Rozen Maiden (2013)

During the events of the original Rozen Maiden, after circling "yes" on a paper and agreeing to wind an unknown "something," a traumatized Jun Sakurada fights alongside the lifelike dolls known as the Rozen Maidens. But what would have happened if Jun had circled "no"?

Jun, having gotten over his school trauma from his younger days, spends his time attending college and working in a bookstore. However, he does not feel as though he belongs anywhere. One day, he finds a book containing instructions on how to make a Rozen Maiden. Mysteriously, when he arrives home that night, the second volume in the book series has been delivered to his house, along with some pieces of a doll. But as suddenly as they started arriving, the books stop coming, and Jun gets a notice that says that the books have ceased being published. With an incomplete doll in hand, and a message from his other self in another world, this Jun also finds his way into the world of the Rozen Maidens.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Suigintou Main

Tanaka, Rie Japanese

Suiseiseki Main

Kuwatani, Natsuko Japanese

Shinku Main

Sawashiro, Miyuki Japanese

Kirakishou Main

Chiba, Chiemi Japanese

Kanaria Main

Shimura, Yumi Japanese

Sakurada, Jun Main

Sanada, Asami Japanese

Souseiseki Supporting

Morinaga, Rika Japanese

Hinaichigo Supporting

Nogawa, Sakura Japanese

Laplace no Ma Supporting

Mikami, Satoshi Japanese

Kakizaki, Megu Supporting

Kawaragi, Shiho Japanese

Hayashi, Youhei Producer

Tanaka, Junichirou Producer

Takatori, Masashi Producer

Urasaki, Nobumitsu Producer

Reviews

Feb 3, 2021

otaku86

Recommended

Dollfie Dream. Azone. Parabox. If you know exactly what I'm talking about, then this anime is definitely for you. Truth is though, there's something for everyone in Rozen Maiden. I don't remember a show succeeding at so many different things all at once. And with such class and charm, too. It's a show about ball-jointed dolls that come to life thanks to little pieces of a gem called Rosa Mystica. Each doll has a piece of the gem and they battle each other in a competition called Alice Game to collect all the pieces and have a chance to meet their dad, Rozen, the fabled ... doll maker.

Yet this synopsis barely covers the basics of all the things you'll witness in Rozen Maiden. You have time travel, dimension shifts, hungry little doll ghost, a hikikomori, suicidal girls, a mysterious bunny and everything in between. Of course you also get dolls fighting by waves of rose petals, feathers, watering can and scissors. A lot of sibling rivalry and little dolls drinking tea in tiny tea cups.

The Alice game is not the focus here, however. The heart and soul of this show is the relationship in between the dolls themselves and their relationship with Sakurada Jun, a hikikomori as a kid and a depressed university dropout, bookshop employee as an adult. Jun has a special connection to Shinku, one of the dolls, and watching how their friendship develop is quite interesting and filled with endearing moments.

Now, if you have any actual interest in ball-jointed dolls (Dollfie Dream, Azone and Parabox are bjd brands in case you're still wondering) then you'll get an extra kick out of this show. Every kid out there at least once imaged their toys coming to life. For those who still think about that stuff as an adult, and in fact know a thing or to about dolls, you'll love to watch the quiet moments of this show, like Jun serving Shinku tea, Shinku trying to read the newspaper or dolls silently going back inside their briefcase for a nap. Lots of scenes of Jun cleaning and putting dolls together will certainly strike a cord for you as well.

Then again, that doesn't even begin to cover all the soothing moments we get in between these characters. Shinku and Suingintou's rivalry is another major aspect of the show and it goes from quite serious, tense moments to completely hilarious. There are seven little dolls by the way, all of them sisters, made by the aforementioned Rozen, the doll maker.

This anime manages to tell a story involving so many different things, I'm still amazed everything came out so well. It manages a lot of different tropes, has interesting, endearing and appealing characters and lots of soothing, sad and happy moments. The music is also very, very good. I'll definitely check out the manga and the other anime iterations. I'm really glad I picked this one up.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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May 25, 2016

SleepingAyumu

Recommended

The day I'm writing my first review had finally came, therefore don't judge me too hard.

I was never a big fan of Rozen Maiden. In fact, I've dropped it when I first attempted watching it years ago.As for today, I've seen all the seasons and still have multiple friends worshipping this anime for reasons I don't understand. Do I need to say I was reluctant to watch this new Rozen Maiden related thing? Because I truly was, and if not for my OCDs regarding anime kicking, I wouldn't. But, god, to think what a loss would it be!

The very first thing I've noted upon starting ... the first episode, was a significant change in drawing. Although the previous series had pretty details and outstanding character design, it's the bright colours that seriously irritated me for I'm not a fan of overly bright palettes. The joyous brightness made the anime seem less serious than it truly was, and possibly that's why my first attempt of watching it had failed and I never got past episode three. This lovely return of Rozen Maiden, however, had a perfect colour scheme in my understanding. It was darker, therefore suggesting the anime was to concentrate on the inner world people prefer to keep hidden. The outfits remained as detailed as before, but I must note faces of dolls had changed a bit. I've mostly noticed that on Shinku, but that's not a minus. In fact, I like it much, much more. Probably what made this season particularly enjoyable to me, unlike all the others, was that I can proclaim it as one of my personal eye candies. Suigintou gets an extra point because, damn, those wings! In my humble opinion, art is what truly brings the most enjoyment in this season and with no hesitation I voice my rate

Art: 10/10

As I've started the first episode and finally got over the pleasant shock of the newly adopted art, my curiosity got a bit of a tickle. At first I decided it was what I feared - a new adaptation of the old series, meaning that the art was in fact the only thing that changed. However, things were progressing too fast for it to be true. Although even if it was indeed just a new re-cap of the first season, I'd probably watch it anyways. My OCDs are the worst. As I watched, I noticed there were some changes, I even started wondering if it was by the same creators due to multiple errors because, well, those were the basic things anyone familiar with the previous seasons knew, such as messing up a character's name. However, by the end of the episode I started suspecting that everything is actually alright and there was no mistake...By episode two, when I was proved it's a brand new anime with new characters and story, my doubts disappeared and I could finally lay back and enjoy the show. Which, I won't hide, I did. Just as the darker tones suggested, it was less humorous, and that's a big con for me, who was irritated by filler-like episodes before rather than amused. There were a couple of herp-derp moments, but they were not excessive and put right where they had to be. What I lacked, however, was Kun-kun. But it was perfectly alright given the fact how little of Hina-Ichigo I've got to see/hear, and if only it keeps the annoying doll off the anime, the Kun-kun can be forgotten. RIP. I must admit liking the idea of parallel dimensions, which gives anime a little of a mindfuck which Rozen Maiden had always lacked, but that had also cut down the fight scenes which I found quite good before. Alice Game and Father had not been the main goal of the dolls, and ugh, that's what left me uneasy. Basically, an entire anime was dedicated to escape a psycho doll who had no body? Erm...That's not quite exactly how does the anime work, unless it's something like Naruto, where it would take at least 50 episodes instead of 13. However, the cliff hanger in the end offers there is another season coming. I can't say the story was bad, in fact it did suck me in, but there were times I'd lose that connection and grow bored of talking about nothing or showing Jun being bullied at work. Therefore my score is

Story: 8/10

Rozen Maiden was always famous for it's music, and although I dropped the anime before, I had downloaded the first opening straight away and been listening to it all along the way until I finally manned up and gave RM another shot. The quality of music had not failed this time, too. However, although I've only finished the anime today, I can now only remember the opening and brief fragments of the ending. The soundtracks during the anime itself appear to be so insignificant I did not even pay my mind to them, and if not the basic knowledge of them having to be there, I would probably wonder if they were there at all. I can't truly rate a thing I have not paid much attention toward, so I will just stick to the fact I had not noticed it and lower the score I first intended to give

Sound: 8/10

Characters never truly got much development in the franchise, except for Jun himself as the series were always rather aimed to discover his inner world. The dolls had all pre-set characters already in the earlier series and knowing they were, well, dolls, I never expected them to develop much. On the other hand, while changes with Shinku and Suigintou were clear during the earlier seasons, here nothing really changed. In fact, the newly introduced characters, such as Kirakishou, had no development whatsover. And, well, Jun was the only one to receive some development at all. The score of mine on characters is this high only because the characters stayed true to what they were portrayed before, such as Suiseiseki being a rude midget obsessed with her twin.

Characters: 7/10

As I've stated before, I did enjoy the anime. I watch it in gym, while sweating fat on cardio machines, therefore if the anime is crap, I'm likely to have a very long exercise which will leave me exhausted. With the newest season of Rozen Maiden, however, the time flew rather fast, and in my book it's an indication I did like the anime. Of course, there were flaws that made me want for the episode to finish faster, but in general I found it very enticing and likeable. In comparison to the previous series I struggled with, I'm very impressed and pleasantly surprised. Hopefully, if there is another season, it will bring me as much joy.

Enjoyment: 9/10

As I've mentioned in the beginning, I never truly liked Rozen Maiden. I forced myself to watch it 7 years after the first attempt, thinking that the older, university and part-time working me will understand and appreciate it more than the 13 years old middleschooler who still struggled with English. The current me did not drop it, but did not feel fond of it either, and only finished it by convincing myself it was a "classic" that had to be seen. But this season is an absolute game-changer. I finally found some enjoyment in Rozen Maiden rather than feeling as if I simply MUST watch it. I was interested in development of the plot and eternally astonished by the art, therefore I actually liked it. There were things that buggered me, and I stated them all above. All summed up, they make a score I think this season truly deserves

OVERAL: 8/10

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Jan 1, 2023

Two0ld4this

Mixed Feelings

I gave season 2 of Rozen Maiden a "Mixed feelings" rating because it seemed to me that the producers of that season either did not know how to tie up everything nicely at the end or simply couldn't for financial or other reasons. Well, they did it again! The first episode, as another reviewer notes, is a bit rushed and will probably disappoint seasoned viewers. However, the subsequent episodes put those doubts to rest and prove to be much more interesting and intriguing. The story moves slower and feels more mature and grown-up in comparison with seasons 1 and 2. I especially appreciated the character ... development of the MC, Shinku and Suigintou in the early part of the show. However, once the "action" starts about 2/3 of the way in, things start moving fast, and the same problems as season 2 reappear: there's a crescendo to what one expects to be a grand finale, but the finale falls very short. The difference is that this time it is much more obvious that another season was definitely expected because the ending leaves too many loose ends. Rozen Maiden Zurückspulen aired in 2013, and I am writing this in 2023. That's 10 years. I think it's safe to say that there won't be a new season. Thus, my rating has to be the same. There was definite potential here. If they had managed to tell the whole (new) story in 13 episodes, it might've been superior even to season 1. However, because things do not get resolved and we are left with a cliffhanger, what else but mixed feelings can the viewer expect?

By the way, season 2 viewers who found that a certain doll got a bit of an unfair treatment in the finale will find that they give her an even worse treatment in Zurückspulen. She was one of my favorites, and was quite saddened that she got so little screen time here. We can only hope that some day this injustice will be rectified!

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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