“An iris by any other name would smell as sweet": adapting Shakespeare in Romeo x Juliet

!is paper aims to explore what emerges from the collation of the Shakespearean play, Romeo and Juliet, and the episodes of Romeo x Juliet (), the Japanese anime inspired by the tragedy of the “star-crossed lovers”; and to re"ect upon the e#ects of the cross-pollination across genres that underpins the process of rewriting, leading, in some cases, to an unShakespearing of Shakespeare.