This is not a review/ there will be Major spoilers.
Ever since I first watched Rozen Maiden in 2007 this series has held a certain
Je ne sais quoi (tr: I don't know).
Initially it was not what I would call a strong favorite as it appeared to be laden with a host of narrative plotholes, problems, and rabbit trails. It was a simplistic, fun show that crashlanded its narrative threads into no closure.) Doomed to be forgotten over the course of a decade.
There's just so much anime out there, why spend an inordinate amount of time on one that failed at being what it's about?
In Rozen Maiden, the main players are pursuing the conceptual Alice, a perfected self or ego. But of course among the 7 contenders there can only be one Alice; that is the Alice game.
If you don't want to spoil the show for whatever reason... run... I'm about to unload most of the show's major reveals.
Sounds simple enough, so we're gonna get Hunger Games and dolls with an amazing transformational change to Shinku... right?... right?... we're not... are we.
No.
With regards to that synopsis the tv show doesn't actually complete the narrative as I might have come to expect it, and three times it drops off the narrative ledge having left the audience and dolls to fend for themselves.
None of this then?
Nope... no glory be it's Alice and she's got a blue light and orbz emanating from her or some exciting development like that... I don't think the Rozen Maiden's do turn into a real girl if they win... or if they're supposed to... the show doesn't seem to care, and at this point neither do I.
this is Alvis from Last Exile by the way.
In fact most of the dolls survive the encounters and so the show ends and Alice hasn't yet been determined, and several characters don't want to fight to the death. And in the second ending Father comes and gives Shinku a Deus Ex Machina restoration and some mumbo jumbo about playing the game differently.
And now I don't remember when or why, but Rozen Maiden went from being a fun series that fell apart to being one of a handful of shows that takes up way more mind-space than most other TV combined. And it deserves something better than a non-ending.
So I will fashion a conjectured ending for the show, although, I like to think the ending was always there; beneath notice because I was seeking something else at first. And while that original expectation would have been more typical. I think we (the audience) may have ended up with something better.
A decade of pondering has kept this show at the back of my mind with what it has to say about the pursuit of a personal ego. This despite my initial frustration at the lack of a clean resolution. You'd think I would have picked up the manga by now... I should. I've practically started writing a pamphlet about the story. But this is an assessment, just based on the show... and if you're a manga fan... you can comment below to assist me onto the right track when I go off-base. Should be interesting to see how far afield I end up going.
Moving along
I think this show was marketed and advertised with a faulty premise.
The whole thing on DVD 1 about an exquisite doll wanting to one day become a normal girl...
That's not this show's modus operandi... It is not!
To wit,
Major spoilers inbound!
The central motif surrounding the instigators of the Alice game is one of personal lack. The villains strive to measure up to the idea of Alice, but come from a place where that ideal seems more distant than it is for the other dolls.
Faced with their own failure to be perfect they reach desperately for the great good and cause major upheaval for the other contenders.
Suigintou is unfinished, she projects her internal fears onto the other Rozen Maidens by attempting to turn them into junk like her on her personal path to perfection. She causes great harm for a cause, her cause. She pushes her pain onto the others and forces them to take part in the game so she can attain her wish to meet Father. Just maybe if she buries the others in piles of cracked porcelain, she'll meet Father, and he'll magically make everything turn out all right for her in the end?
Barasuishou by all measures shouldn't even be a part of this competition, (She's an anime original villain that feels very off in this show... she's a Faker) Barasuishou has no Rosa Mystica; an artificial soul. She's a frightful 8th outsider to the Rozen Maiden conflict, who let herself in by some backdoor shenanigans with help from Laplace's Demon. She drives the dolls back into the game and attains the perfection of Alice, but she loses herself to it. Like god she becomes immutable... nothing is perfect. She loses who she was, and what she had by taking away everyone else. She sheds her corporeal form while desperately clinging to this ego that was hers, having tragically ended everyone else's egos' that were theirs. Her greater tragedy is no longer wanting what she's come to possess. By eliminating and taking the Rozen Maidens into her being she accidentally kills her own Ego... what she had is gone, but the group she eliminated is restored by Father. At this turn in the narrative it appears that attaining Alice is not about one I or Ego dominating the others.
Barasuishou took from the others by force and struggled to use their power. Her pursuit of perfection only bestowed harm and ended with nothing. Barasuishou lost herself to the end goal.
If the Alice game is not a deathmatch; what is the Alice game about?
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And then that was it for a while, other than a heartwarming prequel about a time when Shinku and Suigintou weren't enemies. I love this particular rabbit trail... it lends heft to the prior anger and rivalry between them.
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After a long hiatus for the show we come to Kirakishou; her astral Id cannot take part in the pursuit of perfection without first arresting the form from someone else. So Kirakishou must first cast another out of their form into her eternal nothingness to step out of the n-field and beyond the mirror into reality. She is yet ego-less, unfinished and possibly abandoned by Father. With her unique presence now released One wonders if the Alice game could ever fully play out.
This newer Lovecraftianesque villain named Kirakishou released herself from the 5 second ending of season 2 and her previously unknown madness took form. She presents the truest and deepest state of loneliness lashing out; she has no empathy. She's crazy and hard to like, but as she gets beaten back from victory and loses every inch of ground she's claimed, one cannot help but feel pity for her failure to achieve individuation. Kirakishou wants to be a part of the game, but as she is without a body she cannot be so. She is the forerunner to ego birth and the most terrifying visage of the closed off self. There is no reason in her; she is Freud's Id.
Kirakishou's nonexistent ego proves to be her greatest weakness as the body she possessed wakens to its true owner. A stronger super-ego battles her Id and wins back the body she stole.
Of these three villains, The broken angel Suigintou, the faker Barasuishou, and the Astral tentacled horror Kirakishou, I've always liked Suigintou the best, her character is the most deeply vetted and thoroughly explored. Her relationship with the girl in the bed, Megu, is one of the story's finer paradoxical friendships.
Megu is un-able to have the good life, her life is the hospital room, she's herself imperfect. Her earnest hope in her imperfection is to end it; let go and embrace the shadow.
Suigintou did not get to start life from a better circumstance, her life has been a struggle to find wholeness, she's herself imperfect, her earnest hope in imperfection is to perfect herself so that she may see Father (god).
Both of them have closed themselves off to the reach of others. Megu sings and ignores everyone, everyone except the one who shares her struggle and pain; the angel of death. And Suigintou has taken it upon herself to be the destroyer, the only ones who could help her are the people she's attempting to end; all for the one she wants desperately to meet, but is Father even there?
Even though Megu and Suigintou strive for the same thing, they're both running in opposition to each other... They weaken each other's resolve, and strengthen each other's will to life. They're the frail fighters who fancy themselves the strongest for their lone wolf status. Megu holds Suigintou back, and Suigintou holds Megu back. They're both on their own precipice helping the other not fall over into the abyss, though heaven help them, they are confounded by the other's view on the matter.
Alone they would each most likely falter and fall.
The characters most desirous to attain their ideal self over the other dolls impart the most harm; to those around them, and to themselves.
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And here I come to the group; the collection of individuals fighting the isolated ones.
Shinku gathers a collection of friendlies around the closed off hikkikomori (solitary one) who invited her into his life (initially he regrets this greatly). He is Jun and we're ignoring him now, because thematically he always gets the neat and tidy conclusion. I'm more interested in the struggle of the id, ego, and super-ego from the dolls' perspectives. The stuff that they're about since I didn't get my magical transformative glowy finale.
This group of helpful dolls is primarily composed of Hina Ichigo, Kanaria, Suiseiseki and Souseiseki. These characters make the story what it is in being acted upon by the plot forces, and by acting against those same narrative forces in favor of their egos. Without these battle royale bit players the central plot would have to work harder to drive its thematic points home, and it would be less fun.
Hina Ichigo is the first bit player introduced to Shinku's group and, for some of the audience, the first hurdle to enjoying the show... her character is best described as the prime mover... when she acts, or is acted upon... narrative gets rolling and she gets steamrolled. Her spontaneity and neediness forcefully kicks the insular Jun out the door to deal with his inner demons while resolving her wants... she can't help Jun on her own, she can only give him the extrinsic push he needs that he cannot intrinsically give himself. This character is usually responsible for my friends not wanting to go any further when I share Rozen Maiden with them.
Hina Ichigo is hugely important to the third season because her Ego gets separated from her Id. Come back friends... look... an amazing thing happens!
Over the long term, I've actually come to enjoy Hina Ichigo's part in the narrative. Without her, events tend to take a turn for the dour fast. She's the cat that tips over the ball of yarn mid thought and keeps everyone busy cleaning up while the plot gets stuck... but it's these times that make Rozen Maiden feel like you're among friends, they're the moments when we get to see who these people truly are... full selves on display, fighting their fate by delaying the outcome of a deathmatch in joyous distractions and malicious trickery.
Souseiseki is a self ascribed leader for the group, she strives with the group, but will give an ear to the lone wolves, she's an arbitrator, but in pursuing what Father 'wants' she loses sight of the meaning behind the ideal and brings harm upon herself and others while perfunctorily going through the motions of obligation to ambition. By voicing 'Father's' will for the dolls she causes the rift between Shinku and Suigintou. She also involves herself in the start of the second major conflagration in which she is subsequently eliminated.
Souseiseki has the thankless job of putting the narrative back on track whenever the others are having fun with abandon or wallowing in self pity. Like a good puritan Souseiseki is all about pulling everyone back into the established group-think business of doing what Father 'wants'. She tends to have a moderating effect upon Suiseiseki, and when they work together they make wiser decisions than either alone.
On the other hand Suiseiseki is the true moral center, the one who embodies all the best and worst aspects of humanity... this one is the character in whom I take the most delight... as she appears to have equally charmed most everyone, being the meme queen of the series. She's her own yin and yang, and in this story she's the healer. But if someone crosses her it will turn out injurious for them. Namely Hina Ichigo and Jun.
Suiseiseki's the happy heathen to Souseiseki's doom and gloom preacher. Prior to Shinku she seems the closest to achieving the ideal Father had in mind in being herself and disliking the Alice Game as the dolls understand it. She doesn't necessarily see that she's on the right path, it's just inherent to her natural tendencies.
Souseiseki and Suiseiseki form a linked pair representing the anima/animus of the Id and with them we see brief frequent microcosms of what the Rozen Maiden's can be when they're united. They sync up and help Jun by gardening him. They prune and water Jun to metaphysically describe the restorative power of the group on the individuals superego after ego death.
Kanaria is the idio---I mean, the ahem, tactical genius. Her character is a clown who presumes to solve problems, but on her own she mostly makes trouble for herself and the group. I wouldn't classify her as anything other than bumbling.
Later on when Kanaria has joined the group proper she turns out to be a formidable ally in the fight against Kirakishou. Her weaknesses can be turned to strength in service to the group. You might say tacticians are at their best when you give them an army. Through the twists and turns of her part in this whole endeavor Kanaria overestimates her own capabilities, but she is also underestimated by her peers.
Introductions complete I now turn back to Shinku.
Shinku is the one who has caused the most lasting damage to the Rozen Maidens. In her own way, by striving for perfection and recoiling from the tragedy of taking a Rosa Mystica, Shinku unveils the pain and sadness of loss inherent in the game and rejects it, Where before she aggressively pursued the determined ideal and caused harm, she now alters course and shuts herself off from the group having concluded that there must be another way to become Alice. With morose abandon she thumbs her nose at the previously accepted group-think the dolls have about Father... their creator; their god. To the other dolls it appears that Shinku has rejected the Father... her pursuit of introspective inaction frustrates them and the overarching synopsis greatly.
Shinku aims the story trajectory off course and takes the battle royale narrative down with her. bye bye Alice... it was gonna be great. 'Was'; being the operative word, because during this transition the kind of show this could be changes into something drastically more open ended. Shinku tries to find a better way and fights for the free will of the dolls against what 'Father' wants. You might say this is where the show goes off script and when the narrative themes get intellectually interesting. If you were hoping for fun and exciting anime hijinks... they're fading... this show is fast becoming a fight for life.
Thanks to Shinku's centrality to the plot, and the horrible things happening around her and because of her Shinku falls into an existential crisis of her own making while helping Jun overcome his problems. Through her crisis the group can exposit what they're doing for Jun, how this struggle for the healthy ego all plays out. The story compounds the characters' problems to make the questions and struggles more visible. Being in the group doesn't prevent Jun and Shinku from experiencing isolation during their ego death, nor does it make things easier for them to work through their questions and struggles... the group can only watch over and moderate the psychological outcome in a manner different from what Shinku and Jun can do by and for themselves,
With help coming from around them Shinku and Jun can get the help that Suigintou and Kirakishou need, and don't yet understand.
For what appears to be a chipper and colorful looking battle show Rozen Maiden often descends into tragedy and anguish with a heavy heart.
In contrast to the forceful taking of Rosa Mystica by the lone wolves and their ensuing struggle to contain it, the noble sacrifice of individuals within the group bonds the ones who come together fighting for the same cause. The dolls who are willing to cast away ambition for and with each other invariably grow stronger, and succeed, and revive.
A perfect ending closes a book, but a non-ending opens a gateway to reflect farther into the thought. it's through the imperfections that I've pursued other insights and modes of thought because my mind likes Rozen Maiden; it is a work deserving notice. I no longer believe that a straightforward ending with Shinku glowing blue and turning into Alice would suit Rozen Maiden, for it's in the characters' imperfections that I find the story's joy. If it's all a lead up to a final struggle to be Alice some part of the whole would be lost, the show becomes less as its members are reduced to the last doll standing.
The mastery inherent to Rozen Maiden's narrative is that it finds its meaning in the cracks, the anxieties, the fears, and the hopes. If we fill it out to make it work properly like a plot should... it loses its peculiar charm. Rozen Maiden's ending is about imperfect characters striving for their own perfection and ultimately having to make their own meaning in the failed endeavor, in this context the show's imperfect ending supports the theme better than any one of them attaining Alice in all her glowing blueness ever could.
But I'd like to take it deeper than that just for a moment.
The story is about the dolls' struggles for a better self, the dolls can go at it like lone wolves, or carry each other across the finish line. But paradoxically by working together and not pursuing the singular outcome the dolls may never become Alice, together they can only pursue it. The road to a better self in the group is not one that has completion. Alice is not something to be attained. It's something to aspire to. And each of the dolls aspires to be Alice from the place where they are, in their own way, for their own reasons. Together on the journey, they perfect each other. And there is no finish line.
When Father meets Shinku at the end of season 2 and tells her there's another way to play the Alice game, this ongoing journey is the construction I finally imagined he was aiming her toward. The fact that I wrote myself into Jun's narrative backward and essentially replicated it makes me suppose it was always there to begin with.
At its core; Rozen Maiden is a story about eccentrics all fighting alone and discovering their need for each other. In its imperfections I've followed it off the expected path to derive a more extensive meaning than its premise may suppose. Through Shinku and Jun's struggles we can find a cosmology of the self and its place in a more perfect unity with other selves.
It is a work that pits the individual against the community and chooses the community... a work that loves all the players in it, even the bad ones, so that we root for them all to find their way.
The plot is just a taxi transporting a cast of characters, and when it has delivered its cast to the premise some of those members take it upon themselves to dispense with the grim formalities in pursuit of a mutual desire for self preservation.
At this point Rozen Maiden is among my favorite shows. It speaks into the intrinsic despair of existential loneliness when there is no helping hand to find, and it was at such a time that I found it and needed it, and enjoyed it, and was annoyed by it. It's a happier Serial Experiments Lain for struggling individuals trying to make sense of the world. As a work built upon the challenges surrounding loneliness it's an esoteric volume that can entertain any viewer not put off by its presentation, but it specifically aims to walk with the injured mind during
the dark night of the soul
Alice is in all the dolls, and when they fully integrate as a group for a common cause... their community of 7 is Alice, perfect, whole, lacking nothing. In this way, the dolls' story is a metaphysical mirror for the lost Jun, calling him to the door, to go out and reintegrate with
society (the metaphysical Alice) that he may be reunited with the whole.
I think ultimately, that's why Rozen Maiden's held my fascination, even though it first frustrated me with its non-endings. Rozen Maiden presents all the pieces necessary to codify a meaningful metaphysical conclusion.
And now I'm waiting to find out if the dolls and Jun can save Kirakishou, because if there's anything we know about Jun; he has the masters hands. I think universal salvation for Alice (the 7 dolls) will be the conclusion of the Alice game. And who knows; maybe they'll turn into real people, then again, I don't think it has to go that way.
