Rozen Maiden – 10
Now in Christmas Vision
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…I sincerely hope that all of the dolls don’t see the world filtered through the colour of their eyes like that. That seems like it would be really distracting. …Not that they would know anything different if they were born that way. Anyways, important things happened this episode. |
…Words cannot describe how sad I am about how they took all of the jokes about Jun’s sudden popularity out. They kept in Suigintou and Shinku’s stares about Jun er, handling Souseiseki, but there were way more in there in the manga before. I mean, Kirakishou being ready to kill or whatever at a moment’s notice aside, Jun had 4 girls vying for his attention. That’s almost galge territory there. I’m sure they took those out though to make things more serious and whatnot, but the stuff they took out was kind of funny. Or maybe they took it out for other reasons. The Rozen Maiden have always had this ambiguous position between being actual females or just ‘things’ that I’ve always found interesting. I mean, the OP gets away with showing Hina Ichigo completely naked at one point, but Shinku and the rest act really human, and it can be hard where to draw the line at. Maybe this is another reason why they made the dolls so small in this anime, since it takes away some of the sense that the Rozen Maiden are ‘real’, making the clothes-less dolls they’ve had in here slightly more acceptable. …They kept in all of Kirakishou’s more questionable parts this episode (though she IS the crazy one in the family), so who knows.
So, Suiseiseki had her reasons. Souseiseki is back, and she’s totally in one piece with no ill side effects from Kirakishou borrowing her body. I imagine that any Rozen Maiden can be revived this way, provided that they got their original Rosa Mystica back. Souseiseki and Suiseiseki are special due to being twins. How Suiseiseki knew that this could be done is beyond me, since I was under the impression that none of them have ever really taken a Rosa Mystica before Jun wound, but these are supernatural dolls with a seemingly infinite amount of things their powers can do. I’m not going to press the issue too hard. Plus in the manga, wound Jun encountered Souseiseki in his dreams a couple of times way before the events in the unwound Jun’s world, so that was more of a hint that Souseiseki could be revived. It kind of makes it difficult to foresee an actual winner to the Alice Game though. Not that a lot of dolls are really playing it at this point. Shinku at least seemed pretty content with living with her sisters with wound Jun.
Jun meeting Jun was rushed, but they kept in the part about Jun finally believing in himself (obviously). …This whole anime thus far would have felt fairly pointless if they didn’t have this in here. The dolls helped improve Jun’s life, but a lot of his situation before was due to him boxing himself in. He could have changed himself at any time, but his own negative views kept him from doing it. At least now, he realizes that he’s capable of a lot more than he thinks he is. This is what Shinku’s comment from the beginning of the play (of Jun’s hand being able to accomplish more than what he thinks) and Jun offering to make the contract was all building up to. Er, I guess the entire part up until now was building up to this (like that part with his manager saying that Jun was terrible for judging others, and saying that he was happy with his own life, despite Jun seeing him as pathetic). It was even better seeing all of the buildup once again in the anime after knowing that this was coming. There’s just something satisfying in seeing Jun grow from who he was at the beginning of this anime into the mindset he has now. I just love his whole revelation about how talking about how pathetic life is isn’t what he wants his middle school self to know about things in the future.
For a second time, I’m glad that they only skimmed over the events of the first manga. Kanaria is waay more tolerable in the events of this arc (and even afterwards; she has some sisterly bonding with Suigintou that’s absolutely adorable in the events after this). Probably because she’s actually doing things as opposed to trying (and failing) to infiltrate the Sakurada house what seems like 3 times a day. Her comedy skit with unwound Jun this episode was pretty funny too. If only Jun could have sarcastic remarks to go with Suiseiseki’s ‘desu’ as well.
The characters aren’t quite in the clear yet though. Unwound Jun’s pretty much been kicked out of his world since it finally decided to get rid of all the anomalies, and Shinku is almost destroyed. At least they finally managed to deal a rather big blow to Kirakishou. The fact that she’s hiding in illusions should say a lot (or I guess, the fact that she needs to hide). Now the main problem is finding their way back to their worlds and saving Shinku.
Things are wrapping up even faster than I expected. I guess it’s better than just leaving the wound Jun wandering around the N-Feild at the end of the season, but the last of unwound Jun’s story should be told way before the final episode. It should take maybe 2 if they make an entire episode about Jun’s daily life again. …Which they should do anyways, just to fully show how his perspective of the world has changed so much. The talk with himself wasn’t quite as touching as the manga, since they skipped a bit of the conversation of each Jun kind of noticing things about the other and some banter (they kept some of that in though, and really, it was only like, 3 or 4 lines that they took out of that), but they definitely did well with the main part of that conversation.
At least wound Jun is wandering through a fairly interesting-looking part of the N-Feild.
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: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
Not having anything to compare to, I thought this episode was really well paced, nicely serious, not too battle-y, and very interesting. And I thought that the red/green filter was a perfect device for letting us know who what was going on. I mean, I couldn’t tell you which of Souseiseki and Suiseiseki has red left eye and green right eye, but I knew immediately what that filter meant: Souseiseki had been revived, at the expense of Kirakishou.
I was afraid of Jun making a contract with Shinku because of what happened to Megu. I couldn’t see how it would turn out any differently for Shinku than it did for Suigintou as far as having her medium spirited away. So it’s probably for the best that he accidentally kissed Souseiseki’s ring. I thought it a little uncreative that they all had red rose rings, tho. Or is that just something for here? It would have been better if they had Black Rose, White Rose, Red Rose, and other stuff for Kanaria, Souseiseki, Suiseiseki, and Hinaichigo.
Anyway, I love this show.
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
Oh the episode was fine on it’s own. I just like that manga better (and I think I enjoyed the anime here because of the manga).
Well if Kirakishou was stealing energy from Jun before there was even a contract, I’d say that he’d be screwed regardless of who he made the contract with. Kirakishou treats different mediums differently actually (though this is knowledge from future events), so maybe he wouldn’t have been in too much danger. …Plus Kirakishou seems er, fond of him. All of the rings are the same as far as I know. They all looked the exact same in the manga and the original anime.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
Oh, also, I don’t know how good any of the jokes were, but my initial reaction would be that they would be out of place. Maybe they could pull it off because all the dolls are obviously platonic (or have been through the anime), and really, Shinku being upset at Jun looking up her skirt is just being ladylike.
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
…There might have been other jokes before it that eased me into the jokes here. I forget if it was before or after this arc, but Suiseiseki gets into shoujo manga and starts trying to push wound Jun into situations xD.
POWUH: iLurker with 5 comments
All the dolls are around at this point except for the poor Hinaichigo. I miss her. Is there any way she can possibly come back?
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
Probably if Kirakishou gets defeated, I guess. They can’t do the same thing as Souseiseki, since Hina Ichigo already has a medium.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
Wow, that was a strange predicament Jun was put into. Having the dolls debate over who gets to make the contract when he already made a promise makes him look like a player.
If Kirakishou’s hold on Souseiseki’s body has been severed, shouldn’t that loss impact her and make her weak enough to lose her grip on the other doll master’s souls she’s been hoarding for herself? I mean, the dolls are now in her territory and she can’t risk showing herself. She’s on the defensive. It should be able to give Suigintou a chance to get Megu back.
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
Nah, she has a firm grip on those. She just lost one of her bodies (she still has Hina Ichigo’s) and can’t really maintain her form in unwound Jun’s world. Plus Megu doesn’t necessarily want to go back to Suigintou (hint hint, events for the next arc, not that the anime will go into those).
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
The impression of Megu that I got was that she just wanted Suigintou to kill her, in that “I welcome death and darkness!” emo teenager sort of way, and Suigintou was more than happy to play up those dark aspects.
POWUH: 500-599 with 519 comments
I’m really confused now to where this is going to go. It felt like wound Jun was kicked out to have the full attention(and the final battle) be focused on unwound Jun since he meets up with the dolls again and wound Jun seemed to disappear to…wherever he went.
I really have no idea which doll is going to end up winning or even if the Alice game will ever truly end but I have a feeling it will be either Shinku or Kirakishou that wins.
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
Unwound Jun needs to find a way to go back to his own world, wound Jun was kind of stuck in the N-Feild in the process of trying to save the other dolls. So the end goal for both of them is to try and find their ways home.
I don’t know if there really ever will be a winner for the Alice Game to be honest…