Search - Red Garden: Collection 2 on DVD

An awesome creative, character-driven horror story

madame pomfrey | Portland, OR | 05/09/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I thought Red Garden was one of the best anime I've seen in a while. Creepy and dark, much of the show deals with four girls coming to terms with the fact that they were murdered and are now forced to kill monster-men with their bare hands. There is definitely some serious post-modern "battle of the sexes" kind of theme going on, where the women are dead but struggling to survive, while the men are like wild dogs and to be feared.
The story itself is pretty crazy and eerie, but the beauty of this show is in its characters. Each girl has a story, including discovering the people she loves and who love her, and dealing with the loss of those relationships and their lives, the girls go through some pretty serious transformations.
The first few episodes had musical numbers. It was pretty weird. All of a sudden, characters are singing. But not singing the way people normally do in musicals, but the way someone would sing if they were truly devastated, choked-back sobs and all. At first I thought, WTF is going on?, but by the end of the first episode, I wanted to cry along with Kate.
Red Garden is different - it is a horror film of sorts, a contemplative look at one's life, a story of friendship and the evils (or complications) of men. Character development also allowed those who seemed antagonistic in the beginning to have their own sad motives, showing that evil is really subjective. The show seemed to drag in parts, but I thought the show was bloody brilliant."

From the studio behind Hellsing & Gantz?????

Just some old guy. | Wa State | 04/17/2009

(3 out of 5 stars)

"From the studio behind Hellsing & Gantz....well this series has very poor quality of animation. In fact it was grainy..if that makes any sense as well as low quality until you watch the OVA "Dead Girls" then it's solid animation. In this half some questions are answered and you see what made the girls the way they are...personality wise that is.
This next part is the same review I put into the half of the series.
There are parts of this that the anime is just horrid. It centers around four girls whom live in New York. I do not know if it was a slam on Americans but almost all of their noses were huge..like a witch. I could have used a Cigar Trimmer on them.
Basically there are four girls who wake up dead. They have no memory of the night before. The four girls are from all walks of life. First of all there is Kate..honor roll type of girl and member of Grace. Grace is collection of girls whom are roll models for the rest of the school. Then there is Claire..a girl that lives alone and pays her own bills and struggles to do so. Rose is another type of girl, a girl whose mother is in the hospital and her dad is gone so she must take care of her little brother and sister. Last but not least is Rachel..the popular trendy type that comes across as only being concerned with herself and her circle of friends.
They have no idea what they have become until they are all called together and meet a mysterious man & woman who begin to piece together the puzzle for them.
There are two clans both of which are cursed and each clan with 1 piece of what they need to lift their curse. There in is the battle..1 clan is down to their last two women who can not live long enough to have children so the clan is on the verge of dying out unless they can lift the curse. The other clan which Claire,Kate,Rose & Rachel belong to are trying to wipe their adversaries out. When ever the four girls are called together they must kill and that creates a problem of its own. One day they are high school girls and the next they must kill to survive.
There is action and some blood (no nudity, that I remember) but for the most part of it the story is about how they cope with their daily problems of being teenage girls.
Why did I give it 3 stars if the anime is so horrid..Well I enjoyed the story quite well. There are no stand alone episodes so it plays like one story. There are parts were the anime is well done but those parts are few and far between. Once you reach the OVA "Dead Girls" then suddenly the anime is far far better and continues the story well into the future.
This is hard for me to recommend but I did enjoy collection 1 and Collection 2...that is after you get past animation.
These are thin-pak collections in a wide screen format and has a suggested rating of 17 for language. I receive a anime magazine that gives ratings..13+ 14+ 17+ etc and this series was a 17+ I do not neccessarily agree with their ratings as they gave Fullmetal Alchemist 14+.
As I said I enjoyed the story but I am not to sure about the replay value."