Rosen Garten Saga – Review of the first volume

The first volume of Rose Garden Saga it’s a big missed opportunity. We want to open our review like this, with all the sincerity in the world, also because we were a little disappointed by the content of the opening volume of the new series coming out in Italy thanks to J-POP Manga. The work of Fuji Sakimori and Bakotsu Tonookawhich in its homeland has almost reached double figures in the “volumes published” category, has also landed in our country, starting from February 28, and if we have to be honest, the premises on the eve seemed to point in a slightly different and perhaps more promising direction.

As we have already told you at the beginning, in all fairness, the first volume of Rose Garden Saga he didn’t convince us. And it’s a shame. First of all, it’s a shame because on an aesthetic level the product defends itself more than well, showing itself in splendid form both in terms of thematic inspiration and on the artistic profile and then, secondly, there are some good ideas at the base of the narration, but they are swallowed up by an ungenerous number of dead moments, dialogues without much sense and unmotivated forcing.

If you are curious to know more, well, you just have to continue reading our review of the first volume of Rosen Garten Saga, which was kindly granted to us by the publishing house.

A vortex of paradoxical events and situations

Talking about the plot and the story that forms the background to the events narrated in the duo’s work Sakimori And Tonooka We want, as always, to limit any form of spoiler as much as possible, but in this case we can’t help but start by admitting that we immediately thought we had something truly crazy in our hands.

The narrative line opens up in a particular way, to use a euphemism. In an apparently peaceful village, but victim of a sort of mass sexual slavery, a group of bandits appear, who have the obvious plan of raiding every possible thing present in the homes of the peaceful inhabitants and … not only. Keeping faith with the nature of a high fantasy production with super explicit content (although there are still several censorships, even evident), the events take a diametrically opposed direction to those on which one could imagine setting a similar story, and begin to range dangerously in a vortex of sexual excesses that, while still understandable, are excessive and in some ways annoying.

Fortunately, however, as we were keen to point out a little while ago, Rose Garden Saga It still has some valid ideas behind itespecially on the narrative level, and as time and pages pass the bar of quality begins to reach more acceptable levels. Much of the credit for this is undoubtedly linked to the pace and style with which the story is told. The humor factor is there, it is felt and becomes the protagonist of the work on more than one occasion and it works, especially because it manages to dampen the effect of some situations that otherwise would have been decidedly more difficult to manage and understand.

An interesting cast, but everything to be evaluated

The fast pace manages to make the narrated events perhaps even a little more interesting but, if we have to be honest, we believe that if this initial plot manages to be more interesting than it deserves, it is largely due to the cast of characters introduced in this first part of the work. Rose Garden Sagain this respect, it appears to be in great shape, and seems to have nothing to envy anyone. The work done by sensei Tonooka seems to be of great depth, both on a purely visual level and in terms of the structural and thematic characterization of each of the main faces of the story.and this is definitely a huge plus.

What struck us, even if it may seem obvious, was the protagonist, Lynn. Although fundamentally close to the archetypes of sexy women but deliberately and excessively masculine and inelegant, the young protagonist of the work is actually much more interesting and complex than one might believe, and as the reading continues, new pieces seem to appear, which allow the reader to better understand her personality and the way in which she hides her fragility under the guise of brutality and indifference.

Let’s get the big… tournament underway?

The rest of the cast also seemed to us to be of a good level, starting from the group of antagonists glimpsed in the final moments of the first volume. From this point of view, it is necessary to underline that the manga is still pervaded by that magical element that is perceived more explicitly in the final stages, in which a sort of slightly more shonen vein is felt, even if the comparison could be a bit excessive.

As we have already told you several times, and we repeat it, Rose Garden Saga it still seems to have something interesting lurking in the background, a timid ray of sunshine that could shine through the work, perhaps in the next volumes, and it could be the element potentially involving magic-based combat that plays a fundamental role in this evolution. To be honest, the presence of this sort of “tournament”, which seems to recall a sort of deadly dance, a bit like what happens in ELDEN RING with the annual Caelid festival celebrating General Radhan and his thirst for battlehas given a potential twist to the whole story, although, and we say this very honestly, we believe that if the way of telling everything remains the same, it could all be a bit in vain.

Tables of a certain quality

The aspect under which we have no doubts is certainly the technical and artistic one. To be seen, and we have already made it very clear, Rose Garden Saga It’s truly splendid, thanks to an artistic line of excellent quality. The tables created by the master Sakimori are of an excellent level, they have a strong line and a plastic and harmonious modelling of the bodies, which manages to enhance, and this is no small thing considering the type of production, the silhouettes of the bodies. and all the features, including the most extreme ones, net of the censorship to which we are now accustomed.

The use of chiaroscuro also made a great impression, a technique that we found very recurrent in the graphic style of the tables. Sensei Sakimori proved to be absolutely worthy of the name, creating some passages that are as accurate as they are splendid even just to look at and we are sure that this can be a big plus, especially to captivate the most demanding and those less convinced of the value of the work.

Who do we recommend Rosen Garten Saga to?

It is important to point out the fact that Rose Garden Saga is recommended for an adult audience, and this would partly answer the question. All things considered, however, at the moment it is difficult to identify a type of reader to whom the title could refer, since this first volume, as we also said earlier, has not managed to convince completely, proving to be too vague and not very concrete. We’ll see, then, but at the moment it’s really complex to contextualize the product.