Manga Adaptation by Studio DEEN
Available on Crunchyroll

Premise: One day lonely shut-in Jun Sakurada receives a mysterious box. Inside is a fabulous living doll who identifies herself as Shinku, fifth doll of the Rozen Maiden.

 Zigg’s Thoughts: Baffling 

I’m on record as being a big fan of the original Rozen Maiden and was super excited for this revival. But this first episode was an absolute train wreck, one which will confuse new fans and old alike. It appears to be a SUPER rapid recap of the entirety of the original manga, which creates some pretty major problems. Firstly, the manga was not exactly the same as the anime (the second season deviated pretty majorly) which means those who have only watched the anime will be disorientated. Second, and much more importantly, there’s simply too much stuff here. Characters are introduced with no buildup and killed with no fanfare and we have no chance to even learn who they are. It’s just a bunch of total strangers spouting babble, and we’re not given much reason to care.

It’s also an ugly show, with terrible background work and a dull, muted colour palette. The dolls themselves still look smart but the animation is cheap and jerky and the occasional stylish touch (the shattering floor was great) can’t make up for that. Really the only thing which saved this episode for me was the preview revealing it’s basically an extended prologue for the new alternate universe tale which begins next week. It’s not an auspicious start though.

Lifesong’s Thoughts: Confusing

I am not sure what I just watched. It looked pretty and I was having fun even though I am a complete noobie with this franchise. I think this is supposed to be a reboot. I am a bit worried they are expecting fans to know what is going on and won’t properly explain things. So far I am okay with how little sense this first episode made, but they need to start filling me in fast or they will lose me in another episode or two.

Jel’s Thoughts: What

This felt like playing story mode in Blazblue. That is all I have to say.

Iro’s Thoughts: Uh…

I guess there are dolls that fight, and then they have like soul power that can be absorbed when they die, or something? I’m not even sure. This episode was pretty confusing.