Language - Japenese
Genre - anime, horror, mystery
Red Garden
Four high school girls
(Kate, Rachel, Rose & Claire) wake up with only fleeting memories of the
night before and the feeling that something is not right. Latter that day the police visit their school
to investigate the mysteries death of their friend, Lise, Matters are further
complicated when, later that night, the four girls each see a number of
butterflies that no one else can see.
After following the butterflies they meet Lula who tells them that they
are all dead and, unless they want to disappear they must fight monsters that
prow the night. The monsters look like
men but walk on all fours and have glowing eyes.
The girls spend the nights fighting the
monsters and the days trying to find the truth to their situation, the only
leads they have are the memories of a mansion
and the missing diary that belonged to Lise.
Red Garden is a bit different to the anime I’m
used to watching, even though the majority of the cast is female the show does
not rely on fan service in the same way as shows like Sekirei, non of
the girls have overly large breast, the clothes they wear (including the school
uniforms) all fit and don’t get too damaged/ripped/removed during the fights
and, even though there is plenty of opportunity there is a distinct lack of
‘panty shots’.
In the same way the
series is not a Shonen type show like Bleach or Naruto. Even though the girls do gain a couple of
extra abilities after they die there is no exponential power growth for them or
for the monsters. In fact, after the first
few episodes the fights with the monsters take second seat to the investigation
on to what happened the night they died.
That is not to say that they don’t happen they just pay a part for the
character development.
Instead of the action
and fan service Red Garden relies on the story and character growth as the
girls try to find out what happened the night they died, what the monsters are
and how it all ties in with Lise’s death and this can lead to the series being
a bit slow, some of the major plot points are not picked up until episode 14
and some of the plot lines just seem to fizzle out. In one episode the girls are given a seed by
Lula who tells them that if they plant it will prove that they are dead, the
seed grows and the girls get a couple of memories back, when they go to flower
it is guarded by a couple of the monsters, hinting that the flower is meant to
something but it doesn’t make another appearance. The girls relationship with Lula also seems
to change quiet easily and quickly, the go from hating her as she is the person
who has put them in the situation they are in to sympathizing and forgiving her
once they know what is going on, I’m not going to elaborate much more on that
point to avoid spoilers but there are other characters who do less to them and
who only get more hated.
As I have stated, Red
Garden is slow in places, it chose’s to grow the characters personalities
instead of their power’s and so the amount of action is minimal until after
episode 14 when the girls find out what the monsters are and why they are
fighting them. Even then the show
concentrates on the story more than the fighting, with the final battle leading
to a large number of deaths but only a few are seen on screen, most of the ones
we do see are still there to push the story to it’s end.
Oh and there’s crying,
lots of crying. Some one cries in every
episode and in the pivotal 14th episode I think every main character
cry’s at least once.
Saying all of that,
red garden is worth a watch, each episode gives a bit more information as to
what is going on and a lot of the secondary characters play different parts in
the mystery and, although it could possible be a couple episodes shorter it did
hold my interest to the end without having to rely on fan-service.
The ADV box set also
contains an OVA which is worth mentioning but this part will CONTAIN SPOILERS.
The OVA is a two part
episode called ‘dead Girls’ and is set in the distant future Kate, Rachel, Rose
& Claire have no memory of the events in Red Garden, which is, with eternal
life the side effect of uniting the two parts of the books of curse’s at the
end of the series. The four girls have
been travailing around the world but are currently back in New York working as
bounty hunters, as cover they are back in school. The girls are type off that there are weapons
dealers who are planning something big and the meeting is supposed to take
place in the ‘red Garden’ that was created at the end of the series. The girls are both intrigued and scared to go
back into the garden as the first thing any of them remember is waking up there
and they are worried what they may discover about the 17 years they cant
remember.
Dead girls is a lot
more light hearted than red garden with each of the girls playing a different
role in the group (a deliberate set up to help stop them getting board) and
sees the return of some of the other characters all be it in different roles
(except the two policemen, they are always policemen). The Four girls travel on hover boards, which
look like butterflies and Rachel has even built a Mecha, which she calls her
baby to help in the fight.
Dead girls has
potential and I think it could make an entertain series but as it stands it
only exists as the OVA.
No comments:
Post a Comment