Rozen Maiden
Rozen Maiden. A show that came highly recommended from the venerable Loremaster of the CQFF. He talked about Rozen Maiden even before I watched Sugar, but I never got around to watching it — until now.
The Rozen Maidens are a collection of dolls created by the great dollmaker Rozen. And each one is actually alive. They were created for the purpose of realizing “Alice”, Rozen’s idea of infinite beauty. But all of them fell short of that goal in some way. So, they compete in the “Alice Game”, where they fight each other, to the death, in order to take all the Rosa Mystica, the things that give the dolls their life.
Jun Sakurada is a reclusive boy who spends the whole day locked in his room. He passes the time by ordering things that strike his fancy over the internet, only to return them just before payment is due. One day, he receives a letter saying he won something. It says to pick yes or no, and then place the letter in his desk drawer. He does so, and an ornate wooden box materializes in his room. Inside, is a doll and a small key. He takes the key and winds up the doll, which then comes to life — and then it slaps him for handling her so crudely.
Shinku is the fifth Rozen Maiden. She always orders Jun around, much to his annoyance, but she does care for him, as well as the other dolls, very much. She has a particular admiration for Detective Kun-Kun, a puppet on a TV show. And she loves to drink tea.
Hinaichigo is the sixth Rozen Maiden. She is very childish, and loves drawing. She is the first doll to lose the Alice Game, to Skinku. But Shinku does not want to kill her, and instead takes her on as a servant. Her favorite food is strawberry daifuku, which is a rice cake with strawberry filling. (Ichigo means strawberry in Japanese. So of course she’ll love strawberry foods!)
Suiseiseki is the third Rozen Maiden ~desu. She is the great Mother Desu ~desu. She always ends every sentence with “~desu” ~desu. This erroneous grammar makes her more cute ~desu. And it is extremely infectious ~desu. You’d better be glad I didn’t decide to go “~desu” all the way through this review ~desu.
Souseiseki is the fourth Rozen Maiden. She is the twin sister of Suiseiseki, but is much less boisterous and noisy than her sister. She is very stubborn, and deeply devotes herself to her masters, especially Rozen.
Suigintou is the first Rozen Maiden. She is the arch-nemesis of Shinku, and has no qualms about resorting to underhanded tactics to win the Alice Game. Out of all the dolls, she is actually the one who loves “Father” (Rozen) the most, and it is her desire to see him that drives her to fight in the Alice Game.
Kanaria is the second Rozen Maiden. She is always talking to herself about how she will take the others’ Rosa Mysticae, coming up with many “brilliant plans” to accomplish that. But, she always fails, and no one else takes her seriously.
Barasuishou is the seventh, and final, doll. She is even more evil than Suigintou, and I was hoping for her to die a horrible death ever since we first met her. She wears an eyepatch.
Rozen Maiden – Raving Suiseiseki
It was a toss-up between putting up this video, or a compilation of every ~desu in the series. In the end, I picked this one.