In the original 'Rozen Maiden' middle school student, Jun Sakurada, finds a strange note which asks 'will you wind? Or 'will you not wind' and he chose to wind
this series shows what would happen in a world where he selected differently. He doesn't meet the Rozen Maiden dolls and grows up to become a college student who works part time in a book shop and is generally disaffected with life. Then one day he finds a box containing a book on making dolls and some of the parts. Gradually he gets more parts and when it is almost complete he is contacted by the younger self who did meet the dolls. He needs to older Jun to finish the doll which turns out to be Shinku. It isn't long before more of the dolls enter his reality and the inevitably conflict ensues.
If you haven't seen the original series this might be a bit hard to follow, even though the first episode is a very abridged version of that story. The story proper gets going in episode two and should please fans of the series who missed the various 'living dolls' Adult Jun is essentially a new character and he is less irritating than his younger self. I liked how his life wasn't perfect in fact it was far from perfect. It wasn't too miserable though and over the course of the series improves as his interaction with the dolls forces him to make choices and exert himself. As the story develops the sense of threat grows and builds to an inevitable confrontation. The end nicely wraps up the story by half way through the last episode then starts introducing a new story arc which will presumably be dealt with in the next season at least I hope it is as I want to find out what happens next. Overall I'd certainly recommend this to fans of the original.
These comments are based on watching the series in Japanese with English subtitles.
If you haven't seen the original series this might be a bit hard to follow, even though the first episode is a very abridged version of that story. The story proper gets going in episode two and should please fans of the series who missed the various 'living dolls' Adult Jun is essentially a new character and he is less irritating than his younger self. I liked how his life wasn't perfect in fact it was far from perfect. It wasn't too miserable though and over the course of the series improves as his interaction with the dolls forces him to make choices and exert himself. As the story develops the sense of threat grows and builds to an inevitable confrontation. The end nicely wraps up the story by half way through the last episode then starts introducing a new story arc which will presumably be dealt with in the next season at least I hope it is as I want to find out what happens next. Overall I'd certainly recommend this to fans of the original.
These comments are based on watching the series in Japanese with English subtitles.
