Red Garden

There are always flaws in any genre of the art. It's the nature of the beast and it is that quality that is an embarrassment to the lovers of that genre and the proverbial nails on the chalkboard to its detractors. In anime (ok perhaps not a genre per se, but bite me and sue me) one of those qualities is the whine factor. The line between intense drama and a snuffling whine is thin indeed.

Red Garden is about the whiniest anime I've had to see in some time.

It's rather odd really, the beginning is so upbeat. Some up tempo jazz, flowers, dancing, it all looks like a big ol' party. I figure that's either the creators trying to get all ironic and that, or they were hoping to to attract viewers with bright colours and the lie of "come and watch we are safe, it's a happy place."

So, not the happy. What we do get is four whiney teenage girls. They are given reason to whine see because they are dead. Well, not really dead, but they did die sort of. Now some rich ice princess with pony tale has control of them. When ever they see a pretty butterfly they have to take to the street and fight businessmen who turn to demonic killing machines. All this is just a big excuse for "Whine, whine whine, life is so unfair. Whine, whine, whine, I'm dead."

I had to take a couple of asprin after this experience and really the only thing I found interesting was the jazz song at the begining and some of the animation designs. Other than that, I wasn't impressed.