Rozen Maiden Zurückspulen - Episode 4 Discussion / Poll
 

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I believe we can officially say this adaptation is great.

Shinku's yellow/gold eyebrows were seriously freaking me out at the start of the episode. Good thing they went back to normal after she woke up. Why did they tho? I don't recall if that was ever a point in the mango. Maybe it's a coloring mistake and it gets fixed for BD. Speaking of Shinku's awakening, I thought it was far more effective and magical here than the stretched out vocal BGM last time.

I'm missing the comedy timing from the first series though. Everything's so serious here despite them using super deformed art. There's so much silence and no quirkiness in the music when it does appear (except for that 1 second before shopping). :/

I was totally expecting https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7pbZidilhw to play after Shinku requested a grand tour of Jun's place.

... then again I remember most reviewers said the first series had no idea what it was doing with its comedy and drama. Maybe it's just me having 'bad taste' for actually liking it.

Other than that, I enjoyed this episode like the 2 before it.

Four episodes in (or technically 3) and we're only at the first part of Tale 4 in the manga?
I wanted to like this episode more (finally Shinku is awake!), but wow, it was dead. This is probably a combination of the pacing and lack of music. It's a stark contrast from Nomad's series for sure. Just to make it clear, I do like slow paced series, but I don't feel it's working here for me.

The pace is slow but I like it. So far I'm liking this series as much as the first one, but for different reasons. This one is more serious but that fits very well with Jun's present situation.

In the first series, Jun's house was very lively with all the dolls and Jun and Nori and it was appropriate to have lots of comedy there. In this series, Jun lives alone and his life sucks and there's only Shinku (so far at least), so it is fitting to have a more serious atmosphere and less comedy.

Also, Saitou-san is super cute here, even more than how I remember her from the manga.

The icing on the cake was the preview. Suigintou, Megu and THAT scene! It is one of my favorite scenes from the first manga. I wondered if it was just me but then I saw Requiem-x's comment and thought "Oh, so somebody else liked it too". That is great. I thought maybe they wouldn't animate it because this is an adaptation of the second manga but I'm soooo pumped for the next episode right now.

Compared to the last playful iteration or adaptation of Rozen Maiden, this series has this very heavy atmosphere, it was pretty depressing. I definitely like this as the main character isn't a bratty kid any more.

This episode... I can only describe it as complete and pure 'love'.

There's so much I love about this show over the previous seasons I can't even begin to describe it. I'm sure that things will take their dramatic turn as they always will, but this buildup is beyond fantastic. Watching Shinku explore was such a pleasure, and seeing this relationship between her and the older Jun is just amazing. He's so much more enjoyable to watch than the younger Jun. Seeing him with Saito in the fabric section was just icing on a cake of pure bliss.

Good Rozen Maiden episodes... I missed you! :T_T:

It was a pleasure seeing Jun and Shinku interact. Shinku hasn't changed one bit. Jun has gotten a lot more cheerful ever since Shinku entered his life, which is nice to see. Too bad these peaceful days are not going to last.

Damn it, Kirakishou is super-creepy. Nice episode.
Hoping for some action soon, though.

Kira likes strawberry does that make her less creepy?

haha started watching it now, I find it hilarious, no matter what age or dimension, Jun can't resist peeping under Shinku's dress.

At least this Jun is getting more sociable and interacting with others. Even if others only really includes Shinku and Saitou. Have to say he showed more energy when talking to Saitou about design possibilities than at any other point in the series. Certainly hasn't lost that spark despite being so negative for a long time.

So not including the first episode, one chapter covers an episode. Is there going to be season 2?

Would hope so. This arc ends at Tale 25, I'm not sure they'll even make it to that let alone the arc after it. The manga is currently into it's 60's of Tales and still ongoing.

Mmm, I guess.

In a nutshell, this sums up my own take on the episode.

It was good to spend an episode on Adult!Jun and Shinku becoming acquainted with each other. It's interesting to note the differences (and similarities) between their relationship and the one between Teenage!Jun and Shinku.

And Jun's relationship with Saitou is developing at a nice, steady pace. Many already suspected Saitou of having something to do with Rozen Maiden dolls, and her picking up fabric in this episode seems to lean towards that. OTOH, this episode also makes it known that Rozen Maidens aren't supposed to exist in Adult!Jun's world, so that throws a bit of doubt on such suspicions.

I do like what a big difference "Wind" vs. "Do Not Wind" makes. That adds a real sense of gravitas and intrigue to the whole thing. Kind of like Alice choosing whether or not to go down the rabbit hole, or someone choosing to take the blue pill or the red pill in the Matrix movies.


All of the above being said, I do miss seeing the other Rozen Maidens and Rozen Maiden battles. So I also hope we won't have to wait too much longer for some of that at least.

One other thing - I have to really wonder why they bothered doing the first episode the way they did. Given the careful, meticulous plot development since then, it's not like viewers would have been lost without it. This episode just flatout tells us the most plot relevant aspects of that first episode (i.e. that two of the Rozen Maidens have already been wiped out). Heck, I think a complete newcomer to the Rozen Maiden world would not feel lost jumping in right at Episode 2 and watching on from there. They obviously wouldn't have all the knowledge of a more seasoned viewer and/or manga reader, but there's nothing this show brings to the fore without having it explained/presented well.

This is a good point, actually.

They've spent so much time subtly doing exposition about the previous seasons to fill in the gaps that it makes you wonder why they even bothered doing so in the first place. With that extra episode they easily could have fit in more exposition about the previous seasons, or even done "just the basics" for recap in a more appropriate style for this series, and then left this massive amount of additional recap information to their actual purposes.

With this, I almost wonder if they got in twelve episodes and realized that they didn't even need the thirteenth. Redundancies like this and strange decisions like that recap make you wonder just how many episodes they actually will use. I can't help but think that we'll be seeing more than 13, as is a common expectation from a lot of users.

I agree with almost everything you said, and for a multitude of reasons this is easily my favorite RM to date. But I sure disagree that Shinku hasn't changed "one bit". I found her to be much more subdued, and I would describe her general mood as "fatalistic". It matches the mood of the series perfectly.

Indeed. Shinku is very different from previous seasons. Personally, I think her change in tone is for the worse. I would expect her to be more like season 1 Shinku now than ever before, since she's faced with what is essentially a stranger again. Her voice lacks that tinge of authority I liked. I had hoped that it wouldn't be limited to the recap, but unfortunately it seems to be intentional. That's normal speech, though. When she's exerting authority she certainly does retain that tone. Though, I guess it shouldn't be surprising that she's become a bit nicer in all this time. It's hard to decide on this, but I do miss it.

In the previous ones you don't really get to appreciate the sense of scale for the dolls with all the action and kid Jun. Now that he's an adult, you really get to see and appreciate how small and potentially fragile the dolls are.

But the most apparent is that Jun smiles A LOT more now, heralding back to the time when we saw how much of an effect Shinku and the dolls had on his other self. Meaning, perhaps, it's not too late to decide and to change.