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** WARNING: this review may contain spoilers **

I was excited when I found out they were gonna remake Rozen Maiden... I always wanted to watch it but never found the time to do it.

I expected witchcraft, creepy scenarios or at least an eerie soundtrack... and honestly, I've never been so disappointed since Another. Here's why.

Story: 5/10
Like I said, the plot revolves around the Alice Game, that it's supposed to be a way to encourage the dolls to fight between themselves and find who's the most capable of becoming a perfect doll/girl. But they never explain why, or for who. They talk about some 'father' but ... they never talk in-depth about him. Midway through the series, watching every episode felt like a chore and I only watched them to see Shinku doing cute stuff or waiting for the MC to grow a pair.

Art: 6/10
The art was fine but not outstanding. The backgrounds are drawn like paintings, and while some can find it artsy, I found it lazy. You could see that all the effort went into making eye-candy out of the dolls. Now, I'm okay with that, but sometimes the contrast could be huge... the animation and character design put into making the dolls could be top-notch in some scenes, but when they focus on the MC's life it was just depressing.

Sound: 7/10
If I had to describe the soundtrack with one word, it would be "classy". It blended up pretty well with the scenes and overall it was enjoyable. Also, Ali Project... 'nuff said.

Characters: 5/10
Kirakishou is a demi-yandere, Shinku is a kuudere, Suigintou is a tsundere and the rest of the dolls are moeblobs. The MC is an oblivious doormat and there's a female coworker whose only role in the show is being cute and nice to him and hopefully create an emotional bond with him. And that's it. The only character development comes from Shinku, who eventually shows her 'dere' side to Jun, the MC who starts the show as a rather depressing person... and here's what pisses me off: HE NEVER CHANGES! Even though he has plenty of opportunities to turn his life around, he prefers to be a pathetic, conformist loser with a miserable gray life. Consider this: he's always being rampantly bullied by his boss, right? Well, in the last episode he HAS the opportunity to flip the coin and become the manager of the store, ask his coworker out and, I don't know, having a life? And what does he do? "Sorry, Mr. President, but I'd rather be a doormat... standing up for myself? Nah, too complicated... taking sh*t from the boss is easier". Seriously, this was like a cheap shoujo, but with a male protagonist. Jun was a horribly developed character.

Enjoyment: 6/10
As I said before, sometimes watching the latest episode felt like a chore... what does that tell you about enjoyment? I liked the key points of the show (when Jun assembles Shinku, when they fight Kirakishou, etc.) and everything was fine, but the execution was very, very poor.

Overall: 6/10
This is one of those shows that you start watching because it looks really promising, find disappointing and don't drop it because you've already watched 3/4 of it.