Manga Shakespeare: Romeo and JulietRichard Appignanesi, Sonia Leong,Self Made Hero, Rs 295Wouldst thou like it if fair Verona did change itself into a modern, mobile-thumbing, Tokyo suburb? And rock idol Romeo gazed up on Juliet, a Japanese teen in designer tunic, and still felt “my heart’s dear love is set on the fair daughter of rich Capulet”? The crisis that Shakespeare would nary have imagined, but hardly surprising considering the reimaginings the play has had over the years, is: they belong to rival Yakuza (Japanese mafia) families.British publishers Self Made Hero’s Manga Shakespeare series has the original lines, although severely abridged, mouthed by the wide-eyed, perky-nosed cartoon characters that populate the format. And the scene has changed. Hamlet wanders in a futuristic world. The story is briefly introduced as being set in the year 2107 when global climate change has devastated the earth and a cyberworld is in constant dread of war. So you have Polonius and the actors in what could pass off as Star Trek gear and, Hamlet in bed, videoconferencing with his friend, “O good Horatio, I’ll take the ghost’s word for a thousand pound.” But the “To be or not to be” soliloquy is cut short to five lines. And ay, there is the rub. For when the lines exit, so does the lucidity. The beginning of Manga Shakespeare Romeo and Juliet — though delightful with the Capulets stepping out of the car — has quick cuts from frame to frame that a Shakespeare virgin would get lost somewhere between the “clashes” and “tchings” of long Samurai swords — the onomatopoeic words are, by the way, the only non-Bardic ones peppering the speech bubbles of the 190-odd pages .The innovation, as in Hamlet, is all in the lines, Shakespearean lines that you have scarcely seen before. The friar has a PC but he cannot send an e-mail to Romeo because there’s a send message error, and there is no signal in Romeo’s cell phone when he is banished to Mantua, a work-in-progress district in Kyoto. It is the new Hollywood gimmick, but thankfully has not gone out of style yet.What’s devastatingly spot-on are the little chibis that pop up in Romeo and Juliet, reminding you that the love story of star-crossed lovers can easily be read as the maudlin tale of two hyper-emotional adolescents. Shakespeare Manga has also brought out The Tempest, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Richard III. This course of Shakespeare doth not run too smooth, but check them out for fun, perchance for the fantastic reinterpretations.
