Recap: Souseiseki bargains for Suiseiseki’s life in an attempt to return the world to normal.

Zigg’s Thoughts: This one was a weird episode – it’s actually pretty decent if you take everything you’re told at face value. I think what I enjoyed most about this episode is that it focuses on some strong character dynamics. The whole Souseiseki/Suiseiseki thing has been much lampooned but it’s nice to see characters who are so devoted to each other in a genuinely caring way. Throwing Suigintou into that mix is the perfect foil as the first doll finally starts to display a genuine cruel streak, giving her character back some much needed bite. Deranged Kirakishou is also nicely creepy, helped along by soe good visual work, and he increasing desperation plays off nicely against Jun’s fledgling confidence.

On the other hand, if you do stop and question pretty much anything, the entire plot begins to fall apart. Why is this gigantic clock hanging out in the N-Field? Why did stopping it stop time? Why will starting it start time again, and separate the two worlds to boot? Why is it only Suiseiseki and Souseiseki can start it? What on earth is up with Kirakishou?

The last one is particularly pertinent, as it’s both baffling and effectively complete neuters any ambitions this had to be a grand finale. Yes, no doubt the loss of her body hurt Kirakishou badly, and portraying the character as wounded makes sense. But she existed in the N-Field before she ever had a body, shouldn’t she theoretically be more powerful here? Instead, she seems utterly crushed and while there’s some decent creep factor in her deranged state her obsession with Jun doesn’t make much sense. Yes, he constructed her body, but he was more a tool of her ambition than an actual important figure, and her desire to have him as a master seemed very driven by her dominance. Now she’s pathetically begging for him, and the fact she self-destructs just because he said ‘No’ pretty much kills her credibility as a vilaain. Poor end to an intriguing character.

The episode tries to end on a big dramatic flourish, but since we’ve already seen that the Rozen Maidens can pretty much body hop at will it’s sort of underwhelming. i get the feeling this was meant to be the big action climax before we get the emotional finale next week. As it is, it’s a decent episode but one riddled with plot holes which brought my enjoyment of it down considerably.

Random Observations

• Shinku’s head remaining while the rest of her body shatters is unintentionally hilarious.
• The super-deformed comedy bits still feel incredibly out of place, given the overall morose tone of the show.
• The art is still kind of all over the place, but i will say the more abstract backgrounds of the dream world suit the style more than the rotoscoped ‘real world’ bits