I have a love-hate going on with Gonzo — have for some time now. They make me interested in a show, either by coming up with a unique art style and animation techniques for it, or by adapting a classic Western work of literature, or both. And then they pull the rug out with a substitute cookie-cutter plot targeted at teenaged boys that even teenaged boys might be insulted by. It's a classic bait and switch, and I'm not laughing. (They are, no doubt.)

Red Garden shows promise early on, and not only because it's set in New York City: America's Dutch rudder, the city of theatre and high fashion and shut up, Paris. The setting is the snazzy prep school on Roosevelt Island, home to the education of our four different-as-can-be female leads: Rose, the naïve crybaby; Claire, the tomboy; Rachel, the muckety-muck fashion-model wannabe (and maybe could be), and finally Kate, the goody-goody two shoes, who gets attention because she's smarter than the Rose types. Don't be fooled by the fact that they're girls. I'm not convinced that Gonzo would know how to write a show that appeals to girls if they tried.

The girls find out rather early on that they've been murdered, and to stay alive (for some definition thereof), they must fight against ordinary people whose unfortunate genetics cause them to turn into mindless violent creatures. Sounds cool, right? Notwithstanding the fact that they appear to have set the show up as Gantz with a sex change. The early episodes play out like one might expect. The monster of the week shows up, gives our hapless heroines a few bruises, they cry a lot, and finally one of them finds a blunt instrument with the monster's name written all over it. She goes to town on the beast. See you next week!

I approve of violence exacted by women on things that are debatably not men. Sometimes, I'll even approve if the things debatably are men, under certain conditions, e.g. they're CEOs, politicians, or lawyers, in that order. The show spends a bit of time developing the girls' relationships with various men in their lives, most of which are necessarily weak-willed, indecisive, needy, and generally unstable. As the show progresses, there's little surprise as to which of the girls will emerge as the leader, and we know what kind of male suitor she'll be paired with.

How well a TV series is received is usually a function of whether the audience can relate to one or more of the characters, and Red Garden does well for itself in this area. Each of the main characters is an archetype, but her personality is not without nuance. In a traveling-pants sort of way, we meet each girl's true self in how she relates to the others and finds comfort in them. After all, high school is a dangerous place, with the rituals and the factions and terrible food. A girl's likely to get her blood or brains or soul sucked out, or worse, if she doesn't find herself a posse to help stem the tide of hormones and/or apathy.

The traveling pants tread water, caught in the crossfire of a centuries-old struggle between teachers and parents. Or if we apply the show's codex, "the wisdom of ages" vs "mindless monsters who would leave everyone alone if they'd just have sex once in a while and admit their kids are idiots." In the end, the viewer is forced to wonder which side the production staff is on, as oh-shit-it's-ending kicks in at the House of Gonzo. (It's a big party the writers throw because they think they're done with their job. To be honest, the party usually starts well before mid-season.) Each side wants something the other has — something that promises to end the gridlock and allow those left standing some measure of normalcy. Winning has a price, of course.

Don't look for a point in all this, children. Like any age-old struggle, there isn't one. The real human story is in who gets hurt, and who has to clean up the mess, but Red Garden doesn't concern itself over such trifling matters. Teenaged dead girls jump really high and beat up monsters. The End.

Thanks go out to Funimation for the review copy.