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ファイト／ステイナイト 
February 3, 2005 | 
28 Comments
That was awesome. Okay, so there are many mysteries that the series never got to address but I'm quite happy with the resolution that the series offers in this episode. In fact, I think I've been really happy with the series overall. I don't think it strikes too many wrong notes except probably some weird moments in episode 10. I also think that the series has one of those rare Anime OST that I won't hesitate to purchase right away because I love the majority of the songs in it. I think the composer, Mitsumune Shinkichi, has came up with some of the best BGM I've ever had the pleasure to hear. I even like the OP song by the 'Wailing Siren' (TM Ender) :P.
With that in mind, here are some of my favourite song/BGM from this show (not necessarily in this order). I'm interested to know if some of you like some of these or other songs in the series:
Shukuteki - Awesome BGM that appears at the start of episode 12.
Battle of the Rose - This is Shinku's battle BGM. It appears when she comes out to fight one of the dolls, especially Suigintou.
Kinjirareta Asobi (full version) - Ha ha, yes, the wailing banshee's song. But I think the series won't be as good without this song.
Atatakana Kokoro - a soft BGM that usually appears when Shinku tries to give advice to Jun.
Awai Omoide - A rather sad BGM that accompanies many of the sad moments in the series.
Bara no Jubai - I think this is one of the Alice Game BGMs. It always appear whenever Alice Game is mentioned or when two dolls are engaged in fights because of the game.
And while we're at it, let me know how do you rank your favourite Rozen Maiden characters. My preference can be seen below. I'm actually quite surprised with this myself since I never expected number 1 and 3 to be filled by those characters until this episode.
Suiseiseki - Yes, the evil witch gets the Ichi-ban position. I think she's the best thing on this show, even eclipsing Shinku. *ducks from bricks thrown by Shinku's fans*
Shinku - Another awesome doll from this series. I like her upper-class act especially when she bosses Jun around.
Suigintou - She rocketed to my top three list after this episode for reason that is obvious to those who have seen the episode.
Jun - Yes, he was an annoying brat but he's got a reason for it. Plus he makes a progress every episode so that has to be commended.
Souseiseki - I don't actually like her that much but I like that humongous scissors weapon of hers.
Hinaichigo - Unfortunately, I find her to be rather annoying and useless until this episode so amongst other main characters, she is at the bottom of the list.
Anyway, the official site has something similar, voted by Japanese viewers. Here are the results
This episode itself cuts straight to the chase and begins with a rousing fight between Jun and the other Rozen Maiden vs. Suigintou, accompanied by a fitting BGM called Shukuteki. Suigintou begins by attacking Jun and Shinku but Jun manages to create a barrier to protect himself and Shinku without anyone's help. Because Suigintou uses her full power to attack Jun, Suiseiseki and Souseiseki manage to take over their artificial soul back and consequently get their power back. They then tell Jun to run away with Shinku while the twins and Hinaichigo will deal with Suigintou. Upon hearing this, Jun takes Shinku with him and runs into a toy house. Shinku, however, is extremely disturbed after losing her right hand. She cries and tells Jun that she now has become a junk because she has lost a precious thing that 'Father' has given to her.
Shinku believes that she's now an imperfect doll, worthless to anyone. Because of this Jun tells her that no one is perfect but Shinku tells him that humans and Rozen Maiden dolls are different. She has the chance to become Alice, a pure being but now she's just nothing. However, after Jun tells her that no matter what happens, Shinku will always be important to him, Shinku calms down a bit. Jun then asks her to stay in the house while he goes to fetch Shinku's hand. Once Jun left, Shinku tries to get out of the house and realises that Jun's dream world has now transformed from dry, black and white world into a colourful world that reflects the changes in Jun's heart. Meanwhile, the other Rozen Maiden dolls are still trying their best to defeat Suigintou but they clearly are not on Suigintou's level even when they work together trying to defeat her.
At the same time, Jun finally finds the whereabouts of Shinku's right arm but when he tries to cross a river, he begins to relieve his traumatic high school experiences again. Suigintou then appears and tells her that the river is full of painful memories that can swallow Jun up. Jun, however, remembers Shinku and manages to shake away the traumatic experience. Angered by the unexpected development, Suigintou tries to envelope Jun using her feathers. But once again Jun's desire to protect Shinku creates a barrier that destroys Suigintou's power. Suigintou is completely shocked now to see a mere human manages to destroy her spell but Shinku then appears and tells her that this is Jun's dream world. If he really wants to, he can achieve anything he wants in it. True enough, Jun eventually manages to cross the river and grabs Shinku's arm.
All of a sudden Jun's Rosa Mystica reacts and produces a golden thread out of it. The thread then connects Shinku's arm to her body, making her perfect again. This surprises both Shinku and Suigintou because apparently apart from 'Father' only a 'Maestro' can reattach the hand of a Rozen Maiden. But neither dolls bother to think about this because they are now engaged in a deadly duel with one another. Eventually, however, Shinku manages to knock Suigintou down to the ground. Angered by her lost, Suigintou tries a last attempt to burn Shinku and Jun with some kind of a flame. Unfortunately, Jun's desire to protect Shinku proves to be too strong for Suigintou and the fire ends up burning her instead. The fire quickly reveals that Suigintou does not have a complete body unlike the other dolls. Suigintou immediately cries as her secret is revealed.
Shinku explains how when 'Father' designed Suigintou, he discarded her design halfway through completion, resulting in an incomplete body. However, even though she's treated like a junk, Suigintou truly loves 'Father' and wants to meet him again. So she somehow manages to move herself even without a medium and with an incomplete body. As poor Suigintou's body is burned down, she cries and asks why 'Father' never completed her even though she loves him so much. Shinku cries and tells Jun that of all the Rozen Maiden dolls, Suigintou is probably the one who truly loves 'Father' but as a result, she has an ambition to destroy other dolls to prove to him that she's better. Meanwhile at another place, Nori and the other dolls are looking at Jun's tree, which now has grown a bit but still is quite short. So the twins want to help the tree to grow better.
Nori, however, asks Souseiseki and Suiseiseki to not help the tree. She wants the tree to get rid of 'its surrounding grass' with its own power. Back to Shinku, she's in the middle of showing Jun how the dream world is a reflection of his current heart and encourages him to grow more as a person. Shinku then disappears into nothingness after bidding goodbye to Jun so he wakes up in his room without the Rosa Mystica in his finger. The whole experience, however, has changed Jun for the better. He's not afraid of the outside world anymore and seems to have made amends with himself and Nori. When he returns from his walk, he finds the dolls in his room again, much to his surprise. It turns out they simply used too much of his power and almost disappeared. But since Jun has grown up as a human being, the power returns, allowing the dolls to return to his side.
Impression:
This is a very good final episode for the series. I'm glad the series ends with a 'life goes on' note just like other anime that ends first before the manga was completed. This opens a possibility for, hopefully, a second season. But I'm not going to hold my breath for it since a popular anime like Fruits Basket itself never gets a second season so far. It's unfortunate that there are so many mysteries that we'll never get to know unless we read the manga though. Actually now that I think about it, this episode is rather similar to a chapter in Vol.3 of the manga where Jun and Suiseiseki has to save Shinku's right hand. I wish I had bought the manga when I saw it at the bookstore. But I thought the story was going to be similar. But IIRC, Suigintou was not the cause of this problem in the manga. So I guess the anime did take a lot of liberty here.
Never the less, I think it's incredible that the anime manages to make me sympathise a lot with Suigintou especially since I actually never cared much for her before. But in this episode, I can't help but feeling sorry for her. Yes, she was evil but at the same time, she got an unbelievably cruel fate and punishment. To feel inferior your whole life is the worst feeling anyone can have. Never the less, Suigintou tries her best to ignore the fact that she's inferior and incomplete so that she can be like the others. This perseverance alone deserves to be commended. It's unfortunate that in an attempt to prove her worth, she becomes bitter with her fate and tries to destroy the other dolls. I wish the series will give her another chance because as evil as she was, I don't think she really deserves to be burnt down like that. I actually thought that Jun was going to reconstruct her. Alas, that's not the case here.
I think the real villain of the story is actually 'Father'. It's disturbing how he never bothered to complete Suigintou. It feels as if he wants Suigintou to feel envious of the other dolls. Then there is the part where he made the other dolls battle each other in order to become Alice. It's therefore unfortunate that this is the end of the episode because at the end of the day, we still don't know how collecting Rosa Mystica will turn the dolls into Alices. Then there is the concept of 'Maestro' that this episode introduced. Jun seems to posses this particular quality but again the reason is not particularly clear. I can only guess that he cares so much about Shinku that the bond between the two gives Jun the power to be more than just a living breathing battery. Anyway, I'm sad that this is the end of the series but this is definitely a keeper. I'm glad I decided to purchase that LE DVD even though I bought it simply on a whim without knowing the ending.
I like the ranking results! I thought the funniest part of the ending was how Jun had a tan line after such a short time with the ring. He goes outside like.... four times in the series?
Wait, that's not a tan line... JUN GO WASH YOURSELF!!!!!!!
I was amazed when I watched the first episode of Rozen back when it first started; I thought of it as a mere throwaway show that I'd just 'check' out. However, somehow it wrangled it's way to the top of my heap.
I've been absolutely slavering over the OST for a while now.
Bara no Jubai (a precursor battle BGM) is one of my favorites. I was absolutely in love with it in episode 6 or 7 during the first Sugintou "Game."
Battle of the Rose I like as well but Bara no Jubai's crescending constant drive just really fires me up :) I'm partial to Alice game for the same reason almost, the initial building and steadily increasing registers.
I really like Kurayami Yori Kitaru Mono as well: great suspenseful feel and nice violin overlay. Koduku no Kokoro always affected me more as one of the "soft, sadder" songs than Awai for some reason. I also crave Bright Red's strumming refrain.
Gah! I have to admit this is one of the few OSTs I've listened to where I can absolutely am amazed by the expressiveness of each BGM. The array of serious to silly mood evoking songs is incredible. (Tantei Kun kun!) And yes, I even like the wailing banshee OP :p
LOL, Kabitzin and later on, eww when I realised that you're probably right about Jun never taking a bath.
Vireyda, I can't believe I forgot about Kodoku no Kokoro. I agree that's a very pleasant sad theme (it started out as Tomoe/Hinaichigo theme, isn't it?)
And Yay! to Wailing Banshee!! I demand more of them maybe on Tsubasa anime? :P
Rozen Maiden ends pretty well in my view. It's my current favorite anime that started to air in 2004. Well that I completed. I have other animes I like, but as I see more episodes they can can easily go downhill as they can go uphill.
I happen to like all the dolls over. I have yet to decide on a favorite doll through, but ah well. I kind of wish Souseiseki got some more screentime so we could have seen more of what she was like. She appears rather late if ask me.
The poll at the Rozen Maiden site almost mirrors my own personal list of favorite Rozen Maiden dolls in descending order. (I'd have switched Hina Ichigo with Sousei seki because that "brat turned into a sweet little girl. I have girls in my family like her, so I can't help but forgive her excesses.
However, Shinku is triumphant!
As it should be...
Yes, that evil little ningyo, Suisei seki did finally grow on me after the silly and exceptionally funny episode Die Treppe" (number 5). She did a little more after the Shirayuki-hime rehearsal.
However her stints of making sure to smash through Jun's bedroom window, even if the other window was open, was just country mean - and wonderful.
No other doll came close, except Suigin Tou. And that was because, at end of the series, you finally realized what drove her to do the things she did.
If they would have brought up Suigin Tou's incomplete body, and her twisted reasons for being the way she was, what a new spin that would have put on the whole series. Well...they only had 12 (I thought we were getting 13?) episodes to work with.
As for Father, he reminds of some ancient patriarchal war-god, He gives no explanations for his sometimes cruel and unusual decisions. Nor does he apologize for what he puts his "children" through. We just hope in the end that Father knows what he's doing.
To live is to fight....
I said everything I needed to say about the series as a whole in a previous thread so I won't repeat it here. I know they'll never license the anime stateside but I'll still have the manga...whenever they ship them to me of course.
I am a bit curious about something now that the series seems to have ended. The times I have visited this site and checked out the info posted for the Rozen Maiden episodes I have not seen any links or comments regarding the Ending Theme of the series. It seems that most people were more into the opening theme. A friend of mine got the episodes from me and he told me that he usually skips to the next episode before the ending theme even starts. After I let him listen to the ending theme he added it to his favorites. To get to the point, do you all not like the ending theme, or maybe out of habit from anticipation to see the next episode you also skip the ending theme? Because I was hoping to get the lyrics for it but my ears can not hear the japanese words well to get them myself. I first got into watching this series because of the ending theme, I was at another site where I downloaded Toumei Shelter(Tomei Shelter I have seen on other sites) when I first listened to this song, I couldn't stop listening to it. Anyway if anyone could possibly be of assistance in getting the lyrics for the whole song I would appreciate it. If you need to download it post a comment and I will check back here and make a location where it can be obtained if need be.
I've been looking for the closing theme for awhile now. I love the ending song my self, but since no one talks about it, I've never brought it up.
The song has a haunting, melancholy quality to it that even if you don't know a word of Japanese, it makes your heart ache just listening to it.
Maiagaru giniro no hane
Kiri no kirada ni furisosogu
Haruka mugen no tsuki e
Eien ni hibiku senritsu
(All that you are, shining star)
I hear that part of the song in my dreams sometimes.
I think that the opening theme gets talked about more because the group who made it is more well known.
The only place I've ever seen the lyrics for the closing theme were at the end of the fan subbed versions of the anime from Ayu and Anime Keep.
Hope this helps.
is it really Rozen who tell them to fight that Alice Game ?
it could be that he just given up his hope of a perfect woman when making Suigintou. Then the rest of the dolls somehow concluded about whoever got all seven Rosa Mystica will become Alice.
although, it's weird if he didn't notice their feeling to him.
i can't remember where the track appears in series ..
but here's my OST favorite tracks ... (not in order)
- Hyoukai
- Kodakai Oka ni Te
- Change
- Atatakana Kokoro
- Kodoku na Kokoro
- Bara no Chikai
- Bara no Jubai
- Shukuteki
- Bright Red
my favourite Rozen Maiden characters.
1. Shinku
2. huh ? ...
is it really Rozen who tell them to fight that Alice Game ?
it could be that he just given up his hope of a perfect woman when making Suigintou. Then the rest of the dolls somehow concluded about whoever got all seven Rosa Mystica will become Alice.
although, it's weird if he didn't notice their feeling to him.
It's possible, though the impression I got was that Rozen died before he could complete the series by finishing Suigintou. Perhaps after he realized that a completely perfect girl was impossible, he concentrated on perfecting various aspects of Alice in his creations, by giving his dolls a wide array of personalities: Shinku (dignity, high class), Hina-Ichigo (youth, cuteness), Suiseiseki (gentleness-- watch her use her watering-can for this one), Souseiseki (fidelity). Perhaps Suigintou was to represent passion or attraction, but because she was incomplete, her personality became warped.
As for Father, he reminds of some ancient patriarchal war-god, He gives no explanations for his sometimes cruel and unusual decisions. Nor does he apologize for what he puts his "children" through. We just hope in the end that Father knows what he's doing.
Maybe he wanted the best doll to win; not in the sense that this doll would defeat all the others in battle (Suigintou's interpretation of the rules), but that the winner would gain all the Rosa Mystica by forging bonds of love and friendship (Shinku's interpretation). It's kind of hard to apologize for difficult but necessary things you'll put (for example) your children through, much less the things you put your creations through-- Rozen was at liberty to destroy them all in despair, yet he permitted them to live on and decide for him who would become Alice. It's also hard to sense a lack of apology when there's no evidence either way (of course, all I have is the anime and the Japanese Wikipedia article)-- he may have felt sorry knowing their fate, he may have apologized to one or more of them before vanishing.
I know, I'm guessing.
Fave characters... I dunno, they all grew on me. It's been said before, Souseiseki could have used more time-- her first two episodes were fine for establishment, but one more like episode 5 (in which we really got a sense of Suiseiseki's stubbornness and, well, playful evil) would have given her a lot more depth. If I were going to rank 'em, it would be something like: Shinku, Suiseiseki, Souseiseki, Hina-Ichigo, Suigintou, Tomoe, Jun, Nori, and Kun-kun (going with the characters in the poll).
As for the OST, I hope that the Japanese record companies (at least, those that market the anime OSTs and such) hop onto iTunes next month...
I like Souseiseki better than her sister, although it's hard which one is better, the manga or anime. in the manga she's "deeper", but I like her "otouto-chara" typing in the anime ^^
Rozen was at liberty to destroy them all in despair, yet he permitted them to live on and decide for him who would become Alice.
well... as a professional doll maker, he could sell them as exclusive limited edition spooky talking doll :D
*laugh*
too bad the anime don't have the bunny man, perhaps he's Rozen or at least has closer relationship to him in a way
Firah,
I've gotten that first verse of the ending song, but i'm looking to get the lyrics for the rest of the song which I happen to have. I have uploaded the song to a server at yousendit.com, the link is active for 7 days, but has a limited number of downloads. So if the 7 days pass before you retrieve the file or if the download limit is reached the link will become expired and the file will be removed from that sites server. If you need me to upload it again let me know by sending an e-mail to TheBaker275@hotmail.com. I encourage anyone else who may be interested in this song to send me a message as well so that I can make more links so that more people have access to the song. The original site I found this song at doesn't seem to be working right now otherwise I would give you that address.
My apologies, I lost my train of thought and forgot to add the link in my last message ^^;;
Here it is:
http://s16.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=1QJEI3NN173MW0U9TCK30LW97Q
Received!
Doooomoooo!!!
I'am still looking for the ending song's(Toumei Shelter) lyrics. Anyone have em?
If u ask for the character ranking:
1) Shinku
2) Jun
3) Suiseiseki
4) Suigin tou
5) Hinaichigo
Shinku - Another awesome doll from this series. I like her upper-class act especially when she bosses Jun around.
And one of my fave moments was episode 5 when her cool act was shattered in a panic attack resulting from (an admittedly contrived) rebuke from "Kun-kun". We all knew she had emotions, and she at least wasn't apathetic, but that's probably the first time you ever see her shaken up.
Just finished this series, and absolutely loved the OST as well. This is most definitely the best TV adaptation I've seen in the past two years (being wide screen also helped to impress).
I was a little disappointed in the lack of development of Suigintou though. To be honest, I was drawn to this series first by her pic
sorry, the emote hearts in my last comment for Rozen Maiden Episode 12 seems to have broken your posting code... please remove them if you get a chance to look at it... I somehow missed them when I was previewing the post. sorry for the trouble!
I ignored this series when it first aired... how wrong I was!
After finally watching the entire series, I must say I really appreciated it. This is a very good anime, and the story turned out much more interesting than I expected. I can't wait to watch Traumend now. :-)
Masahiko, although it's unlikely that you'll ever read this, I really like the ending theme too.
Oh, one question for the webmaster: I looked at the archives and saw that you posted some miscellaneous Rozen Maiden goodness here and there (promo pictures, dvd box art etc.). Would it be possible to collect all of the extras for a series in a single page after the series ends?
It takes a while to go through the reviews for each episode, and even then some pictures are missed because they were posted under other topics (eg "happy new year"). And unfortunately, the image directories cannot be listed...
LaC, I put all of the pictures that I've scanned into a single series page.
Is there anything from another page that I haven't list on that page? I'm sorry, this site is rather large now and I can't remember what I have posted previously. Any help will be appreciated. But otherwise, I think I managed to put the majority of the scans on the page I linked above.
Thanks, Garten!
dvdbox02.jpg is missing from that page; I got it from the post where you mentioned buying the DVD box, but I can't remember the title now.
Also, on the series page, there is a broken link to rmaidenop.mov; I'd really like to get that file, since I've never had a chance to see the clean version of the op (fansubs have credits and karaoke).
Finally, I also found merryxmas2004.jpg somewhere on this site, but that's a downscaled version of rozen_promo02.jpg, so it's not necessary to put it in the gallery. However, it's an example of the problem: since it was in a post unrelated to the series, it's easy to lose track of it. Of course, I'm not suggesting that you should avoid putting anime images in the new year's greetings (I love those treats :-) ), but that it would be useful to make a gallery for each series when it ends, to collect material that would otherwise be lost or forgotten as time passes.
Thanks for the great site, and keep up the good work!
anyone got the figurines?
Do any of you know were to find the entire seiries?
More than a year after this was aired and I only watched because of your site so thank you very much. I enjoyed this series a lot and am interested in pursuing the manga which I have not read yet.
Hinaichigo is my favorite because she's a sweetums. Reminds me of my dog Peach.
And I don't get the first episode either. I mean, Shinku says that Jun could remove the ring by pulling/cutting/removing his finger from his hand. I say that's a small price to pay for your freedom. Wonder what she would have done if he'd just gotten a hatchet from the shed and taken off a digit.
:P
I would like you guys to check this site out:
http://www.otadesho.com/rozen-maiden-dollfies/
It's a site with pictures of the Rozen Maiden dolls. The page takes ages to load but it's worth it.
Please check it out and tell me what you think.
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