Rozen Maiden ch.33

December 23, 2005 | 17 Comments

Well, this is the so called 'present' that I mentioned last week. I actually hesitated to put this out since the chapter has been out last week so it's not exactly new. As everyone already knows, episode 10 of Rozen Maiden Traumend will most likely deal with HinaIchigo's fate. However, judging from the preview, the story will most likely be different from the manga version. Please be aware that this is the first time I obtained BIRZ and and therefore, I have no idea what happened in the previous chapters. So there will be time in this entry where I have to guess what happened in the past. Anyway, this particular issue of BIRZ also comes with a nice-looking Shitajiki (pencil board) featuring Shinku. So if you're interested, here are the pictures of the cover and the Shitajiki (Do not direct-link or reproduce these images elsewhere):

BIRZ Cover: Rozen Maiden's Barasuishou and Shinku
BIRZ Shitajiki: Rozen Maiden's Shinku

The chapter begins by showing Tomoe introducing a girl she refers to as 'Fosse-san' to Jun and Nori. Although the girl's mother country is France, she's been living in Japan ever since she was a kid. Tomoe apparently met the girl by chance when the girl was trying to find Jun's house. Upon hearing this, Jun wants to know why the girl was looking for his house but unfortunately Tomoe does not know either so that's why she wants to hear it first-hand from the girl. The girl then tells Jun, Tomoe, and Nori that the reason she was looking for Jun's house has something to do with Rozen Maiden. She basically wants to know the whereabouts of HinaIchigo. She then starts to open one of the doors in the house and upon finding a doll behind it, correctly guesses that the doll is HinaIchigo even though she never met HinaIchigo before. Strangely HinaIchigo also seems to recognise the girl and even starts calling her 'Corrine'.

The girl immediately smiles and tells Hina that her name is not 'Corrine' but 「オディールフォッセー」 - 'Odille Fosse' (I'm not sure how to properly romanise her katakana name but 'Odille' is the closest one that resembles the katakana and a normal name for a French girl). She then produces a locket and shows Hina that the woman in the picture is Corrine, Odille's grandmother who has passed away. While all of these happens, Canaria is seen peeking from a window. It seems she hasn't been able to penetrate the house just yet in this version. Anyway, Canaria tells her artificial spirit, Pizzicato, that they have to strategically withdraw for now because of the arrival of Odille. Meanwhile, Odille is in the middle of telling a story about her grandmother when she was still a rich young girl in Southern France. Every year, her grandma always received beautiful presents for her birthday and when she was 11 years old, she received a small doll. That doll was HinaIchigo.

It didn't take long before Corrine and HinaIchigo became friends so they always went somewhere and did something together. At one point, however, 'a major force' (the illustration suggests that it's World War) began to arrive in her town, so Corrine had no choice but to evacuate to another town with her parents. She, however, couldn't take HinaIchigo with her for unknown reason (my guess is it's not practical to carry a suitcase containing a doll around during war time), thus setting up the seperation scene that was actually shown in vol.2 of the manga as well as episode 2 of Rozen Maiden. I personally think this is a good explanation as to why HinaIchigo was so angry at Tomoe when the girl came home late. Back then, Corrine promised HinaIchigo that she'll come back for her so HinaIchigo promised that she'll wait for Corrine. But she didn't come back until a few years later and by then, the home was already destroyed.

Odille then tells the others that prior to Corrine's death, her grandmother entrusted her with a locket and asked her granddaughter to find and regain HinaIchigo. Before Odille can continue her story, however, she is interrupted by the arrival of Suiseiseki who thinks that she won't allow that to happen. Suiseiseki believes that HinaIchigo's real master is this 'Chibi Ningen' aka Jun. She admits that normally the doll chooses its master. However, she thinks HinaIchigo can move around like she is now because she got her power through Shinku, who got hers from Jun. Odille immediately gives Suiseiseki a cold glare and tells the others that she actually has her own ring and shows off HinaIchigo's Rose Ring on her finger. Everyone is surprised to see this because most of them think that she already broke her ring when she lost against Shinku. Because of this, Odille tells the other that she saw the ring in her dream.

Apparently in her dream, Odille saw herself walking through a fog as if she's being called by someone. Soon enough, she found herself surrounded by white roses. She then saw a white crystal castle and heard a voice telling her to look through the window (or rather, the crystal itself). In that crystal, Odille sees HinaIchigo playing with Jun and that's why she was trying to find his house before. Upon hearing this Suiseiseki realises that Odille found herself in the dream of a person's heart. Or rather, in an N-Field. Odille, however, ignores Suiseiseki and continues her story. She tells the others that someone whispered to her, telling her to regain HinaIchigo. When Odille woke up, she found the ring fitted in her finger and later on, led by it to this house. She believes that the ring belongs to her grandma and that after HinaIchigo's former contract was broken, the ring was entrusted to her.

Everyone is shocked to hear this so Jun asks HinaIchigo is this is true. HinaIchigo, however, does not know either, so she becomes nervous. Meanwhile, Tomoe seems to think that she too has seen this 'White Rose and White Crystal' that Odille talked about. Tomoe believes that back then, when she was taken into HinaIchigo's world, she saw a white doll. Meanwhile, Jun is seen trying to ask HinaIchigo as to what she'd like to do. Because he is not Hina's master, he will leave it up to the doll to decide if she wants to stay here or go with Odille. Meanwhile, inside her hospital room, Megu is seen calling Suigintou but it seems she hasn't had any luck and feels frustrated about it. Unknown to her, Suigintou actually sits not too far from her window but for some unknown reason, she feels that she can be near Megu anymore. In her frustration, however, Megu decides to throw the flower vase into the wall, alerting the attention of a nurse who's concerned about the girl.

Megu, however, tells the nurse not to worry for her since her shift is almost over. Megu seems to believe that the nurse only attends to her because it's her job to do so. In reply the nurse tells her that is not true because she doesn't care about the time restriction so she thinks this behaviour is not like Megu at all. Megu becomes angry when she hears this and asks the nurse what does she meant by 'like herself'. Moreover, Megu wants to know what is it about her that the nurse understands. She then begins to spew tantrums, telling the nurse that she doesn't need the nurse' kindness and ordering the nurse to get out of her room. In her anger, Megu throws a vase at the nurse but immediately restrains herself when her father arrives unexpectedly inside the room. Meanwhile, Micchan is in the middle of showing Canaria the dress she just purchased for the doll. She then goes on and on about the difficulty she went through in order to obtain it until she realises that Canaria seems unhappy.

She asks Canaria if she came to Jun's house to play with the other dolls. Canaria, however, tells Micchan that she didn't come there to play. Micchan immediately hugs her and tells her that she knows Canaria went there for Alice Game but doesn't seem to understand why Canaria is so serious about it. Meanwhile at Sakurada's household, Nori tells the other that Odille gives them time to think more about it. Because of this, Jun asks the dolls if they can form a contract with a master without meeting the master directly. Shinku tells Jun that Tomoe's ring had been destroyed, so she doesn't know how the new ring was created. But she thinks it's impossible to form a contract when both the master and the doll are distantly apart. Suiseiseki points out that 'Blonde girl' (LOL) said that she saw it in her dream so she asks HinaIchigo if blondie ever came to her dream. Hina, however, doesnt' know the answer to this question either.

Jun, however, thinks that since the girl introduced herself as a master, he believes that Hina has to make the decision herself. Unfortunately Hina becomes indecisive once again, forcing Jun to tell her that she needs to give this more thought since this matter is about all about her. HinaIchigo begins to cry and asks if it's not okay that she doesn't know. Tomoe eventually decides to interfere and asks Jun to stop upsetting Hina. Hina, however, alredy cries and tells everyone that she's sorry about it. Tomoe tries to assure her that it's okay and that she should take a rest today. Because of this, HinaIchigo decides to rest inside her suitcase. In the middle of the night, however, she awakes and finds herself not inside Jun's room. After a while, she recognises the place as Corrine's mansion. Hina starts to panic and begins to call after Tomoe and Jun but no one seems to be able to hear her. The chapter then ends with a shot of what looks like a mountain made out of crystals.

Impression:

It's obvious that the 'White doll' mentioned by Odille and later on, Tomoe is none other than Kirakishou. Having said that there's something eerie about Odille and her grandmother, Corrine. There was a point when I wondered if Kirakishou is actually a doll containing Corrine's soul but I thought that theory is way too outlandish even for Rozen Maiden. Either way, Kirakishou is still a master of the 'divide and conquer' tactic just like in the anime. It seems she is hellbent on ensuring that the dolls are torned apart from each other by sending them to different master. It is, however, strange that Odille can somehow formed a contract with HinaIchigo even though the two hadn't met each other prior to this incident. And if what Tomoe said was right, then it seems Kirakishou has been manipulating the dolls right from the beginning of the story. This certainly puts a twist to some of the plot points.

I have to say that I like what I've seen of the manga so far. The manga's storyline seems to be darker than the anime and there seems to be less comedy in the story. Some of the characters are also portrayed in a less pleasing manner in comparison to the anime. If I had not seen this, I would have thought that Megu is a sweet girl who accepts her fate. This chapter, however, reveals that she can be quite abusive to others because she has been given a lousy fate. I personally think this makes her a far more interesting and rounded character because I can't imagine anyone who suffers from a chronic illness and not feeling spiteful towards the world and others at some point or another. Moving on to another charaacter, I think this chapter also did a good job of highlighting Suiseiseki's kind nature. Despite her occasional fight with HinaIchigo, Suiseiseki doesn't seem to want the other doll to leave.

© memento 2003