dead girls
Dead
Girls (Red Garden) is a single forty four minute OAV episode released
in 2007 several months after the conclusion of the Red Garden television
series. A strange mix of the original series setting and mechanical wonders,
Dead Girls has been described by its creators as "not a direct
sequel" to Red Garden. The episode is seen as "a potential
future", not necessarily the one that occurred after the conclusion of
the television series. Fan reaction to the episode was obviously divided-
although many of the characters were back (including cast members who looked
identical to deceased characters from the television series), their personalities
were very different. The surreal blend of neo-gothic motifs and futuristic
mecha also served to further divide fans.
Years after awakening in the red garden that consumed Roosevelt Island, Kate, Rachel, Claire and Rose work as bounty hunters under the collective title "Dead Girls". So elusive are these Dead Girls that ordinary people don't know whether or not they truly exist. When they're not laying the smack-down to criminals, the Dead Girls attend high school and pretend to live ordinary teenage lives. The truth however, is that they are still haunted by a past they can't fully recall. Enter Louise and her brother Edgar, two mysterious transfer students who have a keen interest in the girls. Will these strangers lead the Dead Girls to further knowledge or ultimate destruction?
obaa-san's cameo
As she died during the final episode of Red Garden, Lula does not appear in Dead Girls. Tanaka Rie does however, make a cameo as "Obaa-san", a woman living in the Dead Girls' apartment building who bears a striking resemblance to Lula. Obaa-san only appears in one scene at the beginning of the episode and does not have an actual name. She follows the exploits of the Dead Girls with keen interest but seems blissfully unaware that the girls in her building are actually the vigilantes she so admires. Claire rolls her eyes at Obaa-san's gushing but Kate treats her with good humour, even listening to her sing an off-key rendition of the Dead Girls' theme as they ride in an elevator together.
In such a short sequence played undeniably for laughs, can we garner any deeper Obaa-san implications? Probably not. Although Kate is still the Kate we recall from Red Garden she has no memory of Lula or the events that took place during the television series. By the same token, although she looks uncannily like her, Obaa-san is not Lula.
Kate had a difficult time forgiving Lula for her role in the events that transpired during Red Garden, even after she died. Obaa-san is not the woman who wronged Kate all those years ago even though there is no denying the intended similarity. Perhaps therefore, the most we can take from this scene is an overall sense of peace between Kate and Obaa-san. All the animosity, guilt and pain of the past cannot be denied but these sentiments no longer play a part in the future of these characters, whoever they have become in the post-Red Garden world.
As a side note, it is quite possible that nameless Obaa-san being called "Obaa-san" in the credits is something of an in-joke. When Lula is referred to as "Obaa-san" by Sam during the Rock! Mix drama CD, she is extremely offended. As we learn, there is a bitter rivalry between Lucy/Lula based on their appearances and neither wishes to be thought of as an "old woman".