Rozen Maiden DVD 1

Rozen Maiden DVD 1: Doll House Limited Edition with box
Original Concept by PEACH-PIT
Geneon, 13+

"This is the story of one young boy who couldn't get along with his classmates and decided to drop out and never return...
This is the story of an exquisite doll who wished to one day become a normal human girl...
This is the story of one young boy and an exquisite doll and their adventures as they strive to help each other in overcoming their fears and the very real dangers of the Alice Game. However, in order to do that, they must overcome their distrust of each other."

Story
Jun is a hikikomori. He buys weird cursed and voodoo items online, and then when they arrive he mails them back before the grace period ends. One day, he receives a card asking To wind or not to wind. He circles to wind, figuring that it can't hurt him. Slipping it in his desk drawer, he goes to bed, only the next day to find a case containing a delicate doll that looks like a human girl...

And so starts Rozen Maiden. Many say it's similar in concept to Highlander, but I've never seen any of those movies/series so I can't really comment. Shinku, the doll that Jun finds, commands him to be her servant and protect her Rosa Mystica. The dolls play the Alice Game, in which the last doll surviving becomes the next Alice. 3/5 It's a unique idea, but it needs to be expanded on more and we need to learn more about the Alice Game.

Characters
In this volume, we meet Shinku, the 5th Rozen Maiden Doll, Hinaichigo, the 6th doll, and Suiseiseki, the 3rd doll. Shinku is very commanding of Jun, Hinaichigo is like that annoying little cousin who wants to play with you, and Suiseiseki is a timid, shy girl who is still warming up to Jun. We also meet Nori, Jun's over concerned sister.

Thoughts: Jun is portrayed more childish in the dub than in the sub. He says things like "This is going to be the bestests!" and acts very immature. Shinku is a very demanding little doll, and relies on Jun to move from room to room because of her lack of height to reach doorhandles. Hinaichigo is childish, and needs more attention. Suiseiseki is very, very timid, and needs to come out of her shell. Nori seems like she's there for comic relief sometimes, acting like a grown up. Their personalities are portrayed well in this volume, but they've still got room for growth. 4/5

Episodes
The first episode is just to introduce Shinku and how she came to be Jun's doll. The second episode is meeting Hinaichigo, and her becoming part of Jun's household. The third episode introduce Suigintou, but she is only on-screen for about 5 minutes. The forth, and final episode on this disc introduce Suiseiseki, who enters Jun's dream world.

Out of those four episodes, the 2nd and 4th shined the most. In the second, we see inside what's called the N-Field, where Hinaichigo has taken residence for a short time to battle Shinku. It's very bright and colorful, and the battle is animated greatly. It's very smooth and isn't stiff. The fourth episode is where we enter Jun's dream world, which is full of school items, ranging from study guides to flowers that talk and behave like Jun's classmates would. 5/5 for being interesting and symbolic.

Animation
As aforementioned, the animation is very good. Bright colors, and a nice rendering of the doll's antique looking clothing. The human characters are somewhat less detailed from the dolls, and sometimes look messy. But that's okay, because the one-and-a-half fight scenes we have make up for it. It's smooth, and isn't choppy. 4/5

Presentation
The DVD has nice packaging, with a reversible cover and a clear package. This particular DVD came in the limited edition box, which the rest of the series can be stored in. The box is red velvet on the outside, with two golden pictures of Shinku and Suigintou on the side of it. The DVD menu is standard Geneon, with a the cover image on the left and the functions on the right.

The dub was done good, other than Jun sounding younger than an 8th grader. It stayed very close to the JP script, some things were just phrased differently. 4/5 EP's 1-3 were watched in English, with EP 4 in JP to hear "Desu."

Extras, Opening and Closing
For extras, we have the creditless OP and ED, along with translated credits. We also have trailers.

The OP is performed by Ali Project, Kinjirareta Asobi, and is a nice song. The ED, Tomei Shelter, performed by refio + Haruka Shimotsuki, is a relaxing song that fits the mood of Rozen Maiden. It's a bit on the slow side, but it'd defiantly MP3 player worthy. 5/5

Overall
This DVD gets a 4.2, or an A-. It's a good, solid start to the series, but there's still more story to explore and character personalities to be fleshed out.

Original post here.