littlefeltfangs | What's the link?

What's the link between these three items:

The Snow Queen
Romeo & Juliet
Les Miserables

The answer is anime I'm currently watching. Apparently the temptation to do remakes of oldies exists as much in the east as the west.

The Snow Queen is the first of these three that I started watching. The character and background design is fantastic, everything feels very Dutch, to the extent that you can sometimes forget that you are watching a japanese animation. The story follows the original fairly closely, not having read the story since I was very young I'm not sure of the exact changes that have been made, but any that have been made continue the feel of the story well. All the characters are very well portrayed, especially the relationship between Kay and Gelda, which has a real feel of loss about it.

Romeo x Juliet is a very different kettle of fish from the snow queen. Also beautifully drawn, it has a vaguely historic feel much like the work of studio Ghibli (Only Yesterday, Nausica). The story is set in neo verona, a mostly historic setting with bits of futuristic/alien/greek mythology imagery thrown in, as only anime can get away with. Unlike The Snow Queen, this does not even come close to following the story of its name sake. It took me a while to realise that this isn't actually an anime of Romeo and Juliet, but a shakespearean anime. Its drawing on many shakespeares works, of which Romeo and Juliet is the principle. Once you get over the expectations that the titles leads you towards it is a fun, light hearted show, which is well worth watching.

Les Miserables: Shojou Cosette is the least exciting of these three shows. It seems to be following moderately closely to the original story, but the order has been somewhat adjusted, and focuses on Cossette above the other characters. The animation seems to be pretty high quality, but the story is somewhat lacking. Seemingly trying to portrait a 'feel good' story, so much so that only a passing reference is made to Jean Valjean's origins as a convict. So far watching it is much more of a chore than a joy. This anime has been extremely disappointing, considering that the original Les Miserables was my favourite of the three.

:) My vague attempt at a review. Must try harder.

What's the link?

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