Romeo's Blue Skies

Romeo's Blue Skies (ロミオの青い空, Romio no aoi sora, "Romeo's Blue Skies") is a Japanese anime series by Nippon Animation. Although "Romeo's Blue Skies" is the literal translation of the Japanese title, the official English name given by Nippon Animation is "Romeo and the Black Brothers". It is known in Arabic as "عهد الأصدقاء" (literally "Friends' Covenant"), in the Philippines as "Mga Munting Pangarap ni Romeo" (literally "Romeo's Simple Dreams"), and in Greece as "Τα Παιδιά των Καπνοδόχων" (literally "The Children of the Chimneys".)

It is based on the novel Die schwarzen Brüder ("The Black Brothers") written in 1941 in Switzerland by author Lisa Tetzner.

Plot
In the second half of the 19th century, in 1875, the story begins with the titular character, Romeo, waking up and making his way to the church to ring the bell along with his pet ermine, Piccolo. The village is suffering due to a long drought, and Romeo's family is hit by it the worst, as they are also under debt. Romeo wants to compete in the pole climbing competition, as he wishes to follow his father's footsteps. Meanwhile, a mysterious man, whom the villagers refer to as "the god of death" makes his way into the village. He has his eyes on Romeo and plans to buy him from his parents. He urges Romeo's father Roberto to sell his son and in exchange he would take care of the tab for him. The fellow villagers tell the god of death to back off as Roberto would never sell his son, and besides, he still has one corn field remaining. The god of death smiles when he hears this information. During the pole climbing competition, the god of death starts a fire in the corn field, in order to force Romeo's family to sell him. Romeo's family rush to the field and manage to save two goats, but Roberto injures his head while leaping out from the flames. Roberto's injury worsens and the priest is worried, as without medical attention Roberto could end up blind for the rest of his life. The doctors fee is very expensive, as he has to come from a neighbouring village. Romeo is unable to see his father in this state, so he willingly sells himself into slavery. In exchange, the god of death takes care of the medical fee. Once Roberto has been treated, it is time for Romeo to leave, but just as he leaves he is told that none of the kids ever come back to the village, probably because they succumb to the harsh work conditions. He has no choice however as he had signed the contract and leaves the same day. Along the way he meets a boy who is unwilling to reveal anything apart from his name, which is Alfredo. They both earn each other's mutual respect after they help each other. This is also where they meet a boy named Dante. Soon they are taken into a tavern where they are thrown into the basement where the other kids were kept, Dante included. A few of them try to escape, but in vain. The god of death, or Mr. Luini decides that they must be sold as soon as possible before they try escaping again, so he and his companion decide to travel to Milan by boat, in the storm, however the boat sinks and apart from Alfredo and Romeo everyone else is presumed to be dead. They then see Mr. Luini drowning. Romeo's good values do not allow him to let the man sink and he saves him, as he believes that is what his father would do. The next day, Mr. Luini takes them both to Milan by horse cart, where they both are sold to two different people at high prices, but not before Romeo and Alfredo swear eternal friendship. The man who buys Romeo is called Marchello Rossi who is thoroughly manipulated by his wife (who hates Romeo), but is actually kind at heart. Through one of their routine cleaning days, Romeo meets professor Casera who teaches him how to read. Although Romeo is denied food by Rossi's wife, their daughter, who Romeo refers to as an angel, helps him by sharing her food with him. Soon, Anzelmo tricks Romeo into being friends so that he could steal the letter that the angel (Angeletta) had written for him, but turns out the letter was actually a page from her diary, where she detailed all the lies said by Anzelmo. When the wolf pack read it, they mercilessly beat Anzelmo up for lying to them. Anzelmo, hurt badly, swears revenge against Romeo. He blames his wounds on Romeo, knowing that his mother would believe him no matter what, and accuses Romeo of a robbery. Angeletta witnesses Anzelmo slipping their parents money into Romeo`s bag, but falls unconscious due to her serious heart illness before she could reveal the truth. Romeo however manages to escape just in the nick of time from the police but is cornered by the wolf pack. Dante appears from nowhere and saves Romeo, who is thrilled to see that Dante is still alive. Meanwhile Angeletta regains conscious and reveals the truth to her parents, but Rossi`s wife still wants Romeo imprisoned and forbids Rossi to say anything to the police. Dante also urges Romeo to leave the city as he is a wanted person. However, there is a mix-up between the wagons and he ends up in the wagon of a criminal, who plans to blow up the police station to free his brother. Romeo manages to warn the police officers and Rossi just in the nick of time but ends up badly injuring himself. Rossi, moved by the act, decides to stand up to his wife and reveals that Angeletta had seen the real thief. After this, Rossi warms up to Romeo much more and greatly improves his living conditions, and learns to stand up to his wife's manipulations. Romeo finally meets Alfredo again, and they grab all the chimney sweepers to form an alliance called the black brothers to combat the wolf pack. The challenge the wolf pack to a bout and win as they pre planned and set traps. However, the leader Giovanni is no where to be seen, as he is called to fight the strongest member of the scorpion gang, who he defeats effortlessly, after which they disband and join the wolf pack. Giovanni is outraged to hear that the wolf pack lost to the black brothers. In revenge, they kidnap Michaelo and ask for Alfredo in exchange. When Alfredo refuses to kneel down in front of Giovanni, the latter proposes a battle at dawn. Initially they all fight (except Alfredo), but seeing as no one is able to gain the upper hand, Alfredo asks them to stop. Giovanni agrees and decides to make it a 1 on 1 fight. Tachioni volunteers to fight from the Wolf pack gang and Romeo from the black brothers. However, midway Tachioni draws out a blade in spite of Giovanni's instructions to use only fists, luckily the reflection from Romeo's charm blinds Tachioni and he is able to defeat him. Giovanni accepts defeat and praises Alfredo for having good friends, but tells him that they will get even some day. Angeletta's mannerism is totally different from the rest of the family, and this leads to suspicion among some members of the wolf pack, particularly Dante. He extracts part of the truth from his master(who is a close friend of Rossi). Romeo overhears the conversation between Rossi and Angeletta and decides to follow him to the Countess' mansion, where it turns out that Angeletta is in fact the granddaughter of lady Isabella, a countess. Isabella's son, Adolfo, fell in love with a poor woman named Giovanna. However, Isabella did not approve of the difference in social status and thus the young couple left after they bore a child. Sadly, the parents passed away due to an illness and Isabella passed on the child to Rossi who was her childhood friend. Isabella is unwilling to let Angeletta into the mansion as she believes the latter is only after her wealth, and Romeo is willing to wager his life to prove her otherwise. Angeletta's condition worsens and she wishes to see her grandmother once before she dies. They sneak into the mansion and Angeletta gets to see her grandmother, but she coldly tells her to go back home. Angeletta, however thanks Isabella for allowing her to meet her and goes to the church to pray. She collapses in between, and goes into a coma. Dr Casera says the only way to save her would be to go his acquaintance in Paris, who is a heart specialist. Romeo, the rest of the black brothers and Rossi try their best to convince Isabella, and she finally agrees after being moved by Romeo's devotion and friendship. She meets Angeletta and promises to take care of her in whatever way possible, and the next day, after a farewell, they leave for Paris by train.

They following days, Romeo notices a huge crowd gathering outside a palace, and it turns out it is the grand wedding of the Duke of Milan. Romeo is called to clean the chimney of the hotel where all the invited nobles and royalties are staying, where he finds Alfredo's younger sister, Bianca, staying along with her uncle and aunt. She escapes and Romeo along with Alfredo begin to search for her, as the same with her uncle and aunt. Alfredo is visibly unwell, this could be attributed to the abuse he regularly went through at the hands of his master Citron, a cruel, vile man who spent all his money on drinking and gambling and thus Alfredo often went hungry. Alfredo tells the story of how he and Bianca were the children of the Martini family, Vittorio and Fatricia Martini, and how their father's younger brother Mauricio was extremely jealous of his success and wealth. Along with his wife, Grazela, they burn the house which kills Alfredo and Bianca`s parents, but not before they hand them the precious treasure of the Martini family, a medal. Alfredo and Bianca flee the burning mansion and their uncle and aunt frame them for the fire in hopes of capturing them and ultimately retrieving the medal. Alfredo and Bianca run for days until they are taken in by a couple, who they beg to let them stay. The God of Death makes his way to the village, and Alfredo willingly sells himself into slavery to provide the family with enough funds to raise Bianca. However, Bianca is captured by their relatives soon after Alfredo sold himself.

Bianca meanwhile is unable find Alfredo but Mauricio captures her and takes her back to the hotel and ties her up. Luckily Nikita witnesses Bianca`s capture and alerts Romeo and Alfredo. Then the black brothers come through, free her and tie up Bianca's aunt. Mauricio makes his way to the church as he heard that Alfredo was there, but Alfredo creates a distraction and with the help of Nikita, he escapes. Alfredo is re-united with his sister, but collapses and coughs blood. He is taken to professor Casera, who is worried that Alfredo's illness is terminal. Alfredo, however says that he cannot stay any longer and has to go back to his master as his contract was not over yet. Alfredo assures his friends that it was nothing serious and he just had a cold, and the reason he was coughing blood was because he had bit his tongue. Meanwhile, Mauricio orders for a fake medal to be made in order to be let into the dining room, while Alfredo and Bianca along with the black brothers think of a plan to sneak them inside, in order to tell the king the truth. In the background Giovanni watches them, planning to confront Alfredo once and for all. Alfredo has a talk with Romeo and heads home. He is first stopped by Nikita, who is presumably waiting for him. As they talk, though, Alfredo begins to coughs blood, while Nikita stares in horror. Alfredo begs her to keep it a secret, as he does not want to worry his friends. As he moves on, he is stopped by Giovanni, but before the latter could finish the fight, he notices Alfredo coughing and stops the fight, and Alfredo thanks him and leaves, making Giovanni uncomfortable. The rest of the wolf pack decides to capture Alfredo, unfortunately it turns out to be the day when Alfredo was supposed to meet the king. After trapping Alfredo inside a basement under the bridge, the pack run to Giovanni, who is enraged at their actions. Romeo, meanwhile is able to locate Alfredo as Mr Rossi had seen him go under the bridge. Romeo asks Alfredo to escape while he would stay back to stall the pack. When the pack reaches him, Giovanni is astonished at how dedicated and loyal Romeo is towards Alfredo. Nikita, no longer able to hold back, tells them that Alfredo is dying due to an illness, which happens to be the same illness that killed Giovanni's father, and this is not known to Romeo either. Giovanni decides to help Romeo and his group for the night. With the help of the wolf pack, they make their way through the castle, defeating Mauricio`s bodyguards as they try to kill Alfredo and Bianca. Meanwhile, Lady Isabella arrives and sees Michaelo, who explains everything to her. Just as Alfredo and Bianca are about to meet the king, Mauricio takes Bianca as hostage, and before he could finish her Nikita creates a distraction, due to which Alfredo and Romeo fall over the wall into the castle garden, but survive. They are successfully able to make it into the mansion, however the bodyguards capture the children. Luckily for them, Lady Isabella comes through revealing the identities of Alfredo and Bianca to everybody ells and asks the bodyguards to leave the kids alone. When they refuse she orders the King`s guards to take them away, saving Alfredo and Bianca`s lives. As Mauricio and Grazela are about to present the medal to the king, Alfredo pronounces the medal as fake, and claims he has the real medal. The king allows both parties to narrate their stories and Mauricio attempts to trap Alfredo and Bianca with his evil lies, but Mauricio is not aware of the fact that the king's father had marked something on the real medal- the mark of benediction, for showing true bravery and saving his life in war, which was missing from Mauricio's copy, and hence Alfredo and Bianca's names are cleared and their evil relatives are taken away. The black brothers talk for a while and everyone leaves, except Alfredo and Romeo, who go to the church, where they remember the moment they first met. Romeo thanks Alfredo for bringing hope into his life. Alfredo smiles, and says it wasn't him who was the ray of hope, it was Romeo himself, and he thanks Romeo for bringing courage and hope into his life. Alfredo then reminds him of the oath they made- they would always be together, no matter how far away they were from each other, asks Romeo to fulfil the dreams he would not be able to achieve, and asks him to take care of Bianca. And with that, Alfredo peacefully passes away in Romeo's arms, leaving a heartbroken Romeo behind, crying for his dear friend.

Romeo can hardly concentrate on any of his day-to-day activities or work, and this angers the rest of the black brothers and Bianca. His refusal to accept Alfredo's death puts a strain on their relations. The wolf pack gang, particularly Nikita, were also saddened by Alfredo's death. To get Romeo back into his spirits, the black brothers organise a fight, where should he lose, he would be cast out. Romeo makes his way to the fight, and after taking a few punches and after listening to Bianca and Dante, he finally snaps out of his trance, after realising what his best friend had told him. He decides to go around town asking for donations for Alfredo's funeral. At his funeral, they sing the black brothers song in honour of Alfredo. As the leader of the group, he is presented with a challenge: to gather 20 lira, as they all want to watch the new circus that is in town. Romeo found an old broken house that needed heavy fixes and repairs. Romeo volunteers to clean and repair the house, and seeing his dedication the others along with Bianca pitch in too. On the day before the circus leaves, Romeo is unable to complete cleaning the second floor, buy the woman is pleased with his efforts and pays him 20 lira anyway. However, Michaelo accidentally breaks a vase, which angers the shopkeeper and he takes Michaelo's pendent which his mother had given him. Romeo finds out, and without a moment's hesitation, trades the money for the pendent, a decision everyone agrees and praised him for. Happily, they all sit and share stories from their hometowns till the evening ends. While working one day, Romeo falls from a chimney. Dr Casella agrees to have him and Bianca at his place until his leg heals. The doctor interests them both in many subjects, and Bianca begins to see Dr Casella as a father. They help children at an orphanage as well. As a thank you present, they hold a puppet show for Dr Casella, where Bianca reveals that she wishes to stay with the doctor and become his nurse, while Romeo wishes to keep studying and become a teacher to educate and help others like Dr Casella. In 1876, when spring falls in, the time has finally come for Romeo to go back home in Sonogno, as his contract is over. Some of the boys have already left and some of them have a while still. Romeo takes his time to wish everyone goodbye, and although Mrs Rossi does not like to admit it, she does miss Romeo. Mr Rossi says that he would probably never get a helper like Romeo again, and Romeo thanks him and calls him his second father. As they are making their way, they see The God of Death with a new batch of kids. They visit Alfredo's grave one last time, where they make truce with the Wolf Pack, and Nikita promises to take care of Alfredo's grave. Dr Casella drives them halfway to their home towns along with Bianca, and they all wish each other good bye and best of luck. Romeo returns to Sonogno and re-unites with his family, and 10 years later, in 1886, thanks to his hard work, he becomes a teacher and marries Bianca, and they name their child Alfredo. With that, the anime concludes.