 | | ▪ | RELEASED BY: | | FUNIMATION ENTERTAINMENT | | | ▪ | ASPECT RATIO: | | 16:9 ANAMORPHIC WIDESCREEN | | | ▪ | AUDIO: | | ENGLISH AND JAPANESE DD 2.0 | | | ▪ | RUNNING TIME: | | 100 MIN | | | ▪ | RATING: | | 13 UP | | | ▪ | RELEASE DATE: | | 12/09/2008 | | | ▪ | REVIEW DATE: | | 12/20/2008 | | | ▪ | REVIEWED BY: | | DAVEY C. JONES |
Get ready for creepy and weepy times in the final volume of Rozen Maiden Traumend! The Alice Game has begun. The dolls must fight each other, taking the Rosa Mystica within each as their own, killing their sister dolls! It’s a harsh set of episodes that are both freakishly unsettling and heart wrenching. Only one doll can be Alice. Can Shinku keep to her vow of pacifism while seeing her sisters taken down one after the other by the evil Bara-Suishou? I confess right away that porcelain dolls creep me out so keep that in mind like a grain of salt during my review. But even if they didn’t give me the heeby jeeby vibes, the whole story would set it off anyway. A master who brings dolls to life cruelly puts them all in a battle where they have to kill each other, effectively stealing their souls all for their master’s approval and sadistic desires…sounds too much like abominable slavery to me. Laplace shows his bunny face, and Bara-Suishou manipulates the torn Suigintou to perfection. By the time the first of the Alice Game begins, at least one doll falls right away and it’s a cruel wake up call all around. The show goes from there, showing how each of the dolls meets their heart rending end. It’s brutal. And that’s a big chunk of the weepy part. But the big surprise is saved for last. In the end Bara-Suishou and father , or so he claims, reveal who they really are and what they were after from the start. Shinku is pushed into a position where she’ll have to choose to go keep to her conviction and not fight, thereby sacrificing herself, or kill a fellow doll. As is the will of her supposed father. That’s disturbing no matter how pretty you color it. Jun has to find the power within him and save at least his one last remaining Rozen Maiden. But Suishou is ruthless and her creator is even scarier! The end is a mix of hope and unsettled threads. It’s not exactly feel good but there’s a little bit of a chance at a happy ending in the future and discoveries yet to come. But the way it ended still left a heavy feeling in my heart. It was sad in a lot of ways, disturbing in others, and a pile of tear jerking scenes to get to viewers.
EXTRAS:
Extras are previews of other anime, reversible cover art, and Japanese original TV commercial.
IN SUMMARY:
The Alice Game begins and comes to a brutal end in the concluding volume! |
