Sakurada Jun is a boy with a trauma in his past and a strange hobby: He collects supposedly cursed items in the hope that one of them will actually turn out to be cursed. One day, he receives a letter which simply says, "Will you wind? Yes / No". Responding in the affirmative, he sticks the letter in his desk drawer and thinks nothing more of it until an ornate case arrives with a beautiful clockwork doll inside. True to his word, Jun does wind, which causes the doll to become animated.Shinku, the doll, immediately sets about correcting Jun's mannerisms, trying to convert him into her servant by default — an attempt cut short by the appearance of a stuffed clown with a pair of menacing-looking knives. Jun, fearing for his life, agrees to become Shinku's medium (her supply of power so that she can fight), and is drawn from there into the strange world of the Rozen Maiden dolls and the Alice game.The series continued into a second season, called Rozen Maiden: Träumend. Season one's Big Bad, Suigintou, is supplanted by a new doll named Barasuishou, and it seems as if the mysterious Rozen, father of the Rozen Maiden, has finally appeared. The OVA, Rozen Maiden Ouverture, focuses on Suigintou's backstory, and shows that Shinku wasn't as good a sister as she'd like to think.Sadly, it was never finished because of a dispute between the producers and publishers of the manga. The anime Overtook the Manga and went to its own conclusion while the manga went on hiatus for months until it was finally Cut Short with a Deus ex Machina (and an apology for doing so).A new manga series is currently being published under the name Rozen Maiden Tale. It's a For Want of a Nail story starring a much older Jun Sakurada, which follows what would have happened if Jun had responded "do not wind" to the initial letter, and crosses over with the original universe. After a few chapters, the story then shifts back to the original Jun via a bridge-arc and the plot resumes where the original Manga ended, making Tales, despite what it initially looked like, an actual continuation instead of an Alternate Universe spin-off.
This series provides examples of:
Alice Allusion: The Alice Game and the general idea of becoming Alice, the perfect girl.
Artificial Human: The Rozen Maiden dolls, even when their joints are showing.
Back from the Dead: Poor Suigintou dies the most Tear Jerker way possible in all three parts of the anime, only to be brought back every time by Rozen (one can only wonder whether this fact decays her self-preservation). In Träumend, all Rozen Maiden got a bit farther than Near Death Experience. Also, the animated normal doll (clown) in one of the scenes that prompted dolls to take Jun more seriously.
Butt Monkey: The boy that keeps trying to ask Nori out. In a series all about having the courage to step forward and try he is the glaring exception that no matter how many times he gathers his courage to ask something always gets in his way; poor boy.
Catch Phrase: Lightly used. Things repeated many times during the series: Shinku's 'Jun, make tea!' and Suigintou's 'I'm NOT junk!'.
Cats are Mean: Shinku does not like cats and thinks they're the enemy of all Rozen Maidens, supposedly because one nearly swallowed the key needed to wind her.
Also subverted, at least in the manga, when Hinaichigo slips out of the house to try mailing a letter. She falls onto a very large, scary-looking cat ... who leads her to the mailbox (was he somehow able to understand what she wanted?) and actually lets her ride him at one point.
Cheerful Child: Hina Ichigo, as well as Suigintou as she appeared in Ouverture.
The Chew Toy: Kanaria, who screws up every time without anyone noticing.
Clockwork Creature: Granted, they're magical constructs, but it's still "Will you wind?" and they shut down when clockwork is blocked.
Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Jun was a sulking, thankless pile of rather childish fears and grievances, not whining only because he was too self-absorbed for it. Soon, he shocks dolls by demonstrating talents worthy of a potential apprentice to Rozen, and powers three fighting Rozen Maiden at once without looking pale and swooning, while in all three parts of the anime we see some other mediums - one of whom was obviously more healthy - drained to within a hair's breadth of death by supporting only one.
Distaff Counterpart: Take Gash Bell. Switch demon children for cursed dolls. Switch Spellbook for Rosa Mystica. Switch 'become king' for 'become Alice'. Switch 'teen genius' for 'teen loser'. Notice a pattern yet? Be ready for serious mamodo deja vu, if you plan on watching this. It is Better Than It Sounds, though.
Elegant Gothic Lolita: Character designs; Suigintou is the only one who qualifies as both lolita and fitting the gothic subtype's palette, however. Souseiseki has the colors, but her clothing is more in keeping with the ouji/kodona style .
Escalating War: One of the most amusing episodes in the first season.
Evil Albino: Suigintou, she has all the conditions necessary (white hair, pink eyes, rarely if ever seen during the day, and is the Big Bad in the first season.
Actually averted for Megu. Although her personality is still as heartwarming as you'd expect it to, she's not an orphan, and her father actually shows up once in the manga to talk with her.
Hidden Eyes: Jun's glasses occasionally fog up to create this effect.
Averted with Suiseiseki, who loves her sisters too much to be motivated by her father's love alone. Played straight with Suigintou and Kirakishou however.
Morality Pet: Megu for Suigintou. First, her medium's problem is obviously similar to her own, second, it's someone she can love without any conflict with "Father"s requests - which, in light of Ouverture, may be a part of the trouble.
Musicalis Interruptus: Happens in episode 11 of the first season, during the fight between Shinku and Suigintou.
Names to Know in Anime: Suigintou has two famous voice actresses - one in the audio dramas and one in the anime.
Nobody Poops: The girls are shown eating and drinking copiously, but none of them ever use the bathroom. In fact Shinku at the beginning doesn't even know what a water closet is!
The Ojou: Even though she has no real family, Shinku is every inch an ojou.
The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: Suigintou seems to believe she has sole rights to defeat anyone and everyone, particularly Shinku. She actually dies because of it in Träumend.
Ordinary High School Student: Sakurada Nori (and Jun), who actually are reasonably normal. More so with the reboot manga, where Jun is a much more ordinary university student, while he'd been quite academically gifted in high school.
Pinocchio Syndrome: The dolls want to become "Alice", the perfect girl, however, they seem to want to do it more to please Rozen than for the sake of being human.
Red Pill, Blue Pill: The plot kicks off by asking Jun whether or not he wants to wind Shinku up. In the Continuity Reboot manga above, he took the Blue Pill It is revealed to be and Alternate Universe. The main universe characters try to get support from the Jun that did not wound and thus drag the war in his reality.
Sibling Yin-Yang: Souseiseki is calm, collected, thoughtful and doesn't overuse her Verbal Tic; Suiseiseki is loud, naughty, haughty and overuse her Verbal Tic.
In the manga and Ouverture it's rather obvious that Souseiseki is violent and aggressive and Suiseiseki is timid and avoidant.
Träumend too, where Souseiseki goes so far as to threaten to cut down Suiseiseki if she got in the way of the game when Suiseiseki is trying to convince her not to participate.
Slap-Slap-Kiss: Mix of abuse and affection in relationships between some dolls and their mediums. Also, see the first OP translation here .
Start of Darkness: Rozen Maiden: Ouverture, which details Suigintou's past.
Suck My Rose: Kirakishou has one growing out of one of her eye sockets; Barasuishou has a rose eyepatch much like it.
Tall, Dark and Bishoujo: For the standard of Rozen Maiden character height, Suigintou kinda counts, except she's white-haired. But the rest of her outfit is DARK.
Ted Baxter: Kanaria constantly refers to herself as the smartest of all the Rozen Maidens...a shame none of her plans ever actually work. Perhaps because she's only slightly more mature than Hinaichigo.
Verbal Tic: Every last one of the Maidens, though it's more prevelant in the original Japanese then the dubbed version. The "desu!" tic of Suiseiseki is totally nonpresent in the dubbed anime, for example, while the characters trying to figure out what Hinaichigo's "unyuu" actually is forms the plot point of an early episode.
Well Done Son Guy: Basically the motivation for every doll except Suiseiseki, who loves her sisters more than her father.
What Do You Mean, It's Not Awesome?: Episode 5 of Träumend is full of these moments. A couple examples are when Kanaria holds a gun up to Suiseiseki's face and it turns out to be a water gun, and when Hina Ichigo tries to put her letter to Jun in the mailbox complete with Slow Motion Fall.
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