Attention: This is a "westernized" (i.e. mirrored) manga. It reads from left to right.

Recently learned about the existence of this series, so of course I had to take a closer look! - And, well, it was interesting. At first it took me some time to get used to the manga aesthetic applied to Shakespeare, but soon I could concentrate on which passages they had chosen to tell the story. And interesting: in this version, the lovers hardly touch (at least from what we get to see), they spend much more time crying and generally being miserable. But I thought the gang of Montague boys were hilarious (as they should be), and I also enjoyed the funny bit of dialogue between Juliet and the nurse (angry chibi Juliet: "Your love says like an honest gentleman, 'Where is your mother?'") And the scene with Romeo in exile was clearly inspired by Baz Luhrman's film adaptation (what with Romeo sulking outside a mobile home). The only thing I found really disturbing was that Juliet's dad strikes both his daughter and his wife!
All in all, it was very interesting - but like with most mainstream manga, I wish that stylistically it had done more.

This book goes to the winner of the 12th Manga & Graphic Novel Sweepstakes. Congratulations and enjoy! :)

this looks interesting! I am a firm fan of Romeo and Juliet so look forward to reading this one.

I thought that the play lent itself well to this adaptation. It was very abridged, and like you anathema-device I found it interesting which dialogue that was chosen to stay. I enjoyed this quite a bit.

I am using this to seed a new graphic novel and manga book box.

I've read this before, so I'm leaving it in the manga bookbox, but wanted to add my comments.

I like the "Manga Shakespeare" series very much; while not all of the manga adaptations are equally effective, many of them are surprisingly good. This one tackles perhaps the best-known play, setting the story in modern Tokyo and making the feuding families yakuza (Japanese gangsters). Romeo's a pop star, Tybalt's a tattooed swordsman, Mercutio has dreadlocks, etc.

The adaptation includes many details from the play, and the illustrations add a nice touch - when the nurse is nattering about Juliet's upcoming 14th birthday and recalls fondly how she "laid wormwood to my nipple" to wean her many years ago, Juliet makes a wonderfully wry face, perfect schoolgirl embarrassment. And the manga conventions allow for more cuteness when the nurse tells Romeo that she sometimes tells Juliet that Paris is "the properer man" - poor Romeo appears with sad puppy-dog ears and drooping tail...

Given that this is a modern setting, I was wondering how they were going to handle the missed messages - turns out it was simple; there's a frame of Romeo checking his cell phone to see "No signal" {grin}.

This came back in my manga & graphic novel book box.

Passing this along to a co-worker whose son reads a lot of graphic novels and comics

My co-worker returned this last week saying "of all the books you gave me my son didn't read this one because he says he's read that story before."

So this will go out into the world soon to hopefully find an appreciative reader.

Left in the Little Free Library.