Forum - View topicREVIEW: Red Garden DVD 1
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Cowboy Cadenza
Posts: 243 Location: Poughkeepsie, NY |
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Um, I believe you've mixed up the characters Rose and Rachel here - Rose is the mellow, timid one with the siblings, and Rachel is the bitchy one.
Or, God forbid, ADV mixed them up? |
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 18458 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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Ugh, I thought I'd gotten that straightened out before I turned the review in. Thanks for pointing it out; it's been corrected. |
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Cowboy Cadenza
Posts: 243 Location: Poughkeepsie, NY |
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No problem - I was freaking out because I thought ADV made a huge mistake and I wouldn't want the DVD if that were the case. Thank God! |
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khryoleoz
 Posts: 158 |
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Wow! This is how I like anime horror. This first disc just has me hooked into it. The girls' horrific experiences of helplessness and confusion were very effective in making me sympathetic to them. The animation style is refreshing and the musical score is melancholy gorgeous. What a great title! Looking forward to more.
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chrisb
 Subscriber Posts: 642 Location: USA |
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Wow this is out already? This anime is one of my favorites and it gets much better when the girls begin to bond together and the story goes more into "is anybody in this show really evil?" The music is also one of my favorite aspects and the emotional pieces are even better, and the opening and endings (especially ED2) are fantastic. I like the musicals too, I know many hated them but they made the series unique and fresh.
The Japanese voice acting was great, it was done before the animation I think allowing more focus on acting. There are even some moments in the show where 2 characters are yelling at eachother realistically at the same time (not allowing any breathing time and the fighting is really heated.) I've never seen an anime do yelling so effectively in both arguing terms and horrofied terms. The horror aspect of this show is quite surprising, I think it's the first anime to make me actually jump out of my seat (episode 2 anyone?) and the show plays out much more like an American drama than a Japanese anime. Glad to see you noticed the Seinfeld reference in one of the episodes and there are also references to some famous broadway plays (look at the signs) too. |
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UltimateSpaceLion
 Posts: 28 |
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Agree with you there. The realism in the timing of the original voice acting was fab - really made the series stand out. Unfortunately, not wanting to spoil anything for anyone, but I found that while the series started out strongly, the ending was severely disappointing (continued below in spoiler) spoiler[ even with a follow up OVA, which, to be honest, I can't see answering all the questions ] |
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v1cious
 Posts: 6229 Location: Houston, TX |
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i'm surprised this is out already, i haven't seen any kind of promotion. a lot of people hate the singing, but i personally think it gave the show character.
Last edited by v1cious on Tue Sep 04, 2007 10:43 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Sam Murai
 Posts: 1051 |
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When I saw the first episode, I remember how odd it was to have one the characters just to start singing out of the blue. I mean, it wasn't a stretch of the imagination given the whole artistic direction of the show, it was just unexpected. I poked fun at it for awhile (due to both the oddity of it and how it was sung), but I actually liked that aspect of the show. spoiler[Too bad that it stops around halfway through, I think that it would have been a nice touch to have the group singing in the "red garden" at the very end.] Too bad ADV decided to use the song as poetry in that spot. I figured an alternative like that would occur, since singing is not the norm in anime. I thought that it could have worked still if the VAs managed to at least sing it in tune (as opposed to full-out vocals). |
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Key
Moderator
Posts: 18458 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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Once you hear how well some of the VAs sing later in the volume (ep 3, I think?) then you'll understand why they went to poetry for the first song. (Not that any of the original Japanese VAs did a good job at it, mind you.) Some English VAs have proven that they can sing quite well - Laura Bailey and Monica Rial immediately spring to mind - but clearly not all of them can. For those asking about the title's availability, it's not yet. The first volume is due out 9/18, so we're actually a couple of weeks ahead of schedule on this one. |
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chrisb
Subscriber Posts: 642 Location: USA |
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@UltimateSpaceLion: I actually really loved the ending, I thought I had figured out the ending that spoiler[Lise had sacrificed herself for the girls, and that's when they wake up, plus the entire scene when all the flowers start blooming all over the place was beautiful] but I may be wrong on the Lise part, but I like to think that's how it ended. I'm not looking forward to the OVA, it is not the Red Garden I know but it may turn out good.
@Key: Actually I don't think the actresses sang great on purpose, I mean they were mostly singing when they were crying so their voices do sound naturally scratchy and off. I'm more curious if ADV will do singing in one of the later episodes where all the girls are singing happily together, it may not work in a poetry way. |
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Jedi General
 Posts: 2485 Location: Tucson, AZ |
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I thought this review was a tad bit early. Thanks for clarifying that, Key. Still, after reading the review I'm full on into giving this series a try now. It sounds right up my alley. After recently watching When They Cry - Higurashi and all 74 episodes(!) of Monster, I'm ready to tackle another dark and horrifying series.
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bleuster
 Posts: 455 Location: Orange County |
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Funny how the review mentioned Shoujo style.
I remember Fuji Jun doing illustrations of the Red Garden characters in the Robot series. I'm not sure if the artist is also the designer or concept artist, but if you looked at the Robot volumes you'd see it's very similar to the OP designs and style to the series. |
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abunai
Old Regular
 Posts: 5463 Location: 露命 |
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I have to say, I disagree with this opinion. In fact, when I originally saw the series, it struck me as one of the few mysterious anime that actually managed to come to a satisfactory conclusion. Certainly, there were questions left unanswered, but nothing serious. And I liked the look of the final episode, it was very pretty. - abunai |
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Randall Miyashiro
 Posts: 2451 Location: A block away from Golden Gate Park |
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My copy didn't come in until this week, but I finally got aroun to watching it this morning. I'm a bit surprised at how well this series has been received, since it just didn't click with me. Maybe it is the "overwhelming shoujo" atmosphere that scares me away. In this regards it reminds me of the highly acclaimed Utena which everyone besides me seemed to love. To me it felt awkward in style and character interaction. Oddly enough I didn't have this problem with Paradise Kiss, and I'm a big fan of Please Save My Earth, RG Veda, and a bunch of other shoujo titles so I believe it is something specific to this show and Utena.
The song in the first episode felt a little goofy and felt like a musical. When the song is sung by the entire cast in different locations on the second episode I actually laughed out loud and wondered if the entire cast would break out into song every episode. The ED song really seems out of place for the series. Not since Berserk's OP and Zeta's ED have I felt that a song was misplaced. I will buy the second volume and give this series another chance (since I've collected almost everything by Gonzo) but for now When They Cry still has my vote for creepy series. Having never watched Seinfeld the "Soup" reference now makes a bit of sense with this review. I also smirk every time someone yells Lise, since it sounds to me like Risu "squirrel". I suppose it is one of those unfortunate names when it comes to Japanese like Danny. |
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