Forum

anime#6804

First of all, I don't really know much about this anime at all. Actually, I don't know anything. I don't know if it was based on a manga, was an orginal work, or something else. Anybody who could shed some light on that would be appretiated.

That being said, I really didn't know what to expect out this, other than that character designs weren't really typical anime style, it was done by Gonzo, and my favorite seiyuu did a main character's voice.

Character designs aren't exactly my favorite, but they're tolerable. All of the characters seem to have huge noses, which is my only complaint... About ten seconds into the anime and I was able to tell that this anime takes place in the US, specifically, New York... Um, I can't really pinpoint the time period, I was thinking present, but many of the characters' clothes just seem... way too old fashioned... but it could take place in the present I guess. I don't recall seeing the twin towers anytime in the anime (could have missed them though, if they were shown. It's possible they were just left out though).

As far as the actual content... It started out interesting, then throughout most of the middle got pretty boring, and actually quite cheesy to me, spoiler[especially with the random song. Just way too angsty for me, considering we hardly even know these characters (This coming from a person who loves Kiminozo). Fortunately, it didn't last that long.] But in the end, they finally threw in something that caught my attention spoiler[by throwing in the seemingly "supernatural" elements. Wierd butterflies and whatever that hell was up with that man at the end is exactly what was needed.]

So, the first episode was okay. It seems like it has potential, so I'll probably be watching more of this. I feel like going to "Bapplebee's" now...

This looks sufficiently mindfuck that I think I'm eagerly going to stick with it. I'm glad gg picked it up - stuff I've wanted to see all year has had a nasty habit of getting picked up by someone really slow or not at all.

I'm interested this series based on the concept, but I didn't like the character designs I saw in the trailer. I'll give the series a try though and hope I can tolerate them. I really can't say much more until I've actually seen it.

Well, did some research on it now. It is an original work. It's from the director of Rozen Maiden (Kou Matsuo). Although, it isn't a comedy like Rozen Maiden, rather, he wanted to do something more serious. Apparently, he was very intrigued by his visit to New York.

I couldn't find out out anywhere, but as of now I'm guessing it takes place in the present seeing as that was what the director was basing it on. Wierd though... the clothes still look kind of old fashioned to me... and none of the characters acted like any New Yorkers I've meet... not enough obese people either. New York (actually, the US in general) has a lot of those, yet everybody seemed like a stick...

Also, I was glad to hear I wasn't the only one who found the noses to be rather distracting. I'm also not the only one who was annoyed by spoiler[the random angsty singing in the first episode.] I honestly wouldn't have minded it if they waited more episodes before doing that. It was just way to early to put something like that in imo. I've been hearing people are suspecting this anime may turn into a spoiler[monster of the week] type of show because of what happened at the end of the episode. I'm certainly hoping that isn't what will happen, it has so much potential to be more...

Last edited by v1cious on Thu Jun 07, 2007 4:09 am; edited 1 time in total

the show looks like it was made in Flash or something, the way the characters stick out against the backgrounds. the noses didn't really bother me too much. i thought it added character, as opposed to your typical anime girl designs. i like the plot, so i'll probably watch the next 5 or so episodes before i decide if it's for me.

also the ending song really ruins the atmosphere. i don't know what they were thinking.

I finally got around to checking out the first episode yesterday. The premise is interesting and I hope they'll expand on it and not go the monster-of-the-day route.

I have to echo most of the thread posters' sentiments on the character designs. Something about them made me keep thinking of Gilgamesh, another series with character designs I didn't like.

All that aside I'm looking forward to see which direction the series will take.

It looked like New York + Soviet era eugenics = Everyone is white, mostly blonde and pretty. I'd call it another "pretty white kids with problems" show, but the whole monster angle makes it very ho-hum.

But dispite that, I'm quite intrigued by the presentation. The animation is quite nice. I'd like to see how they continue to present NYC in the 2D world. The art style is a little too much like Kawamori a-la-Escaflowne to its detriment.

TcDohl wrote:

But dispite that, I'm quite intrigued by the presentation. The animation is quite nice. I'd like to see how they continue to present NYC in the 2D world. The art style is a little too much like Kawamori a-la-Escaflowne to its detriment.

I love the designs in Escaflowne, but the designs in Red Garden take that aesthetic...too far ^^;

One thing I have to admit about the show is that it's the first...maybe ever to actually make me jump. They really build teh horrific atmosphere and tension incredibly well.

Now that the series has built to a climax what does everyone think of it? Episode 18 is the latest release I believe.

I've gotten over the strange character designs and now I really appreciate the girls' looks, I'm even starting to see them as good looking. It's funny that when I first started watching I thought they looked ridiculous and now I find it much more 'natural' than purple-haired, bug eyed smurf-sized lolitas. Maybe it's the fantastic characterization and development that has made me warm to them. Either way the glamorous look Red Garden is given really enriches my understanding of the very unglamorous conflicts, emotions and changes the characters endure. At times I feel that they could've made it just a little bit more filthy. In fact I get thirsty during the fight scenes for some unnerving material. The first couple of episodes where spoiler[Rachel's nail is cracked, really sold it for me. I love that sort of imagery, where it's such a noticeable detail that makes a vein character feel so ugly.] I would like to see more of this kind of unnerving filth and I have a feeling that we're going to see a lot more detailed blood and fighting scenes. In episode 18 spoiler[we saw Anna (or was it Mireille?) cough up a liter of blood on her chest and we saw the investigation officer die, 'moderately disgusting'.] Apart from that I think the visual effects are perfect.

I've never been to New York or a city as large but I definitely get the feeling in Red Garden of the girls being alone in a place packed with people. I love this element and I think it's portrayed so well through each of the girls reaching out to people they love and dealing with the social problems their condition creates. The relationships present in RG are the most intricate and developed I've seen in anime. The series really spends a lot of time (17 episodes) encouraging the viewer to empathize with the girls and really understand all the realistic problems; socially, financially, academically and physically, they go through. There has not been one moment in the series where I've wanted to see more action, or wanted a plot twist. Everything is timed perfectly and I believe that pacing in a series makes a very big difference to the enjoyment. Each character cries for just enough time before they get annoying. We go through a cycle of the four girls and switch from problem to problem between them and not once have I hated one of them even though they have obvious weaknesses. This is because I understand their situations so well thanks to the magnificent characterization.

The music is great too. I even liked the singing at the end of a few episodes Anime catgrin

, though unfortunately it seems to have stopped. I thought it was a little bit embarrassing and I still can't really figure out why they were singing but it was a little rest from all the emotional stress we had gone through in the first few episodes. The OP song is good, it's glamorous and does sound a bit 1920s American jazz-like. I think it suits the series well. The OP animation is a bit of a disappointment. I like it's subtleness and I prefer it to slow moving shots of the characters' naked silhouettes, but I think it's a bit too pretty and frankly it reminds of the OP animation to Peach Girl. ED songs and animation is always bad so I won't discuss that.

The male characters are RG's let-down. I still can't figure Herve out, I think he should have been introduced earlier so we got to know him more. So far we know that he's spoiler[manipulative, heartless towards Kate and Lize (spiteful in fact) yet he dramatically and dearly loves his younger cousin and sister (one of which is dead but apparently it doesn't make a difference which one it is). We are led to believe that he would do anything to save Anna (or Mireille?) even kill Lize and destroy Kate and her sister's lives, which goes against all the emotions he feels for his sister. Herve has a Freudian complex, as his mother transformed into a monster before his eyes when he was young. I don't really understand his emotional reactions to this and I haven't really gotten to know him enough to empathize with him, which disappoints me greatly as it seems he's going to be the key in the series which will end it and have the biggest impact on it's direction.]
Regarding the police officers, spoiler[Paranoia Agent anyone? They're the exact same characters but they've moved to New York? I like them because they're dedicated and they know that something is up. Now that one of them is dead I'm anxious to see what will become of the case and the drug company. I'd like to see a link between the girls' prior lives (to their deaths) to the drunk company. For example, Rose's father may have something to do with the drug company? Claire's brother's business forced to go bankrupt due to the drug company's corruption? Nick (Rachel's 'Culture Hubby') has some links to the drug company? Well we just have to wait and see.]

Finally I think the most obvious strength in Red Garden is it's reason, it's restraint and it's sensible realism. spoiler[Four girls given super-human powers and a chance to kill crazed cannibals sounds like a girl-kick-butt action packed saga. Instead Red Garden has realistically depicted it's characters being challenged instead of automatically displaying masterful martial arts skills. No leather-clad voluptuous cyborg vampire slayers here. These are emotional and quite normal teenage girls with different backgrounds.] It's very impressive stuff and I hope that the ending won't disappoint, so I can officially add this to my top 10 anime Very Happy

.

Amasa wrote:

Now that the series has built to a climax what does everyone think of it?

Just finished the series, and on the balance - I loved it! And the series finally spoiler[lived up to its name] Smile

(that's not really a spoiler, but just to be on the safe side!) To me this series was off to a rather bad start, with, as you mention, slightly unorthodox character designs, and a little too much angst (not to mention appalling vocals) in the first few episodes. That put me off a bit, but it still had some interesting elements and held the promise of a recovery, so I decided to stick with it to see where things might lead, and that was richly rewarded in later episodes. Since around the middle of the series I've been following it religiously, as it just grew better and better, winning me over from Death Note, which instead started going downhill (IMO) at the same rate roughly simultaneously.

Quote:

I've gotten over the strange character designs and now I really appreciate the girls' looks, I'm even starting to see them as good looking. It's funny that when I first started watching I thought they looked ridiculous and now I find it much more 'natural' than purple-haired, bug eyed smurf-sized lolitas.

I couldn't agree more. Once you snap out of the stereotype anime look, the depiction of characters feels ultra-realistic, and much richer in some ways. It is almost as if very lightly exaggerating some features (like the noses, or Rachel's hair) actually works to give you a different but heightened feeling of realism than many other anime (maybe that sounds like an oxymoron, but that's the effect it had on me!). The personal development as the girls gradually find out more about themselves is one of the strong points of the series; all the hard lessons they have to learn, and the hard decisions they need to make. The plot becomes good fun eventually, but it's mainly carried by the characters, from beginning to finish.

Quote:

The music is great too. I even liked the singing at the end of a few episodes Anime catgrin

, though unfortunately it seems to have stopped.

Though I liked the music extremely well, I'm happy that part stopped! Wink

Really, I feel that the opening sequence is one of the most memorable of all anime that I have seen, definitely on some top-whatever list; love the jazzy tinge and the sassy female vocals, and the graphics are just mesemerizing, there's no other word for it. I can stare myself blind at those enticing outlines (like some iPod promo) filled with falling flowers. Brilliant concept, and well executed by Gonzo (I'm one of those who have mostly only seen the good stuff from Gonzo, and usually don't know what people are talking about when the company keeps receiving sucpicious frowns for every new series they produce).

Quote:

The male characters are RG's let-down.

Well, but you can't have the entire cast play lead roles or you end up with a character sallad. The girls are clearly the focus of the series, so I found it rather natural that guys like Rook and Emilio, Herve etc take second place, and as such, I think they work pretty well at the level of character description they are given.

Quote:

Finally I think the most obvious strength in Red Garden is it's reason, it's restraint and it's sensible realism. It's very impressive stuff and I hope that the ending won't disappoint, so I can officially add this to my top 10 anime Very Happy

.

It didn't disappoint me, for what it's worth. And I am so looking forward to the OVA now.

Wait a minute your telling me this Gonzo show actually delievers? I've been keeping up with pumpkin scissors which up and down for most of the season, and I stop watching Red Garden around episode 4....I think.

So this series is actually worth the time then? Augh curses like I need an another series to keep up with.

Deltakiral wrote:

Wait a minute your telling me this Gonzo show actually delievers?

Well, I thought it did. But yeah, I didn't much like it in the beginning either. I think it was around episode 7, where we get a chunk of the backstory and can begin to appreciate the depth of the mystery, that it started getting really interesting, and a few episodes later that I declared myself hooked Wink

I was surprised that I found the show as watchable as I did. I thought I was going to hate it and give up on it. I think there's less to it than meets the eye.

It's not going on my list of favorites or near-favorites.

It has earned a solid hit on my list of "useful artistic experiments which I hope will lead to better anime in the future."

Hey, not every anime can be as good as PlanetES. Some series end up being ... average. Red Garden had a few really good points, a few really bad points, and a fair number of "meh" points.

I just finished episode 22 and I found it excellent. To be honest I had prepared myself to be disappointed, but now I'm relieved and very satisfied with the way that everything was concluded...well most things anyway. In some ways I think I actually would have preferred episode 21 to be the last one and all the spoiler[fighting] in episode 22 to have been before the ending. Episode 21 is probably the best episode of the whole series even though not a lot happens.

What I find so odd is that Red Garden should be classified as a Magical Schoolgirl anime, but it basically redefines the genre.

I'm really glad that there have been people following the series, it's a real diamond and I recommend it to...everyone! I can't wait until the OVA. Someone has classified it as Mecha in the encyclopedia but somehow I find that unreliable.

Anyways I'm going to eat a lemon, they taste so good after watching the series.
p.s spoiler[RIP Lula, that was so sad... she really grew on me!]

I'm only at episode 4 right now, but I'm going to make a few comments based upon my limited exposure.

1: I think the reason that the character designs look so odd at first glance is that they're so un-animeish. We're all so used to huge eyes and all-but-nonexistent noses that the more realistic facial proportions of the RG characters look odd at first glance. Although I'll admit that some of the noses go a little too far in the opposite direction.

Another thought occurred to me as I watched: is this maybe how the Japanese really see European noses? If so, it's amusing from a cultural standpoint.

2: I like the jazzy opening music. But the rap closing theme is completely out of place with the rest of the show. This is one of the few series that actually move me to take my headphones off while the closing credits are running.

3: No, the New York of RG isn't much like the real New York. It's more like New York through a Japanese tourist's eyes, which makes it interesting in another way.

4: Try as I might, I can't find any rationale whatever for the characters singing to themselves in the early episodes. RG clearly isn't a musical, so the musical interludes don't seem to fit at all. And the fact that none of the songs I've heard are sung particularly well confuses me all the more.

5: The glamorous art-nouveau style isn't something I'd like to see spread to other anime, but it works very well for me as a change of pace in this series.

I'll be able to better comment once I've seen the whole thing, but those are my thoughts up to episode 4. In a nutshell, I'd say that so far it seems like a kind of "Haibane Renmei meets Grantz," and I'll be watching the rest of it to find out for sure.

Forum - View topic
Red Garden.

Bakemonogatari Manga Artist 'Oh! great' Launches New Manga

The ANN Aftershow - I Support Falin's Crimes

Nude Model: Tsubasa Yamaguchi Short Stories Manga Review

This Week in Games - EVO Japan 2024: You Ain't From Chicago If You Ain't Broken exA Before!

The Beauty of Stop-Motion Animation with Bottle George Director Daisuke 'Dice' Tsutsumi

Singer, Voice Actress Suzuko Mimori Moves to the U.S.

This Week in Anime - Is The Anime Girl Band Era Here?

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth Video Game Review

The Spring 2024 Manga Guide

El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron HD Remaster Video Game Review

Manhwa and Manga: Similar but Different Art Forms

	Anime News Network Forum Index -> General -> Series Discussion	All times are GMT - 5 Hours Goto page 1, 2 Next
Page 1 of 2

Forum - View topicRed Garden.

Forum

Forum - View topic
Red Garden.