Aion
Time-Traveller
I chucked in the first (of four) Red Garden DVDs last night.
The first thing that has to be said is this: Funimation screwed up. I remember it being said by a certain turban-wearing reviewer that Shigurui had a grain effect inserted intentionally. At the time, I thought it looked too poor to be 100% intentional, and I blamed it on the fact the entire series was crammed into two DVDs by Funimation. Red Garden looks like Shigurui.
On the ANN (iirc) forum, there's one post by someone who compared the older ADV releases with the Funimation releases. What he said was that, though even the ADV DVDs have the grain effect, it looks far worse on the Funimation DVDs; the lower quality encoding creating artifacts that make it look worse... or something.
...But, having said all of the above, the Funimation releases don't look TERRIBLE. It's just a matter of the dark scenes - of which there are many in what is a dark show - not looking as nice as they could. My eyes adjusted to the grain after awhile and it stopped troubling me.
As for the series itself, it was very odd to watch at first. It's an americanized anime, with a US setting, common English names (there's even a Luke!), and the school socializing scenes are far less formal than what I'm used to seeing in anime. Gonzo even made an attempt to make the characters look more... American by making most of the female characters' lips HUGE.
I imagine it'd be awkward for any anime fan to watch at first. Gonzo themselves even seemed to struggle; forgetting that bowing to show courtesy isn't done outside of Japan!
The more I watched, the more I got into it, though. It started very slowly, switching between all the main characters in the first episode, and then had them battle some kind of humanoid monster in the second. The pacing did worry me to begin with but, once the characters became more than just character types to me, I started to care.
There are some awkward scenes that appear to have been thrown in for the hell of it; namely full-on singing scenes, where each character sings part of a song at random. Also worth noting is the fact the transition between the start and end of the episodes is often 'off'; the second episode starting with the characters somehow having trapped themselves in a car park with a huge fence around it. But I guess these things happen when you don't have any source material to work with...
Random awkwardness aside, A lot of people seem to complain about the pacing - comparing it to Gantz and suggesting it's far more boring - but I wasn't bored, and I don't see the comparison. Gantz is a package containing violence, sex and characterization, with a horny as hell lead that males worldwide can relate to. Red Garden is a drama about girls learning to cope when their lives are turned upside down - one character, party girl Rachel, realizing that her out-going friends aren't real friends at all once her situation changed; changing herself as a direct result.
The four main characters are based on common enough social stereotypes: there's a tough as nails tomboy; a loud-mouthed party girl; an upper-class, well respected girl, and a quiet nerdy girl. My main concern early on was that they'd remain as little more than cutouts, but the most recent episodes have shown enough attention to detail and development to suggest Red Garden will be just my cup of tea: a character-driven anime where characterization is valued over all else.
I'm unsure at this point about the story. Aside from mysterious people in suits being shown, dog-like, humanoid monsters attacking the main characters and all the main characters revealed to be dead already, there's been nothing concrete. At this stage, I'm watching just for the characters.
...So, overall, I like it a lot so far--I'd give it around 8/10, six episodes in. The DVD quality has been a little disappointing, but the art (aside from an odd looking face or two) looks good and the animation has flowed quite well. And, with it being a 'characterization > everything else' series, I'm hopeful that I've randomly stumbled across a gem.
Has anyone else watched it?
The first thing that has to be said is this: Funimation screwed up. I remember it being said by a certain turban-wearing reviewer that Shigurui had a grain effect inserted intentionally. At the time, I thought it looked too poor to be 100% intentional, and I blamed it on the fact the entire series was crammed into two DVDs by Funimation. Red Garden looks like Shigurui.
On the ANN (iirc) forum, there's one post by someone who compared the older ADV releases with the Funimation releases. What he said was that, though even the ADV DVDs have the grain effect, it looks far worse on the Funimation DVDs; the lower quality encoding creating artifacts that make it look worse... or something.
...But, having said all of the above, the Funimation releases don't look TERRIBLE. It's just a matter of the dark scenes - of which there are many in what is a dark show - not looking as nice as they could. My eyes adjusted to the grain after awhile and it stopped troubling me.
As for the series itself, it was very odd to watch at first. It's an americanized anime, with a US setting, common English names (there's even a Luke!), and the school socializing scenes are far less formal than what I'm used to seeing in anime. Gonzo even made an attempt to make the characters look more... American by making most of the female characters' lips HUGE.
I imagine it'd be awkward for any anime fan to watch at first. Gonzo themselves even seemed to struggle; forgetting that bowing to show courtesy isn't done outside of Japan!
The more I watched, the more I got into it, though. It started very slowly, switching between all the main characters in the first episode, and then had them battle some kind of humanoid monster in the second. The pacing did worry me to begin with but, once the characters became more than just character types to me, I started to care.
There are some awkward scenes that appear to have been thrown in for the hell of it; namely full-on singing scenes, where each character sings part of a song at random. Also worth noting is the fact the transition between the start and end of the episodes is often 'off'; the second episode starting with the characters somehow having trapped themselves in a car park with a huge fence around it. But I guess these things happen when you don't have any source material to work with...
Random awkwardness aside, A lot of people seem to complain about the pacing - comparing it to Gantz and suggesting it's far more boring - but I wasn't bored, and I don't see the comparison. Gantz is a package containing violence, sex and characterization, with a horny as hell lead that males worldwide can relate to. Red Garden is a drama about girls learning to cope when their lives are turned upside down - one character, party girl Rachel, realizing that her out-going friends aren't real friends at all once her situation changed; changing herself as a direct result.
The four main characters are based on common enough social stereotypes: there's a tough as nails tomboy; a loud-mouthed party girl; an upper-class, well respected girl, and a quiet nerdy girl. My main concern early on was that they'd remain as little more than cutouts, but the most recent episodes have shown enough attention to detail and development to suggest Red Garden will be just my cup of tea: a character-driven anime where characterization is valued over all else.
I'm unsure at this point about the story. Aside from mysterious people in suits being shown, dog-like, humanoid monsters attacking the main characters and all the main characters revealed to be dead already, there's been nothing concrete. At this stage, I'm watching just for the characters.
...So, overall, I like it a lot so far--I'd give it around 8/10, six episodes in. The DVD quality has been a little disappointing, but the art (aside from an odd looking face or two) looks good and the animation has flowed quite well. And, with it being a 'characterization > everything else' series, I'm hopeful that I've randomly stumbled across a gem.
Has anyone else watched it?
