3.2 Romeo X Juliet (2007)
3.2.5 Death as Rebirth: The Wind of Freedom
Compared with Shakespeare’s original text and Leong’s manga adaptation, death in the anime adaptation does not cause another death but brings rebirth in a symbolic way. In Romeo x Juliet, Juliet’s fatal bond with the tree of Escalus not only questions the idea of fate but also suggests the symbolic rebirth out of total destruction. As a result, the main discussion in this section will focus on Episode 24 (the final episode) to analyze Juliet’s transformation toward the fate.
Escalus is the tree that governs the world’s prosperity and the source of all wealth. However, the tree of Escalus is about to die, so it needs to find another body to take sprout and become a young tree again. Consequently, the seed of Escalus is planted into Juliet’s body and this is the fate of Juliet to sacrifice herself and save the world. However, in Episode 23, we see the disagreement about the fate between Romeo and Juliet. On the one hand, Romeo repudiates the fate determined by Ophelia and the tree of Escalus and regards it ridiculous and unfair to let Juliet suffer the consequences of human sin. On the other hand, Juliet insists that one’s fate cannot be
changed, and she is supposed to protect the world and people who live in Neo Verona at the cost of her life. Nevertheless, Romeo proposes that Juliet’s fate is also his fate, and he will not let Juliet suffer alone. It shows that Romeo’s fate binds with Juliet’s, and Romeo’s announcement truly proves his deep love with Juliet. Besides, Romeo’s affectionate announcement influences Juliet’s determination to accept her fate, and this transformation can be observed in Episode 24.
Lastly, in Episode 24, when Ophelia kisses Juliet with the kiss of death, the deadly kiss does not work successfully because Juliet’s body resists that
transformation, indicating that she is against her fate. After a fierce battle, Romeo defeats Ophelia, and he tells Juliet that she is free from her fate and she does not have to suffer anymore. Then, Romeo dies in the arms of Juliet’s. Seeing this, Tybalt annotates Romeo’s death to Juliet: “Romeo tried to accept you in your entirety. You, Capulet’s daughter, who believed that your fate did not lie in your name – Romeo loved you.” From the third-person’s point of view, Tybalt’s comment proves the true love between Romeo and Juliet and Juliet’s resistance on her fate. Although Juliet sacrifices her life to save the world in the end, Juliet’s and Romeo’s bodies mingle together and become the new born Escalus to support the world.
From the final episode, we can assume that Romeo and Juliet’s love is beyond the barrier of fate and the names that they inherit. Romeo’s death proves his effort to challenge fate and his selfless love to Juliet. Also, the action that Juliet takes is not out of fate but because of her will to let the wind of freedom blow once more in Neo Verona. Besides, through this symbolic death, Juliet does keep the vow with Romeo – in life and in death, they shall be together eternally.
Conclusion
Nowadays, the art of visual storytelling has been soaring up and people are surrounded by plenty of graphics and images in the visual culture. From page to screen, from the flat to the dimensional, when Shakespeare’s drama is shown in a graphic frame, it is translated and narrated under the gaze of receivers through the visual language of graphics and images. Different from the fixed grammar rules, the visual language substitutes for the omitted or abridged lines and encourages the viewers’ activities to produce meanings from graphics because the main point is how meanings are presented through sequences of graphics.
From verbal texts to visual graphics, we see how Shakespeare’s works are adapted into the version of manga and anime through the graphic narration and
applications of Shakespeare’s lines to create new interpretation in the realm of popular youth culture. Nonetheless, adapting Shakespeare’s plays to a manga or an anime format is not easy because producers need to combine visual art and abridged dialogue at the same time. Although the richness of the language may be lost, most scripts still keep the major speeches to immerse the viewers in the world of the play with advantages of iconic and appealing characters. In such a context, the viewers will worry less about understanding obscure historical context or mastering archaic
vocabulary, and instead be engaged in making meanings of manga and anime.
However, even though manga and anime are primarily composed of visual images, they are represented in different ways. On the one hand, manga emphasizes how to apply attractive and meaningful graphics to inspire readers’ interpretation to the text, and therefore connects with their own experience and environments. The framework of manga is much more attached to the original text. On a certain level, the
adaptation of manga functions as a pedagogical material which is instrumented in leading people into Shakespeare’s classic works. Therefore, there will not be much modification on the graphic narration and citations; instead, the main themes and critical plots based on the original text are emphasized within the limited pages in manga. The diversity of reading possibilities relies on how the readers interpret the graphics and how they respond toward the manga. Also, when people read manga, they can control their speed in reading and take time to interpret those images.
On the other hand, in anime, each shot and action is subjectively decided under the producer’s directions, so the audience will follow his/her route to interpret the scenes and conceive how the producers see the text and what they value. Successive frames automatically dominate viewers’ interpretations of anime because viewers are guided by the sequent images appearing in front of them on screen and they spend most of their time absorbing images in limited time to follow the story.
Moreover, in the anime adaptation, the focus is not to interpret Shakespeare’s works with different narrative medium but to make good use of the original work, and to transform it into a new story. Characters, plots, and lines become important
elements or turning points in the anime. This technique breaks the independence of Shakespeare’s plays and skillfully merges several plays’ roles, plots, and lines into the anime that we observe in Zetsuen No Tempest and Romeo X Juliet. In addition, the anime version also highlights the audio-visual beauty by means of graphics and background music. Even when the plot is over-exaggerated or irrational, it does not affect the dramatic tension but impresses the audience nonetheless by special its audio-visual effects.
When we read manga, we are touched by mangakas’ exquisite drawing styles to delve into the characters’ inner world of emotions that the original text can hardly
achieve. Also, with abridged lines accompanied by clear graphics, the lines seem more friendly than those in the original texts. Moreover, unlike the ancient setting of a play from early modern period, when we enjoy anime adaptations, we are more easily attached to them because the language there is the daily conversation that we speak and settings are similar to our living environment. Besides, the audience (most of them are the youth) are familiar to the pattern of anime. In this way, it is much easier for the audience to engage in the anime and put themselves in the characters’ shoes.
Therefore, the audience can relate their daily experiences with the characters to make the whole story more enjoyable as well as meaningful.
To sum up, Shakespearean manga and anime adaptations provide the audience with diverse opportunities to reconsider these classics by looking into what is replaced, added, or deleted within different narrative media and technology in the contemporary society. The Shakespearean adaptations not only translate language from the original texts but also translate the contemporary culture “to connect Shakespeare to how and where we live ‘now’” (Cartelli and Rowe 6); that is, we should connect the literary works with our social surroundings and investigate how Shakespeare’s works are represented through different narrative media with times.
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