Yuri Manga: Red Garden, Volume 2

December 2nd, 2007

In every way but one, Red Garden, Volume 2 is the perfect (for me) Yuri manga. The one way it is less than perfect is that it doesn’t really have any Yuri. But aside from that, it’s pretty perfect! ^_^

Volume 2 picks up right after Volume 1, in the middle of a battle between our four protagonists and a beast man. It becomes immediately apparent that 1) Kate is the leader and linchpin of the four and that; 2) Rachel tastes the best, because she’s *always* the one with fangs dug into her shoulder.

Volume 2 follows Kate as she discovers that there are other girls who are also fighting the good fight, and that Lise was once one of them – even when she was innocently sharing an exchange diary with Kate. This of course means that she was already dead, which naturally upsets Kate a bit.

Clare and Kate bond in a way that would totally make them a couple if either of them had the slightest interest in the other. But it does open up the story for several people asking right out if Kate is Clare’s girfriend – in fact so many people ask, that that Kate begins to find it funny. So did I. They were totally gay together.

Rose cries a lot. And Lula gets a few moments of extra crazy Hellsing-esque faces in.

Kate meets Herve’s sister Anna, and he has to pretend to not want to kill Kate while they spend the day together.

And in the end, we see preserved bodies of the Animus’ past, with lots of worms going in and out, for extra creepy.

Oh, and yes, Paula has another chance to stroke Kate lovingly so that Jessica has another chance to have an apoplectic fit.

…and all’s right with the world. ^_^

I was glad to see that we do spend a bit of time in Kate and Clare’s lives, so we get a bit of depth about both of them. I hope that future volumes will cover Rose and Rachel, as well.

Red Garden remains extra violent, half about the clothes, half about the blood, creepy, disturbing and fabulous. If only Clare would just give it up and be the lesbian she obviously is – I mean, random guys on the street, her boss, me, we all think so. So duh already!

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 7
Characters – 8
Yuri – 5
Service – 3

Overall – 7 and I enjoyed the heck out of it.

Who can resist four cute girls brutally beating a slavering man-beast to death while wearing charming frocks? Not me, at any rate.

2 Responses

  1. retaelation10a says:

    Rachel tastes the best
    LOL~!
    In the anime, I noticed that Rachel was almost always bitten in every battle, so I found this very funny~! (/n_n)/

    Quick question, is this manga already translated? Or you can read Japanese? Ü

  2. @retaelation10a – This is a Japanese manga. If a manga is translated, the title of the review will include the information that it is in English. I hope that helps. :)

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