At Anime Central FUNimation has announced the acquisition of the 24-episode Romeo x Juliet anime series produced by Gonzo.  Just as Gonzo updated Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai by setting it in the future, screenwriter Reiko Yoshida (Blood+, Aria) and director Fumitoshi Oizaki (Final Fantasy: Unlimited) have set Shakespeare’s tragedy of the feuding Montagues and Capulets in the aerial city of Neo Verona.  While the premise of the Gonzo Romeo x Juliet differs wildly from Shakespeare’s play (and characters from other Shakespearean dramas and the author himself figure prominently in the plot of the Gonzo series), the themes and the essential tragedy of the story remain the same though this anime is unlikely to meet with approval from Shakespearean scholars or purists. 

Rumors that FUNimation had acquired this series, which aired in Japan from April to September of 2007, have been rampant since the company requested that the title be removed from a fan-subbing site, but as recently as March FUNimation reps were cautioning that the request did not necessarily indicate that they had acquired the series (see “FUNimation Has Negima OVAs”).  FUNimation plans to release the 24-episode Romeo x Juliet anime series in two 12-episode season sets in the spring and summer of 2009.

One of the elements that will no doubt infuriate Shakespeare lovers, but which adds a lot of zip to the anime, is the character of Juliet—Gonzo has added a major dose of “girl power” by turning her into a Robin Hood-like figure with an alter ego known as the Scarlet Whirlwind and a mission to oppose the oppressive rule of the Montague family that took over control of Neo Verona by murdering all of the Capulets with the sole exception of Juliet.