 | | ▪ | RELEASED BY: | | ADV FILMS | | | ▪ | ASPECT RATIO: | | 16:9 ANAMORPHIC WIDESCREEN | | | ▪ | AUDIO: | | ENGLISH DD 5.1 AND JAPANESE DD 2.0 | | | ▪ | RUNNING TIME: | | 400 MIN | | | ▪ | RATING: | | TV MA | | | ▪ | RELEASE DATE: | | 09/18/2007 | | | ▪ | REVIEW DATE: | | 08/23/2007 | | | ▪ | REVIEWED BY: | | SCOTT CAMPBELL |
Red Garden doesn’t waste a second throwing the audience right into this horror/mystery thriller. Four girls, seemingly joined only by the one friend they all know, start to experience many strange feelings and real experiences when their friend apparently commits suicide. They are all distraught by her death, but aren’t given much time to think about it, as a complete stranger soon tells them all that they are in fact dead as well. Questions in need of answers arise quickly with this anime, and it makes you want to watch on because the mystery of what actually is going on is so captivating. We’re given little flash backs, dreams, etc. to try to piece together who is doing what and why. Did Lise (the dead friend) actually commit suicide, or did someone kill her? And better than that, is she still “alive?”
The story is certainly very captivating, and it captures your attention quickly, but that is not the one and only thing that makes Red Garden worth a look see. The art, and especially the style of the art, is really different than a lot of what is out there, or has ever been available. The style is hard to put into words, but it’s like each character is individual – they all have different noses, and lips, eyes even. Not much in this show is very uniformed, or highly stylized, so it makes it much more realistic to the real world. Most anime has a stylized look throughout, and all the characters will have the same look, perhaps simply because they are all drawn initially by the same artist and so bear his/her style. If you watch Red Garden, you’ll begin to understand the worth of this innovation. The animation itself is also very fluid and flowing. Everything about this show is visually appealing – a lot of time was obviously put into character design and background art. Fight and action scenes are fast and with a lot of drama – the show can quickly switch from a mystery piece into horror piece, and then back again as it suits. The violence isn’t so intense that most people wouldn’t be able to take it. There’s a baseball bat beating here and there, but it’s not going to give anybody nightmares. There is a bit of coarse language also, at least in the English dub, so that’s worth mentioning as such language is getting seemingly more popular in many English adaptations of late. After seeing the first volume, things are just bearly starting to come together, and there are so many answers to questions that we need to know as an audience, but that’s what makes the waiting for volume two all the more interesting. A show that doesn’t give away everything at the start is a show worth watching to the end. EXTRAS:
Clean opening, clean closing, ADV previews and DVD credits. IN SUMMARY:
The artistic style of Red Garden is likely the most innovative look that most anime fans will have seen this year. Each character is drawn to be unique, making them all more believable as people. That joined with the violence and mystery of Red Garden, makes it a well rounded hit.
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