Manga Classics: Romeo and Juliet

This is a brilliant adaptation of William Shakespeare's work of genius. The artwork is gorgeous and fits seamlessly in with Shakespeare's original text to form a breathtaking view of Romeo and Juliet. This has always been a favorite classic of mine and I adore the adaptations I have come across like the movie that stars Claire Danes and Leonardo DiCarprio. This manga enthralled me and fully captivated the essence of the original work. I highly recommend this version to anyone studying this literature in school for a better understanding or to anyone interested in Shakespeare.

This story is about two star crossed lovers. There is a long running feud between the wealthy families Montague and Capulet. What happens when the two young adult heirs of each family happen across each other and fall in love? They know their relationship could be doomed but what if their union could smooth over their families' hatred? This story is full of action, drama, romance and is never boring.

Thank you to NetGalley and Udon Publishing for giving me a copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I never really loved Romeo & Juliet's story but anyone who likes it and is a fan of manga should give this one a try. It was a lovely adaptation.
Can't wait for more Manga Classics stories.

So on the off chance you haven’t heard me say this, and thus aren’t totally sick of me repeating myself, I’m going to say it again: I absolutely love the concept of Manga Classics. I love them for many reasons. It’s always fun to reread a classic, but even more so it’s very refreshing to read them in a new medium, such as this. Manga Classics condenses the larger classics into something less intimidating, which makes it great for both rereads and first time reading. I also believe that Manga Classics make the classics more approachable, which is something I greatly appreciate.
I’ve read Romeo and Juliet a time or two, not to mention I’ve seen the play itself and a couple of movie adaptations (which you’re welcome to pretend don’t exist if you’d like, I won’t judge you there) so it was really interesting for me to see the play in this form. The artwork was lovely, and I have to say I’m really impressed that they were able to make such a large cast of characters all look unique (though of course all main characters got an extra level of attention that makes them stand out). Not once did I find myself struggling to tell two characters apart. I’m really awful with names, but I’m decent with faces, so this was actually pretty fun for me. I feel like I got more out of this read because of it; I picked up on more details occurring in the backgrounds of scenes that I’ve likely overlooked in the past, simply because I had forgotten who so and so was or something like that.
Like any adaptation there’s a little bit of alterations that must be made, such as condensing some scenes, in the case of manga opting to let some scenes be shown instead of told. I don’t feel like we lost anything in the translation here, and I am very happy for it. I’ve read manga adaptations by Crystal S. Chan before, and she has never once let me down. I loved Julien Choy’s artwork, as you’ve already seen me gush about a little bit up above. I’m curious to see what will be adapted next. Part of me hopes they’ll do the twin to Romeo and Juliet and give us an adaptation of Midsummer’s Night Dream. That would be fantastic! But regardless, I’ll happily take whatever I am given.

Possibly Shakespeare’s best known play and always a both hit and miss for me – a hit for linguistic pleasure and a miss for story (yes I know it’s a sort of fable *sigh*) Anyway of all adaptations of this classic romantic tragedy I’ve seen in any form of media, I think this may well be the best. 5 stars, Manga and please keep it up.

I am a huge fan of Manga books! I have found these adaptations to be highly addicting, and now I want to read them all. I love the artwork and the graphic novel format. I also have to admit, I enjoy reading the books backwards; that just adds to the fun.

Romeo and Juliet is a book almost everyone is familiar with. While I’ve heard of the story, and watched numerous bits and pieces from plays inserted into television shows, I’ve never read the actual book, so when the Manga edition became available, I jumped at the chance to see what they would do with it. As always, they did a spectacular job, and I am thrilled to say that this another classic they did well, and I thoroughly enjoyed.


I can’t wait for the next one!

I thoroughly enjoyed this reimagining of Romeo and Juliet. The imagery in the manga was amazing in that it helped to show the meanings of the dialogue, which understandably can be hard to decipher given Shakespeare's text. I feel this makes this play more accessible to an audience which may not have had access or the desire to read it. The art style captures the different characters and their manners perfectly, which further allows the reader to understand who these people are and their roles in the story.

Everyone knows the story of Romeo and Juliet but I couldn't resist trying it on a manga platform! It was a refreshing beautifully drawn story that I enjoyed reading even though it doesn't end in with a happy ever after

Honestly, this is my least fave of the Manga classics. But it's still 4/5 stars, so I think you know where I am going with this.

These manga adaptations are brilliant. My fave so far was the Count of Monte Cristo, but that's also my fave book... so, I was biased toward it. My relationship with Mr. Shakespeare is a wee bit more complicated. I appreciate his stories but reading the English of his era tests my nerves, it's just not natural to me. If I wanted to recommend Shakespeare to someone like me? I'd either go with an audiobook or this version. It's a little more compact. And the manga art form just makes anything more enjoyable.

This is a great place to start someone reading Shakespeare.

One of the most famous works of Shakespeare, as well as one of the most famous love story.
While I do like Much Ado About Nothing and Macbeth better, this is a great classic that was transformed and adapted very beautifully by UDON Entertainment!
With great lines, and beautiful art I loved revising this classic again!
Would totally give it together with the book of the play as a gift for a friend or someone that wishes to get to know this tragic love story!

I would like to thank NetGalley and Udon Ent. to let me get back to this era and see it all happen again in the form of a beautiful art! 5 out of 5 stars!

Another good entry into the Manga Classics line. I enjoyed this more than Macbeth, but then I am something of a hopeless romantic so all the scenes with Romeo and Juliet were quite charming to watch.

I love the art style. It is very in line and current with the conventions of shoujo (girls) manga from the 2010s. The characters are prettily detailed and cute. In particular, Romeo, Juliet, Mercutio, and Paris are so attractively drawn.

I love how the style did well in capturing Mercutio’s distinctive whimsy. The emotions during the famously tragic scenes are well conveyed. Buildings and scenery are also highly detailed and cleanly drawn.

There are many comically drawn scenes that illustrate and express some of the humorous banter that might be hard to grasp from the original prose.

Speaking of prose, as was the case with Manga Classics adaptation of Macbeth, the purity of the lines is fully intact and not re-written with modern standards in mind. I was surprised by how text-heavy some panels are and real effort is made to keep the story as intact as possible. As a result, I find myself reading more slowly to try to fully understand the passages. I like that no major changes were made as the original play as very special and its writing style exquisitely quotable. As usual for Manga Classics, this adaptation is nicely thick at around 400 pages, so I’d say it’s a great dollar value for the time spent.

My two favorite Manga Classics are still The Count of Monte Cristo and especially Les Miserables, but this is easily still among the best in terms of quality and appeal and has perhaps the most high quality art I’ve seen so far from Manga Classics.

Romeo and Juliet (Manga Classics) art by Julien Choy, 395 pages. GRAPHIC NOVEL
Udon Entertainment, 2018. $18.
Language: PG13 (22 swears, 0 “f”); Mature Content: PG13; Violence: PG13
BUYING ADVISORY: HS - ADVISABLE
AUDIENCE APPEAL: AVERAGE
The Montagues and Capulets are not secretive about their contempt for each other, and the fighting continues against the express decree of the prince. But after Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet meet, they are determined to be together -- no matter what their families think. Friar Laurence finds himself in the middle of Romeo’s and Juliet’s desperate plans to wed, and he helps, hoping that love may end the hateful prejudices of their families.
Romeo and Juliet is a classic story that most know the plot of. In this era, though, we often miss Shakespeare’s humor and metaphors as we get lost in the old English used. With the graphic novel layout, the text is separated into more manageable, less intimidating chunks and assisted by illustrations. While I still used Google to help me understand some lines, I found humor and understanding in this adaptation beyond what I had of this classic before. The mature content ratings if for partial nudity and innuendo; the violence rating is for murder and suicide.
Reviewer: Carolina Herdegen

When I was in high school in the tenth grade, my class had to read Romeo and Juliet. I was super excited since had read the play a few years before and couldn’t wait until my friends would share my love of Shakespeare. Well… that didn’t happen. My class painfully trudged through the play as the teacher would assign my classmates with the most unenthusiastic voices to read for Romeo and Juliet out loud. It was enough to put people to sleep. It also didn’t get anyone excited about Shakespeare.
Years later when I became an English major, I would tell my mom about my Shakespeare classes. “Oh don’t get me started on Shakespeare! That was so boring! We had to read Macbeth and I didn’t understand a word of it!” Unfortunately, Shakespeare’s reputation is as divided as the Capulets and the Montagues.
Manga Classics’ version of Romeo and Juliet took me by surprise. The manga has adapted most of Shakespeare’s dialogue into the panels, while bringing life to the text. At first, I wasn’t sure how a Shakespeare play could be adapted into a manga, but after starting to read the first few pages, I realized that manga is the perfect format for a play. Manga focuses a lot on dialogue, as do plays. The manga brought to life the expressions of the characters, and the figurative language was woven into the illustrations. It is so incredibly clever!
Manga Classics’s Romeo and Juliet would be perfect to teach Shakespeare in the classroom. It is perfect to draw in students who aren’t so keen on Shakespeare, and it would work well as a companion to the original text.

I love Shakespeare so this was a very fun book to stumble upon. I like that this book may make new readers gain exposure to Shakespeare for the first time.

This is an absolutely beautiful rendition of the classic tale. The characters are wonderfully drawn and give a depth to the story that I hadn't previously seen with just reading it.

I shared the story with my children and the teen was thoroughly impressed. They said it gave them a much better understanding of the story and it actually helped them pass their lesson on Romeo and Juliet with flying colors.
My younger daughters (7-9) also loved this book as the action was easy to follow. I feel like this book was a great addition to the Classics series and would work for all ages, story content and appropriateness considered.