Sayonara Rose Garden (Goodbye, My Rose Garden)

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Japanese: さよならローズガーデン

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Information

Type: Manga

Volumes: 3

Chapters: 18

Status: Finished

Published: Jul 9, 2018 to Jan 13, 2020

Genres: Drama, Girls Love

Theme: Historical

Serialization: MAGxiv

Authors: Dokuta, Pepako (Story & Art)

Statistics

Score: 7.92¹ (scored by 2,296 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #884²

² based on the top manga page. Please note that 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #2547

Members: 7,060

Favorites: 177

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7.92

Ranked #884Popularity #2547Members 7,060

MangaMAGxivDokuta, Pepako (Story & Art)

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Volumes: /3

Chapters: /18

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Synopsis

To pursue her dream of becoming an author, young Hanako abandons her home in Japan to journey to England. However, belittled and rejected by the publishing company of her favorite writer, she finds herself with nowhere to turn to—until she meets Alice Douglas, a noblewoman kind enough to take her in as a maid.

Hanako enjoys working as Alice's personal maid, and despite being in different social classes, the two gradually become close. One day, Alice offers to grant Hanako's deepest wish, but only under one condition—Hanako must kill her in return. Attempting to understand why she would so eagerly seek her death, Hanako learns that there is more to the noblewoman than meets the eye.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Background

Sayonara Rose Garden has been published in English as Goodbye, My Rose Garden by Seven Seas Entertainment since April 14, 2020.

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Characters

Douglas, Alice

Main

Kujou, Hanako

Main

More reviewsReviews

Nov 14, 2021

haileykozume

Recommended

This manga ended up being one of my favorites.

The story itself is a bit predictable but still very fun to read. There's definitely a strong focus on love and romance and not much on the sexual side of things which I love, but it might not be what you're looking for.

The art is absolutely amazing, the detail put into drawing out every intricate dress design is impressive. This is one of the prettiest things I've ever read.

The characters all act in rational ways so the plot is never driven forward by people making stupid choices. Like most anime, the characters tend to have ...

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Jan 17, 2022

Firechick12012

Recommended

One genre of media that I've never really gravitated towards was romance, namely because many of the plots for romance were always very melodramatic or formulaic. It wasn't that I inherently hated romance as a genre, I just never found any romance media that really appealed to me. That would get rectified later in my life as I began to read and watch more things. I'm also not really into yaoi or yuri manga or novels, mainly for the same reasons, along with many of them having very questionable ethics in regards to things like consent. Many of them tend to idealize and glamorize toxic ... relationships, and I'm not down for that kind of stuff (Though this is coming from someone who unironically likes Sakura Gari). Honestly, I never even heard of Goodbye My Rose Garden before coming across this article here, but when I read it, my interest was immediately piqued. I requested it at my local library, and was quick to rent it and read the entire series in one sitting. I'm glad I did because I'm really, really surprised at just how great this manga turned out to be, especially since the last manga by Dr. Pepperco that I read, Bang Dream: Girls Band Party Roselia Stage, was decent at best but had a lot of problems in regards to its artwork. Seven Seas, thank you for bringing this manga to the US, because I love it!

In the year 1900, Japan is in the midst of mingling with the West and adopting a lot of its cultural practices. Hanako Kujo, a teacher still reeling over being unable to help one of her students, travels to England in order to find the author of one of her favorite novels, along with finding a job. Unfortunately, she hits a roadblock and is unsure of what to do. Thankfully, a young noblewoman, Alice Douglas, notices Hanako and offers her a job as her personal maid. The two of them bond over their shared love of novels and literature, but for some reason, Alice wants Hanako to kill her. Hanako is unable to comprehend why Alice would ask her to do such a thing, but she's determined to not only befriend her mistress, but to make the best of her new surroundings.

One thing I really respect about Goodbye My Rose Garden is that it really makes great use of its setting. Rather than simply using it as a backdrop, the manga takes great care to embed itself in the history of the period, through the social and hierarchal norms the characters are expected to uphold to using real events that are happening during the time, such as the very heavily publicized trial of Oscar Wilde. It's made very clear throughout the manga that Dr. Pepperco really did a lot of research on Victorian England, and when wanting to write a story taking place in the past, you really need to make sure you get all your facts straight, because if you don't take care to portray the time period as it was, or take too much artistic/creative license with it, you run the risk of either making it feel too modern/contemporary or falsifying facts. Like, you won't find the characters here saying things like "The elephant in the room," knowing about the internet, or owning cars. It'd be one thing if Goodbye My Rose Garden was trying to go for an alternate history route, or go for a more fantasy/sci-fi like depiction like what the video game Code;Realize did, but the manga makes it clear it's trying to be just slice-of-life historical fiction, with no fantasy or sci-fi elements in sight.

Another thing that impressed me was the artwork. I mentioned in my Bang Dream Roselia manga review that I felt that the artwork could be lackluster at times, especially for the backgrounds. There, it felt like Dr. Pepperco didn't put in an effort to make the world of that manga feel alive, or only did the bare minimum. That manga came out several months before Dr. Pepperco would go on to make this, and it's amazing to see how much she learned from her mistakes, because the backgrounds here are not only very lavish and detailed, especially when it matters, but feel much more alive. Everything, from the designs on book bindings, to the period-appropriate dresses and hair styles the characters wear, to the exterior and interiors of the mansions the characters inhabit, is given a lot of care and attention, and I didn't notice any significant issues or anachronisms. Even the usage of English text is very cohesive, and I didn't notice any jarring grammar errors or awkward sentence structure, something that even most World Masterpiece Theater anime struggle with from time to time.

Of course, no matter how much research you put into the setting, you can't have a good story without a cast of characters to make you care about them, and thankfully, Goodbye My Rose Garden has a great ensemble to hold it together. The main duo are a joy to watch, as they both have equal amounts of depth, strengths, weaknesses, and contributions to the story and its progression, and Dr. Pepperco really worked hard to make sure they have good chemistry, and I found their budding friendship and later romance to be very believable. Other characters, such as Susanne, Marie, and Alice's older sister Jane are also pretty likeable and serve their purposes well. Even the antagonistic characters are surprisingly down-to-earth and aren't evil for the sake of it, as the manga is careful to show that they are products of their environment and are expected to uphold the Victorian-era values and social norms that have been drilled into them all their lives, and a lot of the conflict comes from their wanting Alice to be happy but wrongly assuming being the submissive wife of a noblewoman and upholding the family's reputation is the best thing for her, since that's what women of the time were expected to be. Edward, Alice's fiance, isn't a cackling supervillain and does love her to an extent, but is a product of Victorian era sensibilities, thinking Alice will be happy if she becomes a mother, being openly suspicious of Hanako's relationship with her, and even displaying period-appropriate (But still unacceptable by modern standards) racism towards Hanako. My only real complaint is that other characters, such as the other maids working in the Douglas estate and Edward's unnamed friend who tells him about Alice's scandal and warns him about Hanako, don't get developed or utilized enough, to the point where Edward's friend doesn't even have a name. Plus, Susanne, a maid that Hanako encounters, is said to have left a bad situation in France, but we never see it. Dr. Pepperco has mentioned at the end of volume 3 that she'd like to make a sequel manga that goes deeper into exploring other characters and the consequences of their actions, but so far, nothing's set in stone.

For what it's worth, though, I'm happy with Goodbye My Rose Garden as is. It knows what it wants to be, doesn't drag itself out longer than necessary, and doesn't overstay its welcome. Now I wish I hadn't written off Dr. Pepperco back when I reviewed the Bang Dream manga she made. Goodbye My Rose Garden was clearly made with a lot of love and passion, and I can only hope she's able to make more stories like this. It helps that it's fairly short, too, only clocking it at three volumes, and Seven Seas released the whole series in the US, so you can read through it pretty quickly if you have a few hours to kill. So for anyone wanting to read a historical shoujo-ai/LGBT manga that doesn't have a tragic ending, definitely give Goodbye My Rose Garden a try. It's sweet, short, riveting, and I would honestly love for someone to make an anime out of this. I know that probably won't happen, but hey, a girl can dream, can't she?

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Jun 12, 2022

kapu02

Recommended

Really sweet manga as just about any romantic story set in a time when people had to deal with prejudice, discrimination, and class differences. And in that regard it is a incredibly enjoyable period piece, with great pacing, loveable characters and beautiful art but nothing really sets it apart.

The positives are many and Sayonara Rose Garden was for sure a quality read for me. The romance progresses nicely and although we only have 17 chapters the not one relationship feels rushed. In fact the pacing is one of the greatest strengths of the manga because the story knows what it aims to achieve from chapter ... 1. No important moment in the nurturing of the relationship is then missed and it properly feels that these 3 volumes are only snapshots of the passing of time.

In contrast other romantic mangas Ive read either make the plot up as they go, spanning hundreds of chapters and multiple arcs until they forget what the original purpose is and have no idea how to reach a conclusion. This happened with Hanayome, Horimiya, Domestic for me. Those mangas reiterate and maybe even stagnate until the ending just feels lackluster and unspecial if ended.

Here there’s initial attraction between Hanako and Alice, we then delve into some of their maybe simplistic character writing which is does a great job at making the leads endearing and progressing the relationship. The maid Hanako at first appearing as a timid determined type we get to see grow to be able to stand up to herself and her mistress Alice. She first travels to Britain in pursuit of her dream of meeting a writer but its nice to see ambitions get benched once Alice takes her in as a personal companion. Alice on the other hand is at first the flawless distant Mary Sue character, but really comes to her own once the story delved into her vulnerabilities and backstory. It was a great idea for both of them serve as inspiration of the other on equal grounds - Hanako through action and Alice through fiction - and seeing these seemingly perfect characters become needy and selfish around each other was cute and very enjoyable.

Another positive, there’s a lot of effort put into the art and locations such as the rose garden pavillion and Hastings bookstore, Alices room are detailed and well realised. We are always made aware of where a scene is taking place and each setting is a beautiful eye candy if you’re looking for the Jane Austin aesthetic in manga.

Now, the one gripe I have with Sayonara Rose Garden is the ending which feels both overdone and out of place SPOILERS here but don’t worry because the ending is so predictable knowing what happens won’t affect your enjoyment whatsoever.

Hanako ends up not killing Alice wow and they both run away to travel the world wow. The fact which was mentioned by the manga mind you that Alice couldn’t do that because she would disgrace her whole family name is suddenly forgotten and we see previously likeable character publicly humiliate the man who loves her at the wedding to selfishly run off with Hanako in the possibly most corny overused ending to any romance against society story. Its neither empowering nor deserved and all of the setup we had from the previous 16 chapters is thrown into the trash.

SPOILERS for real this time. The ending would have been infinitely better imo if they went for the bittersweet route and had Alice get married and have a child, and Hanako going back to Japan and becoming a prominent writer. The final scene would be a 10/10 for me if the final panels were a juxtaposition of both of them in their late 20s visiting bookstores, buying bestsellers written from the other, finding out both reference the time they spent together in the rose garden pavillion 10 years ago and realising both still love each other. Not that this ending isn’t overused, but it’s way less corny and the author themselves seemed to be going for this. The current ending can’t help but feel like they were only forced to comply with the demands of some stupid publisher/editor who wanted a happy ending.

Sayonara Rose Garden is a manga I’d recommend to anyone, since I enjoyed it immensely and until the end never found it boring nor overbearing which sometimes happens when I read romance. The Victorian aesthetic is a nice change of pace from modern life Japan, high school and medieval isekais and the length allows for a one sitting binge. It’s a sweet story of found companionship and feels refreshingly realistic, as opposed to so many romantic mangas that rely on archetypes, gimmicky premise, or harems but then I feel that if one has seen other lesbian period pieces like The Handmaiden 2016, or Portrait of a Lady on Fire 2019 for me, they might find the manga corny and less unique.

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Poll: Sayonara Rose Garden Chapter 17 Discussion Syureria - Jul 30, 2020	8 replies	by LaurenStark »» Jan 4, 6:50 AM
Poll: Sayonara Rose Garden Chapter 4 Discussion Phaetons_Folly - Aug 13, 2021	1 replies	by LaurenStark »» Jan 1, 9:26 AM
Poll: Sayonara Rose Garden Chapter 1 Discussion Phaetons_Folly - Aug 13, 2021	1 replies	by LaurenStark »» Jan 1, 8:51 AM
Poll: Sayonara Rose Garden Chapter 13 Discussion itssyrah - Jul 1, 2021	0 replies	by itssyrah »» Jul 1, 2021 8:12 PM
Poll: Sayonara Rose Garden Chapter 9 Discussion DarknessReality - Apr 10, 2020	1 replies	by Sha-tan »» Apr 12, 2020 11:57 AM

Sayonara Rose Garden
Goodbye, My Rose Garden
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