Rozen Maiden ep.10-11

February 2, 2005 | 8 Comments

Well, as I suspected, the series definitely shows signs of wrapping up some parts of its storyline, particularly the ones that deal with Jun's problem. But at the same time, these two episodes actually creates additional mysteries that I don't think will be neatly wrapped up by the last episode in the series. I guess this is to be expected since the manga is still running inside Birz. But at the same time, I can't help but thinking that this series should not have been made until the manga was completed. I really like what I've seen so far but I'm dreading the possibility that the ending may not be as good as it could have been. Oh well, I guess I'll find out soon enough when I watch the last episode.

Episode 10 itself begins by showing the inside of Shinku's dream. She's in the middle of sitting in a chair and drinking a tea. All of a sudden, however, Suigintou materialises inside the dream without being invited. How rude, even if it turns out that Suigintou is Shinku's sister. Anyway, Suigintou ends up challanging Shinku to an Alice game. Shinku at first hesitant but in the end agrees to meet her in the N-Field around 12 at night. The next day, Jun and Hinaichigo are weirded out when they are being noisy and yet Shinku doesn't scold them whatsoever. Before Jun can think about it further, however, that evil doll, Suiseiseki arrives with her bag and proceeds to smash Jun's window. As if that is not enough, she brings Souseiseki with her. Jun is obviously annoyed with the fact that there are so many noisy dolls inside his room.

However, this day turns out to be his bad day because Nori then appears inside his room and begs him to help her out with ther Snow White school play. Jun refuses right away but few pressures from Shinku and the other dolls are all that it takes to force him to help Nori. So in the end the doll ends up playing Snow White roles. Hinaichigo and Souseiseki play the dwarves while Shinku gets to play Snow White. The role of the evil queen, of course, falls onto Suiseiseki, who eventually relishes it like a real evil witch. The play unfortunately comes to a halt when Jun, who supposed to be the prince, refuses to kiss Shinku and ends up in a childsih fight with Suiseiseki as usual. Later on, Shinku looks a bit sad when she sees the others playing happily. When Souseiseki notices this, however, Shinku pretends that there is nothing wrong with her.

Later on, Jun is surprised to see the dolls wearing nothing but their undergarments. It turns out that Nori wants to wash their clothes so the dolls now can be seen complete with their doll joints. This weirded Jun off so he decides to go back to his room. Meanwhile, Shinku and Nori end up having a one on one conversation on child/brother-rearing after Shinku finds out that Jun once again treats Nori like she's a nobody. She tells Nori that this situation can't continue forever. She then makes an indirect analogy on how child-rearing is similar to tea preparation. Later on, Shinku also approaches Jun in his room asking him to fix the cuff in her dress so Jun ends up showing his l33t sewing skill again. While Jun fixes her dress, they get into a conversation about how Rozen Maiden dolls are still just dolls in essence despite their lively appearance.

Shinku tells Jun how if her springs is unwound, she'll close her eyes and sleep forever unless someone awakens her. Jun thinks it's nice to be able to sleep and then awaken at a time when no one knows him. But Shinku disagrees. She thinks that it's better to be awake even if it means that they have to fight. This is because they can see many things and have the prospect of seeing 'Father' and ending Alice game. Because of this, Jun wonders what Alice game is all about. Shinku then explains that Alice is a girl that lives inside 'Father'. A fantasy girl that is sublime, pure, and of unrivalled beauty. The Rozen Maiden dolls are created in order to fulfill this idea but no matter how many dolls were created, none of them can are as perfect as 'Alice'. However, apparently winning an Alice game and colleting all Rosa Mystica will allow the dolls to become Alice.

Jun thinks that the story is sad because the dolls are forced to fight like that. Shinku, however, disagrees. She believes that to live is to fight. That night, after everyone else are asleep, Shinku bids goodbye to Jun and then proceeds to disappear through the big mirror in the storage room. Continuing from this point, episode 9 begins with Shinku arriving in Suigintou's world. She, however, quickly realises that she's been tricked by Suigintou. In order to ensure that Shinku has a small amount of power, Suigintou sends a broken doll to stall Shinku in her world while she goes to Jun's room, makes him unconscious, and opens the door to his dream. After she does this, Suigintou returns to her world and begins a spectacular rose-petal filled fight with Shinku. Unfortunately, inside his dream world, Jun begins to relieve his own problematic past.

It seems that Jun used to be the best student in his school but one day he failed an important exam and ever since then has been ridiculed by his peers. Anyway, Jun eventually unable to continue hearing the echoes of his peers' ridicule that his self-confidence begins to shrunk quickly. As a result of this, Shinku's power starts to diminish as well. Suigintou eventually manages to beat Shinku and asks her to surrender her Rosa Mystica. Shinku, however, refuses and tells Suigintou that she won't give up her ring to a junk like Suigintou, making Suigintou all the more angry for some reason. Back to Jun, he remembers how at one time he returns home to ask encouragement from Nori but instead he finds her making a phone call to their parent telling them that she can't stand Jun anymore. It looks like this is the source of Jun's anger at Nori.

Meanwhile, Suiseiseki and Souseiseki arrive at Sakurada's house and awakens Nori. They tell her that someone has opened the door to Jun's dream but they can't do anything because they've lost their power. Their only chance to find out what happens now is through Nori since she's Jun's closest relative. Nori agrees to help so Suiseiseki proceeds to knock her out cold. Heh, Evil! This, however, allows Hinaichigo to go into Suigintou's world and finds out what happened to Shinku. Her arrival allows Shinku to jump from Suigintou's world into Jun's world to ensure the safety of Jun's emotional state. At the same time, Suiseiseki, Souseiseki, and Nori manages to get into Jun's world as well and find out that his tree is dying. So Shinku asks Nori to find Jun in this world and help him. The problem is, when Nori finds Jun, he already lost his will to live.

He tells Nori that she should not be worried about him anymore because he soon will disappear and then she can have all the time she needs to do her club activities and be with her friends. He asks Nori to forgive him for not being worthless and for unleashing his anger on her all of these times. Upon hearing this, Nori decides to slap Jun on the face and tells Jun that everyone thinks that he/she are worthless. But that is why people try their best to live happily so they don't lose to their own weaknesses. At the same time, Suigintou manages to defeat Shinku and rips off Shinku's right arm from her body. This incident seems to cause trauma in Shinku but thankfully before Suigintou can finish her off, Jun steps in front of Shinku, trying to protect her. The episode ends with Jun facing off with Suigintou.

Impression:

As usual, these are two awesome episodes. Well, the first half of episode 10 wasn't that interesting to me. However, the second half of that episode is very interesting especially when Shinku gives Nori an advice on how to deal with Jun. I really like how Shinku thinks that children and tea leaves are equally delicate things and that each child/tea leaf will need to be approached differently. There are some children who need direct intervention and there are those who need to be given time and space to deal with their problems on their own. However, what is equally important to know is when to intervene and when to stay back and allow the child to solve his or her own problem. In Jun's case, Nori fails to understand that Jun is the type who needs someone stronger to confront him and pulls him out of his self-pity and anger.

Nori seems to believe that leaving Jun completely alone is better while the fact is, this only makes the problem worse. Thankfully Nori finally decides to confront Jun directly in episode 11. Her slap is exactly what Jun needs to return his sense of awareness of what really happens. This, coupled with the Rozen Maidens' fight makes him realise that to live unfortunately means to fight for your survival. The problem is, sometimes people do lose in their fight for life. It seems that it is now Shinku's turn to experience this unpleasant feeling. I do wonder, however, if this is actually some kind of karmic retributions in some ways. I find the way Shinku repeatedly refers to Suigintou as 'Junk' sound a bit similar to school ground mockery. I wonder if Suigintou becomes what she is now partly because Shinku often insults and disregard Suigintou as a non-important entity.

And while to a certain extent to live is to fight for one's survival, I agree with Jun that the fate of Rozen Maiden dolls is worse than shabby. To dedicate your entire life to fight for something that may not be attainable is not a life worth living. What is an 'Alice' anyway? Where does the concept comes from? At the moment it seems to be nothing more than a delusional idea. I have the impression that 'Father' used to have a real child called Alice and that he considers her so perfect that nothing else can replace her. And that is probably true since for a parent, nothing is more precious that their own child to the point that sometimes they can't see the flaws in their child. So I wonder why 'Father' created Rozen Maiden dolls to begin with? How does fighting one another and collecting the Rosa Mysticas will turn them into Alice? I'm afraid with only one episode left, the series may not be able to answer these questions.

© memento 2003