Rozen Maiden

Dollfie Dream. Azone. Parabox. If you know exactly what I'm talking about, then this anime is definitely for you. Truth is though, there's something for everyone in Rozen Maiden. I don't remember a show succeeding at so many different things all at once. And with such class and charm, too. It's a show about ball-jointed dolls that come to life thanks to little pieces of a gem called Rosa Mystica. Each doll has a piece of the gem and they battle each other in a competition called Alice Game to collect all the pieces and have a chance to meet their dad, Rozen, the fabled doll maker.

Yet this synopsis barely covers the basics of all the things you'll witness in Rozen Maiden. You have time travel, dimension shifts, hungry little doll ghost, a hikikomori, suicidal girls, a mysterious bunny and everything in between. Of course you also get dolls fighting by waves of rose petals, feathers, watering can and scissors. A lot of sibling rivalry and little dolls drinking tea in tiny tea cups.

The Alice game is not the focus here, however. The heart and soul of this show is the relationship in between the dolls themselves and their relationship with Sakurada Jun, a hikikomori as a kid and a depressed university dropout, bookshop employee as an adult. Jun has a special connection to Shinku, one of the dolls, and watching how their friendship develop is quite interesting and filled with endearing moments.

Now, if you have any actual interest in ball-jointed dolls (Dollfie Dream, Azone and Parabox are bjd brands in case you're still wondering) then you'll get an extra kick out of this show. Every kid out there at least once imaged their toys coming to life. For those who still think about that stuff as an adult, and in fact know a thing or to about dolls, you'll love to watch the quiet moments of this show, like Jun serving Shinku tea, Shinku trying to read the newspaper or dolls silently going back inside their briefcase for a nap. Lots of scenes of Jun cleaning and putting dolls together will certainly strike a cord for you as well.

Then again, that doesn't even begin to cover all the soothing moments we get in between these characters. Shinku and Suingintou's rivalry is another major aspect of the show and it goes from quite serious, tense moments to completely hilarious. There are seven little dolls by the way, all of them sisters, made by the aforementioned Rozen, the doll maker.

This anime manages to tell a story involving so many different things, I'm still amazed everything came out so well. It manages a lot of different tropes, has interesting, endearing and appealing characters and lots of soothing, sad and happy moments. The music is also very, very good. I'll definitely check out the manga and the other anime iterations. I'm really glad I picked this one up.