When East Meets West...

I love when anime does western literature adaptations. It's just so cool. It's neat to see how things get interpreted or re-imagined and I just freakin' adore it.



Series such as Gankutsuo and Romeo x Juliet are just too damn fun for me to watch because I'm such a literary nut and adore the original works. Romeo and Juliet is my second favorite Shakespearre play (Cymbeline is the first...that'd make a fantastic anime, actually...hmmm...) and seeing them in anime form...the color scheme is classic (Montagues blue, Capulets red), the character designs are simple yet effective, and the setting takes on a life and character of its own. Studio Gonzo created both series, though I think they did more justice to Gankutsuo (remake of The Count of Monte Cristo, the title is the Japanese translation meaning "King of Caves"). Oh well. I'm always hoping for more. Imagine Tartuffe in anime form! Japanese concepts of Christianity are already hilarious enough...*sigh* It'd be damn cool.



It'd be fun to see the reverse as well. When I'd heard about the live-action Hollywood adaptation of Neon Genesis Evangelion I was suitably frightened. Evangelion isn't really one of my favorite series, or even one that I really like since Shinji is pretty hard to sympathize with, but it'd be pure entertainment to see them even try and market this film or even make it. Wow, that was a bad run-on...



Apparently a live-action Akira is actually in the works, being spearheaded by none other than Leonardo DiCaprio. Random, huh? Don't believe me? Check it out: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1134795/

World gets smaller every day, huh?