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Old 07-14-2013, 06:54 AM   #51
PikaGod
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Episode 3 Thoughts:
Spoiler: show
- Still don't like you Hina. That is not how small children act or sound!
- Where does Jun get all of his money? Like seriously he seems to be spending like a fair bit of money.
- Ha, Jun's a ~SPECIAL SNOWFLAKE~
- I really like you Nori.
- Okay, will admit that this episode Hina has actually grown on me, like over the course of the episode her voiced actually sounds like the VA changed how she talks. It's weird, I've been around vast amounts of children over the years, and Hina's voice for me went from 'No way that sounds like an actual human child' to 'Okay, that actually sort of sounds like what a child sounds like'
- You can do it Jun! Start making progress to becoming a better person!
- I wonder who this mysterious black feathered girl could be? Could she possibly be the main antagonist? Hmmm, I wonder?
- Tomoe and Jun sitting in a tree K-I-S-S-I-N-G!
- Okay this episode, Hina has definitely grown on me. I think it must just have been her intro wasn't really that well done for me.

Episode 4 Thoughts:
Spoiler: show
- Really loving how Suiseiseki was introduced.
- "What are you looking at?"... "Runt." Ha, I think I'm going to like her.
- That Dream World was really well done I thought.
- I think I really like the whole Dream Tree thing.
- Suiseiseki seems to be a strange sized compared to Hina and Shinku at times, idk she seems to be noticebly larger and it looks jarring.

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Old 07-14-2013, 02:00 PM   #52
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Originally Posted by kaisap112 View Post
I guess I should join in on this, since I started watching the original series today.

My favorite doll
Spoiler: show
somehow ended up being Suiseiseki. Team Desu! :3

Least favorite is Miss Black, Suigintou. I'm not entirely sure why I dislike her so much, but it might be the whole villain emo black angel thing she's got going on that I've seen around the Internet. She's got a big fanbase from the looks of it...

I'm only through Episode 6 now and these opinions might still change, though.
Favorites, least favorites, and everything in between can change between where you are and the end of the season. I'm looking forward to your comments when you get there~ ;3 Ditto this statement for Season 2, and ditto it once again for the second arc of the manga.

I will say this though: Suisei Seki is definitely awesome, and ten times moreso in both the manga and the second season of the TV series. So you have that to look forward to. She's already plenty good though in the first series. In fact, like so many people, Suisei Seki was what got me to check out Rozen Maiden in the first place. Although my story's probably a bit different than most people's since I investigated Rozen Maiden back around the December 2004 thru February 2005 (Feb 2005 being when I watched it), long, long before there was ever a "DESU" meme on 4chan. Hell, 4chan was just a baby back then too. But yeah, I remember the .gif very well even to this day:


I was like, "Who is this beauty? And why is she throwing acorns? " They ended up not being acorns, of course. hahaha

Quote:
Originally Posted by PikaGod View Post
Episode 3 Thoughts:
Spoiler: show
- Still don't like you Hina. That is not how small children act or sound!
- Where does Jun get all of his money? Like seriously he seems to be spending like a fair bit of money.
- Ha, Jun's a ~SPECIAL SNOWFLAKE~
- I really like you Nori.
- Okay, will admit that this episode Hina has actually grown on me, like over the course of the episode her voiced actually sounds like the VA changed how she talks. It's weird, I've been around vast amounts of children over the years, and Hina's voice for me went from 'No way that sounds like an actual human child' to 'Okay, that actually sort of sounds like what a child sounds like'
- You can do it Jun! Start making progress to becoming a better person!
- I wonder who this mysterious black feathered girl could be? Could she possibly be the main antagonist? Hmmm, I wonder?
- Tomoe and Jun sitting in a tree K-I-S-S-I-N-G!
- Okay this episode, Hina has definitely grown on me. I think it must just have been her intro wasn't really that well done for me.

Episode 4 Thoughts:
Spoiler: show
- Really loving how Suiseiseki was introduced.
- "What are you looking at?"... "Runt." Ha, I think I'm going to like her.
- That Dream World was really well done I thought.
- I think I really like the whole Dream Tree thing.
- Suiseiseki seems to be a strange sized compared to Hina and Shinku at times, idk she seems to be noticebly larger and it looks jarring.

Well, that's pretty cool to see that Hina's grown on you. Though I can't fathom how you've grown to like the English voice actress's performance ... ^^; I don't know if it'll come up much later, but just in case it does and causes any confusion, the dub is using "runt" in place of "chibi". Suisei Seki refers to Jun as the "chibi ningen" (puny human) and Hina Ichigo as the "chibi chibi" (puny puny). So if you hear her call Hina Ichigo a "runty runt" or something, that's where that's coming from. As for Suisei Seki's size, I haven't sat down and rewatched the first television season in a while so I can't be 100% certain of what you mean, but I will just throw this out there: Suisei Seki's "hitbox" is a lot, lot wider than a lot of the other dolls' because of that thick, luxurious flowing hair. This is something that'll always be noticeable (manga, TV Season 1, TV Season 2, new TV series) just because of how long her hair is and how much space it occupies. But if that isn't what you mean, and if you mean that her height seems to be quite a bit bigger than the other dolls, then I dunno. They should be roughly the same height. Some might be a tad shorter or taller (like, I'm pretty sure that Canaria and Hina weigh in on the shorter side of the scale, and I think that Suigin Tou might be slightly taller than the other sisters), but they should all be in that foot-and-a-half to two-foot range.

Looking forward to your thoughts on the next episode. It's a fun one.
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Old 07-15-2013, 06:47 AM   #53
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Talon87 View Post
As for Suisei Seki's size, I haven't sat down and rewatched the first television season in a while so I can't be 100% certain of what you mean, but I will just throw this out there: Suisei Seki's "hitbox" is a lot, lot wider than a lot of the other dolls' because of that thick, luxurious flowing hair. This is something that'll always be noticeable (manga, TV Season 1, TV Season 2, new TV series) just because of how long her hair is and how much space it occupies. But if that isn't what you mean, and if you mean that her height seems to be quite a bit bigger than the other dolls, then I dunno. They should be roughly the same height. Some might be a tad shorter or taller (like, I'm pretty sure that Canaria and Hina weigh in on the shorter side of the scale, and I think that Suigin Tou might be slightly taller than the other sisters), but they should all be in that foot-and-a-half to two-foot range.
I had a quick look again, and the one scene that stood out to me in regards to size differences was when Jun was finding his way out of his dreamscape place. I don't know if it was just her hair creating the illusion of her being bigger, or if it was a production error, but something about that particular scene was just really really off.
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Old 07-16-2013, 04:15 AM   #54
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Originally Posted by Talon87 View Post
Favorites, least favorites, and everything in between can change between where you are and the end of the season. I'm looking forward to your comments when you get there~ ;3 Ditto this statement for Season 2, and ditto it once again for the second arc of the manga.

I will say this though: Suisei Seki is definitely awesome, and ten times moreso in both the manga and the second season of the TV series. So you have that to look forward to. She's already plenty good though in the first series. In fact, like so many people, Suisei Seki was what got me to check out Rozen Maiden in the first place. Although my story's probably a bit different than most people's since I investigated Rozen Maiden back around the December 2004 thru February 2005 (Feb 2005 being when I watched it), long, long before there was ever a "DESU" meme on 4chan. Hell, 4chan was just a baby back then too. But yeah, I remember the .gif very well even to this day:


I was like, "Who is this beauty? And why is she throwing acorns? " They ended up not being acorns, of course. hahaha


Well, that's pretty cool to see that Hina's grown on you. Though I can't fathom how you've grown to like the English voice actress's performance ... ^^;
Suiseiseki is still my favorite, but Hinaichigo is a close second (and I watched the Eng-sub Jap-dub). Those two also have the cutest banter, if one can call it such. ^^;

So I actually finished Season 1, Season 2 and what the files said was Season 3 but turned out to be an OVA. Hate you so much Talon for luring me into liking this series so much.

Now I'm up to date with the new anime and I have one big question.
Spoiler: show
WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO JUN IN UNWIND WORLD?!

I thought it was a whole new character. That if Jun was involved, he'd come up later. When they started going "hikikomori", "middle school", "I skipped two years of middle school"...my reactions were going "okay", "that's...a coincidence" and "ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!". I know people change in appearance as they grow, but this is the first time I've seen an anime character age from a Main Character into a Clerk A. Why did he dye his hair and get contacts? Where is Nori? WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?!
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Old 07-17-2013, 09:54 PM   #55
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Quote:
Originally Posted by kaisap112 View Post
So I actually finished Season 1, Season 2 and what the files said was Season 3 but turned out to be an OVA. Hate you so much Talon for luring me into liking this series so much.
You're welcome. And that was fast! Someone sure likes Battle Royale x Pinocchio. Boo that the clearly best doll ( ) didn't make your cut for Top 2, especially after you saw all that you did see, but your two top picks are respectable ones. As I've said before, Hina Ichigo is one of my faves too and Suisei Seki is probably my #2 pick of the litter.

Quote:
Originally Posted by kaisap112 View Post
Now I'm up to date with the new anime and I have one big question.
Spoiler: show
WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO JUN IN UNWIND WORLD?!

I thought it was a whole new character. That if Jun was involved, he'd come up later. When they started going "hikikomori", "middle school", "I skipped two years of middle school"...my reactions were going "okay", "that's...a coincidence" and "ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!". I know people change in appearance as they grow, but this is the first time I've seen an anime character age from a Main Character into a Clerk A. Why did he dye his hair and get contacts? Where is Nori? WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?!
To answer your question(s):

Spoiler: show
I don't think he dyed his hair. (Though he might have; see paragraph below.) Consider that almost all of the characters in the Rozen Maiden universe are animated with chocolate brown hair. Yes, granted, Jun is depicted with dark gray / black hair in middle school, but I don't think you're meant to interpret the color shift from dark gray to brown as evidence that he went and dyed it.

Regarding getting contacts, I honestly don't recall whether it comes up in the manga that Did Not Wind Jun has poor vision or not. Maybe he has contacts. Maybe he has glasses but he chooses not to read them except when necessary. (Though you'd think that would include the times he worked on putting together that doll ...) Maybe he got LASIK. I dunno. *shrug* Why would he do it? Probably to try and fit in. Remember: Jun's whole thing, in both the manga and the anime, is that he went from being mildly popular to being a social outcast and that this abrupt ostracizing made him become a hikikomori. It's not unreasonable to expect that in his desires to reclaim the modest popularity of his childhood that he might do a few simple self-image things, like wearing contacts or yes even dying his hair, to try and fit in.

Nori is back at home. Jun moved out of the house and changed his name. Speaking of which ...

Look at the name plate he has outside of his apartment door. Well I could've sworn they flashed this on the screen for like half a second in Episode 02 but I'll be damned if I can find it now. Anyway, he changed his name from 桜田 Sakurada to 島田 Shimada in the manga. Did Wind Jun actually opens his text message to Did Not Wind Jun on this very point:
Quote:
島田って誰だよ。 見つけるのに苦労した。

Who is Shimada? I had a hard time finding you.
Actually, looking back at the cell phone scene now in the episode, I see that they changed this. This also fits in with what I remember being a little strange -- that Saitou addressed Jun as "Sakurada-kun" rather than "Shimada-kun". So yeah, I guess Studio Deen just decided to axe the whole "lol he changed his name to Shimada to try and get a fresh start" subplot since, to be fair, it'd probably just add more confusion for TV-only viewers and it isn't really crucial to the long term plot afaik. (It hasn't been so far, anyway.)

As for your big question of "What is going on here!?", I'm going to hold off on answering that until either Episode 03 or Episode 04. Y'see, what Deen did was, they sort of skipped over the last three chapters of the original manga when they gave you Episode 01. And I suspect that they did that on purpose because they plan to have a certain character cover those three chapters via flashback once he/she shows up, which isn't until the end of Tale 02 in the manga, with him/her not really having a chance to say much to Did Not Wind Jun until Tale 03.

Here are some posts I wrote last year that might be beneficial to you now that you've watched all of the original TV series. They're posts where I discussed my thoughts on the original manga. The posts get more detailed as you near the end, which is good for you if you're not planning to read the manga yourself any time soon but would appreciate being filled in on how exactly we got to where we are right now.

Talon's thoughts on Volumes 1, 2, and 3
Talon's thoughts on Volumes 4 and 5
Talon's thoughts on Volumes 6 and 7
Talon's thoughts on Volume 8

I realize I write a lot, but you've also got to realize that these posts covers forty-five chapters' worth of manga. I'd say it's a pretty good trade-off to read these posts if you're not planning to read the manga yourself. If, after you read these, you still have further questions, feel free to ask them here. I'll determine whether I can and should answer them yet or not.
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Old 07-19-2013, 12:38 PM   #56
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This week's episode (Episode 03) was a pretty solid one both for long-time fans of the manga as well as for TV-only viewers.

Spoiler: show
About 30-50% of the episode concerns a flashback scene which originally showed up in the first manga: the full explanation of why Jun became a hikikomori. I already briefly explained this in some earlier posts addressing Anime vs. Manga differences, but the episode gives you the full scene. Nice. Great for manga fans to see this finally becoming something which shows up in the canon of the TV series, and great for TV-only viewers so that they too can be just as informed as their manga-reading counterparts. Everyone wins.

The remaining 50-70% of the episode covers the remainder of Tale 02, with the episode and the manga chapter ending in the exact same place (with Shinku slapping Jun as she awakens). This is good too, as it shows that Studio Deen may not be rushing things after all. Hooray. But ... how do they plan to tell the entire Part II in only thirteen episodes then? I'm *seriously* crossing my fingers that MyAnimeList and Wikipedia have gotten it wrong and that Zurückspulen is good for 24-26 episodes, not 13.

Kaisa, I smiled in embarrassment quite a bit at the part when they explained that Did Not Wind Jun has indeed dyed his hair and started wearing contacts. hahaha And I checked the manga again and sure enough it's even mentioned right there, in Tale 02. Whoops. ^^; Guess I forgot about this in the roughly one year since I read these chapters. Sorry for any confusion I may have caused. In the end, turns out that you were right. Dyed hair, contacts. And it looks like it fits in with what I did explain to you: that if he has done it (which we now know he has), that he's probably done it to try and fit in and get a fresh start on life.

Talking about the flashback's content a bit ... as you see, Sakurada Jun enjoyed sewing and designing clothes and such as a boy, but he withdrew from society when his interests were outed by a naive teacher and he became (or felt he had become, at any rate) the laughing stock of the entire school. Not to mention that people were accusing him of being a lecherous perv.

Jun's talent with sewing and design is sort of a core basis of the idea that he either a) is Rozen as a child or else b) is a different master dollmaker, a Maestro like Rozen, but one who has yet to fully blossom. You see this when Jun sews back up the doll that Suigin Tou destroys. Shinku believed the task beyond anyone save a Maestro and was astonished that Jun managed to bring the doll back to life. Again we see Jun's natural gift for sewing and dollmaking and whatnot coming to light when he helps retrieve Shinku's arm (which is much more of a prolonged saga in the manga than it is in the TV series). And now here again we see Jun's sewing & doll making talent coming up, as Did Not Wind Jun manages to effortlessly revive Shinku from mostly PVC parts. Long story short, Jun has a natural gift for sewing that comes across a bit more clearly in the manga than in the original anime, so it's nice that Studio Deen went back and animated this scene from the original manga for the sake of TV viewers.

Gotta love Saitou. She's so cute and kind towards Jun. I especially loved the scene where the manager insulted Jun's ringtone and then Saitou was like "That's the same ringtone I have! ^-^"

Judging from the sneak peek, it looks like the next episode will cover Tale 03 and just Tale 03. Seems to further suggest Deen plans to do roughly one tale per episode. I am 100% okay with that just so long as the anime doesn't stop before completing Part II. There's going to be a lot to enjoy for Shinku fans next episode. Look forward to it!

And judging from what happened this episode, I won't be surprised if Studio Deen plans to do more coverage of Part I content in future episodes. It seems like that's why they deliberately omitted so much from the season premiere. I'm guessing they plan to explain what happened to Shinku at the end of Part I in either this next episode or else perhaps somewhere else down the line. And I'm guessing they plan to explore the whole Suigin Tou / Megu / Kirakishou triangle, which forms such a huge part of the manga in its final third, once the angel in black shows up. So if you're a TV-only watcher, sit tight! ^^; I know you want to know answers now, but better that the anime explains things to you fully and beautifully than that you have me explain them clumsily in messy walls of text.
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Old 07-26-2013, 06:17 PM   #57
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Episode 04:

Spoiler: show
SHIT GETS REAL NEXT WEEK!

This week's episode covered the events of the corresponding chapter in the manga, detailing Shinku's arrival in the Did Not Wind world.

The bit with the cat on the teapot is a bit of a running gag. I forget when it's finally explained, so in case it's not Part I I shan't say anything just yet. Suffice to say Shinku dislikes cats, even going so far as to tell Hina Ichigo that they are "the sworn enemies of Rozen Maidens."

Saitou is ridiculously cute. She makes even driving away on a moped look adorable.

This chapter is the first of many to come which will demonstrate, I think you'll find, that Shinku is a lot more fun in Parts II and III than she was in Part I. Not that she wasn't fun in Part 1 either, but ... come on. That backpack adventure?

Kirakishou at the end of the episode = sufficiently creepy. I would've liked a few more doll movements out of her though. *her head spins around on its axis*

The sneak peek reveals that Deen intends to revisit another Part I manga chapter next week that they omitted from Episode 01. Good, I'm glad. This particular chapter is not only super important to Suigin Tou's story but is one of the all-time classics of Part I. In fact, I dare say it was the climax of Part I, the climax to end all other Part I climaxes. Then again, I'm a huge Suigin Tou fan, so ....
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Old 07-28-2013, 05:11 AM   #58
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Originally Posted by Talon87 View Post
Episode 04:

Spoiler: show
SHIT GETS REAL NEXT WEEK!

This week's episode covered the events of the corresponding chapter in the manga, detailing Shinku's arrival in the Did Not Wind world.

The bit with the cat on the teapot is a bit of a running gag. I forget when it's finally explained, so in case it's not Part I I shan't say anything just yet. Suffice to say Shinku dislikes cats, even going so far as to tell Hina Ichigo that they are "the sworn enemies of Rozen Maidens."

Saitou is ridiculously cute. She makes even driving away on a moped look adorable.

This chapter is the first of many to come which will demonstrate, I think you'll find, that Shinku is a lot more fun in Parts II and III than she was in Part I. Not that she wasn't fun in Part 1 either, but ... come on. That backpack adventure?

Kirakishou at the end of the episode = sufficiently creepy. I would've liked a few more doll movements out of her though. *her head spins around on its axis*

The sneak peek reveals that Deen intends to revisit another Part I manga chapter next week that they omitted from Episode 01. Good, I'm glad. This particular chapter is not only super important to Suigin Tou's story but is one of the all-time classics of Part I. In fact, I dare say it was the climax of Part I, the climax to end all other Part I climaxes. Then again, I'm a huge Suigin Tou fan, so ....
I liked this episode.
Spoiler: show

I don't know about fun, but Shinku's darn cute in the Unwind World! I MEAN LOOK AT HER!


SHINKUUUU-!

The cat-thing was shown in Träumend, if not in the first season, because I remember it being explained.

As for Kirakishou...


When the white rose things were first shown, I thought of weeds and them sucking the life out of you (didn't that happen to Hinaichigo earlier?) but I did not think "spiders". I think the combination of the two is just horror-fuel and Kirakishou is pretty OP compared to all the other dolls. Just don't tell me Shinku gets a "ALL DOLLS UNITE"/"SHINKU EVOLVES INTO OP-SHINKU!" form for the final battle...


Speaking of which, my brother refuses to watch the original series because it "reminds [him] too much of Sailor Moon". Yep, the same one who proudly claims SAO to be "epic". OTL This generation is leaving me in despair!
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Old 08-09-2013, 06:01 PM   #59
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We're already up to episode 6 and there's just no end to the cuteness.

Spoiler: show


I admit, I watch this show for the interaction/brawls between these two. It's just so...adorable!
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Old 08-18-2013, 10:07 PM   #60
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Episode 05:


This episode was pretty much everything I could have asked of Studio Deen given what they skipped over in Episode 01 and given what I knew was approaching by the end of Episode 04. They delivered both the bulk of the next chapter in the manga (Tale 04; we received all but the final nine pages) as well as a bunch of material relevant to our surprise guest that a) was omitted from Episode 01 of Zurückspulen and/or b) differed from the original TV series' canon and so needed to be corrected as we pressed forward.

While I would have liked it if Studio Deen had somehow managed to better explain to viewers what the differences were between the manga and the second season of the original TV series, I was glad at least that they did show them, did cover them. So, without further ado, into the spoiler box we go!

Spoiler: show

Our episode begins with quite the surprise: the Other Jun receives another How To Make a Girl book in the mail. I remember when I first saw this in the manga, I thought "OH MY GOD, YES! PLEASE TELL ME HE'S GOING TO MAKE SUIGIN TOU! " The angel of the night had been on the front cover of the chapter, so naturally I assumed that that was who was inside. Of course we later find out that Suigin Tou has arrived intact in the Did Not Wind world by way of a rabbit hole through the N-Field, so that begs the question: just who would be built by that other book anyway?


Shinku of course will have none of it and orders the Other Jun to ignore the book, warning him that they have no way of knowing that the Did Wind World's Jun sent it. In fact, she points out, it could very well be a trap sent to them by Kirakishou. Jun's clearly a little disappointed but he heeds Shinku's warnings and puts the book away in his futon closet.


At work, Jun discovers the children's book that's shown up in Zurückspulen. I have to confess that I don't remember this from the manga, so it may be a made-for-TV creation. Or it may be something that appeared later on which Deen decided to show us early. Either way, I don't mind it, and I am curious whether the book is meant to be an allegory about Megu, Kirakishou, Jun, or some fourth party.


The scene with Shinku and the newspaper was awesome. I remembered this scene from the manga and loved seeing it in animated form. That stated, when I double checked the manga, I was surprised to see that Deen actually modified the scene, both for the better and for the worse. Let's get the bad news out of the way first: in the original scene, Shinku goes on to talk to Hollie about how Jun (in the Did Wind World) would also read newspapers, and how Nori told the dolls that they were something meant to assist Jun in his preparation for entrance exams. As she reminisces about life in the Did Wind World, Shinku comments to Hollie that they have to get back home. Now the good news: in the manga, they actually don't show the newspaper falling on Shinku! That was all Studio Deen's idea! Brilliant! I could've sworn that happened in the manga but apparently it did not. So good job, Deen, for improving what was already a cute scene!


Saitou continues to timidly send Jun some faint signals that she's interested in him, and Jun, for his part, seems to be starting to pick up on them. I did think it was kind of telling though when Saitou flashed Jun a picture of herself dressed up in a rather revealing science fiction cosplay that was inspired by his own design suggestions.

And finally ... the moment we've all been waiting for ...


BABY, SHE'S BACK! Suigin Tou, the Ice Queen, has made her triumphant return to television! Deen exhibits once again a pleasing faithfulness to the manga -- compare the picture above with the original manga cel here and you'll see just how faithful Deen is trying to be with this adaptation, even when they do decide to do made-for-TV stuff like the newspaper falling on Shinku or the subplot with the children's picture book.


Pretty damn adorable when Suigin Tou just sat there, pouting, maybe too embarrassed or too afraid to turn around and face Jun. *who knows*


So Jun sees the mess the dolls have made in his apartment and ...


... he flips out. For long-time fans of the franchise, this was pretty hysterical and awesome. Because never, never had we seen Shinku in a position like this before. The younger Jun was usually willing to just grin and bear her domineering personality, her desire to be the boss. And even those few times when he did order her to clean up (like the time Suisei Seki breaks the bedroom window), Shinku didn't really seem to relinquish her statusin the relationship. But this Jun? He's having none of it! He orders Shinku to clean everything up this instant; and when she tries to argue back, he's like NO WAY are you arguing with me over this, you clean this mess up RIGHT NOW OR ELSE. Shinku didn't even know what to say to that, poor thing. ^^;

And so ends the first half of the episode. And now ... for the treat I'd been waiting for ever since Episode 01 aired and I saw that Deen had skipped over it:


Megu. The relationship between Suigin Tou and Megu is pretty much the #1 thing I love about Rozen Maiden. Suigin Tou is a broken doll; Megu, a broken master. When Rozen Maiden starts off, no one wants to win the Alice Game more badly than Suigin Tou; by the time you get where we are now, that's still the case, but the black-winged angel's objectives have completely changed. While she never really quite comes out and says it, Suigin Tou's actions belie a very obvious truth to the rest of us: she doesn't want Megu to die, so much so that she places Megu's life before her own. My own pet theory about how Peach Pit plans to end Rozen Maiden -- or at the very least how they plan to explain what Suigin Tou is fighting for at this point -- is to have the dolls' Rosae Mysticae go to Megu to complete her, to turn her into "Alice", a real-live human girl in perfectly good health.


Studio Deen showed a lot of corrections to the original series that originate from the manga. One of these is just how "broken" Megu really is. While the original anime did toy with the idea that Megu was a bit of a dark girl who romanticized death, it portrayed her as an otherwise perfectly kind, happy, almost angelic girl. That's not what the manga does at all, and we see that here for the first time. Megu is rude towards the hospital nurses, sometimes going so far as to destroy glass vases and throw items at them. The same goes double for her father, who she feels doesn't really love her the way a father should since he only shows up once in a blue moon. Perhaps she's right, perhaps she's wrong and her father is working his ass off to pay for her hospital bills, who knows. That's the nice thing Peach Pit does with Megu: they don't make her a psycho bitch no one could love or support, but they don't make her this infallible angel either. She's got a bit of a mean streak to her. She can be a bit cruel. In this sense, she really does pair off very well with Suigin Tou.

Another correction Studio Deen made was what you see around the time they show Suigin Tou's church having been torn down. In the manga, Suigin Tou would alternate between spending time in the church (where she kept her box) and the hospital. All Rozen Maidens retire to their box when it's time for bed, but what happens circa Volume 6 is that Suigin Tou can no longer fold her wings properly. Ever since she consumed Sousei Seki's Rosa Mystica, her back has been starting to crack and her wings are rigid and cause her pain. It gets to a point where she can't even fly properly anymore (as they show when she's desperately lugging her box behind her), and for the longest time she doesn't show up in front of Megu (because of the wing problem). She doesn't want Megu to worry about her, and she tells Meimei "No! " when the little pixie suggests they ask Megu for help. Eventually, though, Suigin Tou passes out from fatigue, and as Deen shows, Megu -- who has become concerned over Suigin Tou's absence -- actually sneaks out of her hospital room and heads towards the wreckage of the former church to see if she can find her little angel. Meimei leads the way and sure enough Megu locates Suigin Tou, with the doll chastising her artificial spirit before passing out again. If you pay close attention, you can actually see how (in the next brief scene) they show Suigin Tou sitting on top of her box (rather than trying to sleep inside of it) and how her wings look kind of broken. That's from the manga. Specifically, Phase 31.

And so then what happens is, Megu invites Suigin Tou to share her bed with her. (Pictured above.) And it's like awwwwwwwwwwwww. And it's also like YOU GIRLS ARE THE BEST TEAM IN THIS SURVIVAL GAME PLEASE WIN. ;_; (Note: the anime actually shrunk the size of Suigin Tou's wings in this scene. In the manga cel, her broken wings are huge, nearly two-thirds Megu's height.)

Megu tries to nurse Suigin Tou back to health, but she refuses to eat the hospital food -- like master, like doll! -- and nothing else seems to work. Eventually, Megu pleads with Suigin Tou once again: "Please, take my life." Megu is willing to die if it means helping Suigin Tou win the Alice Game; vice versa, I believe that of the seven dolls Rozen created, Suigin Tou is the one who least wants to siphon away her medium's life force. (Maybe this wasn't always the case, but it sure as heck is now!) For an entire volume of the manga, Megu asks Suigin Tou when she is going to make good on her promise to give Megu the ring and Suigin Tou keeps stalling for time. Until finally ...


Volume 7, Phase 37. This was one of the most beautiful moments in the original manga. In fact, I think that it's still probably my #1 favorite scene in Part I. Megu covers herself and Suigin Tou under the hospital sheets, and the two look somewhat like young maidens wearing wedding veils. They carry out something of a wedding ritual, and in the end, Suigin Tou finally, finally gives Megu her ring. No longer is it like the scene when the two first met, where Suigin Tou was trying to get Megu to wear the ring so that she could suck out the girl's life force. On the contrary, this scene feels a hell of a lot like the scenes in Maria-sama ga Miteru where one of the students chooses a younger student to be her soeur and gives her her rosary as a symbol of their relationship. Basically, Team Suigin Tou pledged their vows to one another. And this is why I love 'em.

One thing Deen did sort of gloss over, unfortunately, is how Suigin Tou and Kirakishou first met. In the manga, the two dolls actually meet inside of Megu's hospital room a few days or weeks before the kidnapping you saw here. This is actually part of the driving reason behind Suigin Tou's decision to make a pact with Megu. While Megu is largely doing it out of a desire to help heal Suigin Tou's body, Suigin Tou is in part doing it because she's worried about Kirakishou. I'm a little disappointed that Deen cut the material for time, but I can just go ahead and tell you here: canonically, Suigin Tou is pretty much the only sister Kirakishou actually really respects and admires. As you heard in this episode, she refers to her as "Onee-sama", and while all of the dolls are technically her onee-samas, she seems to really only have this respectful relationship with Suigin Tou. It's a bit unclear to what extent she's sincere vs. insincere, but anyway, this is why you'll often find so, so much fanart that pairs off Suigin Tou with Kirakishou. Just thought you guys should know, for those of you who haven't read the manga.

I'll admit: the first time I watched this episode, I teared up and cried a little bit at the very end of this scene. It wasn't even that much of a tearjerker! But I guess I am just so attached to these characters (and rooting so, so hard for this duo in particular) that seeing Suigin Tou's anguish, her desperation, her utmost moment of vulnerability was really sad. As she cries "MEGUUU! ", I just can't help but to cry a little bit with her. And as the scene cuts back to Suigin Tou in the present, sitting on top of the roof of the Other Jun's apartment, I can't help but to think one thing:

SUIGIN TOU IS BEST DOLL.



One thing I admit that I really quite love about the manga (and it sadly didn't make its way into the original TV series very well) is seeing how childishly devilish the dolls can be at times. Peach Pit almost always animates them in chibi deformed form for such scenes, and we see that here as Suigin Tou dodges cleaning duty and forces Shinku to take care of pretty much all of it.


Best doll.

You can probably tell -- I really, really enjoyed this episode. And now that I've finally written up this, I can allow myself to move on to Episode 06. Looking forward to it.
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Old 08-20-2013, 02:27 PM   #61
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Episode 06:


I held off alluding to any of this in my Episode 05 post as I didn't remember exactly when it happened, but dun dun DUUUUUUUUUUUUN! Episode 06 starts the ball in motion ...

Spoiler: show

... with the Did Not Wind world's Jun's jealousy of his Did Wind counterpart and resentment of the fact that Shinku doesn't really seem to care much about the Did Not Wind world's Jun as much, only too eager to get back home to her original world. Where will these feelings of Jun's take us? Only time will tell! But you saw for yourself how the white thorny vines of Kirakishou's seemed to be wrapping themselves around the adult Jun when he was by himself in the apartment thinking about how he'd go ahead and make his own doll, one which -- unlike Shinku -- would actually respect him as her master.


Making up for lost time, Episode 06 covers quite a bit ground, finishing off the remaining nine pages of Tale 04 as well as the entirety of Tale 05. (Tale 04 actually ends with the girls grabbing one another's hair, pictured above, Jun in the middle of helping Saitou's brother out at the rec center.) In terms of entertainment, the highlight for me in these chapters was definitely getting to see Shinku and Suigin Tou going at it like cats and dogs.

Probably one of the most important scenes in the episode is also one of the most uncomfortable. It's the one where Jun's manager is talking with him about the difference between Jun and him. The manager can tell that Jun not only dislikes him but looks down on him, and so the manager basically tears Jun a new one, painfully exploring the truth that while Jun wants to think that he's somebody special who is just in the wrong place through some cruel twist of fate, he is in fact a loser, so much so that he's working as a part-time bookstore clerk having to take orders from a shithead like the manager. While the manager's words sting and we might hate him for them, we also have to accept that he sort of has a point: there are a whole lot of people who berate others and like to think of themselves as superior yet who are themselves some of life's biggest losers. I think it's fair to say that the combination of the manager's vicious speech and Shinku's attitude towards Jun drive him to disregard her warnings and dedicate himself to bringing to life a second doll.


The plot is also advanced during the scene where Shinku and Suigin Tou temporarily cease fire while waiting for their clothes to dry off. It's during this scene that Suigin Tou learns of Hina Ichigo's death (and the fact that Shinku absorbed her Rosa Mystica). It's also during this scene that Shinku likewise first learns of Megu's existence. (It's kinda crazy, but pretty much right up until this point in the manga none of the other sisters save Kirakishou had known that Suigin Tou had a medium.) Shinku realizes that for Suigin Tou to go to such lengths for Megu, she must be very dear to Suigin Tou. (Damn straight! )

Aside from these things, the episode was fairly mild. Not too much happened. But after the awesomeness that was Episode 05, that's sort of to be expected. The second half of that episode is a hard act to follow.

P.S. Absolutely loved the shower fight. Sure, it was a bit silly, but it was so much fun.
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Old 08-24-2013, 05:11 PM   #62
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Episode 07: the plot. It thickens.

Spoiler: show

Continuing from where we left off in Episode 06, the Jun of the Did Not Wind world continues to grow frustrated with and distant from Shinku due to her oft-restated desire to return to the Did Wind world and rejoin the Jun there. As a result, this episode sees Jun -- somewhat ironically -- preparing Shinku a flawless breakfast but with about as much love and care as a rotten boot could. When Shinku tries to talk to Jun in the morning, he pretty much can't get out of his own apartment -- and away from her -- quick enough. It's a pretty stark contrast to how excited he was about her only a few days ago, but for the time being Shinku seems to think little of it.

The Peach Pit ladies have a knack for exploring various aspects of human suffering. With the adult Jun and his souring relationship with Shinku, we see the beginnings of the manga duo's exploration of what it can mean to be "second best" at something. You're good too! You can do things very well! But nobody wants you or your services. Everybody wants him, the Number One Best. Nobody wants second best. This can end up breeding resentment within the second best person, and that resentment can in turn lead the scorned party to act harshly and irresponsibly.

So Jun heads off for school. Meanwhile ...


Meimei and Lempicka alert Shinku to the fact that Suigin Tou has collapsed from exhaustion on top of the roof. Shinku manages somehow to bring Suigin Tou down into the apartment and places her inside Shinku's very own box.


Shinku then wonders to herself, "I wonder what kind of person her master is, to be able to tame such a girl ..."



ONLY THE BEST MASTER EVER. GO TEAM SUIGIN TOU! (And awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww @ that picture of Suigin Tou asleep in Shinku's box as Shinku closes the lid. )


After school, Jun heads to his part-time job at the bookstore. He finds himself drawn once again to the picture book about the Russian dolls and decides to purchase it. Which leads to ...


Saitou sending Jun some signals that she likes him (and might possibly want him to buy her a present).


Some pretty strong signals.


Jun ends up taking the book home, intended as a gift for Shinku. "Odddddd, " I thought to myself. 'Cause it is odd, considering how he feels about her right now! I also decided to look up if this scene was in the manga or not (since I have no memory of the picture book and hadn't seen it mentioned in Tales 01 thru 04). Sure enough, it does seem to be the sole ingredient that Studio Deen has concocted out of thin air for Zurückspulen. I don't mind it that badly! (Though I do think it's sort of odd that he'd buy her a gift when he's not very happy with her right now ...) I just think it's a little strange that they felt the need to do one made-for-TV thing when everything else is such a faithful adaptation of the manga. Anyway, in the manga, what originally happens is that Shinku asks Jun to read the newspaper to her. So she sits on his lap (just like in the anime) and he holds the newspaper out in front of them, allowing her to read it from his lap. This is also, in in the manga, where Jun explains the significance of a newspaper to Shinku. Just like in the anime, Shinku stresses to Jun that even if the entire rest of the world should forget what has happened, it doesn't change the fact that the moment she and Jun are sharing is real.


Tale 06 of the manga ends with our very next scene: the discovery that the Jun of the Did Wind world is currently trapped inside one of the N-Field's many dimensions, this one a world with a jet black sky and nothing but computer equipment littering the ground. This had been hinted at earlier if I recall correctly, but this is the first time we're actually seeing it fully explained: Jun entered the N-Field in order to try and rescue Shinku and the others but ended up trapped in this dead world by Kirakishou instead.


And then in Tale 07 of the manga, we discover that Micchan lent Jun Kanaria! :o So she's here with him, and together the two are trying to figure out how to escape this world, stop Kirakishou, and rescue the other Rozen Maidens.

I remember this scene being really exciting when I first read it in the manga. It was pretty solid proof that Part II of the manga is not divorced from Part I. No, instead they're quite intertwined. Yes, the adult Jun of the Did Not Wind world is the one we're mostly seeing in Part II, but it's not like the original Jun is out of the picture either. This is where the plot starts getting exciting. I hope you all are enjoying it as much as I did.


And so our seventh episode of Rozen Maiden: Zurückspulen ends, with Jun creating a second doll in the secret of night. Suigin Tou discovers Jun's secret and tries to blackmail him into becoming her temporary medium, but he actually turns it around on her and agrees to help power her up so long as she does what he says, which not only includes keeping the second doll a secret from Shinku but also includes Suigin Tou taking naps during the day in Shinku's case. I think the anime did a great job bringing this scene to life. Everything they did was either exactly as it happened in the manga or else embellished for the better. (Like, the Pocky sticks. Those were a TV addition that I really quite liked. Suigin Tou was so cute while she was nibbling on them, and the part where she smashes the one stick in her clenched fist was pretty great too.) The white tendrils wrapping around Jun were another TV addition, but I guess at this point Studio Deen just assumes that you can already take a pretty good guess as to what's going on with the second doll Jun's making.

Oh, and for reference's sake: the end of this episode carries us right on through to Tale 07's eleventh page.

Good episode. Can't wait now to watch Episode 08.
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Old 08-24-2013, 07:25 PM   #63
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Just a friendly little PSA before I post my thoughts post on Episode 08 ...

First off, Episode 08 was good, and in case you're wondering it carries us right on up to the very end of Tale 08, catching us back up with a 1:1 ratio between manga chapters and anime episodes. (And technically outstripping it since the first episode of Zurückspulen was that recap episode for Part I.)

Second, if you're the sort who really likes to be surprised, you should try to avoid the sneak peek at the end of this week's episode. I know that that might be frustrating to you if you normally love sneak peeks, but trust me, I think you'll be even more pleasantly surprised by next week's episode if you should manage to avoid the sneak peek at the end of this week's.

Third, I knew to probably expect something like this to happen but I was really hoping it wouldn't. Well ... *sigh* ^^; ... the sneak peek suggests that we'll be covering four manga chapters next week all in one go. Tales 09, 10, 11, and 12. (Something is shown in the sneak peek which doesn't occur until the very end of Tale 12.) While I'm really excited for what that means next week's episode is going to contain, my disappointment stems from the fact that this might very well mean that Zurückspulen is indeed going to end around Episode 13 like everyone's been reporting it would. Still crossing my fingers that that isn't the case and that we're going to get a 24er or longer! But given the sneak peek for Episode 09, I'm not holding my breath. Kinda disappointed though: four chapters in just one episode is a bit excessive. And some of them aren't any lighter on dialogue than the chapters we've been seeing.
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Old 09-06-2013, 11:27 AM   #64
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Episode 10

I'm absolutely going to post ahead of Talon about this episode, because I think Rozen Maiden just changed genre.

Spoiler: show




So is Kirakishou this sexual compared to the other Dolls on purpose-?




Wait, WHAT? Suiseiseki, that's a line from eroge!



WHAT.



So I believe Rozen Maiden is now a harem anime.



Kirakishou's not really helping. now why am i liking her more after seeing this episode what is wrong with me



Souseiseki, da faq?!



And then his head was found in a sports bag.

As Talon-sensei would say: X-effin'-D. Two seasons of these girls DID NOT PREPARE ME FOR THE GLORY THAT IS THIS EPISODE.
Also Kanaria.




She's never getting a break, is she?




I wanna pet her, I think.
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Old 09-14-2013, 05:01 PM   #65
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My silly perfectionism's driven me into an absurd corner where I'm now four weeks behind on posts and two weeks behind privately on seeing new episodes. Ridiculous. Going to try and catch up on everything -- posts and episodes -- and we'll start things off here with my thoughts on Episodes 08 and 09.

Episode 08:


Spoiler: show
Returning to this episode several weeks later, I'm actually a little surprised by how excited it got me when I first watched it. I guess that's just because Rozen Maiden is awesome? Looking back on it now, it's pretty clear that Episode 08 is "the calm before the storm." A lot of stuff happens in Episode 08 ... but doesn't finish. None of it is really completely revealed until the next week's episode, Episode 09. This includes:
  • Suigin Tou discovers the identity of the body Kirakishou sent to Adult Jun, but the audience doesn't get to find out until next week who that is.
  • Saitou's play is about to begin ... but doesn't quite begin until next week
  • Jun has mostly finished Kirakishou ... but it's not until next week's episode that we see the fruits of his labor
The one big thing the episode does accomplish though (pictured above) is a heart-to-heart between Doubting Jun and Forthright Saitou. Ever since Jun's manager shamed him and implied that there's no way a girl like Saitou would ever be interested in dating a loser like Jun, the amateur dollmaker has been really, really cynical about Saitou's pretty obvious signs that she's into him. When she and Jun get some alone time and she continues to try and get him to ask her out, he bitterly fires back at her that he's not the nice person she thinks he is and ... he even goes so far as to lie to her, just to try and sabotage his chances with her, by suggesting that he only helped out with the play because of selfish reasons and that he wasn't doing any of it to be nice. What's awesome about this scene isn't Jun's attempts at self-sabotage. No, those are pretty damn irritating. ^^; What's awesome is that Saitou bluntly tells Jun that she knows that that isn't true, that he really is a nice person, and (in a manner of speaking) that she isn't giving up on him ... or rather, on them. So that's cool. A much needed boost of confidence into Jun's arm. To say nothing of the fact that SAITOU YOU ARE SO AWESOME! T_T

Episode 09:


Spoiler: show
Long post. Let's go through these one point at a time.


One of the things I loved about reading the Rozen Maiden manga last year was watching Kanaria evolve from a dopey, inept fool to a charmingly silly but incredibly capable combatant in the Alice Game. These early chapters of Part II of the manga have been our first taste of Kanaria's asskickery ... but they've not been without their own familiar hilarity. The "-kashira"s are back, ending all of Kanaria's sentences in a curious "I wonder?" interrogative form; and her desire to be of use to people always comically backfiring on her when she discovers that the people she's trying to help can already do what she can do or already know what she knows ... yeah, that's back too. We haven't gotten to see too much yet of Kanaria's adventures with the original Jun yet, but we will! We will. If not this season, then next season, surely.


Saitou's play finally begins this episode. And who should show up uninvited but ...


... the Ice Queen herself, Suigin Tou. Oh man. This next scene was just hysterical:



Taken straight out of the manga. Absolutely loved it. Suigin Tou is adorable (if mean ^^; ) and Shinku's reactions are indeed pretty hysterical. (Poor thing. ^^; )


The highlight of this episode is, of course, the arrival of Kirakishou in the Did Not Wind world. In classic Peach Pit fashion, the ladies sort of ... conveniently gloss over how and why Kirakishou is born into this world. ^^; She hadn't been completed yet, and all Suigin Tou had done was to bring the case to the play. So it's not really clear what the deal is. Still, all that matters is that she's here now and boy is she beautiful, creepy, and nuts.


We learn (via Suigin Tou's flashback) that after Kirakishou kidnapped Megu, Suigin Tou gave chase immediately, fighting past Kirakishou's thorny brambles and making her way to Kirakishou's very own N-field. There, we see a structure made of glassy crystal. (It fits the doll's name pretty well. Like her anime-only counterpart, Barasuishou, the shou in Kirakishou's name represents crystals.) Inside each of the crystals which form this structure ... rests a human being. DUN DUN DUUUUUUUUUUN! Suigin Tou asks to know the meaning of this, and Kirakishou explains to Suigin Tou that, because she lacks a physical body, the two things she desires most are 1) human souls and 2) an inorganic body. Targeting the masters of the other sisters makes good sense since she not only gets an additional soul but she also helps to weaken one of her other sisters, thus bringing her one step closer to winning the Alice Game.


However, something still doesn't make sense to Suigin Tou, and so when we flash back to the present, she asks Kirakishou about this: why doesn't she care about the Rosae Mysticae? Sure, sure, we get it: she needs souls and bodies. Fine. But doesn't she need the Rosae Mysticae? Doesn't she want to become Alice? And that's when Kirakishou explains: she doesn't really see the point in fighting in the Alice Game (or so she claims) because she was never a physical doll to begin with. She was only ever an astral entity, an idea, born from Father's mind. Thus, for her, obtaining a body is her be-all, end-all goal. And not just one body! "Hina Ichigo's purity, Kanaria's pleasantry, Shinku's nobility, Suigin Tou's gallantry, Suisei Seki's ferocity, Sousei Seki's sincerity, ... I'm going to become someone who can become anyone. That's what I believe it means to be the perfect girl." Basically, if we want to put it into human terms ... Kirakishou is like the serial killer who skins her victims and wants to put their skin on and "become them". ^_^; KUHREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEPYYYYYYYYYYYYY!



KUHREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEPYYYYYYYYYYYYYY! Man, Kirakishou is pretty damn awesome when it comes to that creepiness factor. She's so beautiful, so sincere, so lethal, ... and so insane. You simultaneously feel sympathy and revulsion towards her. It's amazing what the Peach Pit ladies have been able to pull off with this character with so few appearances to date, but they've already done a great job of establishing Kirakishou as the series' latest and greatest villain. With Suigin Tou having long since taken on the role of an antihero and Barasuishou being a made-for-TV character, it makes sense that we'd get someone like Kirakishou to come along.


But man. Man is she creepy.


One of my favorite scenes in the franchise -- perhaps my favorite scene in all of Part II -- is when Suigin Tou flips out and demands that Kirakishou give Megu back. Studio Deen has done a really admirable job thus far with adapting the manga to a television format, but I've gotta say: this is the one scene I feel they really dropped the ball on. I mean, you see the screencap above, right? That's what we got on TV. But this is what we got in the manga. Far, far better imo. You can just hear the shrieking, full of so much asskickery and rage.


The combat I'm sort of split on. On the one hand, I think that what Deen did animate they animated nicely. On the other hand, a) it was no Fate/Zero in terms of epic-feeling combat ... and there's no reason that it shouldn't have been ; and b) it was, as expected, so, so short. >.< This is what I was worried about when the first hints that the series was only going to be 12 to 13 episodes long were coming out. I was like, "Oh no. They're going to rip through the combat scenes as quickly as I did as a manga reader." Y'see, without giving too much away ... there are a lot more than 13 chapters in Part II of the manga, but at the same time so many of these are somewhat short and combat-heavy, and that meant that it was never out of the realm of possibility that we could be looking at a 13-episode series for all of Part II. I'm worried that that's exactly what's going to happen now, but only time will tell.


SURPRIIIIIIISE! This was the spoiler I didn't want you guys to see before watching the episode for yourselves. Suisei Seki shows up in the twelfth chapter of Part II of the manga. This was why I knew that Episode 09 was going to cover not one, not two, but four chapters all in one go. And actually ...


... we made it as far as the end of Tale 13, so we covered five chapters in just this one episode. The episode climactically ends, of course, with Suisei Seki revealing that she hasn't arrived to support Shinku and Suigin Tou in the destruction of Kirakishou's vessel, but that she's instead shown up as sort of a third faction in the war -- fighting for the safety and return of her beloved sister's, Sousei Seki's, body.

Just like Kirakishou's birth into the Did Not Wind world, Suisei Seki's arrival is conveniently glossed over by Peach Pit. ^^; It's sort of something the ladies shamelessly do quite often: gloss over any plot holes that might prevent them from getting from Starting Point A to Desire Endpoint B. How did Suisei Seki escape from Kirakishou's clutches? How did she manage it but Shinku couldn't? Why didn't she rescue Shinku first? Or perhaps Jun and Kanaria? How did she manage to locate the Did Not Wind world? How did she know that Kirakishou and the others would be here?

Peach Pit: AAAAAAAAAAAH! TOO MANY QUESTIONS! @_@

Yeah, that's one of the things you kind of have to do with Part II: you just have to not think about these questions too hard or else the whole house of cards'll come tumbling down. ^^;

And I think that does it! Thoughts on Episodes 08 and 09 posted. Now I can finally, finally watch Episodes 10 and 11. :3

Last edited by Talon87; 09-14-2013 at 05:47 PM.
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Old 09-14-2013, 08:17 PM   #66
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Episode 10:


Spoiler: show
God Kirakishou is delightfully creepy. And man, did Episode 10 kick butt. Episode 09 was great too, and so having 10 be so awesome just meant back-to-back Rozen Maiden awesomeness. But what else is new? Rozen Maiden is always awesome. But yeah, having watched the episode, I can now fully appreciate why Kaisa was so hungry to discuss it with me last week. Unfortunately for both of us, I put her on hold since I (lol) "want to avoid spoilers". Now, how can a guy who's read the manga already be spoiled? Well, on the pacing. I didn't want to know how far we got before seeing it for myself. And I guess that's the first thing I'll report: Episode 10 brought us through to the end of Tale 19. So ... yeah. I can 99.99% confirm that Season 3 will be ending with ...

Spoiler: show
the end of Part II.


One of the things Kaisa had wanted to discuss with me -- and did indeed end up discussing with me last weekend -- was how Rozen Maiden switched genres in Episode 10, suddenly becoming a harem anime. While I remembered the general details behind what she was likely referencing -- three of the sisters (Shinku, Suisei Seki, and Kirakishou) fighting over Adult Jun -- I had forgotten just how hilariously harem-esque this scene really was. Not only that, I forgot that Suigin Tou fought over him too! XD Hilarious. And awesome. If it were me I would have totally picked Suigin Tou ...


Have I mentioned how awesomely creepy Kirakishou is? No? Kirakishou is ridiculously creepy. And it is awesome. Man oh man is she creepy. That entire scene with her trying to give Jun her rose ring was filled with so much inappropriate sexual tension. And two grown ladies in Japan wrote it! With mangaka like these, who needs eromanga doujinshi circles?


Something else the ladies are really good at doing is making you feel bad for the villains. In the case of Suigin Tou, we all ended up feeling so bad for her -- Peach Pit included! -- that she ended up becoming an antihero. Well, while Kirakishou's no antihero, she's also no different when it comes to that "awww " sympathy+pity factor. While you don't feel quite as bad for her here as you do for Suigin Tou at the end of Season 1 of the TV series, I think it's fair to say that this:


the scene where Kirakishou desperately stretched out her arm towards Jun and weakly cried for help made most of you feel a little bit sorry for her. (What is it anyway with the villains always being the dolls who most desperately seek affection? You've got Suigin Tou seeking validation from Father and now you've got Kirakishou who seemed to be genuinely reaching out to Adult Jun there at the end, begging him to help her out.)


If Studio Deen disappointed me with some of their artistic direction in Episode 10, they definitely satisfied me this week with Episode 11. From start to finish, this episode was wonderfully animated, and at times was (no exaggeration) stunningly gorgeous. One such scene (pictured above) was when Suisei Seki gave up her Rosa Mystica in order to restore Sousei Seki to life. This was (imo) one of the most interesting decisions Peach Pit has ever made with the franchise. But I'll come back to it later; for now, I just wanted to mention Deen's pretty art.


As someone who's read the manga already, there are a lot of awesome developments that I sometimes think I take for granted. I just assume that you all will see them coming from miles and miles away because ... well, because (having seen them already happen) they feel really obvious to me. But when I saw the scene with the two Juns meeting face to face for the very first time, it all came back to me how excited this scene made me when I first reached it in the manga. I was like "OH MY GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD! " I thought it was just so, so cool.

And it is cool! Allowing the two Juns to meet was definitely one of the coolest detours Peach Pit could have decided to have us take. Sure, it's kind of strange that one second we're fighting Kirakishou and the next second "Whoaaaaaaa! " we're tugged by our shirt collars and pulled towards plot lines involving the two Juns and Kanaria trapped in the Zeroth Field while Shinku and the other dolls are trapped in Kirakishou's N-field, but it's definitely something that I think most fans are super happy it happened. For starters, it offered both of these two camps some great meat to sate their hungers:
  • Those who believed that the Adult Jun was going to be the new star from now on: they got to have closure with the original Jun. He got to "pass on the torch" so to speak to the Adult Jun.
  • Those who believed that we'd go back to the original Jun: they got to have more evidence of the original Jun being a major player in the Did Not Wind world's story.
So whether you were in Camp A or Camp B, this scene made you excited for the future of the franchise. And that was pretty cool.


But the other thing that I really, really enjoyed about the scene was that both Juns left the Zeroth Field as better people. That was awesome. In Adult Jun's case, he left the Zeroth Field realizing that he is in control of his own destiny and that the only limits in life are those he places on himself. Whether you think this is naive or wise is up to you to decide, but I think we can all at least agree that the Adult Jun was already far, far too cynical about his lot in life and thus this change in mentality is healthy no matter what. In the original Jun's case, he basically goes home:
  1. realizing how much of a positive effect the Rozen Maidens have had on his life already
  2. realizing that it's never too late to change the future
  3. realizing that he should work hard to avoid the future that his adult self wound up in (in at least the one timeline) and really hated
And it's that last point which is probably the most interesting to me, becauuuuuse ... it means that the adult Jun basically got his wish. :o Without realizing it, he got his wish, the very wish Shinku had denied him, the very wish that Kirakishou had tried to seduce him with. The Adult Jun was more or less able to "change the past" and make sure that his childhood self wouldn't wind up in the same shitty situation that he had wound up in. I don't think every fan would agree with my interpretation of this scene and you might not either, but for me at least, this is how I see it and I think it's pretty darn neat.


So, back to Sousei Seki, as promised. Like I mentioned above, I felt that this was one of the most interesting creative choices Peach Pit has ever made. Rife with potential for controversy, the ladies decided to resurrect a doll rather than adding to the kill count. Many fans speculated that this all but confirmed that the series was headed towards Shinku's desired ending (i.e. all of the sisters living happily ever after) rather than Suigin Tou's or Kirakishou's. One thing I will say is -- I'm writing this post from the frame of mind of someone who's only seen up through this point. I'm not giving away anything that happens in later chapters, not one way nor another. But yeah, the decision to bring Sousei Seki back was definitely interesting yet risky.

So why did they do it? I think the ladies did it because they felt bad about how little screen time Sousei Seki got before she kicked the bucket. The original TV series, believe it or not, gave Sousei Seki heaps more screen time than she ever got in the manga. I think this was partly because, when they animated it, they already knew that she died so early. (She dies in Volume 4 of the manga, and the first series includes events from Volume 4 in it, suggesting that the animation team had to have known about Sousei Seki's death as they wrote the scripts.) And even then, Sousei Seki's screen time in the anime isn't exactly the greatest of all the sisters. But in the manga, she isn't introduced until Volume 3 and she dies just one volume later, making her the Rozen Maiden with the shortest "screen time" of all. (Even Kirakishou had more screen time ... within Part I alone! Volumes 6, 7, and the super-short Volume 8.) So yeah, I definitely think that they decided to bring her back to try and give her a little extra time in the sun before ...

... well, before what? That's the question I remember asking myself when I was where you guys are right now, and I'll do my best not to give away the answer. The question of course is, how long is this for? Is Sousei Seki back for only one or two episodes? Is she back for the remainder of the season? Is she back forever? Other? You'll seriously just have to wait and find out.


So remember when I hinted that Kanaria becomes a badass after Part I? Yeah. Feast your eyes on Exhibit A. And be excited that (baby spoiler) this isn't the last time you'll see Kanaria being fucking awesome. This is another thing that I think the Peach Pit ladies wrote out of partial guilt towards the character. I think they really wanted the fans to love and respect all seven sisters but they could tell that Kanaria was one of the least popular dolls. (In fact, I think it's pretty safe to say that by the end of Part I she was the least popular of the seven dolls!) So what were they to do to fix that? How could they show this self-proclaimed strategist whose weapon is a violin actually being useful? Well, they did it. They friggin' did it. They made Kanaria so incredible that, with her powers, she is able to effortlessly dissolve Kirakishou's crystals. Keep in mind: these are the very same crystals that Suigin Tou's wings, Sousei Seki's shears, and Shinku's rose petals could do nothing to. Yet with her entrancing sonata, Kanaria is able to decimate Kirakishou's fortress. Pretty incredible, if you ask me. (Go Kanaria! )


The episode ends on a somewhat hilarious, somewhat dramatic note: Sousei Seki introducing herself to her new master, the Jun of the Did Not Wind world. This is pretty incredible for several reasons:
  1. The fact that, up until a few hours ago, Sousei Seki was still dead.
  2. The fact that Sousei Seki was one of the loyalest Rozen Maidens, absolutely refusing to part with her previous master (the old man) and even ending her own life if it would mean possibly helping to heal his damaged soul. Keep in mind that, as of the end of Part I, this very same master of hers has ... hmm ... actually, I can't remember if this has been revealed yet or not so I'll put it in a spoiler tag just to be safe. ^^;

    Spoiler: show
    Sousei Seki's original master has been kidnapped by Kirakishou and placed inside of a crystal coffin, just like Odille Fosset and the others.
  3. The implied fact that the Jun of the Did Not Wind world isn't allowed to become a Master since, according to Shinku, the Rozen Maidens fundamentally do not belong to / do not exist in the Did Not Wind world.
It's all kinds of crazy, really, that the Adult Jun's very first contracted doll is Sousei Seki. And what does it mean for the future of the franchise? ;o Will the other dolls be forming contracts with Adult Jun too? Will they still try to head home but Sousei Seki will stay put here? Will they all head home and Sousei Seki will take the adult Jun with her? Stay tuned to find out! [/tease]
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Old 09-18-2013, 04:03 PM   #67
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Episode 11:


Spoiler: show
Well! Things sure are wrapping up! This week sees a lot of big resolutions happen, including the death of Kirakishou, the death of Shinku, the retrieval of Shinku's original body by the younger Jun, and the Adult Jun helping to put the world back to the way it was -- even if that means he won't get to have a Rozen Maiden of his very own. This was a week with a lot of obvious plot developments, so rather than bore you with a point-by-point repeat of the plot details, I'll just weigh in on the things I loved about this week's episode.

The bit where the Adult Jun refers to Kanaria as "Kashira-sensei" was cutely funny, and what happened immediately after he called her that was funnier still.

I really admired Suigin Tou's resolve this week. The other sisters kept trying to guilt her into giving back Sousei Seki's Rosa Mystica, and while I totally think the other dolls are right about how Suigin Tou didn't really deserve it -- Sousei Seki was clearly giving it up to Suisei Seki back in Part I -- I do admire that Suigin Tou is willing to be called a demon, a hypocrite, a liar, a cheat, all manner of terrible names if it means that she ends up winning this game and is able to cure Megu's illness with it. [/headcanon theory] Were this any other manga, Suigin Tou would've totally given Sousei Seki back her Rosa Mystica the moment Suisei Seki was all "I wub you, Suigin Tou! ", thanking her for giving Sousei Seki back her Rosa Mystica. But no. This is Rozen Maiden.

Loved the part where Suisei Seki told the Adult Jun that he must've been dreaming if he thought she was ever going to hand him her rose ring, declaring that Chibi Jun is the only man for her. Awesome.

Thought that Deen animated the forest of brambles very well.


I dunno about you, but I honestly felt pretty darn bad for Kirakishou when the Adult Jun was all "No! I hate you! You're ugly! I'm not your master! ... now come along, my wovely wittle Sousei Seki. ^-^" Ouch. Kirakishou had been willing to give Jun the world (supposedly ) and had had a connection with him far, far longer than Sousei Seki did. And really, what did she ever do to Jun besides strangle him with her vines last episode? ^^; Yeah, okay, maybe she's clearly evil ... but I still thought it was really sad how strongly he rejected her. And this brings me to themes. I've written many times over the years about how Rozen Maiden is a highly thematic show, and there are themes which we clearly explore with characters like Jun, Suigin Tou, and Hina Ichigo. With Kirakishou, the theme of rejection is pretty darn clear. Here's the doll who came last to Father's mind. You could say "Well, he was saving the best for last! She's missing all of the flaws the other dolls had! ", but we all know that isn't the case here: because Kirakishou was only ever an idea in Father's mind. He so thought the idea impractical that he never even bothered to give her a proper body. If the dolls are analogous to children, then while the other six were all abandoned after birth, Kirakishou is like the fetus that's aborted while it's still in the womb. That's rejection. So we have this doll, a doll who rejects the Alice Game, a doll who is rejected by her fellow sisters, and what happens? She ends up being rejected by the Adult Jun. Not once. Not twice. But a multitude of times, each more painful than the list. He refuses to kiss her rose ring and become her master. He refuses to help her out as she's being kicked out of Sousei Seki's body. He refuses to accept her offer when she pleads to him from within the shadows of the grandfather clock. And we see how this rejection seems to quite literally break her heart as coinciding with the rejection is her demise. Nobody likes to be rejected. Usually when others reject us, we resent them for it. I think you can see and hear hints of that resentment, that hostility, from Kirakishou halfway through the episode (before she appears inside the clock). This is Peach Pit at their best, interweaving themes with plot and character development. I really quite love it.

Comparisons with the manga:

Spoiler: show

It's pretty clear that Studio Deen feels a little pinched for time; for the second time ever (the first being that one picture book they created), the studio's made some changes to the anime that differ from the manga. Most are simple rearrangements; instead of going in the order 1 2 3, some things may now go in the order 1 3 2. However, a couple of things were completely cut (I assume for time). I'll mention all of the changes below.

Changes to the order in which things happen: In the manga, the order goes as follows:
  1. The twin sisters work their magic on the clock.
  2. Shinku runs out of time and falls apart.
  3. Suigin Tou orders Sousei Seki to hand over her Rosa Mystica.
  4. Sousei Seki is attacked by Kirakishou, ensnared by her vines.
  5. Suigin Tou and the Adult Jun save Sousei Seki.
  6. Shinku shows back up out of nowhere as Kirakishou is dying.
  7. The four sisters all work together to fight against Kirakishou's explosion of vines.
  8. The twins notice the two branches which lead back to the Did Wind and Did Not Wind worlds.
  9. Shinku's inexplicably dead again, with Adult Jun holding her head, crying.
And that's the end of the content shown in Episode 11. Of course, as you may recall the television episode did things in this order:
  1. The twin sisters work their magic on the clock.
  2. Sousei Seki is attacked by Kirakishou, ensnared by her vines.
  3. Suigin Tou and the Adult Jun save Sousei Seki.
  4. The four sisters don't really do anything to Kirakishou as she dies. ^^; They just stand around and watch.
  5. The twins notice the two branches which lead back to the Did Wind and Did Not Wind worlds.
  6. Shinku runs out of time and falls apart.
  7. Suigin Tou orders Sousei Seki to hand over her Rosa Mystica.
No matter how many times I look at the manga, I can't really explain why Shinku is dead one second, then alive the next, then dead again the third. I think that's partly the reason why Studio Deen decided to make an edit, and as far as that one goes, I approve. But as for the other edits they did, I don't really appreciate why they felt the need to do them. Why did they need to have Suigin Tou demanding Sousei Seki's Rosa Mystica only after Kirakishou's final showing? Why did they edit it so that none of the sisters are fighting back the vines as Kirakishou explodes? Kinda strange.

Other things which were edited or cut for time: I mentioned a few changes above, but these following things were just flat out deleted or altered:
  • In the manga, there's an entire segment where Jun is trying to retrieve Shinku's body by creating a rope from the thorny brambles that grow all over this place. He pricks his hands very badly while doing this but presses on: he'll do whatever it takes to retrieve Shinku's body. When Kanaria then shows up, she startles Jun, causing him to drop the rope. He yells at her a little bit, but soon after Berrybell shows up, having used her powers to lift Shinku's body out of the canyon using the thorny rope Jun made. This was completely cut from the anime, with Berrybell simply lifting Shinku's body all by herself, Jun having never made the rope of thorns.
  • Shinku doesn't just fall apart in the manga: her body parts also break, some of them into very small pieces. It's visually implied that the Adult Jun won't be able to put her together again.
These changes weren't the end of the world by any means, but it's a little annoying (and a little worrisome) that they were made at all. Did cutting out the thorn rope really save you that much time? (Time you then wasted on your made-for-TV picture book? ) Was having Shinku fall apart without her body parts crumbling really so important to your art director? I dunno. Not a big deal, honestly, can't repeat that enough. They're just tiny annoyances.

Some delightful pacing information: MyAnimeList is currently reporting no known end date for the Rozen Maiden 2013 anime. This suggests that while the summer season will still likely end roughly where I thought it would, it might end one chapter further, which (to me) makes perfect sense because ...

(manga pacing spoilers! no plot spoilers though, just pacing)

Spoiler: show
IMO, the very first chapter of Part III of the manga works better as an epilogue to Part II. I remember reading the original Part II epilogue, Tale 25, ... and then immediately pressing onward to Tale 26.

Of course, this isn't a guarantee. For all I know, Rozen Maiden Zurückspulen will still be ending for the season next week and won't be back for who knows how long. I have yet to see any definitive announcements about it one way or another. Keep your fingers crossed!
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Old 09-27-2013, 12:13 PM   #68
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Episode 12:

Sorry this is one week late. The sub group I switched over to mid-season, EveSenshi, didn't release this week's last week's episode until about twelve hours ago. Could offer my usual picture extravaganza but I'm not sure if this week's episode really necessitates that. Keeping things brief, here are my Top 3 Comments for this week's episode:

Spoiler: show
#1. Suigin Tou
So, this week's episode sees Suigin Tou getting quite a bit of screen time (particularly in the second half). I really enjoyed it. And it set up for Part III of the manga very nicely.

#2. Kirakishou
So, last week I lied implied that Kirakishou was dead. This was because, well, the anime made it seem really obvious that she'd died (the manga is much less clear on this point ... for reasons that become obvious very quickly ) and I didn't want to spoil for you that she was in fact very much still alive. But the observant amongst you might have noticed a few things last week, most importantly: if Kirakishou had really died, then how come no one got her Rosa Mystica? While it's possible she doesn't have one, that seems pretty unlikely given the premise of the Alice Game (kill sisters, collect Rosae Mysticae) and the fact that, unlike Bara Suishou, Kirakishou is a bonafide Rozen Maiden. Anyway, this week's episode has no qualms about hinting that Kirakishou is in fact still alive -- they show her white thorny tendrils creeping out of one of the doors in the N-Field -- so I don't feel bad a) "spoiling" that now and b) apologizing to all one of you reading this post right now who I might have misled with my post last week. Sorry! ^^;

#3. The Return Home
So, the manga did this way better. In fact, I know I said no pictures this post, but this one I've just got to:



(click picture for full size; click the following for the previous pages: 1 2 3)

This is one of my favorite pages in the entire franchise, and once again Studio Deen surprises me by fucking it up while nailing just about everything else. ^^;; I love what you've done with the show in general, guys, but COOOOOME OOOOON! >_< I was so looking forward to seeing this scene animated and you robbed me of it!

Other than that, there's really not too much to say.
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