rozen maiden is a supernatural fantasy manga created by peach-pit and published in monthly comic blitz and weekly young jump. an anime adaption was created by studio deen in 2004, and ran until 2006; another anime adaption continuing the story, zuruckspielen, was released in 2013. future plans with the franchise have yet to be revealed. i decided to watch the rozen maiden animes from start to finish in late 2021, and was absolutely hooked ! it's one of my all-time favorite animes, and it's not as talked about anymore as it was in the 2000s which is pretty sad. if there are still any active rozen maiden fans on the web just know that ily
rozen maiden centers on jun sakurada, a young boy who lives with only his sister as company due to their parents' work. due to the traumatic bullying he experienced at school, jun has become a shut-in and makes a living out of ordering "cursed" items off of the internet. one day, he recieves a strange box, and winds it open to find a mysterious doll named shinku, who is sentient. as jun tries to cope with living with shinku and a gradually increasing number of these sentient dolls, the battle to the death staged by their creator, rozen, begins to unfold...
this manga has a LOT of beautiful fashion and character design that i absolutely fell in love with (see: the above banner, which was made for the 20th anniversary exhibition). honestly i would really love to cosplay one of these dolls for halloween one day because of their gorgeous lolita fashion. another plus is the story, which is... pretty damn emotional. it deals with themes like abandonment, grief, and conflict in ways that are equally intriguing and heartbreaking. (do NOT watch the hinaichigo [REDACTED] episode worst mistake of my life) however, there are plenty of lighthearted and silly antics with the dolls that balance out the darkness, with the "war" in jun's home being my personal favorite.
overall, i really enjoyed this anime, and if you liked stuff like madoka magica or cardcaptor sakura, it's definitely worth a watch ! you can stream it on either amazon prime video or hidive. there are also plenty of figurines and other kinds of merch in japan you can purchase to support the franchise, including some of good smile company's signature small nendoroids.
