feil.jairo - 2016-01-05 11:12:30

Interesting concept but far too much filler. Wrapped things up too quickly.
But regardless still an OK watch.

rnolan - 2014-08-06 04:54:47

Rozen Maiden is a truly mediocre show with some really strong theming, a great premise, excellent music and aesthetics, but utterly horrid execution. It is also my favorite anime of all time. This review takes into account the first season, the second season, Traumend, and the OVA, Overture, but not Zuruckspulen.

The series places seven dolls who awaken through various eras of human history, portraying their faults as characters, strengths and nuances with effective interest in their historical locales, lapsing in and out of time in what may well be an instant, but juxtaposed upon that is the mirror to the real world, the N-Field, or the field of dreams. A concept which the series runs with, describing how all thoughts and existence are inter-woven together through their subconscious and how they subtly interact with one another to influence and insinuate.

The series starts in a refreshing fashion, albeit a downer of one, where a middle school boy's ordinary life of being a depressed NEET (Not in Employment, Education, or Training) is interrupted by a delivery. With Jun's fascination of antiques and the bizarre, he managed to find himself agreeing to accept a doll from a mysterious source. Thus Shinku arrives in his life, and with her, and her awakening, gives the start to the new Alice game.

The Alice game is a clash between all the dolls, wherein they typically fight to obtain one anothers Rosa Mysticae, which is a physical manifestation of their soul. The show manages to avoid making them a macguffin by placing agency and importance on them. With the loss of ones rosa mystica, they surrender their life, personality, power, and being in the world. Each doll is interconnected. Throughout the series their relationships develop and you get a true feeling for the connection the sisters share with each other. Ultimately Shinku and her clique come to a conclusion.

It is better to coexist with your loved ones than to kill them in order to achieve the status of Alice and obtain coexistence with father, a figure all the dolls look up to and spire to meet. However, the antagonists of the series, Suigntou, and Barasuishou present clear obstacles to Shinku and her groups goal.

Rozen Maiden creates a clear distinction between adversaries, but provides an interesting twist to it all. The protagonists wish to recruit and work together, and I find this to be extremely interesting. It's not done in a way that feels overblown or hard headed, preachy or irritating. Conflict is often approached with hesitance, and there's numerous nuances within the coinciding groups which create a ton of interesting engagements with the flavorful chemistry of the fairly (although, not at all completely) cliche characters.

Beyond all the characters and traits of the show's systems of presentation, there are the settings which I had detailed before have two main elements - the real world, and the field of dreams. The real world has typical imagery which frames the characters in typical situations, and allows for staging of conflict to occur, it's a grounded locale and serves as an accessible point of comfort for the viewer and characters.

Rozen Maiden, however, I must praise for its theming. Throughout the show it uses its setting, characters, and pacing to place a sense of urgency on the alice game and its players, talking much of life, lifelessness, depression, exclusion, reclusion, and it basks in these nuances. What strikes me is the imagery of nude dolls in the show, they're husk like in their appearance and disposition. It's really something powerful to see what you know is essentially the skeleton of a doll, rended lifeless, where you can mentally compare it to what you see in the lively dolls of the show.

However, the shows presentation leaves a lot to desire. What I've read of the manga bleeds of high concepts in its portrayal. The manga utterly tarnishes the show in that regard. For the most part, the pacing is utterly horrendous. It kicks off these affairs in the most nuanced and predictable way. It's cheesy with its acting barring a few characters, its flat with its directing, and it does no justice to the manga. The show hits some extremely high points later when the characters start to really engage with the field of dreams, especially those of the main characters, unraveling who they really are. Rozen Maiden fails its source material here.

It's an utter shame the show failed to capture the vision of its creator, however, beyond that shortcoming of directing, there is also that of animation. Lets face it, anime in the 00s took a distinct dip in quality. Perhaps it was the accessibility, or the flowing in of new content from a new generation of authors, but there is a notable low point in the quality of animation. Rozen Maiden is no exception, with its mediocre budget and high soaring visions. Rozen Maiden is one of the ugliest anime I've seen. It is visual garbage, and it's an utter shame it looks so hideous in its animation. Fortunately the characters, the details are really nice and adorable and rich. Still, even then it doesn't do proper justice to the source material.

I don't feel comfortable saying this show isn't worth watching. It is. It absolutely is for its good qualities, and ultimately, what it led to. Rozen Maiden Zuruckspulen is the redemption series that came all too late to a show that needed it immediately, and it is stunningly good. It is worth engaging with, if only, you ultimately aim to watch Rozen Maiden Zuruckspulen, as it is a fuller culmination of the vision of the source material, and does a much fuller justice to the themes, and concepts present in the original material.

brannon49 - 2013-06-28 08:18:31

Rozen Maiden Review

Rozen Maiden is seriously better than it looks at first glance. I admit that had I been an anime fan when this first aired, I probably would have ignored it just from the premise alone. Fighting dolls? Meh, can't be that interesting. Yeah, I was wrong.

The story of Rozen Maiden is pretty straightforward. A bunch of Dolls come to life after a human winds them up and they pretty much fight to the death to win the Alice Games. The best thing about the show is that it doesn't take any rests and every single episode escalates the plot in some way. This show had only 12 episodes and it used those 12 VERY well. Every episode flows nicely into the other, and each event ties into the bigger plot and the final battle/end of the show. The plot has a few flaws though. I for one got a bit confused at times; but that could have been me interpreting some dialogue wrong, or not paying enough attention at some points. What bothered me the most about the story was how the show held a lot of important info about the Alice Games until a late episode (I think episode 10 or so). So you are pretty much left in the dark about some things from the start of the show until episode 10. Even after they explained the Alice Games, I didn't quite get it totally. Were they awakened at one time? Does the game start once the second doll is awakened, or when the last doll is awakened? Little things like that weren't answered. I personally like having things like that told to me in the first episode to avoid confusion and questions (Even if it is just an hour of boring Dialogue, like Fate/Zero did). Aside from that, the story didn't have any major flaws.

I admit that depending on your tastes these characters might get on your nerves. In fact, some people might find almost every character in this show annoying, aside from Shinku, who is glorious (loli tsundere? What's not to love?). I understand that, but that simply isn't me. I didn't have a problem with any of the characters, and liked pretty much all of them. Characters like Hina-Ichigo and Suiseiseki (Desu!) will undoubtedly piss off some people to no end, but odds are you will like this cast. The cast just work very well together. One of the best things about them IMO is how every one of them seems to be in the Alice Games for different reasons. Some want to reach perfection, while other just want to play around. Seeing how everyone treats this game makes the show a little more interesting, as everyone has something different in mind.

The production values for this show are surprisingly high. I wasn't expecting much in this department, but my expectations were surpassed almost instantly. Watching it on DVD quality didn't do it enough justice IMO, but even then the animation looked good. Everything was fluid, and the battles looked very good as well. Some of the colors looked a little dull, but that could have been Sentai's DVD release. Speaking of Sentai Filmworks, the dub is pretty bad (it uses honorifics, the worst thing a dub can do). What was even better than the animation though was the score. First off, the openings and endings were good (I liked the opening a lot actually), and the background music was fantastic. Talk about music that fits a shows atmosphere. It is hard for me to put into words how fitting the BGM was, but it'll be obvious when you watch it.

This show deserves a watch if you haven't seen it yet, especially since at the time of writing this there is a second season, 2 OVA episodes, and a third season coming out in Summer 2013. You'll have a lot to watch, and hopefully the rest of the series can live up to this one.