Rose Petal Place - Cartoon Retrospective (Part 3)

Rose Petal Place: Real Friends (Animated Special) 

The second (and final) special in the series, Rose Petal Place: Real Friends, was released in 1985- the year after the previous special, Rose Petal Place: A Garden of Love to Share, in 1984. All the previous voice actors return to play their characters, with newcomer Stacy McLaughlin joining the cast. The same voice actors from the first special also provide their voices to the new characters. Nastina’s voice actress, the late Marilyn Schreffler, also voices Marigold. Renae Jacobs, who played Orchid and Lily Fair, now voices two more characters with Sweet Violet and Cherry Blossom.

And it’s time to be blunt very early on: I don’t like Cherry Blossom’s voice. Having a white actress put on a very shrill and stuttering Japanese accent with all the cultural respect of a 4Kids anime dub telling you a riceball is a jelly-filled donut… well, it’s not exactly in good taste. During the writing of this blog, I actually looked up if there were any other reviews of this special online. I found six on Letterboxd, and three of them complained about Cherry Blossom’s accent. Now, I personally don't think there's anything wrong with having actors voice characters of a different ethnicity (voice acting is one of the only mediums where you can do that tactfully). As an amateur voice actress, I myself have done quite a few silly ethnic accents. But Renae’s voice for Cherry Blossom comes across as too silly to be sensitive. I mean, this actress was famous for voicing April O’Neil, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles had a lot of Japanese characters played by non-Japanese actors that didn’t have outrageously offensive accents. Splinter was voiced by a white man and Shredder was voiced by a black man, both of them sounded fine. It’s not like you couldn’t make this work, I just think Renae was the wrong actress for this part because she can’t do this voice without coming across as tacky.

Aside from that, it’s all the same people production wise: same director (Charles August Nicholls), same writer (Mal Mormenstein), and same animation studio (Ruby-Spears Productions). Let’s see how this sequel improves on the first special...

The art style is still rather beautiful, but it has seen a pretty massive change in terms of the character design. The cutesy somewhat-chibi aesthetic has been replaced with a more fanciful and proportioned look with darker colors, taller bodies, and more details on their clothing and hair. For example, Rose Petal’s fabric dress has been replaced with one with visible leaves for a bodice and petals for the sleeves. I do love these more extravagant looks, but the character animation itself is far more stiff and choppy compared to the original, probably due to the character designs being more complex. I don’t think these are terrible designs- quite the opposite, they’re still gorgeous- but do genuinely prefer how the previous designs looked. Thankfully, the environments not only remain beautiful, but even better than the original special. The night time shots with the soft lighting and deep color palettes are especially stunning, especially with these richer tones. Some of these meticulous, whimsical backgrounds could be used as paintings. This cartoon also has a lot more dynamic shots and interesting angles, making its small world feel bigger and more cinematic. I love the opening credits following the firefly from the sky, through the outskirts of the house, and finally into the garden. And the opening instrumental music to accompany it is simply divine. Overall, in terms of character animation and design, it looks a bit worse, but the atmosphere and backgrounds are simply marvelous to make up for it.

The animated special is free to watch on YouTube. So you can watch the special alongside reading the review, watch the special before reading my review, or read the review before watching the special. You're free to enjoy this blog however you wish- at your own pace, and in your own style!

So what's our plot for tonight’s misadventure? No big surprise: it’s a show at Carnation Hall, our bug-and-botany swinger’s club, and Nastina’s up to her old tricks. (You know, Nastina, for someone who hates music and Rose Petal, you sure show up to literally all of her concerts. You really ARE crushing hard on her and are denying it every step of the way!) Anyway, her evil plan is to turn all the girls against Rose Petal and each other, and that will somehow allow her to take over the whole garden. Um, 1: That's a dumb plan. What happened to just trying to murder them? That was a good plan! And 2: I hate this trope. I can't stand the misunderstanding trope, especially when it’s the evil character convincing the main character’s friends that they're bad, and the friends instantly believing them despite no reason to. Then they all betray each other and mope for the entire third act instead of talking things out. I really hope this special doesn’t play out this trope, because it’s just one of the laziest conflicts you could put into a story.

The concert is merely an excuse to introduce the new characters, which I suggested in the previous special would be a better way to introduce the personalities of the side characters. While this backstage setting serves more purpose than the last animated adventure, with it being a central plot point rather than just some flooding escapade to escape from, the characters are still rather one-note and only seen doing their special talents unsubstantially in the background. (ex. Cherry Blossom is seen as a set designer painting backgrounds for the show, but we don't know any character traits of hers beyond that.)

 

Where did these four other flower lesbians come from? And I do mean lesbians for real this time. Look at Gladiola's little pink tuxedo and her high kicks! Tearing up that stage, rocking that outfit that would turn drag queens green! I'm sorry, this is literally queer culture animated. (Or maybe that's only because Gladiola here stole my wardrobe. Know anyone else in pink tiny tuxedos?)

Backstage with all the other product placement Precious Moments figurines, we meet Sweet Violet: Rose Petal’s new friend who is an upcoming actress dealing with a case of stage fright. Violet's greatest fear is to be laughed off the stage, but Rose Petal promises that no one will laugh at her, and of course she does this comforting through song. Even Marie Osmond can’t save this stinker. It’s not catchy, the lyrics are so sugary that they’ll rot your teeth out, the rhymes are unimaginative, the flow isn’t smooth, and the message is predictable and pandering. The final note hits great, but it's overall bland and forgettable. (By the way? That was this "musical's" only song.)

After that slog- I mean, song- Nastina and Horace set up these stereos in secret around the hall, all while Elmer the Demon Tree watches. He decides to do nothing, as usual, and feels that repeating footage of the backstory from the first special is a much better use of his time than stopping the bad guy by, I dunno, crushing her under a branch- or, God forbid, by telling someone! This is just so lazy. Not only is just sloppily reusing footage, but it’s exposition put into the story with all the grace and subtlety of an explosion. It interrupts the plot for information the audience most likely already knows, as this repeated backstory is on all the toy boxes and the books, and was also in the last special. According to Elmer, “Rose Petal shares the gift of love and music with everyone. The bond between the girls is unbreakable.” Stop. Making. Me. Make. Lesbian jokes! This is a show about theater kids with rainbow-colored hair who break out into song at random, dress in frilly tuxedos and short-shorts for dancing, and live in a garden where men are a distant memory. This is the queerest kid’s show ever made (which I do respect). 

Rose Petal thinks that everything will be okay once Violet goes onstage, despite all her friends insisting she’s too nervous and ill-prepared to make her stage debut. During her dramatic recitation of Romeo and Juliet (because picking a play about flowers or a garden is too much work for the writer), the stereos start playing Horace’s impression of the Joker. (To be fair, Frank Welker has a really good maniacal laugh.) Sweet Violet’s friends demand she come off stage, but Rose Petal insists she stays because if she doesn’t continue, she’ll never have the courage to try again. But Nastina and Horace’s fetish tapes played publicly are too embarrassing for Violet to stomach, even as Rose Petal tries to make her finish, and she cries off the stage.

 

Because of the embarrassment their friend faced, everyone is angry at Rose Petal and abandons her… Wait, they're not? They… they’re talking things out? They’re sitting and discussing what happened and communicating like- gasp- normal people?! They’re not irrationally upset or leaving without letting her explain, but having a productive conversation? The girls are disappointed, yes, but they don’t immediately jump on Rose Petal. They just get concerned for Sweet Violet, and Rose Petal promises to find the one who laughed to help restore the confidence she feels she made Violet lose. Why is it Rose Petal Place that ends up subverting and repairing one of the worst writing tropes in history? I’m… I'm impressed. Good job! Rose Petal goes around asking the audience members if they knew anyone who was laughing, as Sweet Violet leaves to dramatically cry in the middle of the forest like a good proper theatre queen. 

 

And Nastina girl, my thick-rumped goddess, you are dominating in those outfits! Absolutely fabulous, darling, I’m digging it. I call this look “ze Parisian butch”.

Nastina's latest scheme is presenting herself and Horace as a team of directors and they want Sweet Violet to play the leading lady in their next show, pretending to have heard of her as a famous actress and convincing Violet that they’re her biggest fans. And this special, for all its faults, has a major improvement over the previous one: it’s not all about Rose Petal. She’s still a major character, which is expected, but they’re also actually giving development to the side characters. Sweet Violet is a melodramatic and sensitive artist with her own dreams, fears, and even growth. This is an actual character. And we even get to see more of Nastina’s hammy yet manipulative personality shine here too. The dialogue here actually is well-written for what it needs to be; it’s believable for the naive and heartbroken Violet to trust the villains, and the villains have a chance to come across as more opportunistic and crafty. It makes the villains more of a threat knowing that they can manipulate the emotions and take advantage of the protagonists as much as they physically hurt them.

Sweet Violet: “But they laughed at me.”
Nastina: “Because you had the wrong audience. You’re too high class to appear in a joint like that! Who advised you to make that appearance?”
Sweet Violet: “Rose Petal.”
Nastina: “Oh, Rose Petal again! That girl has ruined more careers. She’s the star of Carnation Hall and she’s not going to let anyone else become a star!”
Sweet Violet: “No matter how much they laughed, she made me stay on that stage and keep going.”
Nastina: “Well, that proves it! I can give you stardom. Please, Miss Violet. Come to my theater! Audition for me. Show Rose Petal that she can’t ruin your talent!”

It makes Violet genuinely sympathetic and it makes Nastina all the more sinister. As much as I make fun of it, this special is a genuine step-up in the writing department. The story is more coherent, plot points make more sense, and there’s even character growth. Soon, the villains take Sweet Violet back to Tin Can Castle and convince her to stay the night and tell her friends she won’t be coming back to Carnation Hall. We next see Rose Petal getting the sad note from Violet in her cute-as-a-button little high heel bed. (Lemme guess? Yep, you could buy a toy of that.) The note says Violet has run away because of the humiliation Rose Petal put her through and won’t be returning home. All the flower lesbians waste no time going to look for her, which is another improvement on the original where they just stood there for a literal day. But they can’t find Violet anywhere… until Horace strolls over for no reason other than to be a smug idiot, perfect for Rose Petal to start questioning him.

 

Come on, Horace, Violet's not that hard to find! She’s a purple-haired Southern Belle in a poofy purple gown with the voice of Renae Jacobs. …Not unlike Orchid. …Hey, maybe we can ask Sunny Sunflower for help! She’s this girl with curly blonde hair, blue eyes, and a big yellow hat voiced by Susan Blu… no, not Daffodil!

Horace says the only honest thing he’s ever said in his life and tells the girls Violet was crying in the thicket last night. I have to say I do like the expansion of the personalities, with Rose Petal being more steadfast and a bit more sassy and Horace being more smarmy and flirty, especially with the well-done facial expressions. It’s the only thing in this scene that isn’t sloppily animated (animation errors in this scene include Cherry Blossom’s blue shirt turning pink, the scene changing without the background changing, and Fuchsia running over the background’s bush and tree root). Anyway, here’s where the villain's plan starts to lose its logic, as Horace tells Nastina that everyone is against Rose Petal and that this means her plan to take over the garden is falling into place. And by making everyone against Rose Petal, they mean make them all cooperate efficiently, trust each other, and show mutual concern over their friend! And with absolutely nothing changing in their friend dynamic, which was her original plan, that means Nastina's plan is going flawlessly? That somehow means the villains can succeed in Nastina's plans to make the garden uninhabitable for everyone but her and Horace. (You know, to be a queen, you kind of need… subjects.)

 

The villains conveniently spill their plans in earshot of Sweet Violet in their wake of maniacal laughter, which makes Violet realize that THEY were the ones making fun of her at the show and that they used her sorrow to trick her friends into leaving the garden to look for her, all so Nastina can unleash her secret weapon called the Blitzmower. The flower girls realize, “Oh yeah! There’s a super evil spider lesbian who lives in the thicket! Maybe she did the bad thing!” and decide to confront Nastina by having Pitterpat Cat follow her as the other girls look for Sweet Violet. Violet herself is with Horace practicing her lines, as she finds ways to make her escape. Violet tricks Horace using her acting talents by inventing a new play for both her and Horace to participate in where the fly is the star. 

Violet's play is called "Gone with the Fly", which stars Horace as himself and Violet as his mother, Becky. Though Violet may have gotten Horace too invested into her ego-preying distraction, as this roleplay gets Horace so invested that he seems to mistake the play for his real life? He begins telling a story about how he wanted to be a horse jockey, fantasizing about hanging off of a horse's tail to win a race as Becky desperately tried to save him from being squished or drowned in a mud puddle. The show seems confused on whether this fantasy sequence is based on real or fake events, though it's implying it's a mix of both? It's very confusing, especially as the character model used for Becky is seen in the background audience of the first Carnation Hall scene, meaning Horace probably does have a mother somewhere. If that’s the case, it could make Horace a more layered character too. Seriously, dude can dance, act, ride horses: how’d he end up working for Nastina if he has all this talent and doesn’t seem to hate flowers or the garden as much as Nastina? Nastina’s motivations make some sort of logical connection despite the vagueness, but Horace just seems to exist to be her lackey and nothing else when he also had the potential to have his own unique motives for wanting to destroy the garden. 

Sadly, we can’t ponder on this wasted potential as Sweet Violet escapes, reunites with Rose Petal, and tells of Nastina’s new evil plan: to literally run them over on a giant spiked lawnmower/unicycle of doom. The Blitzmower is so dumb yet so metal at the same time (pun intended). Nastina literally tries to run people over as violently as possible with this mechanical monstrosity, and I remember how much I love Nastina when she’s being so unapologetically bloodthirsty.

 

After the villain’s machine fails to destroy nature and kill the female protagonist on her giant fluffy steed, this Princess Mononoke remake ends with Rose Petal trapped in Nastina’s sticky substance, probably left over from her lonely nights. When all hope seems lost, Rose Petal uses the sun to reflect off her teardrop to blind Nastina (despite Nastina wearing goggles), causing the Blitzmower to go crazy and destroy Tin Can Castle, thwarting the spider once again. I don't mind Rose Petal defeating Nastina instead of Violet, since it actually makes Rose Petal more proactive (unlike the first special where she must be rescued) and it makes more sense within the story. Rose Petal's enemy is Nastina, but Sweet Violet's enemy is her own fear and lack of confidence. Both girls defeat their own problems in different ways, with Rose Petal stopping a physical threat and Violet stopping a personal threat. I actually kind of like it. And after using her acting talents to outsmart the villains and escape, Sweet Violet has finally found her confidence and is ready to return to Carnation Hall on stage. The heroes sing the theme song triumphantly back home as the villains are left defeated, with Nastina realizing it’s time to move on from her crush on Rose Petal and find a new waifu. Which is why we never see Nastina or her lackey Horace again, as everyone lives so happily ever after that no other animated specials were made after this one. 

And yep, this was technically the last thing Rose Petal Place had its flowery face slapped on, presumably as a last-ditch effort to keep the franchise going. 

 

The six new characters introduced in this special were intended to have their own dolls, which look gorgeous in their only promotional picture, but they never made it past their promo image and into production. These dolls were never released, as the franchise died a quiet death in 1985, never to be seen again. And I mean never again. This series is so obscure and forgotten that no one is even willing to make adult artwork of it. Believe me, I checked. And isn't that the greatest dishonor something can have on the internet? (For reference, Happy Ness: Secret of the Loch, one of the worst cartoons I've ever reviewed, had its own page of artwork on Rule34. People were more willing to make material of Happy Ness: Secret of the Loch than Rose Petal Place.)

It's sad the franchise died here, considering this special was an improvement on the original in every way except visually. With the slightly downgraded character animation aside, the story was a massive upgrade. While Sweet Violet was the only side character to get development, there was an effort to make the side characters actual characters in the story, though people like Cherry Blossom and Fuchsia still have nothing to do narrative wise. The story wasn’t constantly about Rose Petal, allowing for other characters like Violet and the villains to get more time to shine and it really expanded upon their personalities such as Nastina’s cunning and even hints of a possible backstory for Horace. Rose Petal herself was more proactive and less screen-hoggish. And it managed to take an insufferable trope like “villains making heroes misunderstand each other” and fix it to be actually tolerable. But there are still flaws, like the lack of development for any other character as mentioned and borderline racist accents which is not cool. But many of the strengths of the previous special are kept: from gorgeous backgrounds, to great music (minus the songs, which were less frequent and lower quality), and a fairly competent and gloriously viscous villain. Sure this special isn’t cinema gold, but it’s certainly a step-up in quality and I can see so much more potential out of this than in the previous one, which merely acted as a bland introduction to the series’ star. 

The story was actually about art and music this time, with the stresses and conflicts that can come from art and music. It’s not just a generic rescue mission where Rose Petal is never challenged or faces things like the weight of responsibility or fear of disappointing her friends. The artsy flair and theatre centrality helps the series establish a unique identity of mixing that theme of performing arts with these floral aesthetics. 

And that leads to the second of the five main issues I believe led to Rose Petal Place’s failure: It doesn't use its themes of art and music to its full advantage.

The series stands out so much more when it leans into the theatre themes rather than the lamer floral ones. There’s only so much you can do with flowers, but we see so much potential for story and character opening up when these artistic characters focus on the arts. We see Sweet Violet struggle with stage fright, self-doubt, manipulation from people preying on her dreams, drama both literally and figuratively. This is all so much more character-focused and sympathetic than the physical threats of kidnappings or poisons. It really makes these characters seem more likable, but development being only saved for one girl out of technically 12, it really makes you see how wasted many of these worthless side characters end up being when they have all the right pieces needed to be great characters themselves. The idea of these flower fairies having powers tied to, not nature, but their own artistic abilities is a brilliant concept, but it’s so wasted as this is the only special where we see that potential used. But the characters, aside from Rose Petal’s magic singing, don’t use their art or individual skills to save the day because Rose Petal hogs so much screen time and the stories tend to be weak. And Nastina’s idea of becoming a rival artist/director to Carnation Hall is an interesting idea but it’s never explored as her fake theatre set-up doesn’t really have any end goal aside from a distraction. And that’s what these two specials are: distractions.

But we're not done in Rose Petal Place. Join me next week as we take a deep-dive into its storybooks, next time on Your Clairy Godmother!