One genre of media that Ive never really gravitated towards was romance namely because many of the plots for romance were always very melodramatic or formulaic. It wasnt that I inherently hated romance as a genre I just never found any romance media that really appealed to me. That would get rectified later in my life as I began to read and watch more things. Im also not really into yaoi or yuri manga or novels mainly for the same reasons along with many of them having very questionable ethics in regards to things like consent. Many of them tend to idealize and glamorize toxic relationships and Im not down for that kind of stuff Though this is coming from someone who unironically likes Sakura Gari. Honestly I never even heard of Goodbye My Rose Garden before coming across this article herehttps://www.animefeminist.com/daringtospeakitsnamegoodbyemyrosegardenandthequeerhistoricalromance/ but when I read it my interest was immediately piqued. I requested it at my local library and was quick to rent it and read the entire series in one sitting. Im glad I did because Im really really surprised at just how great this manga turned out to be especially since the last manga by Dr. Pepperco that I read Bang Dream: Girls Band Party Roselia Stage was decent at best but had a lot of problems in regards to its artwork. Seven Seas thank you for bringing this manga to the US because I love it In the year 1900 Japan is in the midst of mingling with the West and adopting a lot of its cultural practices. Hanako Kujo a teacher still reeling over being unable to help one of her students travels to England in order to find the author of one of her favorite novels along with finding a job. Unfortunately she hits a roadblock and is unsure of what to do. Thankfully a young noblewoman Alice Douglas notices Hanako and offers her a job as her personal maid. The two of them bond over their shared love of novels and literature but for some reason Alice wants Hanako to kill her. Hanako is unable to comprehend why Alice would ask her to do such a thing but shes determined to not only befriend her mistress but to make the best of her new surroundings. One thing I really respect about Goodbye My Rose Garden is that it really makes great use of its setting. Rather than simply using it as a backdrop the manga takes great care to embed itself in the history of the period through the social and hierarchal norms the characters are expected to uphold to using real events that are happening during the time such as the very heavily publicized trial of Oscar Wilde. Its made very clear throughout the manga that Dr. Pepperco really did a lot of research on Victorian England and when wanting to write a story taking place in the past you really need to make sure you get all your facts straight because if you dont take care to portray the time period as it was or take too much artistic/creative license with it you run the risk of either making it feel too modern/contemporary or falsifying facts. Like you wont find the characters here saying things like The elephant in the room knowing about the internet or owning cars. Itd be one thing if Goodbye My Rose Garden was trying to go for an alternate history route or go for a more fantasy/scifi like depiction like what the video game CodeRealize did but the manga makes it clear its trying to be just sliceoflife historical fiction with no fantasy or scifi elements in sight. Another thing that impressed me was the artwork. I mentioned in my Bang Dream Roselia manga reviewhttps://joyousmenma93.livejournal.com/481397.html that I felt that the artwork could be lackluster at times especially for the backgrounds. There it felt like Dr. Pepperco didnt put in an effort to make the world of that manga feel alive or only did the bare minimum. That manga came out several months before Dr. Pepperco would go on to make this and its amazing to see how much she learned from her mistakes because the backgrounds here are not only very lavish and detailed especially when it matters but feel much more alive. Everything from the designs on book bindings to the periodappropriate dresses and hair styles the characters wear to the exterior and interiors of the mansions the characters inhabit is given a lot of care and attention and I didnt notice any significant issues or anachronisms. Even the usage of English text is very cohesive and I didnt notice any jarring grammar errors or awkward sentence structure something that even most World Masterpiece Theater anime struggle with from time to time. Of course no matter how much research you put into the setting you cant have a good story without a cast of characters to make you care about them and thankfully Goodbye My Rose Garden has a great ensemble to hold it together. The main duo are a joy to watch as they both have equal amounts of depth strengths weaknesses and contributions to the story and its progression and Dr. Pepperco really worked hard to make sure they have good chemistry and I found their budding friendship and later romance to be very believable. Other characters such as Susanne Marie and Alices older sister Jane are also pretty likeable and serve their purposes well. Even the antagonistic characters are surprisingly downtoearth and arent evil for the sake of it as the manga is careful to show that they are products of their environment and are expected to uphold the Victorianera values and social norms that have been drilled into them all their lives and a lot of the conflict comes from their wanting Alice to be happy but wrongly assuming being the submissive wife of a nobleman and upholding the familys reputation is the best thing for her since thats what women of the time were expected to be. Edward Alices fiance isnt a cackling supervillain and does love her to an extent but is a product of Victorian era sensibilities thinking Alice will be happy if she becomes a mother being openly suspicious of Hanakos relationship with her and even displaying periodappropriate But still unacceptable by modern standards racism towards Hanako. My only real complaint is that other characters such as the other maids working in the Douglas estate and Edwards unnamed friend who tells him about Alices scandal and warns him about Hanako dont get developed or utilized enough to the point where Edwards friend doesnt even have a name. Plus Susanne a maid that Hanako encounters is said to have left a bad situation in France but we never see it. Dr. Pepperco has mentioned at the end of volume 3 that shed like to make a sequel manga that goes deeper into exploring other characters and the consequences of their actions but so far nothings set in stone. For what its worth though Im happy with Goodbye My Rose Garden as is. It knows what it wants to be doesnt drag itself out longer than necessary and doesnt overstay its welcome. Now I wish I hadnt written off Dr. Pepperco back when I reviewed the Bang Dream manga she made. Goodbye My Rose Garden was clearly made with a lot of love and passion and I can only hope shes able to make more stories like this. It helps that its fairly short too only clocking it at three volumes and Seven Seas released the whole series in the US so you can read through it pretty quickly if you have a few hours to kill. So for anyone wanting to read a historical shoujoai/LGBT manga that doesnt have a tragic ending definitely give Goodbye My Rose Garden a try. Its sweet short riveting and I would honestly love for someone to make an anime out of this. I know that probably wont happen but hey a girl can dream cant she?