Red Garden

This show was a pleasant surprise. When I decided to pick this anime up, I knew virtually nothing about it, and that's how I'd recommend experiencing it, so I'll try to give you just enough justification to trust me and watch it yourself. If you're already here on this MAL page and on the fence of whether to pick it up or keep going, please read on for a bit of mindset I think approaching this with will maximize your enjoyment of it.

This is an anime that will require some concessions to get the most out of, but goddamn it it's worth it. ... For most of the runtime, it looks like shit. There is a blatant lack of funding behind it, prominently evident in much of the visuals (this is a QUALITY anime if there ever was one.) From backgrounds and non-important objects and people looking straight out of the 80s to the "fight" "scenes" (yes those quotes both need to be there,) you will not be impressed except for maybe a handful of climactic moments and the inserts with an entirely separate but beautiful artstyle. The script isn't the tightest; it could use some revision that they didn't have time or money for to iron out a lot of contrivance and missed opportunity, so you will need to have the ability to look over convenience for the sake of keeping the plot going, or gaps in explanation for the full world-building. The voice acting ranges from "damn fine job" to "where did they find this guy." HOWEVER! If you can relax your standards, what lies beneath is a character-driven mystery-thriller-drama in the vein of SHAKESPEARE. Yes, I'm serious. I was thoroughly invested, on the edge of my seat, and once it gets going, the emotional punches just keep coming and you won't be able to take your eyes off the screen. There really is a diamond in the rough here. The mysteries are intriguing enough and the characters endearing enough that, once you're hooked by the story, the goofiness of the unpolished aspects offers its own charm. I would be remiss to call this a masterpiece, but there is a compelling stageplay-esque drama here. It moved my dusty old heart and made me feel things I haven't felt in years in spite of the weak production and at times lacking script.

I was attracted to this series because of the unique, feminine artwork and because it's a dark tale of friendship between girls, which is fairly uncommon even in shoujo anime. It does a good job of drawing four distinct and interesting main characters together in an intriguing and suspenseful supernatural mystery, wrapped in an atmosphere of melancholic melodrama.

Around its midpoint, though, it becomes too mild and drawn-out in its attempt to show the evolution of relationships as a result of violence. Nothing unexpected happens. Frowning friends fret over the girls being "Not the same," a boyfriend is tearfully dumped for his own good, fathers are ... forgiven. And, for all this show's concentration on dialogue and emotion, it really only ever explores one or two conflicts per each character. Claire is tired, apathetic and angry at her father. Rose is meek and self-sacrificing for her family. Rachel is brash and selfish. Hervé is driven by his overattachment to his little sister in traditional, quasi-incestuous anime fashion. There are too many scenes establishing and re-establishing these dynamics, not enough that actually challenge or explore them. What relationship or personality developments there are don't really need supernatural, life-and-death battle as a catalyst, making the interpersonal elements of the show seem incongruous with the Dolore-fighting.

While the show spends all this time focused on interpersonal relationships, it misses big opportunities to explore its more interesting supernatural elements, like the two warring groups, the Dolore and the Animus—90% of their scenes consist of groups standing around talking in hospital rooms and the headmistress' office. It's too bad this show couldn't ties its elements together more cohesively.

This anime was pretty different from what I expected based on its synopsis and in this case it wasn't in a good way. There actually isn't a whole lot of combat or mystery or drama. The anime is actually probably closer to a slice of life than anything else. The main characters, a group of four girls, die very early on in the anime and one would think this would be a pretty monumental, life-changing event but instead, upon the girl's "revival" if you will, almost nothing changes. They go to school, work their jobs, go on dates, worry about bills and do all the ... normal things they were doing before as if they'd never died. It is extremely difficult to believe and it makes their death seem almost inconsequential, which is just silly.

Perhaps this was done intentionally, as it could be how Japanese animators perceive Americans, but I didn't care for the art style at all. I found the show outright ugly sometimes and the character models, in particular, left a lot to be desired. There were a couple of characters that looked as if they'd undergone seriously botched plastic surgery.

The show also lacked cohesion. Randomly in a few of the early episodes the girls would break out into song. The anime suddenly becomes a musical without warning. But then, just as abruptly and without warning as these things began they then stop and they never happen again. Why? What was the point? I have no idea why this decision was made, but it felt very random and out of place.

The ending felt very rushed too. If you're going to just have an us versus them winner take all battle royale, why wait until the final episode? This could have happened at any time during the two side's longstanding, ongoing feud. It waited until the final episode to happen because the plot wanted it to, period.

The one strength of the show is probably the character development, because we spend the large majority of the show following around the four girls as they live their day to day lives as if they hadn't died and we get to see their interpersonal relationships and individual life circumstances. That's fine, but it doesn't fit with the whole "Oh by the way I'm dead" thing.

It wasn't sleep-inducing, but it often felt slow and on the boring side. The entertainment value here isn't all that high.

Overall I found this anime pretty disappointing. It wasn't awful, but it didn't do much for me. I'd advise those of you on the fence about watching this to know what you're getting into. It's slow, it's character focused, it has underwhelming and infrequent action and it's about the girls and their personal lives first, everything else a distant second. I didn't dislike it enough to regret watching it once but I have zero interest in watching it again.

OBJECTIVE RATING- 6
PERSONAL ENJOYMENT RATING- 5.5-6