YMMV / Boarding School Juliet

• Adorkable: You can't help being amused by the main characters:
  • Behind Romio's towering stature, piercing eyes, and sharp teeth is an incredible dweeb who wears his heart on his sleeve. Part of his charm is how he approaches problem-solving and romance with his inherent goofiness.
  • Juliet likes to play it cool around Romio most of the time, but you can tell she can be just as awkward around him as he is around her, especially as they grow closer together.
• Angst? What Angst?: The story takes cues from chivalric and samurai dramas, one of which is that the teenage cast are wholly accustomed to violence. There are standards of unacceptable conduct (sexual assault, disabling injuries, ambushes), but few are modern.
• Anvilicious: Racism and prejudice are bad, and the powers of love and friendship conquer all. This increased exponentially as the manga drew to its conclusion, so much so that every Westian that's not one of the protagonists in the concluding School Trip arc is portrayed as a racist asshole who is easily defeated by the protagonists.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: As is typical of Childhood Friends, Hazuki has an amount of fans disproportionate to her screentime. Her being voiced by Ayane Sakura also helps.
• Evil Is Cool: Reonn, who is perpetually charismatic and mysterious as she strives to reignite war.
• Esoteric Happy Ending: While Romeo and Juliet have truly changed the culture surrounding Dahlia Academy by the final arc of the manga, it's clear that racism is still pervasive among the common people of the West and it will take a hell of a lot of effort to clean up. Instead of addressing that, however, the manga only deals with Romeo and Juliet's final fight with her father. Meanwhile, Char's debutante ball stunt is said to have caused the West to be more accepting of others despite the opposite reaction being shown. Any discussion that could have been had on how Romeo and Juliet will pursue their ideals is left aside when the manga skips ahead to end at their wedding, saying that they changed the world for the better without any information as to how.
• Fan Nickname:
  • Reonn is referred to as "Black/Nega Juliet" (because of her resemblance to the latter) and as "Hitler-chan" (due to her genocidal ambitions).
  • Romeo is "Slutzuka" or "Purezuka".
• Foe Yay Shipping:
  • Some fans take Char and Romeo's hatred for each other as being sexual, in part due to the scene where she blackmails him into carrying her around like a horse. Or the scene where she pins him to the ground so they can have a covert chat. Etc.
  • The same can be said for minor characters the House Headmasters. It's a Running Gag in discussions to bring up that the two of them are yet another Star-Crossed Lovers pair.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • The head prefect of the White Cats is the first Western Jojo, while the head prefect of the Black Dogs is the first Eastern Jojo.
  • Those who only watched the anime feel that they got the short end of the stick simply because, for a romantic series, there was no kissing scene between the two leads. If they focus their attention to the manga, the kiss actually happens, literally right after the events of the anime^note during the Lighthouse arc/Beach Episode.
• Memetic Mutation: "Romio is Best Girl" ^note Due to how pure and vanilla the male lead comes across as compared to most other characters. Turned up to eleven when he temporarily lost his memories.
• Narm Charm: Juliet singing "Hush Little Baby" in episode 7. Ai Kayano has a fairly good grasp of English, but she still pronounces several words awkwardly. Yet a lot of viewers thought that the obvious Japanese accent added extra charm to the lullaby.
• Never Live It Down: Maru, Tosa, and Kohitsuji's debut scene is their underhanded assault (and possible attempted rape) of Juliet. Such an act leaves a horrible taste in readers' mouths and heavily contrasts the tone of the rest of the series, especially considering the trio's later scenes. They could easily have faced heavier punishment (aside from that complete thrashing from Romio a little later), especially since their intended victim was from an influential aristocrat family. Although it does serve as a catalyst for Romio to finally man up and make his Love Confession, the inciting incident gets swept under the rug and is never mentioned again.
• Rule of Cool: There is probably an in-story reason for why both dorms have so many real and fake swords laying around, but goddamn if anyone is interested in finding it.
• Signature Scene: The most iconic scene of the manga is the sword duel/Love Confession in the very first chapter.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: All over the place, really:
  • Char's Lonely Rich Kid past and unrequited feelings for Juliet would probably garner more sympathy if she weren't also a Royal Brat who frequently physically abused others (usually Scott) for her own amusement.
  • After their initial introduction Maru is treated at various points as the (reluctant) Lancer to Inudzuka, while his cronies Kohitsuji and Tosa are treated as Plucky Comic Relief. Said initial introduction involved them ostensibly trying to sexually humiliate Persia (assuming it wasn't a prelude to rape).
  • Aby and Somali's relationship with each other are treated as their most positive characteristic. Somali is supposed to be Aby's Morality Pet, while her devotion to him in turn is treated as very heartwarming. However, it is very easy to interpret their relationship as very creepy and unhealthy for both of them.
  • What Airu Inudzuka regularly does to his younger brother is grounds enough to jail somebody in many countries nowadays. He is also incredibly reluctant to actually stand up for his brother in public, so it can be easily assumed that he doesn't actually care about him and beating him up isn't something he is doing to "toughen him up" so much as it is something that he just does on a whim.
• Values Dissonance: Teria and Kochou being involved in Fanservice scenes, even light ones, is an example of this, as they are both 14. Kochou doing the "Sustenance, shower or sex" routine to Inuzuka- even if it's just to mock him- is another thing that wouldn't have passed in the West.