PinkuBentoBox

Yeah, originally I wasn’t going to cover this series, as Negs had already done a well enough job of it himself. But y’know, I’m sitting here at work with nothing to do, I’ve got time to kill, and I really enjoyed it to the point that I might as well at least give it a quick, full-series review. What could it hurt, really?

I’m sure most of the people visiting PinkuBentoBox are already at least reasonably familiar with Rozen Maiden. For those that aren’t, the series essentially revolves around a collection of possessed dolls all caught up in this combative competition called the Alice Game, in which the last survivng doll and holder of the other dolls’ Rosa Mysticæ (the source of their spiritual power, if I remember correctly) assumes the form of some entity created by the dolls’ maker (cryptically referred to as Father throughout the series’ run) known as Alice. The four main dolls of the series—Shinku, Hina Ichigo, Suisei Seki, and Sousei Seki—all wind up involved with this introverted brat by the name of Jun Sakurada, who has this massive, crippling fear of school and pretty much stays at home buying “cursed” items off the internet. Through having to put up with the dolls, most notably the “main protagonist” of the lot, Shinku (technically our protagonist is Jun, but…you get what I mean, right?), Jun eventually gets his balls back and stops acting like an obnoxious emo kid. But that’s not really the big draw of the series. Rather, the individual character arcs surrounding the main dolls—especially as they relate to our main antagonist, the incredibly evil rival to Shinku by the name of Suigin Tou—are what typically end up pulling viewers in, it seems.

And the dolls are the main draw with good reason, too, as they’re far & away the most well-written characters in the series. Suigin Tou, especially, ended up being gifted with development that went well above par for the course. Manipulative, intriguing, and creepy as hell (thanks in no small part to Rie Tanaka’s voicework), she makes for an excellent villain to both oppose and completely screw with our collection of protagonists. Shinku’s no slouch either in terms of character development, but for the most part her best moments come much later in the series, while the early portion consists mostly of her being the bitchy “straight (wo)man” for all of the comic relief bits. My personal favourite of the lot would have to be the adorably mischievous Suisei Seki. One of the better-written parts of the cast—not quite at Suigin Tou’s level, but well above most of the others, easily—she makes for a thoroughly interesting character, and she plays up the comedic and cute aspects of the series without going as over-the-top as, say, Hina Ichigo (who I honestly consider to be one of the weaker links of the cast, as her overall character arc peaked really early). The multicoloured eyes, I must admit, ended up being a bit of an appeal, as well. Creepy, yet kinda…I don’t wanna say “hot” seeing as the character’s a doll…I guess alluring? It’d be hot if the character was human is my point. Anyway, sadly I cannot say that Suisei Seki’s twin sister, Sousei Seki, is as well developed. She really kinda got shafted by not having as involved a character arc as the others, so she ended up a bit lacking in development by comparison, with pretty much all of her coverage coming directly through the plot rather than viewers being allowed the extra time they got with Shinku, Hina Ichigo, Suisei Seki, and even Suigin Tou to get accustomed to them.

In terms of human characters, Rozen Maiden is much less remarkable. Jun is basically like a lighter version of Shinji Ikari, though mercifully much less annoying and devoid of the unsettling Oedipus Complex. While his fear of school seems a bit unrealistic, I hear that it’s an actual psychological condition that a lot of Japanese students suffer from, so I really cannot comment fully on it. Basically, Jun starts out like a little jackass, but he does get better the more he develops. Regardless of his likability though, the frequent moments where Shinku & Suisei Seki feel the need to smack him around are almost always humorous. Aside from Jun, there’s his elder sister Nori, who’s the typical anime “ditzy girl.” Cute, nothing glaringly original, but reasonably well-written as a comic relief character with some more purpose later on as a big sister learning to, well, be a big sister. Then there’s Tomoe Kashiwaba, who was once Hina Ichigo’s servant and later serves as Jun’s first school contact since his whole “condition” set in. She doesn’t play a huge role per se, but she does have some level of worth, especially during Hina Ichigo’s character arc and later in the series when Jun starts venturing into the outside world. There’s also the old couple that Suisei Seki & Sousei Seki are bound to, but they serve more as plot devices than actual developing characters. Not much to say about them without delving into the story.

Visually, Rozen Maiden’s nothing special, though it is somewhat above par for a TV series. The animation’s somewhat noteworthy, though mostly in that same regard of being “just above average.” It actually starts off rather so-so as I recall, improving steadily as the series progressed. I do for certain remember the battle scenes between Suigin Tou and the other dolls particularly becoming more impressive as the series wore on, but I don’t remember if that was due to the animation getting better or just the scope and importance of each successive battle increasing. Character designs on the human side of things were pretty generic, though the dolls proved much more interesting and unique (except that Shinku’s face in the first couple episodes wasn’t exactly all that appealing…I dare say I agree with Suigin Tou’s remarks on the subject back in episode three). Musically, the series was rather nice, I thought. A lot of it was a bunch of decidedly unremarkable Victorian-type music with lots of stock string arrangements, but some of the more dramatic and action-oriented tracks stood out heavily in my opinion. One piece in particular, a heavy (synth?) rock piece that began popping up late in the series during Suigin Tou’s attacks, proved rather standout if not mostly for sounding pretty out of place in relation to the rest of the score. But I have to say I thought it was a really nice track despite that. The opening, though, was the best piece of music by far. It was also what got me big into ALI PROJECT, being much more catchy and much less generic than the opening they did for Noir. In some ways, it reminded me of the image song “Aka to Kuro” that they did for one of the Noir vocal albums, which in itself was also a much better song than the Noir OP, but I digress.

All in all, Rozen Maiden was, as Negs has said, a real sleeper hit that probably deserved more attention than it got. Hell, I’d even go so far as to say it was one of 2004’s best, right up there with the likes of Maria-sama ga Miteru, Genshiken, & Elfen Lied. Well-written, with some very memorable & likable characters and some really nice aesthetics & music to go along with it. I’m also really looking forward to the sequel due out next year, Rozen Maiden ~Träumend~. My guess is that series will probably bring a more definitive conclusion to the Alice Game, and it certainly wouldn’t hurt to get more comedic filler episodes with Suisei Seki & the lot (seeing as how the filler, as I guess it could be called, in the first season was really, really enjoyable). Hell, maybe we could actually see some of that development & familiarisation for Sousei Seki that was lacking in this season. It also wouldn’t hurt to have Suigin Tou return in some form or fashion. I’m not all that picky as to exactly how though, as she could either make an excellent returning villain, or even a worthy addition to Shinku’s little group, partnering up with Suisei Seki for double the mayhem. Either way, she’s just too good of a character to waste on one season alone, just as the rest of the group is, really. And considering how Jun’s apparently going back to school now, seeing how the dolls react to that situation could prove incredibly interesting.