Red Garden
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| Ending Song: Rock the LM.C by LM.C OH MY JULIET. by LM.C |
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Information of Anime
Four girls, Kate, Rose, Claire, & Rachel, wake up in the next day & can't remember what they did the previous night. At school, their classmate & friend, Liz, is announced dead after committing suicide. The four girls don't know each other & the only thing they have in common is being a friend of Liz. That's what they originally think. On their way back from school, each of them see a pack of dark butterflies & follow them into the park where the girls meet each other. At the park, a lady named Lula & a man named Claude meet the girls & tell them that they are dead.
Storyline (CONTAINS SPOILERS)
Below is a summary of the storyline I've seen. This section does contain some spoilers. If you haven't seen the series yet & don't want to be spoiled, skip this section. If you want to know the story & want to see how I viewed it, read on.
After learning they are dead, the four girls also learned that they have to fight together as a team against some monsters that are humans turning into a wild dog-like creature in their minds. Initially, all the girls especially Rachel are against this as they are scary of killing & getting killed by those creatures. They also find it hard to believe that they have died & Claire & Kate decided to investigate this. The results are what Lula mentioned to them & the girls start to become more convinced when they see their dead bodies being preserved. The only way they return back to their normal lives is to defeat those monsters according to Lula. Meanwhile, we learn that Liz also has a body like the four girls but is in the hands of the enemy. The enemy is trying to find a host for their family to break the curse that transforms them into those creatures. Herv・ a member from that cursed family, is trying to save his sister & cousin from this curse by using medications. However, the lab is more focused on Lize's body by using it as a host. This upsets Herv・& decides to take matters into his own hands by approaching Kate to find his enemy. We also learn that the school that four girls go to is connected with Lula's work.
As the show progress, we see the girls & Herv・having their personal problems getting worse. Rose losing track on her search for her father, Rachel losing her connection with her friends as she spends time with one of her teachers that creates misunderstandings, & Claire's financial problems getting deeper with her brother's suicide. But the biggest victim is Herv・telling Kate that he knows about the girls' secret & killings. Although he promises to keep quiet, he leaks bits of information for the police to solve the mystery of Lize's murder as the case is about to be reopened.
Things get intense as Herv・tells Claire the truth about her body & about this fight between his organization & her's. Both organizations each have a Cursed Tomb. When both are obtained, it holds a great power. Both parties wants the tomb & Herv・learns where the headquarters of Claire's organization is. However, both parties don't go at it as Claire & her friends are trying to get over the truth about their bodies & overcoming their personal lives. What's worse is how they will lose their memories regardless if they win or lose. After they overcome this, they discover that Lise is still alive.
During the five girl's grieving of losing their memories, Herv・has problems of his own when his company doesn't help cure his sister Anna as they focus more attention to Lise. It goes to the point where his sister is very close of transforming. To stop this, Herv・takes Lise away from the company in order for them to focus on his sister. However, the company will find Lise in no time without problems. But, Neil of the police force that has been tracking down on this case with his now dead partner informs Kate about Lise being alive. In the process, he loses his life as well. Because of Lise now transforming due to the company's failure, they capture Kate who stood outside the company as she talked to Herv・about knowing the truth & wanting Lise back. Overhearing the fight that Kate put up, Herv・& his friend, Emilo, go back to the company to stop them on performing experiments on Kate.
Meanwhile, the rest of the girls are managing out their personal problems now. Once they do, Lula contacts them & informs them that Kate has been captured. The result leads to Emilo's death as well as Doral's, the mastermind in all this operation. Lise's Animus body transforms & escapes into the city. With Kate rescued, she & the three other girls learn the truth about this battle as they meet the master of the Animus. The first battle between Doral & Animus resulted in Doral taking one of Animus' Cursed Tome. This lead to a disease for the Doral that transforms them into what they are now. For the Animus, the master become like lifeless dolls that can't move & live for eternity. The masters ask Kate, Rachel, Rose, & Claire to get the Cursed Tome back since they can finally die in peace. Meanwhile, Herv・leads Doral to retrieve the other Cursed Tome to cure their disease as their experimentations are finally stopped. The final battle takes place on Christmas Day. The day before, the four girls spend their time together with their personal lives happily as they will lose their memories or be dead.
The last episode shows an intense battle around the school grounds between the Doral & Animus. Kate & company chase after Herv・as he carries Anna towards the school grounds. Along the way, they find Lise who regained her memories of Kate & company & chase after Herv・ Heavily wounded by the descend Lula, Herv・ends Anna's life as she transforms & is too late to save her. With all of Doral dead & Kate, Clare, Rose, Rachel, & Lise being the only surviving Animus, they deliver the Cursed Tome from Herv・to their masters where they die in peace.
The story ends with the five girls laying on the grass outside the school grounds. Lise turns into ashes & the battlefield starts growing red lilies all over, creating a red garden. Kate, Clare, Rose, & Rachel wake up to this sight.
My Personal Review
Red Garden has a miss leading title. I didn't think it was a horror show. I thought it was anime show for girls. Boy, was I wrong!
Animation
The character designs have this French or American feel to it. The eyes are small & long & the noses are very big & some of them are pointy. It has this 70s retro feel to it as well. Even the clothing has that feel as well, even though the show takes place in our present time. It's got a bit of Japanese feel to it, but Rose is the only character that gave me that impression with her large eyes. The body proportions are quite long & thin at the limbs. Another reason why it gave me that non-Japanese feel.
The backgrounds are pretty good as it maintains that 70s look. It also gives that New York impression very well as the setting is in that city. Not very detail, but it really has that strong impression & attachment.
The colours are mainly dull. Another reason why I felt the show has that 70s & non-Japanese feel. The outlines of the characters are pretty thick & heavy. It's quite noticeable on the faces. At times, the characters are quite bold that they seem out of place with the backgrounds.
The animation movements are pretty realistic & fluid. Pretty smooth. But when it comes to walk, the character seem to struggle a bit & look like they have some strange walking patterns. It's basically because you can see the animation being recycled as you see the breaks in them.
Sound
The sound effect aren't too bad. Pretty clean & clear. The tearing of meat is very clean & a bit disturbing at times.
The seiyuus aren't too bad. But, I had a hard time adapting those voices. It's mainly because of the character designs & the whole show itself looking like a French or American animation. It gave me the impression that I'm watching a Japanese dub instead. Also, the voices are too "Japanese" on the non-Japanese characters like the African-Americans.
The music here is a mainly orchestral. The orchestral ones are a bit mysterious like an "Alice in Wonderland" style. They are times where the characters would start singing all of the sudden for no reason whatsoever. I thought the show was a musical as well, which I thought it was funny sometimes. The opening theme really gave me a wrong impression of the show as it was hip & happy. It was the reason why I thought it was girl show of some sort, not a horror one. The first ending theme is a bit misleading as well, but manages to fit the horror theme.
Story
Mainly about the struggle of the four girls being dead & being forced to fight those creatures to get return to their normal lives. The idea of it may seem less interesting than it sounds. The real meat is really the character development of the four girls. From the fear of death to creating death, we see how the girls get mature & accept their fate. Although we see some of the girls like Rachel accepting & then not accepting it, the development is still there. It goes deeper with their personal problems getting worse as well as Herv・s. Plus, Herv・throwing out evidence of Liz's murder to the police raises more excitement.
As the show gets closer, it gets very intense as the plot thickens & intense battles appear. It was exciting watching them, especially old headmistress kicking some ass on the Durals. The story does build up slow as it focuses on the four girls' personal problems in life. For 22 episodes, it's amazingly spread out well. Although it does recycle back & forth, like the case or Rose being weak, the show manages to keep the pacing steady.
The ending wasn't something I enjoyed much. I wrapped up the show nicely as it didn't leave anything behind in terms of problems not being resolved. It wrapped the show up nicely with a pleasant mood, however it felt a bit empty.
Overall Conclusion
Red Garden is quite mysterious & somewhat mislead based on first impressions. It's an ok show in my view at this point since there isn't any progress in terms of the fighting aspect. If you like some mysterious horror, you will probably like this show.
Red Garden gets an eight out of ten. This score & review may change when I finish watching the show. The show is quite weak in the fights at the start, but it improves later; especially the last episode. But the show shines a bit in the character development side with the four girls. However, the pace is quite slow & does feel like it's dragging at times due to the girls' on & off attitudes about their deaths & personal lives. Once you get over this hump, it's smooth intense sailing from there. As for the ending, it felt empty as everything wrapped up. The OVA, Dead Girls, is a sequel to this show but I don't think it would make a good continuation to this show as it takes places in a different New York timeline & setting.
Last updated on January 14, 2008
