedly it wasn't until Inuzuka's declaration that he wants to become a prefect that the manga convinced me that it would actually take the theme of changing the world seriously rather than just pay occasional lip service to it (which makes it all the sadder for me that the adaptation only covers the material up to that point, as it's after that that I believe the manga really took off). Still, it never once occurred to me to judge this romcom with occasional overtures to issues of nationalism and classism as an adaptation of, or even as a variation on Romeo and Juliet, and it actually surprised me after the premiere of the anime that that would be the angle most critics and commenters would look at it from.
One criticism I will agree with is that the conflict between the two nations could have been fleshed out better and earlier on. I'm pretty sure that the manga had informed the readers from the start that the West and Touwa had been at war until relatively recently and that the situation is still more akin to a cold war than genuine peace and reconciliation. That should have done the job of explaining the situation where the authority figures at the school are forced to play nice, while the student body is deeply divided. Aside from that (and the overall poor animation quality, which was only to be expected) I'm overall satisfied with the adaptation, and hoping for, but not really expecting a sequel that would actually get to the parts that advance the "change the world" plot.
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DuskyPredator
Posts: 15576 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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He still said in the show, something along the lines of him winning would mean that he can get her to call him a certain way, before he saw that he wants to show that he sees her as a worthy opponent. It may have been some jokes of him trying to tick a list, but I don't think it is ever called out that he is treating it as something she will have to do from him completing some task, he didn't go in trying to win to beat her and show how much he respects her. It simply being a joke could do worse, that people can see the being owed something in a relationship for working so hard, as no big deal. Real deal, this is probably my inner feminist that is having a problem with it, and I know that word is usually a warning sign of toxicity for some. But now days writers should be aware of the idea of the being obligated for something, as a problem. |
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vonPeterhof
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