Red Garden First Impressions.
Oct. 18th, 2006 07:51 pmGONZO? Is brilliant.
Red Garden turned out not to be what I expected it to be. At all. It didn't turn out to be what *anyone* expected it to be, I would bet, seeing as how for months Gonzo has been putting out this deliberately misleading advertising campaign. Which normally would annoy me (I HATE viral advertising), but in this case, it's different. The point of the first episode of Red Garden is to blindside the viewer - to hook you into the show by making you think that you're watching one thing, and then to reveal (through a series of double-take WTF moments and the OMG-last-thirty-seconds-climax) that you've actually gotten into something else entirely. It's not a cheap advertising trick. It's called keeping the most surprising revelations totally secret and totally unpredictable until the exact moment that they are revealed. Also, the viewer experiences the first episode of the show much the way that the protagonist Kate and her classmates do. There's a sense of confusion, a wait a minutes, WHAT is going on here?! sense of horror that starts to creep in from the very first moment.
I am definitely going to keep watching Red Garden, despite the fact that... Well, for a series supposedly set in an American high school, it doesn't actually look or feel at all like it's set in an American high school. Hell, the characters are supposed to live in New York City, and nothing at all about the show feels like New York City. All of these little Japanese cultural things keep creeping in around the edges, and it's pretty difficult for me to suspend my disbelief and swallow the fact that Kate, Liz, Rachel et al are actually American students. For example, I think that Rachel was supposed to come across as a wild and free rebel, but the vibe that I get from her is purely Japanese ko-gal. Likewise, the SEESCEU (Super Elite, Elegant, and Exclusionary Student Council with their Special Uniforms) girls are mostly a figment of yuri anime imagination, not necessarily an accurate reflection of American high school social hierarchy.
Also, Kate's VA can't sing. I fear that there will be more spontaneous bursting into song in coming episodes, hopefully the VAs will get better at it.
..............
The new Kujian anime still sucks.
..............
I finished Shakugan no Shana (the TV series, that is, since the OAV and movie are still to come). It lacked the beautiful ending and sense of closure that Fate/Stay Night had, of course. But I guess that's to be expected, since Shana's source material (the novels) are still ongoing, and some things have to be left open-ended for the movie to resolve. Grargh, I have got to stop comparing these two series.
Red Garden turned out not to be what I expected it to be. At all. It didn't turn out to be what *anyone* expected it to be, I would bet, seeing as how for months Gonzo has been putting out this deliberately misleading advertising campaign. Which normally would annoy me (I HATE viral advertising), but in this case, it's different. The point of the first episode of Red Garden is to blindside the viewer - to hook you into the show by making you think that you're watching one thing, and then to reveal (through a series of double-take WTF moments and the OMG-last-thirty-seconds-climax) that you've actually gotten into something else entirely. It's not a cheap advertising trick. It's called keeping the most surprising revelations totally secret and totally unpredictable until the exact moment that they are revealed. Also, the viewer experiences the first episode of the show much the way that the protagonist Kate and her classmates do. There's a sense of confusion, a wait a minutes, WHAT is going on here?! sense of horror that starts to creep in from the very first moment.
I am definitely going to keep watching Red Garden, despite the fact that... Well, for a series supposedly set in an American high school, it doesn't actually look or feel at all like it's set in an American high school. Hell, the characters are supposed to live in New York City, and nothing at all about the show feels like New York City. All of these little Japanese cultural things keep creeping in around the edges, and it's pretty difficult for me to suspend my disbelief and swallow the fact that Kate, Liz, Rachel et al are actually American students. For example, I think that Rachel was supposed to come across as a wild and free rebel, but the vibe that I get from her is purely Japanese ko-gal. Likewise, the SEESCEU (Super Elite, Elegant, and Exclusionary Student Council with their Special Uniforms) girls are mostly a figment of yuri anime imagination, not necessarily an accurate reflection of American high school social hierarchy.
Also, Kate's VA can't sing. I fear that there will be more spontaneous bursting into song in coming episodes, hopefully the VAs will get better at it.
..............
The new Kujian anime still sucks.
..............
I finished Shakugan no Shana (the TV series, that is, since the OAV and movie are still to come). It lacked the beautiful ending and sense of closure that Fate/Stay Night had, of course. But I guess that's to be expected, since Shana's source material (the novels) are still ongoing, and some things have to be left open-ended for the movie to resolve. Grargh, I have got to stop comparing these two series.
