Rozen
Maiden: Zuruckspulen - Complete Collection
(2013/Sentai DVD)
Picture:
C Sound: B- Extras: C- Episodes: B-
Jun
Sakurada one day receives a mysterious letter and suddenly receives
Shinku, a magical living antique doll. It is then he learns Shinku
is part of the Rozen Maidens, 7 life-like dolls created to
compete with each other in the 'Alice Games' for their Rosa Mysticas,
but when he made that choice he set the wheels of fate in motion and
created a parallel world, one future where he choose to turn Shinku's
key and another where he didn't choose to wind Shinku's key. Now,
the future version of Jun (that didn't wind the key) start receiving
messages from the past, asking him to help the Rozen Maidens and
maybe set right his own future.
Rozen
Maiden: Zuruckspulen - Complete Collection (2013) revisits and
remake the original series to some extent. After being traumatized
in his youth, Jun became a social recluse, rejecting the world and
those who would use/abuse him. When he suddenly receives text
messages across space, time and dimensions that a younger version of
himself (the one that accept Shinku) needs his help to save his Rozen
Maidens. He starts receiving parts of dolls to help create Shinku in
his dimension to help battle the 7th Rozen Maiden who has trapped the
10 year old version of himself and most of the other Rozen Maidens in
the N-zone. When he creates Shinku in his dimension he discovers she
treats him like he is 'her' servant and has a spoiled elite girl's
attitude, but through her and her relationships with the other Rozen
Maidens the future Jun starts believe in a single choice maybe can
change the world.
This
anime is about a boy and his relationships with his dolls, it does a
weird time travel/parallel dimension story. The dolls become sorta
symbolic of the main character's feminine side/feelings of caring
(and also the source of his angst) and conflict. Part of the theme
seems to be saying that it is better to love and lost (or in this
case, a boy to be interested in female dolls) than to never loved at
all.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image is soft in a way one can see
why this is not on Blu-ray, consistent as it is, while the lossy
Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo is not bad with some Pro Logic-like
surrounds. Extras include clean opening and closing animations and
trailers.
-
Ricky Chiang
