Rozen Maiden ep.1

October 28, 2004 | 2 Comments

Well this one turns out to be one of those 'don't judge the book by its cover' series. I honestly didn't expect to like this, because on a glance, the series looks a bit sugary. But it seems the first episode is actually quite good in a twisted kind of way, which is right up my alley. The opening theme itself is actually a good indicator of its twisted sense of humor because the lyric is kind of....kinky, for the lack of a better word. I think there is 'collar', 'chains', and 'climaxed' :O in the first one or two lines of the song. Having said that, I originally thought that the song itself, Kinjirareta Asobi, doesn't fit the series well because the melody is a bit Arabian and therefore clashes with the gothic European feel the series supposed to have. Upon repeats, however, it actually does sound a little bit like European gothic music, or at least European gothic according to anime/video games (ie. Shadow Hearts, Clock Tower).

The episode begins with a rather creepy video footage of past event. The footage shows a party to celebrate the birthday of a blonde-haired little girl who wears a crimson-colored Victorian dress. The scene then cuts to the girl inside a quiet room. The expression on the girl's face suddenly turns into horror when she sees a doll, that looks almost similar in appearance to her, walks toward her. Cut again to a scene of someone stuffing the doll inside a casket while the girl looks on. Fast forward to the present day, the episode begins to introduce the Sakurada family. Jun is an internet-shopping addict, sister-abusing, and outside-world phobic brat who spends the majority of his time inside his room for an unknown reason. His sister, Nori, tries her best to coax him out of the room and to go back to school but her kind words are always treated with hostility by Jun. His only hobby seems to be buying creepy items from the Internet, much to his sister's chagrin.

The fun, however, begins when Jun foolishly agrees to the term of a strange letter and places that letter inside his drawer. Upon doing so, he finds a strange-looking casket appearing inside his room containing the same Crimson-dressed doll the episode showed earlier. Jun, however, is shocked when he finds out that the doll begins to talk and introduces herself as Shinku. He's even more terrified when a clown doll comes out of nowhere and begins to attack him. Shinku tells Jun that she can help him if he kisses her rose ring. Jun agrees and upon doing so, another ring appears in his finger and Shinku proceeds to beat the living crap out of the clown doll. Jun, however, feels light-headed after the fight so Shinku explains to him that by kissing her ring, he has agreed to become her servant, allowing her to use his energy in fights. Jun doesn't like the idea but realises that he can't do anything since he can't take the ring off his finger. Therefore, he grudgingly agrees to do the doll's bidding.

Impression:

The first episode is actually quite good. I like the fact that the episode introduces a couple of mysteries right of the bat. What happened that night between the girl and the Shinku look-alike doll? Was that doll Shinku herself? What does it mean when Shinku said that she's the fifth doll of Rozen Maiden? Who is 'Holie' that she and Jun mentioned? And why did that Clown doll tried to kill Jun? There is also other slightly less out of this world mystery such as Jun's personality. The episode implies that Jun hasn't always been the jerk that he is now. It is also quite obvious that he has a fear of the outside world for reasons that has not been disclosed yet. I don't know what to make of his attitude though. One the one hand, I feel that he deserves all of those slaps that Shinku's been dishing out on him. I don't condone corporal punishment but Jun seems to be in need of a good spanking or two. Having said that, he seems to be in some kind of depression, so I do feel sorry for him in that regard.

© memento 2003