Since we’ve been talking about it, I just had to drag out Red Garden, Volume 5 to enjoy the blood and angst once again. ^_^

The amazing thing about Volume 5 is that a ton of stuff goes on, and there’s pretty much no way to talk about it without spoiling it rotten. Well, okay, I could be irritatingly vague instead. I’ll try to thread the needle here and say that a lot of things that have been slowly building to a crisis point finally come to a head and the girls find themselves deeply involved with not only the usual battles, but the reason for the battles…and residual complications of family, friends and lovers and the like.

Our four protagonists reevaluate their relationship to Lise, only to find – once again – that everything they thought they knew to be true is a lie.

And the chase is on. We move quickly, almost frenetically, towards a climax that will resolve nothing and everything.

In the middle of all of this, Paula’s love for Kate is neither perverted, nor selfish. Her love is real and beautiful and while Kate cannot return it, she does not reject it.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 8
Characters – 8
Yuri – 3
Service – 1

Overall – 8

The cover copy continues to amuse and befuddle. The quote on the front cover is quite good, but the back cover reads “LOVE will break your HEART. & LOVERS will bleed you dry.”

Asside from the questionable punctuation, I have to ask…whuh? This volume is inexplicably subtitled “Love Lies Bleeding.” Sounds like the copywriter was desperately hanging on to that whole Buffy the Vampire thing, despite all evidence to the contrary.