Goodbye, My Rose Garden Vol. 1

I have never been all that fond of British period dramas. Too much pomp & circumstance, if you will. While I did grow up in a blue blood family, it was an American family, & certainly not in the Victorian Era. In my family, "keeping up appearances" is of the utmost importance. Even now, I'm 45, & I often find myself present at a family event, solely because my absence would cause embarrassing questions to my parents & siblings. I want nothing to do with it, yet out of family loyalty, & not wanting people to talk, I go to these events & find myself so miserable that I want to scream & pull my hair out. So, I have somewhat of an understanding of what the lady of the house has to endure. Seriously, if word got out that I'm an otaku, it would humiliate my family. Manga, anime, video games, comics... those are the interests of the commoner. So it's rather refreshing to see someone as fed up with the status quo as I am. To paraphrase, "Give me manga, or give me death!" Anyhow, this is such an interesting story. I will admit, the only reason I picked this up was because of the yuri aspects. However, I'm starting to rather enjoy these characters, especially the 2 female protagonists. I look forward to the next volume. Art, immaculate. Dialogue, impeccable. Characters, believable, likeable, & in some cases, relatable & adorable.

A slow-building Victorian romance with complications.Lady Alice loves books and enjoys reading in her rose garden. But she is depressed because she fell in love with the one person she could never have: her governess. Rumors spread, so the governess moves to Japan and tutors Japanese students in English. One of her students is a girl named Hanako.Hanako also loves reading. She even pens her own novel, and her dream is to present it to her favorite English author, Victor Franks. So she leaves Japan for England but finds her goal will not be easy to reach, because, despite his popularity, no one seems to have ever met Victor Franks!Alice overhears Hanako's dilemma and, seeing that the foreigner is now stranded, offers her a position as a maid at her estate. She has no idea that Hanako was the student of her former love, the governess. Hanako learns that Alice is now engaged to a lord, because until she marries, she cannot receive her inheritance, being a woman. But rumors that Alice is a lesbian persist, threatening both her engagement and inheritance, and her love for her governess lingers, making her feel that death is the only escape. She promises Hanako that if she will help her die, she alone can introduce her to the writer, Victor Franks.The artwork in this manga is gorgeous, with fully detailed backgrounds and elaborate late-Victorian period costumes. (And we see Hanako in a kimono a few times, as well!) There's a colorful host of side characters, including a maid who rises above her station by marrying a nobleman, rumor-mongering servants, and a scheming nobleman who is trying to break up Alice's engagement to his friend. There's realistic conflict, as Alice's fiancé is forced to confront the rumors that she has same-sex attractions in an era when Oscar Wilde had been jailed for that very thing. While it's hard to see the discrimination play out on the pages, in the afterword the author himself said he cried while researching same-sex relationships in 1900 because of the way people were treated, and it made me feel comforted.I was hooked from the first page of this manga, seeing the way Alice and Hanako bonded over books. I'll definitely be continuing this series.

amazing story and only 3 volumes! beautiful development and the art is stunning!

It handled showing how mental illness, women, poc and lgbt people were treated in the nineteenth century without making the manga itself dark. It balances its suicide-pact premise with lighthearted moments and a sweet blossoming romance of people of different social standings.

Not completely my style but still pretty good. I'm not a fan of the era they used, but that's just my taste. It's still an interesting story so far and I hope they can help each other out.

So nice to see new yuri coming out and it definitely lived up to my expectations! Love the interactions between Hanako and Alice. They’re just so adorable. The story keeps you enthralled. Had to read it all in one go. Definitely following the series!

This manga was adorable 10/10 did recommend to friends!

I'm absolutely captivated by the story. The art is lovely, the writing is good, and the characters are memorable and fun. I'm very excited to see how this tale will progress!

Absolutely Beautiful Book. Super pretty art style and a beautiful story about two women looking for 2 different things.10/10

Um yuri de época, retratando uma sociedade que condenava a homossexualidade, considerando-a um pecado terrível. Uma nobre inglesa e sua governanta japonesa que possui o sonho de conhecer seu autor favorito serve de pano de fundo para um drama envolvente e que certamente te deixará com o coração na mão.O traço é lindo e possui algumas referências históricas. Lembrou-me um pouco ao filme "A criada", embora não haja um golpe envolvido.

Goodbye, My Rose Garden really pull me into the story since I love stories based in long times ago with romance I love it so much, the best thing is that is yuri genre so it makes me love it more.

Beautiful illustration came in perfect condition

Sehr schön gezeichnet und die Story ist toll!