Rozen Maiden – 09
Aren’t family reunions fun?
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Now they’re speeding things up~ Maybe this isn’t the most action packed fight of all time, but at least the main battle of this anime is finally happening. Also, the manga is finally being translated again! Yaay! |
I liked what they did with the play here. Saito’s acting was really good when she was shown doing it before this episode, and she wasn’t bad here, but the entire portion of the play that we saw the episode was really obvious that it wasn’t professional-level. Or maybe a better way of talking about it is to say that it was obvious that it was a performance and not real (you know, kind of like how the dolls are lifelike, but not real. If you couldn’t tell from the OP, Rozen Maiden likes things like this). It tied into the overall feel of the show really nicely. Anyways, Shinku’ grand plan for getting out of this world is finally revealed. …Not that it was ever much of a plan. So yeah, this is why we spent around 7 episodes watching Shinku not doing a whole lot. It’s not that she didn’t want to do something, but it was more of a waiting game. That’s also why Suiseiseki came through with the most convenient timing ever as well, since the worlds are connected for a brief moment. …And now time is stopped for no real reason, because it’s more convenient to the storyline that way.
For the dolls, denying the fight for the Rosa Mysica is kind of like denying their reason for existence. All of them want to win the Alice Game and become the perfect girl for their Father, Rozen. So with Kirakishou only wanting to swap bodies for the hell of it, with no intentions on winning the game, the other dolls would see her as more of a monster than if she was just playing the game like everyone else. They can accept loss, if it’s for that reason. Kirakishou is just kind of stepping on everything they believe in with what she’s doing. They kind of skipped over this in the anime, but Kirakishou even offered her Rosa Mystica to Suigintou when she kidnapped Megu. She doesn’t really need it. It’s funny how Kirakishou was talking about being the ultimate doll. …It may not be true personality-wise, but she’s not even complete and she’s been sending all of the dolls in a panic since the beginning. She’s crazy over-powered for some reason and she really doesn’t have an awful lot to loose. I didn’t notice this in the manga as much, but Shinku seemed kind of out of it in this fight between thinking that Kirakishou was Hina Ichigo and Jun’s ‘betrayal’ of building a doll behind her back. Plus Suigintou has constantly been having problems due to Souseiseki’s Rosa Mystica constantly rejecting her. Maybe this is why they’re losing so badly, but at the same time, Kirakishou is still really overpowered compared to the other dolls.
…Don’t ask why Kirakishou can steal energy directly from Jun all of a sudden, even though he’s not a medium. I have no explanation for that. Though maybe she could do that from the beginning (and Suigintou’s ability to do that too just isn’t as unique as she thinks it is). Or maybe Kirakishou can do that here because she’s already had her vines around Jun since like, episode 4. …Or maybe this world is just special. In any case, at least we have a reason she’s held off for so long, since she needed Jun to create her body. Which is actually Souseiseki’s. I guess I had forgotten that they reveal right away that the body that Jun made was actually Souseiseki. Though really, if you think about it, it would have been her or Hina Ichigo, since they’re the only two who don’t have a Rosa Mystica anymore and therefore, don’t need bodies.
As a final note, this last battle or sorts is a turning point for unwound Jun. As you can see from this episode, he’s decided that he’s fully involved with this fight, and instead of getting depressed over how he fell so easily into Kirakishou’s trap, he wants to do something about it. He just has a bit more to go before his character… blossoms? He’s obviously been growing for the past couple of episodes (with some setbacks), but he’s almost at the verge of realizing something important. The next episode looks like it includes the conversation he has with himself, so that should be good.
You know, looking at the doll sizes, I knew that they made the dolls look smaller in this anime, but it seems that the older anime was actually the more accurate one. In the manga, Shinku came up to about unwound Jun’s waist. I’m not quite sure what inspired the size change, but like people have been saying, it certainly adds to the surreal vibe of this show. I have a comparison picture under the spoiler tag here if you’re too lazy to go look this up yourself.
Speaking of this anime doing things nicely, it seems like the decision to draw out Jun’s life story and speed up the action was a good one. They got through at least 3 chapters this episode and the action pacing was great. Not a lot happened (though it was quite a bit considering how action-less the anime has been up until now), but try imagining sitting through an entire episode of Shinku holding back because the body might have been Hina Ichigo’s. And after that, an entire episode of Suiseiseki getting in the way without explaining why (and with Kirakishou and Jun just kind of sitting there, watching). Yep, they made the right decision here. I can see them wrapping this up without things seeming rushed within the remaining 4 episodes.
Jun, meet Jun.
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: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
Man, I got pissed off when they interpreted the play for the Rozen Maiden stuffs. So either the show is that much less to me, or the play is just that interesting….
I think the unwound world might have some different rules that Youngest Sister is exploiting. What they are is probably in the reveal next couple of episodes. I mean, how is she stealing all those original souls anyway, and can I cultivate a white rose like that? I wonder what cuttings it would take to pierce dimensions and drink of soul syrup?
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
Er, 90% of the souls Kirakishou has have been stolen before Jun even met Shinku, so who knows where she got them from. I guess the important part here is that she has them. Unwound Jun’s world isn’t that special.
POWUH: 500-599 with 519 comments
Oh boy, it seems like stuff just keeps happening left and right now(nice change of pace from the previous episodes). I can understand why Suiseiseki is defending Kirakishou’s body but at the same time I’m all, “That isn’t your sister anymore! Let them at her! D:”
Well on another note, I can’t wait to see how Jun will react to meeting Jun. XD
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
Oh, maybe this isn’t clear (and it wasn’t clear at this point in the story anyways), but Hina Ichigo and Souseiseki are totally resurrect-able. So Suiseiseki has a valid reason for defending the body. Er, that, and she’s clingy with Souseiseki anyways.
POWUH: 500-599 with 519 comments
Oh okay! I did not know that! Now it makes sense why she was acting that way.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
If I’m honest, I preferred the slow thoughtful episodes, but I realize they probably can’t finish out the whole series with them. This wasn’t bad, although Suiseiseki kind of ruined the atmosphere with that scene with her walking away from the camera, so that she looked just like a pile of hair galumphing along. It was just so ludicrous.
There was an awful lot of talking, and I would agree that slow battle episodes would be a lot worse, especially if it’s just different dolls being neurotic about things. The body thing is one of those things that feels like an understandable, but still stupid, hangup. If Kirakishou’s inhabiting that body, and Hinaichigo or Souseiseki is dead, then what’s it matter if you bust it up?
POWUH: 400-499 with 445 comments
I agree; the series was very compelling to me when it was a psychological character-driven show. The action is okay, but i was so much more invested in the personal journey of unwound Jun
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
Hmm, maybe you wouldn’t enjoy the manga as much then. This anime is pretty unique in that it’s spent so much time on Jun. Normally, it’s a fairly even balance of this and Jun’s life. Often enough, it’s both at the same time. Ahaha there was a joke in the manga at this point where Suiseiseki is incapable of reading the atmosphere, but they left it out here. Probably to make things more serious.
The dolls never actually die, so Suiseiseki has reasons other than the fact that she’s just clingy. …Though clingy-ness seems to make up most of it.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
Yeah, it definitely wasn’t clear that they could be reanimated after being defeated (devoured?) by Kirakishou.
I don’t mind some of the fighting, like the spats between Suigintou and Shinku. But this kind of fight (and what I heard it was in the manga) where it’s a ‘fight’ in the sense that two characters are opposing each other, but most of what they’re doing is yapping at each other and having internal monologues isn’t my favorite kind of anime. 🙂
Not that it matters, I almost never read mangas (I’m actually reading Sasameki Koto, because I enjoyed the anime, and there’s no chance it will get more adapted, but I want to see how Ushio and Sumika get together).
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
Oh I’m pretty sure Hina Ichigo would be slightly harder to revive since her body kind of …dissolved, but Souseiseki is mostly in one piece. I didn’t even know that they could be revived either until events after this.
Fair enough. I hope the rest of the Rozen Maiden after this arc gets adapted too. There’s a lot of wound Jun readapting to school that you’d probably enjoy.
POWUH: Meta Resident and LN Informant with 1529 comments
If Rozen never made Kirakisho, then how does she exist in the first place? Does the manga elaborate on that?
I’m getting the impression that she’s like a ghost of sorts, a spiritual doll concept that somehow gained life and now wants to become real through her own means.
Did she gain life by herself, or was she made by Rozen to exist that way?
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
He did make Kirakishou, but for some reason he never gave her a body. I don’t have a clue why, but hey, he also kind of gave Suigintou a crappy body when making her too, so he’s obviously not the greatest father figure in the world.
Until the manga answers my questions, I’m going with the joke assumption that Rozen got lazy towards the end and said “screw it, the 7th doll doesn’t need a body”POWUH: 800-899 and Mad Scientist with 814 comments
I have absolutely no background on Rozen Maiden, but how would you go about creating a doll without giving her a body? I guess it’s already besides the fact since he’s created souls(?) for the dolls in the first place, but somehow it’s more believable to me if they have a body to go along with it. If that makes any sense…
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
The manga has given next to nothing on Rozen other than he’s an all powerful guy who can create supernatural dolls that can bend the laws of time, travel parallel worlds, manipulate dreams, and pretty much do anything unless they say they can’t. I don’t see how creating a doll without a body is outside of his capabilities.
But in all seriousness, I vaguely remember the plot saying that the Rosa Mystica used to all be one, and thus why collecting all 7 will create the ultimate girl. So I guess he did that first and then the bodies came later. …It probably would help if I explained that this is all (really) loosely based on Alice in Wonderland (thus the white rabbit, and the end goal being named Alice), so all logic is out the window in the first place.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
Kirakishou is a creepy bitch of a doll and it still gets under my skin thinking what she did to Megu. Even more so seeing the other victims encased in crystal. I hope Suigintou tears her apart. How was able to exist at all if she wasn’t made like the other dolls. I can’t just accept that she suddenly came out of thin air.
It’s annoying that Suiseiseki defended Kirakishou knowing that it’s just Souseiseki’s body is being used. If the original owner of that body is no more and long gone, then there’s no reason to be sympathetic for a lifeless husk being manipulated by someone else. Besides, they wouldn’t want to remembered like that anyway and because the body no longer theirs, they wouldn’t care what happens to it.
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
Ahaha Megu is screwed up to begin with, and she gets even creepier than Kirakishou later. Kirakishou has her reasons aside from wanting her sister’s bodies…
I didn’t think people would be so hung up on not the other dolls not wanting to destroy the body. Things are justified soon enough. The dolls have their own kind of respect for their dead, for multiple reasons. I think I already gave a lot away in an earlier post.
POWUH: 800-899 and Mad Scientist with 814 comments
Again, I’m not familiar with any of the source material, but I thought it was a nice intentional touch for this incarnation of Rozen Maiden to depict the dolls as smaller in comparison to Jun. Y’know, because he grew up and all. But it’s interesting to see that this is actually an anime only thing and that the dolls are larger in the manga.
Were they also this “larger” size in the older Rozen Maiden animes? Obviously they’d look comparatively bigger since Jun was younger back then, but what I’m wondering is if there’s any continuity to the sizes of the dolls between all the series.
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
Yeah, they were pretty big in the original anime. I never answered your comment in the last post, but their size in the OPs are pretty accurate to how big they were in comparison to Jun in the anime. This current anime is the only place where they’ve been smaller/ any other size.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
I have to say that the scale of the dolls is almost a make / break kind of thing for me for this series. If they were any bigger, I think it would take a lot of the ‘preciousness’ away from them which adds significantly to their appeal.
I also give them credit in this anime for scrupulously keeping the dolls the same size all the time.
POWUH: 800-899 and Mad Scientist with 814 comments
Luckily this isn’t Evangelion, where the size of the mecha can be changed on a whim to suit the situation. =P