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Red Garden – Anime First Impressions

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Red Garden is an anime that takes place in New York. Finding cultural discrepancies is always fun, and the stereotypes that Japanese people make up for Americans are priceless. In addition to this, Red Garden also features a plot! And huuuugggeee noses!

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Red Garden revolves around the lives of four New York high school girls. They all can’t remember what happened to them last night, and wake up feeling like crap. I’d blame it on a rave, but seems to be something more sinister going on. They find out that one of their classmates, Liz, has apparently committed suicide. School is canceled for the rest of the day.

Instead of going home, the four girls are strangely drawn to a park by butterflies that only they can see. Seriously girls, lay off the raves! They’re approached by a manly looking lady who tells them that they died last night. Some shiny-eyed bum attacks them and the girls must kill him or die!

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So I’m really hoping that this turns into a super sentai show like Power Rangers or something. Like Rose can be the pink ranger, Claire is the emo black ranger, Kate is the leader and red ranger, and Rachel is the ranger that no one likes. It looks like they’re gonna need at least some kind of combat ability to take care of the bum.

Okay, now it’s time to learn about Americans as shown by this anime. First off, being a high school student in America is totally awesome, because you can wear whatever you want. This means each student must wear a totally hip outfit that makes them stand out from everyone else. Unless you’re in the student council, in which case you wear a Catholic school girl uniform. This might actually be true in New York, but not where I went to high school.

Next, Americans have huge noses. All Americans. Also, in times of great despair or happiness, Americans will break into song. Yes, Kate actually sings about her dead friend Liz. Just like in American musicals! These instances are just really silly, though I guess they add to the humor quotient of the anime.

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Despite the huge noses, the character designs aren’t that bad. Claire is probably the hottest with Kate in second place. Rachael is just butt ugly, though. Seriously.The gradient effect on the girls’ hair is pretty neat. Definitely Anime 2.0.

Animation quality was very good. There were some 3D effects that I didn’t mind at all. I don’t live in New York, so it could be totally off, but the backdrops looked really good to me. They even spelled the signs and whatnot correctly!

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The OP, Jolly Jolly, is probably one of the best I’ve heard this season. It’s jazzy and the singer reminds me of the vocalist for the indigo. The ED is garbage. It’s some form of Japanese hip hop that doesn’t work because I know English. It just sounds really dumb.

Download the OP: “Jolly Jolly” by JiLL-Decoy association
Download the ED: “Rock The LM.C” by LM.C

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I’m still not sure whether I’ll keep watching Red Garden. The story might be interesting depending on what happens next. While the animation is good, the characters are ugly! I’ll probably just keep watching this anime to see what Japanese people think New York is like.

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24 replies on “Red Garden – Anime First Impressions”

I found the character designs weren’t THAT bad. Yes, I’ll admit the noses were a bit big and them seemed to change in shape sometimes (what’s up with that?) but I find it’s better than the typical anime chick that has no nose at all. I also found that they also looked like the noses in Hajime no Ippo, but that’s just me.

Also, everyone in the world speaks Japanese with English subtitles.

Why does everyone keep bitching about the noses? I for one take this style as a welcome change.

JP: Well, sometimes peoples of the world speak Japanese without English subtitles. 🙂

Though I agree cultural differences can be blatantly amusing, I wouldn’t call a song crap because I “knew English”. Assumptions are funny, but you assume a lot yourself.
If you knew what you were talking about, lovely mocochang belongs to a genre by the name of visual kei, not hip-hop. Not all countries imitate American media and their constant need to produce a trashy and superficial impression.
Not to mention, the song is mostly in Japanese.

First off, i completely and utterly disagree with the main review by Anime First impressions. Which is NOT a regular occurence.

First off, the character designs are plain beautiful. While i agree that Rachel seems average when compared to the super hot Claire and the fay-like Kate (who i personally like the best), but by no means is she ‘butt ugly’. She may be a bit over-painted, but she’s ok. By the way, Rachel, as it was not mentioned, has the most colour and life as of episode 1. So where she lacks in beauty, she makes up ample in terms of her choice of clothes and personality.

What was also not mentioned was the over-layering sense of wrongness. Something deep and dark that stalks the lifestyle of all four of the girls. And that bit about the power-rangers? I really dont see what the reviewer talking about. Because, this series is as far from it as possible. Perhaps the reviewer needs to see the episode a second time.

And overly big noses?!! What, should all anime characters have noses that are overly big pointed triangles? Sharpened enough so that you can cause visceral damage? Yeah … think Kenshin, or a hundred other animes. By the way, i think there is just ONE girl who can be said to have an ‘overly’ big nose. As a matter of fact, i was astounded by the amount of detail put into the facial features of the characters. For example: Rachel has a sort pug nose, and the detective has one of those Sherlock holmes-Watson type noses. A good variety, i’d say.

About the only thing i agree with the reviewer is the lushness of the backgrounds and detail. Take it from me, that the characters are by no means ugly. Quite the opposite. Now, while there are funny moments as we see New York from the Japanese point of view (Heck … even the op song deals with what they would portray a New yorkers life as…), its quite refreshing to see an anime dealing with North American attributes, then fictional samurais, or futuristic robots bashing their way around. And the school representatives clothing? Gee … does the reviewer even think about symbology aspects of a good anime? Because on more than two occasions has the review failed to show any understanding of it.

And that’s where Red Garden excells. There are so many hidden clues: dress choice, friends of choice, lifestyle, speech style, etc. Its quite amazing.

In summary, if there’s a great anime for this new season, this will probably be it. Go and see it

geez calm down psychos. I think he meant the lyrics didnt make sense in english, and this is a common thing in anime. Also he didnt dgo after how big the noses are that much. Anyway, just relax.

I loved the art in the OP, it was quite cool.
The girls go to school on Roosevelt Island (a real place in NYC) btw, which is only accessible by those sky cable tramway thingies (whatever you call them).
The musical idea is neat, although so much of the show is non-musical that it is a little weird.
This is the most unique anime I’ve seen for a long time.
Yeah, the noses were interesting, but I got used to them after a while.

I didn’t really notice how big the noses are until someone pointed it out. Actually it’s not even that ‘unique’ as I’ve seen several anime that didn’t deal with American life having big noses for characters like that,.. go check out monster, ippo, miyazaki’s stuff, etc… where japanese characters didn’t have the typical triangle bladed-tip noses lol*.

I personally think Kate’s hotter than everyone else there just by her emotionally charged personality. I will agree with the reviewer’s comment on the musical, I was in hysterics at the thought of us New Yorkers busting out in musicals in the street… but then again, we do have broadway to blame.

I agree with lordfolken. I finished watching Red Garden yesterday, and I loved it from the first episode on, The plot is impressive, and I like how it is, despite being supernatural, more realistic. The girls, upon discovering their abilities do not suddenly chant spells or transform. In contrast, in Red Garden that concept is way more sinister and painfully realistic. Girls that do not want to fight are overwhelmed and horrified. I like Rachel alot because she has a certain complexity about her. And that whole power rangers thing, I think the reviewer was just trying to be funny.

Did anyone rant about the singing yet? Will someone please rant about the singing! What’s the point of it anyways? It’s so awkward and corny.

Am I the only one who thinks Rose is the cutest?

This show seems quite awesome, judging only from the first episode. I will have to continue it.

*Yawn*, what a bum. Some action is promised via mysterious intermezzo scenes, but the story is going at an incredibly slow paste.

I must admit, the graphics are simply great, but completely wasted as the story keeps at a slender paste. I have tried to see the depth of the story and follow the characters as they evolve through time. However after 6 parts I came to the conclusion that it is simply a waste of my time.

Conclusion :

PRO:
+ Nice graphics
+ Good sound and music

CONS :
– slow paste
– barely no humor
– weak drama
– plenty of boring scenes and dialogs
– everything is around women , male character are either dumb/wimps or dog like monsters

The mood kind of reminded me of the manga Battle Royale, where it doesn’t glamarize death, but instead shows that death is just messed up. Which is nice since some animes just use death as a plot device, which makes it seem like it doesn’t matter.

As someone from NYC, I was impressed by the amount of detail they put into the background. In the first few episodes, Rose mentions the Soup Nazi while they are sitting in Sheep’s Meadow. In real life, Roosevelt Island sits between Queens and Manhattan and is connected by public transit including the Roosevelt Island tram which is shown in the anime.

COoOlion, it’s pace, not paste. LOL
Anyway, I think this anime is great!
The story is awesome, and sure it maybe be a little slow (at a slow PACE) but not too slow to make you lose interest.
I also thought the noses were a little big, but no big deal.

ClaireChan, so what if someone spelled a word wrong you still know what they are trying to say… God I have grammar whores…

Anyway, I’m not sure if I still want to watch this show or not. From what I’ve saw so far it’s just boring. I love the opening from the art to the song but other than that this show isn’t all that fun to watch.

Don’t get me wrong there are some good parts to this show, like when Rachel called her friend a slut! That part had me laughing so hard. But , I also believe that the storyline could be better.

Things i dislike about the show… The noses! They really bother me for some reason. I tried to over look it but I just can’t! Another thing that I don’t get… They are set in New York and all I see are white people… I mean it’s New York! Throw in some other ethnics! I’ve seen a few black people here and there in this show but that was it. It also seems like everyone has blue eyes… What the hell? lol Oh well… Over all this is an alright show I wouldn’t recommend it.

Red Garden is really good so far, I think! The charicters are just a bit different from the rest of the typical Anime style, thats all. You should honestly give it a chance. The story line is really good as to where I’ve seen it too. There are some interesting twists a bit later in the series, So I’d stick to it! ^_^

Hey Foxylady, did you ever think that maybe this was created by JAPANESE PEOPLE who don’t typicly have lots of racial differences in their socioty? Sure, they probably did their research and all that crap, but maybe they set it in an area where there aren’t alot of blacks? Beleive it or not, there are places in New york with a predominenty white population. I personaly thought the art was cool- really different from the usual Anime, like Mokona said. The story line was slow, but not half bad. I dunno if I would rave and rant about how awsome it was, but not half bad. 3 stars.

Gimme a break- The way Americans are drawn and depicted in this show is incomparably more flattering and less stereotypical than the way Asians are portrayed in American media.

I Actually liked this anime… Despite the big noses (took me a few episodes to adjust myself) I like the fashion sense that the characters have. Also their faces don’t look like the typical anime face with huge crystal eyes, no-nose (and only seen from the side view) and unrealistic hairstyles.

The plot is new to me at least, I’ve never seen anything like this so far (gotta admit I haven’t seen all anime yet) and I don’t really watch mystery/supernatural horror animes.

Anyways, some of you might wanna give this anime a chance =)

I personally think this anime is amazing, the characters personality detail is brilliant and if anyone has seen less then 10 episodes i suggest watch the rest, its worth it, and i have gotten bored with most stereotypical animes where there is no realistic depth so this is a huge change (yes i watch a lot of anime)
so yeah
watch red garden ^^
(btw i agree with claire being the best, rachel is kind’ve hot, more quirky to me though xD)

screw the dog-demon-man-thing!! the “manly looking lady” is the big horror that the anime was building up to!!!

LOL!!!

the sheer amount of blood curdling screams in this anime bothers me a bit. don’t watch it with the volume up or you seriously might get the cops called on you.

as far as the musical idea goes it really should be all or nothing with as infrequent and seemingly random as the songs are they never fail to yank me out of the story. it is a little funny to see new yorkers break into song but I don’t think that’s what the makers of the anime intended it to be.

the slow pacing is probably going to make this anime largely hit-or-miss, but hey, I could be wrong

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