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R2 DVD Reviews
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Friday, 02 April 2010 00:00 |
 The first season of Rozen Maiden comes to an end, with the series going for the 'climactic final battle' approach as Shinku and Suigintou square off. If the sight of the other dolls acting like kids is one of the things that annoys you about this series, you'll be pleased to hear that that takes a bit of a backseat as a result. Me, I kind of missed it...
7 - Traume / Dream
Shinku collapses after her battle with Suigintou, and seems to have become a normal doll, and much to his own surprise, Jun's quite upset at 'losing' her. Whatever he tries, though, he can't seem to persuade her to return to her normal self - but Seki has an idea: dolls should react whenever their medium is placed in danger, so if she wreaks some potentially life-threatening havoc on Jun, Shinku should wake up, right? Jun gets a Plan B, though, when an internet discussion board provides a clue to a solution - but it means making a visit to school, something Jun's really not happy about doing...
8 - Lapuslazuri Stern / Lapis Lazuli Stone
When Hina & Suiseiseki have to hide after ruining another of Jun's belongings, they pick the room with the mirror. You'd think they'd have more sense, as it's usually where Suigintou appears from, but there you go. While they're there, the mirror activates, and they see a scene - Suiseiseki, and another doll that looks just like her - and it's a scene that leaves her very depressed. The other doll is Souseiseki, Suiseiseki's twin sister. They used to live together with an old watchmaker, but when the watchmaker began to see Souseiseki as a replacement for his dead son, Suiseiseki thought it was too much and left to find a new master. Now, Souseiseki's just become the focus of Suigintou's attentions...
9 - Die Gefangnis / Cage
After failing in her first attempt to bring her sister away from her master, Suiseiseki finally realises that Suigintou is behind current events - and that more than ever, she needs to save Souseiseki. With Shinku, Hina and Jun in tow, she returns to the old man's house, to find him lying on the floor, a dream door above him and Suigintou's feathers scattered around. It seems that the only way to save Souseiseki will be to enter the old man's dreams and bring her back from there, but with Suigintou around it's not going to be an easy task. It also doesn't help that Souseiseki still doesn't really want to be 'saved'...
10 - Abschied / Parting
Now that she has Souseiseki's and Suiseiseki's powers to enter dreams, Suigintou's making good use of them, by dropping in on Shinku's dreams to lay down a challenge: a duel, for the other's Rosa Mystica. She figures that as she & Shinku are the most powerful of the dolls, the winner of a match between the two of them should have no problem going on to win the Alice Game. Shinku agrees, and so the duel is arranged for midnight - giving Shinku what could possibly be her final day with Jun and the other dolls. While she doesn't say what's going on, Souseiseki soon figures out that something's not quite right...
11 - Schicksal / Destiny
On schedule, Shinku arrives for her duel with Suigintou, but as usual Suigintou's determined not to play fair and rather than fight Shinku, she's decided to take care of Jun first. With Jun locked into his dreams and Shinku's main source of power removed from play, the duel begins. While Shinku deals with Suigintou's every-more-powerful attacks, Jun has to deal with his own demons, and it seems that fate of one relies on the other. The other dolls quickly realise that something is wrong, and enlist Nori's help in breaking into Jun's dream and bringing him back to reality...
12 - Reiner Rubin / Pure Ruby
Shinku may be damaged, but the battle seems to be shifting away from Suigintou - Souseiseki and Suiseiseki have their powers back and Jun has recovered from his dream. With some help from the other dolls he's able to recover Shinku and find a place to hide while he repairs her, but Shinku's confidence has taken a huge dent from Suigintou's successes - but time's running short for Jun to get Shinku back into fighting condition, and it seems his bad memories haven't been completely banished...
These episodes of Rozen Maiden pace themselves quite nicely - while it takes a while to tease out all the background information about the dolls' origins and what Suigintou and the Alice Game are all about, the revelations were padded out with enough humourous interludes and confrontations to keep me glued to the screen. Even the mild humiliation of watching a show about dolls didn't get in the way. Much.
The introduction of Souseiseki - who I can't help but think of as a boy, despite it being established right at the start that 'he' is a 'she' - near the beginning of the volume feels like an excuse to give Suigintou a chance to be evil again, and to pad things out a little before the 'main event'. It also gives time for the characters to be fleshed out a lot more, with particular emphasis on Jun and Shinku, with Jin getting to prove that he's not the annoying 'chibi' that Sueseiseki often claims that he is, and Shinku coming to realise that the connection between her and Jun has become something more than the master / servant relationship it began as.
But with these being the final episodes of this season, the main focus is on the final confrontation between Shinku and Suigintou - although how "final" it will turn out to be remains to be seen, with the second season just around the corner. As these things go, it wasn't bad - Jun and Shinku play well with each other, and the side plot about Jun's solitary life gets closed off in a decent enough way. The battle scenes themselves were well choreographed too, and the music they were set to made you just want to crank it up. Good stuff - and the ending feels as though it is and ending, making me wonder what they'll pull out of the hat to kickstart the second season.
Overall, Rozen Maiden has been one of the more surprising recent series. It's not something that you would expect to do all that well in the UK market - getting past the issue of all those dolls is a tough selling point, as despite the reliance on girls' toys as lead characters, this isn't a shoujo series - meaning it's got a certain level of prejudice to get past to find its audience. It's worth the effort, though - while the series isn't a classic, there's enough about it that's entertaining and, in terms of the setup, intriguing to make it worth checking out. Just check your manliness at the door.
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