Kurogane's Anime Blog

Critical Moe Damage.

Finished Ouverture, I died and went to heaven. A few times. Suigintou is clearly the best. Can’t understand those desu-tards, Suigintou is clearly supreme.

Aside from Sugintou being teramoesu~~, Ouverture introduces us to her backstory when she first met Shinku. I must say, I can really understand the animosity between those two much more better now.

Also, Sara was kinda cute, too bad the script writers didn’t write in a “-nyo” for her. I would’ve LMAO’ed hard if they did that :).

Got these off danbooru recently. It’s apparently a outline for an alternate reality bishoujo dating game based on the Rozen Maiden characters. I find it pretty interesting and quite good too. I so hope they can turn it into a game or even better, an anime as a spinoff :P.

*(Continue on for the lowdown)*

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**Announcement: Rozen Maiden ~träumend~ OST out. Get it while it’s hot :).**Madoka(Megu’s song) alone is worth the whole album.

In a fit of rage, Shinku goes crazy and pins Suigintou to the ground, questioning her if this is what she wants. Barasuishou takes the chance to attack, causing both of them to change to a more hidden venue. Inside, Shinku continues to question Suigintou, but is ended when Suigintou takes a barrage of crystals from Bara. Defeated, Suigin’s two Roza Mysticas float to Bara and Shinku, one each. Shinku gains Suigintou’s memories of Megu and Bara’s manipulation, angering her and she faces Bara seriously.

In a final flurry of attacks, Shinku manages to beat Bara and pin her down. She tries to deal the final blow, but is interrupted by Jun. Jun persuades her to stop and Bara takes advantage of the distraction to deal Shinku a fatal blow instead. Bara gains all the Roza Mystica’s and Father rushes to congratulate her. It’s revealed that he isn’t really Rozen, but his student instead, and he created Bara to surpass Rozen Maiden’s. Angered, Jun questions why he did all this, but he gets slapped away.

Suddenly, Bara starts to crack and crumble to dust. Both her and her maker disappear in a flash of light, scattering the Roza Mystica’s. The Laplace Demon appears and comments it has been fun and leaves as sudden as he appears. Jun holds Shinku’s lifeless body and shouts, demanding Rozen to appear. Jun’s attempts succeeds and Rozen appears with four Roza Mystica’s.

Cut forward, Rozen is in his workshop, fixing Suigintou, Suiseiseki, Kanaria and Shinku. Noticing that Shinku’s awake,Rozen embraces her and says something we can’t hear. Rozen’s figure is then replaced by Jun’s and Shinku tells him about Rozen. Jun reveals that Rozen is going to continue his pursuit of Alice in other ways and the Alice Game is now unneeded. Everybody has been restored except for Souseiseki and Hina Ichigo and it’s Shinku’s responsibility over them now. Jun and Shinku then head home to Suiseiseki and Nori.

I’m not really sure on what to say about the ending. The ending did resolve most of the plotlines that had emerged in ~träumend~, but also leaves enough unsolved mysteries for a potential 3rd season, like Souseiseki and Hina’s Roza Mystica’s whereabouts. The Laplace Demon’s purpose is also subject to much debate as he seems to be the ultimate mastermind of the whole thing.

I really didn’t expect such a big twist in the end though, with the revelation of the fake Rozen and the appearance of the true Rozen to announce the end of the Alice Game. Suigintou fans also rejoice as she’s finally complete and not “junk” now. I expect, no, demand the (if will be made)3rd season to have her in the humourous situations with the rest of the gang.I’m sure a lot of fans would love it ^_-.

Overall, it was a fun watch, though I still think the last few episodes were really quite a mess, most due to the “rushed” feel of the Alice Game. Rozen Maiden deserves more situational comedy and a 3rd season, if not mainly to revive back Souseiseki and Hina Ichigo. If possible, I would like to see more of Rozen and his purpose of chasing Alice. It’s too bad the manga hasn’t been scanlated :(. Continue below for screencaps.

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The Alice Game toll climbs again as 2 more fall this episode, leaving the Alice Game in a 3 way fight between Shinku, Suigintou and Barasuishou.

Suisuiseki and Kanaria are the ones to go this episode, with both their Roza Mystica’s taken by Barasuishou in one fell swoop. Now, only the strongest three remain, and Barasuishou seems to be leading by obtaining 3 Roza Mysticas already.

Action-wise, this episode had tons of it, but not much development at all. It seems though that the whole thing seems to be part of Rozen’s plans as his expression is one of smugness. Jun’s futile efforts to stop him are just easily brushed off.

The important parts come next episode, the ending aptly titled “Alice”. It would seem the production team is ready to end this franchise, and god help me if it turns out to be another Mai-HiME styled ending. Not that I’m not a fan of total revives/resets, but please, execute it in style. However, it does seem to me that it’s heading towards a more serious and, maybe, sad ending.

After quite a long break, Rozen Maiden resumes. The Alice Game death toll continues on this episode, as Hina Ichigo is the next to go after Souseiseki.

Continuining off the last episode, Souseiseki’s Roza Mystica is taken by Suigintou, leaving the others in a state of sadness. After bringing back Souseiseki’s souless body back home and storing it in her box, Hina Ichigo starts to show signs of degradation too, as technically, she has lost the Alice Game earlier, so her Roza Mystica is going to be removed from her body.

The rest realizing this, decide to let her spend the rest of her time with Tomoe and finally, after a few happy moments and teary thanks and farewells, Hina Ichigo’s Roza Mystica departs from her body and Shinku takes it in her at Hina Ichigo’s N-Field, which slowly turns dark and empty.

The shocker comes in right after that, as they depart from the N-Field and land in Enju, with the creepy shopkeeper revealing himself as the Laplace Demon, confirming my thoughts, with Barasuishou and Father revealing himself to the gang, ending the episode.

Next episode, aptly named **Rozengarten**, the preview shows the Alice Game in full swing, with everyone fighting in a garden, probably an N-Field. Screencaps continued.

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The Alice Game commences with this episode and quickly claims it’s first victim….

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A less eventful episode, mainly for setting up for the Alice Game.

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A great episode this time, with a nice balance of character development, humour and fanservice….

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Amazing episode this time, with a totally different atmosphere from the previous ones. I had difficulties believing I was watching Rozen Maiden at times. I just don’t have the energy to post a summary so if anyone wants one, read Garten’s post :).

Starting off, Suigintou’s back permanently thanks to Father and some help from Barasuishou (I think). Suigintou’s master, Megu, is also introduced as well and I finally see why Suigintou has much more popularity among Japanese fans than Shinku. Even for the first episode introducing them, I’m clamouring more of Megu and Suigintou.

To put it simply, somehow, the two of them really fit each other off, with both having the problem of being “incomplete”. There’s been some funny theories about Megu’s condition, with the most absurd one I’ve heard was AIDS, but I think that Megu’s suffering from congenital heart defects. It’s the most fitting disease I can think off, especially with her “koko ni wa ponkotsu” comment. I’m pretty surprised that she managed to survive for that long. Considering it’s quite a deadly one.

Megu’s pessimistic view of herself is really a very sad thing to see, having suffered all her life from the condition and living like a parasite, unable to do anything much apart from living. I was on the verge of tears on her conversation with Suigintou about her “lifespan”. I hope that with Suigintou, she’ll find a reason to live on.

As on the topic of Suigintou’s revival, it’s done nicely with the reason of needing her to start off the Alice Game. I guess that getting destroyed outside of the Alice Game doesn’t really count. On the other hand, I really find Father to be really quite psychotic, forcing them all in this battle royale.

While on other characters, my suspicions about the Enju shopkeeper have been confirmed with what it seems to be him as Barasuishou’s master. It now all seems that Barasuishou’s acting on Father’s commands with her reviving Suigintou and setting up the Alice Game.

Shinku also seems to still be in some trauma and still blaming herself for what happened. She positively looks glad on seeing Suigintou being revived. She’s regretting her past actions as well, and her pompous nature from the first season in somewhat gone, based on her apology to Suigintou.

After this amazing episode, I find it quite funny to see that the next episode looks like another humourous one. I speculate the next episode would be a mix of humour and character development, with probably some twist at the end.

A pretty funny episode, on par with Rozen Maiden’s staircase war episode.

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