Platinum Garden

(Tokyopop, 2006–2008, 2011)
™ and © 2001 Maki Fujita
Black and white. Read right to left.

To pay off her grandfather’s massive debts, the family of 15-year-old Kazura happily sell her to the family who holds his markers; she is sent to live with its head, the young and darkly handsome Mizuki. Naturally, he: (a) expects Kazura to marry him and (b) has a terrible secret.

Apparently, he’s the sole support for his extended family of fantasy-level rich people, paying for their lavish lifestyle with the fees earned from his ability to call the souls of the dead. And, in spite of her current situation, Kazura wants to see her beloved grandfather one more time.

Platinum Garden desperately wants to be Fruits Basket but it’s only a cheap imitation, full of characters (both victim and victimizer) that are as unlikely as they are unlikable and with a fairytale premise that’s as cruel as it is contrived. Then, there’s the title—OK, at one point there actually is a garden, but Tokyopop could as easily have titled this one “Apache Spatula” for the amount of sense it makes.

— S.A. Bennett

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