Recap: Shinku arrives in Jun’s apartment and immediately sets about shaking things up.

Zigg’s Thoughts: Rozen Maiden continues to improve week on week and this was a big step forward, with Shinku’s arrival finally settling us back in with our co-protagonist and making the show feel a little more like its old self. Having said that, it’s interesting how the show chooses to present her arrival and subsequent bossiness. In keeping with the general pattern of the new show compared to the old, there’s a sad, melancholy air to proceedings. Shinku wandering around Jun’s empty apartment, set to a some lovely organ music, evokes a sense of loneliness and unfamiliarity. For those of us who saw the original it’s difficult not to contrast the bright, noisy, bustling Sakurada household with this dark, lonely existence, and Shinku herself seems much more brooding and less fiery than before. There’s also some nice character interaction between the two – Jun buying Shinku a cake is an adorable touch and their banter over the teapot is nicely done.

The other aspect which really intrigued me in this episode was Shinku’s brief but intriguing diversion into one of the most confusing aspects of the ‘new’ Rozen Maiden mythology, which is the multiversal idea. The idea that Shinku can body-hop like some sort of homunculus is cool in a creepy sort of way, but her explanation to Jun as to why there are no Rozen Maidens in this world is confusing. Is Jun some sort of universal lynchpin around which the existence of the dolls revolves? If the universes only diverge at the point he made his choice, how can there be more than two? I’m sure more will be revealed about this when the existences inevitably cross over, but for now it’s interesting to ponder.

Shinku’s description of her body as a ‘lifeboat’ and the ominous ending give us a nicely foreboding tone and if there’s a complaint I have it’s that the brief comedy breaks into cartoony art really don’t have a place in the show. The art continues to be dull and muddy, which helps some sequences (Shinku’s loneliness) and hinder others (the shopping trip for example). Speaking of the shopping trip, it’s good to see Jun come out of his shell a bit and strike up some actual conversation with Saito, and Shinku’s nicely knowing remark about their relationship was a good riposte. As we start to establish some ground rules for this new universe, the show is picking up pace, and I look forward to seeing where it takes us.

Random Observations

• Nice callback – Shinku prefers dogs to cats
• The rippling mirror is a good bit of foreshadowing for anyone who’s familiar with the series.
• The decision to divorce this entirely from previous anime continuity continues to be pretty baffling to me. It’s difficult because the  situation is close enough (the same people are dead for example) that I sometimes forget none of the things that happened in Träumend actually occurred in the past of this story.
• Shinku mentions Hinaichigo and Souseiseki are dead and that Suiseiseki and Suigintou are trapped in the N-Field, but doesn’t mention Kanaria at all. How odd.