Friday 27 September 2013

Completed: Rozen Maiden: Zurückspulen


this is also known as Rozen maiden 2013

So... i know little to no german so lets see
Zurückspulen - rolling back, to rewind, wind back.

very fitting.

SO... i have a bit of a love hate relationship with the Rozen maiden series.

i really liked the concept then shortly after Träumend (beingthe german word for dreaming) disk one was release a certain company went out of business and even though these disks were sitting in a wearhouse they couldn't release them.

so i thought why not read the manga cause the anime will be caught in limbo for a while before someone picks it up.

so when the manga 'ended' boy was i annoyed cause not only did i not have much more info but nothing really happened and the ending was like "decide for yourself"
then traumend was picked up by funimation, the disks covers were changed to reflect that but the guts are still purely geneon and again... it just kinda ends...

it annoyed me cause it was just starting to get interestign btu then it felt like they got scared that they would have to commit to something and backed off.

SO... when this one was annoyed i was worried.
is it going to be a retelling?
is it actually going to continue the story?
why are they startign ith winding the key again... we saw this already.

then episode one hit.... it was at a breakneck pace and dolls were dying left and right and i was like "i guess this is the recap for what happened before... but it's a little different... ok... i'm not sure how i feel about this but i'll give it a shot.

then the second episode hit and finally i was intrigued.
we were with the main character as an older guy... and not only that... in an alternate world where he chose to not wind the key.

The good: the art, while at times a little floaty, has this lovely almost watercolour look to it, it works well with the dreamlike fantasy setting. the characters are all introduced pretty much immediately and the scale of the dolls is a lot easy to define.
i found in the old series the dolls felt fairly big but in this it looks just right.
better then the original series cause theres a plot and stuff happens and it happens pretty quick.

the not so good: if you can't stand large doses of moe lolita dolls screaming desu at you  then you won't enjoy this... though that character doesn't show up much till the end

The bad: the ending.
yes it obviously leaving it open for a sequel but you know what? so were the others and that sequel didn't come... this isn't a sequel it's an alternate telling. so i'm just saying until the next one is confirmed and has a release date this ending is much like it's predecessors... and that has me worried cause for once the story felt like it was going somewhere.

so yeah i did like this quite a bit... not my fav show this season (that tear filled review will happen on sunday) but still one of the better ones.

4 comments:

  1. Is the show enjoyable even for someone who doesn't know anything about the series? Because I read several opinions and/or summaries but I'm not sure I understood this point :P

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    Replies
    1. That's a very good question, Personally i feel that it is fairly accessible to those who have not experienced the other anime or manga since it's not really a sequel and more of a side story or alternate telling.
      I think it does a pretty good job of setting up the world in the first two episodes (though the first episode may be a little annoying cause it condenses a lot of info).
      So hopefully that helps!

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  2. It does; I think I'll give it a chance, if nothing else. Thank you :D

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