Rozen Maiden – 06
Ah, sibling rivalry. …And DEEN.
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You know, I’ve known about the new Rozen Maiden VN coming out for a while, but I still can’t fathom what the hell they’re going to do with it. Retell the anime? What kind of decision making options would it have? Is it even fun to read something like that despite already reading the manga? (I only really play dating sims, and couldn’t make it through the Higurashi games OTL.) Though then again, I could never figure out how the first Rozen Maiden game worked either. |
Suigintou and Shinku are at it again. I don’t know how well I explained this in the comments section the last episode, but these two used to be waaay more malicious towards each other. …And now they’ve been toned down to the point where they seem like bickering children (which is kind of cute in a way). With being stuck in this world though, at least they have some kind of truce (ish). There might be another doll on the way too since Jun is has started with those “Create a Girl” things again. Though it’s still awfully suspicious, considering how the white vines keep wrapping around Jun and unwound Jun had trouble contacting wound Jun before that “go ahead and make another doll” text appeared this episode. …Actually, that doll (that Jun saw as a prop for the play) looked a lot like Kirakishou as well.
So Jun is accomplishing something, finally! His craft skills are going to good use with helping with the play and it’s cute how he was more motivated after Saito calling him “Jun-kun”. This Jun actually seems less negative than the one in the manga, since at this point, he was thinking in his head about how the acting group wasn’t any different from the rest of society and ignoring him since he wasn’t really a part of them. Here, he was just wondering how he ended up as a prop painter. That’s way less depressing.
In contrast though, the talk with the manager still hit home with Jun pretty hard. Yes, the manager is an asshat, but can you really deny that his words didn’t have some truth to them? Jun does look down on the manager, and yet, the manager is pretty content with his life, where Jun was struggling for a really long time. Not that I’m saying that Jun should become the same kind of person as the manager, but if he loosened his views on society a bit and stopped isolating himself, maybe Jun would get more out of life. Though he’s already kind of doing that with helping out with Saito’s acting group. He might have been annoyed by her at first (calling her one of those airheads who got taken in by his manager), but she’s a pretty nice person in reality. …Though the next episode should explain why Jun believes why Saito will eventually abandon him, like everyone else.
Jun seemed more… desperate and dependant on the dolls in the manga at this point. I don’t know how well the anime got this across (since they cut out a lot of Jun’s inner monologues), but Jun believes that every single good thing that’s happened to him since the first couple of episodes is all due to the Rozen Maiden’s appearances. Not because of how he opened up to Saito and how he took control over part of his life instead of drifting around, but because he managed to recreate a mythical doll who in turn, changed fate. He believes that, like they talked about this episode, he managed to find a bit of happiness because the world branched off from its original ‘fate’ when the dolls crossed over. The talk with the boss this episode and the reminder that he should probably go to school was a reminder that his life could easily go back to being the same as it was before Jun recreated Shinku. Shinku has to inevitably leave of course, but unwound Jun definitely doesn’t want that day to come.
Of course, the anime could be trying to go off in a different direction, since like I said above, I could have sworn that I remember Jun being more desperate to keep the Rozen Maiden around (and having extreme close ups of his crazed eyes), lest his days go back to what they were before since the world would go back to the ‘direction’ it was originally supposed to take. Or maybe they’re saving that for the next episode, since the preview didn’t look like it had the play in it yet (you know, the one Saito is putting on) and it looks like part of the episode will take place from the wound Jun’s perspective.
This managed to cover 1.5 chapters instead of the usual 1 chapter! Amazing! …But this still felt like a lot of nothing happened. The characters are all preparing for some kind of resolution (whether they know it or not), but not a lot is being accomplished towards that. Shinku and Suigintou can’t do much except for wait at Jun’s place, and Jun himself doesn’t entirely know how to move forward with his life. …In Jun’s case, it’s more that he’s convinced himself that it’s impossible for him to go anywhere. Not that you can really tell that from this since I’m drawing that mostly from the manga. This Jun doesn’t seem to have as many depressing inner monologues as opposed to his manga counterpart. At least we can say that he feels similarly trapped though, since he’s being drawn to taking a risk and making another new doll in hopes of changing his world.
Guess who (though what other character wears bright orange bloomers?)
About Karakuri
University student and the one at Metanorn who's known for wearing glasses. Likes blood, insanity and plot twists, but also plays otome games and adores cute romance anime. It balances out... somehow.
POWUH: iLurker with 2 comments
That’s because they aren’t the Shinku and Suigintou from the Ouverture-RM-Traumend Timeline, they’re the manga versions of the characters.
In the manga continuity, Ouverture never happened, and the whole last half of the first season never happened. So as opposed to the toxic hatred the two harbor for each other in the earlier series, you guys are treated to how they really interact with each other in the manga.
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
Yes, I’ve already stated several times that this anime has nothing to do with the others.
Even if it’s not based on those though, I’d still say that compared to ripping each others arms off, targeting each other’s complexes, and saying that neither one of them had the right to exist, a water fight is still way less malicious.
POWUH: iLurker with 11 comments
It irritates me the way everyone keeps mentioning the deadline but no-one seems to be doing anything in preparation. Is this because they can only act at the deadline or because they wanted to show Suigintou and Shinku catfighting again? (which was great)
I’m wondering if Jun is making Canaria, Hina-Ichigo or Kirakishou. I’d kind of hoped that he’d read ahead and check who it is before starting though….
Incidentally, in the manga did Show ▼
like she did in the end of the 1st season?
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
They kind of have to wait around and do nothing since they have no idea what to do. …Plus anime timing is always the worst timing, so they’ll be doing things only at the very end of the deadline.
Who he’s making might surprise you. …Assuming that they’re going that route. They kind of have to in order for the next arc to make sense.
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POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
I like the way they’re characterizing Jun in this series, even if it’s different from the other sources (which I haven’t looked at, admittedly).
I worry that the recent texts and books aren’t actually from wound Jun, and are traps from Kirakishou, but at some point you gotta just go with it and try to bull through. Is it problematic that Jun didn’t share the new communications with Shinku? The paranoid part of me thinks so, especially with that thorny vine imagery.
This is quickly moving up to my favorite show of the season. I just think they’re hitting the speed and tension perfectly so far. We’ll see how it ends up, if they have to blast through a whole bunch of material to finish, but that remains to be seen.
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
I don’t mind him being this way either. It’s certainly less pessimistic.
Ahahaha you’ll see. I thought that this series of events was nicely played out. Plus we haven’t really seen Kirakishou make much of a move yet in this world. We’ve seen her vines, but nothing huge like with the wound Jun’s world.
Really? Yay!
I would have questioned your taste if it was Brothers Conflict xDRozen Maiden does have it’s charm~. Hmm… I think I said 30 something was the chapter this arc ended at, but it’s actually 20 something. I’m sure they could speed up the finale a bit without much consequence, but I hope it’s not too rushed. …I wouldn’t mind this anime magically extending into the fall season either, but I don’t think that will happen.POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
Bahahaha! Brothers Conflict is fun to watch cause I think it’s just so bad it comes out the other side as amusing.
Yeah, I just like all the aspects of this show. The art, the scale of the dolls (big enough to be detailed in the world, small enough to be surreal and interesting), the side romance with Jun and Saito, the personalities, the tension in the story.
And I’ll admit (embarrassing revelation time) that dolls don’t exactly push me away. Growing up, my mom collected Cabbage Patch Dolls, not really the plastic headed mass market ones, but the handmade original ones (after I moved out, that’s what moved into my room…). I’m sure she has over 100, and I had a few myself.
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
AHAHAHA you’re probably right about that.
The doll scale here is actually really interesting for me! They were always pictured this size in the manga, but in the previous versions of the anime, they seemed so much bigger.
Oh, that’s interesting! To tell you the truth, I’ve never really liked dolls. I had a bunch of Sailor Moon ones growing up, but I could bring myself to even look at them at night. I was super scared of everything as child. xD
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
Yeah, I like this doll scale, because it allows for things we don’t usually see (usually we have little teeny dolls like Busou Shinki or larger kids). Like the scene with Shinku ‘exploring’ Jun’s apartment, walking around, walking into the closet expecting it to be a hallway (maybe my favorite scene of the show so far “This is a dead end.”).
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
Wow, I wasn’t even there but I was really pissed off at that bastard manager’s arrogant and condescending tone towards Jun.
For people as haughty as those two, I didn’t expect Shinku and Suigintou to act like elementary school kids pulling on each other’s hair. Even though she indirectly accepted it, with so much pride in her, I would have been surprised if Suigintou openly agreed to Shinku’s suggestion of a truce.
Wouldn’t it be accurate to say from the moment the unwound Jun was communicating with his younger, wound self that he’d already been changing his current timeline? Interference from the past should definitely have an impact on the future so maybe this Jun isn’t aware of it because he can’t notice anything different.
Side note: Have been following Kamisama no Inai Nichiyoubi? It’s gets more interesting the more episodes play out and now there’s even a kingdom and city set as a haven for the dead that refuse to be put to rest. Personally, I find that far more compelling and lively than what’s going on with Rozen Maiden.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
KamiInai is a very good series as well. I’m really enjoying it (even with the overly pessimistic previews each week). Both series are good, and tell a good story in their own way (and so does Uchouten Kazoku).
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
I find Kamisama no Inai Nichiyoubi is as beautiful and mysterious in its story as much as its fluid visuals. I would say that if one was actually living in that world, seeing what’s going on, that it would fundamentally soften the fear of death because you’d just wake back up on earth. And the requisite to enter Ortus, the city of the dead is pretty ominous as well. “Outsiders who wish to live here must die.”
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
Hmm, how do I put this… This part in unwound Jun’s life is like a detour (…?) from fate. Once the dolls leave, unwound Jun will go back to regular life and it will be like none of this ever happened.
I was pretty far into the manga, but I’m waiting to marathon the anime of KamiInai. I saw episode 1 though and liked what I saw.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
Hehehe, I doubt you’d have enough patience to wait until all the episodes of Kamisama no Inai Nichiyoubi are out. Not to mention that you’ll be busy with the new set of animes that will be released come Fall season. So it’s probably a good idea for you to catch up to what’s recently playing. It’s up to episode 6 with Ulla revealed as the Idol of Murder. And like I said, I’m liking Kamisama no Inai Nichiyoubi a lot more than Rozen Maiden.
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
I normally wait until around episode 10~11 to watch them all so I don’t have to wait too long. I can wait a looong time before I start an anime, but I hate sitting in the middle of a story I’m really into and having to wait for an episode to come out week after week xD
POWUH: Meta Resident and Werewolf Chaser with 1270 comments
There a RM game previously!? Plot/gameplay details plz?
Apparently the RM VN is a retelling of the anime as frm wht I’ve read the 1st choice is “Wind/Do not wind”.
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
Yep, the game was for PS2, so I never played it though. …And like I said, I just know that it was a VN. I could never find info on the plot/gamplay details myself.