Red Garden: Dead Girls

Title: Dead Girls

Anime: Gonzo did the production on this again (known for their work on Saikano and Gankutsuou) and Kou Matsuo directed as well (known for his work on all seasons of Rozen Maiden and the OVA). Dead Girls is a 45-minute OVA that was released on August 8th, 2007. As far as I'm aware, Dead Girls has not been licensed, either by ADV, or Funimation (who currently holds the original series' license).

Dead Girls picks up about 300 years in the future in NYC, where Rachel, Rose, Kate and Claire are pretending to be high school girls as cover for bounty hunting, because ... hey, why not? They apparently don't have any memories of the original series, as they were warned previously in the original series. But the new transfer students look quite familiar and may mean trouble for them...

Okay, so, first off, it's interesting to see what 300 years of having a seventeen year-old's body has done to the girls. There are some pretty obvious 180s in peoples' personalities, but there are pretty decent reasons given for it, which is really appreciated here. It's more fun seeing what the girls are like now than it is watching the actual plot of the thing, which isn't the greatest or most interesting and gets resolved in a pretty lame way. Again, though, director of Rozen Maiden, so this shouldn't come as much of a surprise in terms of lack of resolution and plot quality.

As for art, it's the same style as the series, but with some added caveats. There are a lot of reused character designs from the original series, either for continuity or because the designers were lazy, take your pick. Also, there's the typical Gonzo mech added, and it's quite nicely done and doesn't seen all that out of place.

Music is pretty much what was used in the series, with a song being sung in horribly out of tune voices (yay for realism?) to the main theme. Ehhh, this kind of loses points with me. But otherwise, pretty solid.

Seiyuu are same as in the series, with seiyuu reprising their roles for similar looking characters from the original series; again, continuity or budget saving, who knows.

Length here is pretty solid. 45 minutes, which was more than I expected. Just about right, actually, though it did drag at the end.

Overall, this is a pretty solid OVA. There's a few issues of laziness versus continuity, but otherwise, a solid follow-up that's worth a watch.

Story: 7/10
Art: 9/10
Music: 7/10
Seiyuu: 7/10
Length: 8/10

Overall: 38/50; 76% (C)

Story-wise, the plot hardly makes any sense at all. Near the end of the series, the girls have the contact information of their families, and photos of friends and family in their pockets, yet they don't seem to have contacted their families, or even recognize any of the reincarnations they encounter. As for the mystery of Red Garden,, they would have known at least, that they were students on the island, since they had their student IDs on their bodies when they lost their memories. All mysteries about their immortal bodies would have been easily answered by Paula, who knew where they ... were going, and that they would lose their memories.

Also, the theme song is pretty bad.

If you loved Red Garden and wanted more: DO NOT WATCH THIS. I made the mistake of watching it and in spite of all my efforts to keep it separate from the original show, it's still creeping in to taint the memories. This OVA starts out with amusing character dynamics and fun nods to the original but by the end of it, it is a waste of time in its own right and, with regards to the show proper, is an assassination of the characters you fell in love with and the story that presumably moved you. Don't take the same psychic ... damage I did and just pretend this doesn't exist.