Rozen Maiden Träumend Vol. 1 DVD
Rozen Maiden Träumend Vol. 1 DVD (MVM Entertainment)
The second incarnation of Rozen Maiden, adapted from the manga, follows Jun (originally an internet obsessed agoraphobic) who bought his friend and enchanted doll Shinku (a Rozen Maiden) as they track down more dolls to have crazy and bizarre adventures with. Originally in the first series the dolls were slightly more cute, having a playful attitude and tea parties, but with this series they seem to have taken a much, much darker edge. Rozen Maiden Träumend seriously freaked me out with its tiny marionette dolls raging around the place trying to gun each other down whilst punishing each other in a fatal scenario called ‘The Alice Game.’ The game’s final outcome is the chance to meet their creator, someone who can make them human once and for all, basically Pinocchio with guns and deadly traps. The characters are quite intricate with bizarre traits aplenty and whilst watching I thought I might have to put a warning of the hideous ‘cute’ voice acting in this review. However, with situations this dark and a plot which gets darker with each passing episode the cute voices stop being cute and start to become a little bit intense and creepy. And with animation which is very gothic, darkened and beautiful combined with strange situations and the deadly Alice Game you start to get an unsettled feeling whilst watching this show, like watching a Neil Gaiman-influenced anime. The main drawback I found was that it brought back the horrific nightmares I had when I was small of the china dolls from Barbarella coming to eat me (youtube it… terrifying). Overall the series has a lot of charm –thanks mainly to the gothic artwork which is stunning – but it still scared me shitless. Thanks Barbarella, thanks for ruining a decent anime for me. Alex
