Kate, Claire, Rose, and Rachel run in different crowds at school and have nothing in common except for some odd things that start happening. The four high school girls feel an uncontrollable urge drawing them to one location where they have to quickly work together and kill what seems to be a man with strange powers. Slowly the girls find out that all of them died but were given a second chance as long as they do as they are told. They are to work with a secret group fighting against a cursed family in order to retrieve a book of curses. As long as they keep fighting there is a chance they can return to their normal lives in the future.

“Red Garden” is interesting. The portion dealing with the curses, the battles, the history of the two families that are fighting and the reasons behind it all is intriguing. The problem is you get so little of it and sometimes none each episode. They stretch it out filling in the gaps with other issues. What their focus drifts to the most often is how the girls’ personal lives are taking a hit as they have to balance the horrible things they do at night with attending high school.

I am glad that they address this; but how much attention is put on it drags down the story and turns it into a whiney, depressing mess. It’s fine to show that party girl Rachel’s boyfriend is losing interest and another girl is moving in. But when it comes up and she tries to fix it and then a couple episodes later it comes up again and she tries to fix it and yet a third time it comes up and she tries to fix it you just don’t give a damn anymore. If there was more variation in the problems they had to deal with then maybe I would have cared.

Then animation isn’t the super cute, perfect looking young girls that you typically see in animes. Instead they take on a more “real” look, odd shaped noses, and different types of facial expressions. It may be hard to tell from the case but you will begin to notice as the animation continues. Personally I found it to be a nice break from the overly cutesy innocent girls that are able to cause massive injury to those that cross them. Something else that was different but did not work at all for me was the random songs that some of the characters would sing. This is not a musical and there were more episodes that did not feature singing than did. So when a song happens it catches you off guard and stands out that much more. What makes it even worse is they are out of tune and it is very painful. Sure they make jokes about it and admit they can’t sing; but that doesn’t help your ears at all. The animation also does not even remotely match up to the singing and it is rather creepy how the girls look when this happens.

Great idea with the cursed families, dead girls being given new bodies, and the man beasts. But there is just not enough of it and what they use to flesh out the rest of the story is weak, tiring, overused, and boring. The OVA included jumping the story to the future helped out in making me like the show more; but I wish that they had condensed this series down to maybe 15 or less episodes instead of the 22 it is.

Episodes:
Farewell, Girls
A Cruel Night
The Real Me
Where Are We Going?
Every Window
A Small Light
Another Fate
Go Love
Awakening
Bewilderment
Respective Thoughts
His Thoughts
Holiday
Reason To Fight
Sorrow & Anger
Painful Lie
The Truth
Slight Hope
Feelings That Don’t Come Across
The Room That’s Left Behind
The Last Morning
The Light
OVA- Dead Girls