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R2 DVD Reviews
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Thursday, 01 July 2010 00:00 |
 While Rozen Maiden seemed to have a fairly conclusive ending, it's back for a second season - Rozen Maiden Träumend, where as you'd expect a new threat arrives for Shinku and the others to face, now that SuiginTou's out of the way - but the addition of more dolls to the mix leaves me having a hard time keeping track of them all...
1 - Rozenkristall / Bara-Suishou
Suigintou may be gone (for now, at least), but life goes on. Jun's getting back into the swing of having a sort-of-normal life, and is making an effort to catch up on all the schoolwork he's missed, but it's not easy. First up, there's a lot for him to learn, and second, there's a small problem of a house full of troublesome dolls to deal with. Yes, the long-running war between Suiseiseki and Hina-Ichigo over who stole the snacks continues. Shinku, meanwhile, is staying away from the warring factions - something seems to be bothering her, but she can't quite bring herself to talk to Jun about it. A little guilt over what she did to Suigintou, perhaps..? When she finds some evidence that Suigintou may not be dead, her investigations lead her to the 7th Rozen Maiden doll - Bara Suishou...
2 - Enju
It's clear from the start that Bara-Suishou isn't friendly - no sooner has she revealed herself than she launches a vicious attack on Shinku. With her head still full of thoughts of Suigintou, Shinku's not in any mental state to put up a real fight and faces certain defeat - until someone pulls her & Jun out of Bara-Suishou's dreamworld to safety. Shinku sees Bara-Suishou's appearance as proof that the Alice Game between the dolls may be coming to an end, but she really doesn't want to fight - or tell the others what's going on, either. Eventually, though, the other dolls realise that something's not right, but it takes a rather blunt intervention from Souseiseki before Shinku begins to open up...
3 - Kanarienvogel / Kanaria
The mayhem that is Jun's house is about the get a little worse, with the arrival of yet another doll - Kanaria, who sees the place as an opportunity for a doll of her alleged skills (that "alleged" part is important) to gather four rosa mystica in one easy shot. If only she can figure out how to get into the place - you would think that would be simple enough, but it's not when you're only about one foot tall. An open bathroom window finally gives her a route in, and from there the chaos begins...
4 - Vereinbarung / Contract
Now that all the dolls have come together, the Alice Game can really begin in earnest. Souseiseki's aware that this will mean she has to fight the others - her friends - and the prospect isn't one that makes her happy. Bara-Suishou has no such reservations, however - and it seems Hina & Shinku are her first targets. Meanwhile, Suiseiseki's in need of a new master. Her first reaction is to ask Jun, but she's not quite prepared to admit to her feelings for him yet...
5 - Der Brief / The Letter
Jun may be Suiseiseki's master now as well, but he's still spending most of his time with Shinku - just the sort of thing to make Suiseiseki insanely jealous, so she sets about trying to gain his attention. Which unfortunately involves inadvertently creating a whole lot of chaos in the house - but at least she's making an effort. Meanwhile, Hina-Ichigo's decided to write a letter to Jun, but she's got a few misconceptions about how the postal system works - not least because of the twisted explanations Suiseiseki's been giving her. Nothing to do with Suiseiseki wanting her letter to get to Jun first, of course...
6 - Engel / Angel
Young girl Megu has been in hospital for a while - although she doesn't appear overly concerned with getting better. She refuses to eat, living only off a drip, and keeps the window of her room open, waiting for an angel of death to come and take her away. In her better moments, she sometimes visits the abandoned church across the road from the hospital - and it's during one of her visit there that she meets Suigintou. Believing her to be the angel she's been waiting for, Megu becomes Suigintou's contractor - but it soon appears that neither Megu nor Suigintou can provide what the other needs...
Talk of Bara-Suishou being the "seventh doll" had me doubting my sanity for a while - only five dolls were introduced in the first season, and I found myself wondering how I'd managed to somehow miss the sixth - until Kanaria arrived in episode three and neatly solved that little mystery. I may still be going crazy, but at least it's not Rozen Maiden's fault.
Story-wise, there's an interesting scene of one of the dolls being made at the beginning of episode one - it seems to be Shinku, with the others there as well. This seems to feed into the appearance in episode two of Enju & his doll-making partner, who definitely have a sinister air about them and look set to play a bigger part as the series goes on. The general feel and dynamics of the series are the same as for the first season, which is a good thing - Rozen Maiden always had a good mix of comedy and drama, which goes a long way to overcoming the whole manliness thing that comes with watching a series about dolls. :)
Come episode four, and you can see where the season is going: the gang's all here and the Alice Game can begin - or at least, Bara-Suishou would like it to, but Shinku and the others are far too busy having fun to worry about trying to kill each other. This is where a little bit of frustration set in for me: the Alice Game will no doubt be the event that the season's climax is built around, but it's being bandied about rather too early. The proof of tht is clear to see: no sooner has the prospect of the Game starting been raised than we take a detour into two episodes of comedy filler, with Bara-Suishou being pushed to the sidelines as quickly as she first appeared.
Not that the comedy is a bad thing, of course. Suiseiseki gets the best deal as far as screen-time is concerned, which suits me fine as she's one of my favourite characters in the series. New arrival Kanaria's fun enough to watch, even if she doesn't seem to serve much of a useful purpose at the moment, while Bara-Suishou is showing the potential to be a worthy replacement for Suigintou as the villain of the piece - even if she doesn't really get to say much, there's always a suitable air of menace whenever she makes an appearance. There's also a new mistress, Mitsu, who is Kanaria's owner. She only gets the briefest of appearances at the end of episode 5, but she seems to be quite a wacky character who'll make a good addition to the comedy side of things.
Träumend is a twelve-episode series, so I'm wondering how the Alice Game can be dragged out for another six, given that the ball is already rolling. Either there'll have to be a lot of filler (I'm hoping not), or the game will is going to be a long event - and if the ending of the first season was anything to go by, probably quite an emotional drain to watch. I know which way I want things to play out - here's hoping I get my wish. So far at least, though, this season is every bit as enjoyable as the first.
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