Line #114 Manga/RozenMaiden


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4	[[quoteright:349:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rozenmaiden_0.png]]
5	[[caption-width-right:349:"You must swear by the Rose Ring... that you will protect my Rosa Mystica."]]
6	%%
7	->''"The Alice Game is about to begin."''
8	-->-- '''Hinaichigo''', towards Shinku
9
10	%% Please refrain from spamming "desu" after every sentence. Memes are funniest in moderation.
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12	Jun Sakurada 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.
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14	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 master (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 [[AliceAllusion Alice Game]].
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16	One of Creator/PeachPit's most famous manga, the series has seen several publications. The manga originally ran in ''Monthly Comic Blitz'' from 2002 to 2007, but a second manga series was published in ''[[Magazine/ShonenJump Weekly Young Jump]]'' in 2008 under the name ''Rozen Maiden'' [[note]]written in katakana this time instead of using the Latin alphabet[[/note]]. It begins as a PointOfDivergence story starring a much older Jun Sakurada, which follows what would have happened if Jun had responded [[RedPillBluePill "do not wind"]] to the initial letter, and crosses over with the original universe. After a few volumes, the older Jun's story finishes, and the two universes separate again, with the story shifting back to the original universe, and the plot resuming where the original manga ended, making the 2008 manga, despite what it initially looked like, an actual continuation instead of an AlternateUniverse spin-off. This time period also introduced several manga that ran through 2012-14, ''Rozen Maiden: Dolls Talk'', in ''Magazine/{{Ribon}}'' and ''Maite wa Ikenai Rozen Maiden'' in ''Miracle Jump''. A collector's edition of the manga was announced in April of 2022 that collects the original and continuation manga, finally bringing the two serializations together under the same name of ''Rozen Maiden''[[note]]rendered in katakana like the continuation manga and subsequent Rozen Maiden media since[[/note]].
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18	A more faithful anime adaption started airing in the summer of 2013, adapting the first arc of the 2008 manga, with Creator/StudioDeen providing the animation instead of Studio NOMAD. This anime was subtitled ''Zurückspulen'' for overseas release [[note]]in the original Japanese market the anime is usually referred to as ''Rozen Maiden (2013)'' as the [[Anime/RozenMaiden original anime]] is also just ''Rozen Maiden''[[/note]].
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20	In December 2015, it was announced that a new manga series would start being published in ''[[Magazine/ShonenJump Ultra Jump]]'' starting early 2016, named ''Rozen Maiden 0''. This manga takes place in the Taisho era of UsefulNotes/ImperialJapan and covers the mystery of the [[FlawedPrototype Zeroth Doll]]. It concluded in March 2019 with a total of 4 volumes.
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22	'''This page covers the original manga, the 2008 StealthSequel, and other related works in the same canon, including Creator/StudioDEEN's anime. For tropes on Studio NOMAD's anime see ''Anime.RozenMaiden''.'''
23
24	----
25	!!This series provides examples of:
26
27	* AliceAllusion: The Alice Game and the general idea of becoming Alice, the perfect girl.
28	* AllMenArePerverts: At first, Nori mistook Shinku for a robotic sex doll.
29	* AlmostKiss: [[spoiler:Between Megu and Tomoe]]. The former was just teasing the latter.
30	* AngryCheekPuff: In episode 5, Hinaichigo ([[TheBabyOfTheBunch the youngest of the dolls]]) gets into a fight with Suiseiseki and later Jun finds her moping in bed with her cheeks puffed and her face red with anger.
31	* ArtificialHuman: The Rozen Maiden dolls, even when their joints are showing.
32	** Another would-be dollmaker shows up in the 2008 manga, but his attempts are firmly in the uncanny valley.
33	* AstroClone: The Rozen Maiden dolls and their relationship towards their creator, Rozen, greatly resembles this. Like Tenma, Rozen lost a child, his daughter Alice, and set about trying to bring her back to life using a doll body. He ultimately lost track of his original goal and when each doll failed to live up to his expectations (of being the perfect girl) he abandoned them. Rozen sees them all as his daughters as do they see him as their father and each other as sisters.
34	* BackFromTheDead: Over the course of the manga, [[spoiler:Souseiseki, Suiseiseki, and Shinku]] each experience this. The ending of the manga takes this further with [[spoiler:all of the dolls, [[HeroicSuicide except Shinku]], coming back from death.]]
35	* BattleInTheCenterOfTheMind: When it's not happening in the real world, fights often happen in the N-Field, which is an alternate reality closely tied to the human psyche.
36	* BecomeARealBoy:
37	** The dolls want to become "Alice", the perfect girl - however, they seem to want to do it more to [[WellDoneSonGuy please Rozen]] than for the sake of being human.
38	** Suiseiseki makes a comment at one point over the concept of mortality and wanting to be a human rather than a doll concerning her time left to exist. She later becomes smitten over the idea of going to school and has an ImagineSpot involving her as a human.
39	* BeethovenWasAnAlienSpy: Several lightnovels introduce a few historical figures as earlier masters of several of the dolls.
40	** In ''Die Zwillinge'', [[spoiler:a man named Rudolph (more accurately, [[UsefulNotes/HolyRomanEmpire Holy Roman Emperor]] Rudolph II) was one of Souseiseki's former masters. He was more interested with the dolls than his empire and loved doing anything that wasn't his duties as emperor. Their contract would unfortunately be cut short after his brother staged a coup for the throne and in his grief, the bond between him and Souseiseki shattered.]]
41	** In ''Rot-Schwarz'', [[spoiler: Alice Liddell is Shinku's master. It's also revealed that [[Creator/MaryShelley Mary Shelley]] was one of Suigintou's former masters. The two were close until Shelley came up with the idea for her novel, ''Frankenstein''. Shelley explained that she felt a connection between the relationship between her and her father, and between Suigintou and Rozen. Suigintou holds her relationship to Rozen as sacred and was offended by Shelley comparing the two and, at least to her, basing Frankenstein and his creature off of them. During this conflict, Suigintou would break the contract between them.]]
42	* BigBad: Suigintou in the first portion of the manga, followed later by Kirakishou.
43	* {{Bizarrchitecture}}: Some parts of the N-field, but particularly Kirakishou's castle which also houses the Miniature Garden.
44	* BuryYourGays: Suigintou and Megu's interactions with each other are very heavily coded as romantic to the point that during the forming of their contract they recite wedding vows to each other as Suigintou puts her ring on Megu's hand. [[spoiler:They both end up dying in the final chapters of the manga, during which they confirm their romantic feelings for each other, though Suigintou is later revived.]]
45	* CatchPhrase: Lightly used. Things repeated many times during the series: Shinku's 'Jun, make tea!' and Suigintou's 'I'm NOT junk!'.
46	** DESU!
47	** KASHIRA!
48	* CatFight: Since their supernatural fights leave behind a mess of rose petals and black feathers, Unwind!Jun forbids Shinku and Suigintou from fighting like that. So they rely on badmouthing, slaps and pulling each other's hair.
49	* CatsAreMean: 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.
50	** Also subverted, 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.
51	* ClockworkCreature: Granted, they're magical constructs, but it's still "Will you wind?".
52	** The N-Field contains animals of this nature. There's notably a giant clockwork beetle in the sequel manga and a bird in ''0''.
53	* CompressedAdaptation: The 2013 anime series' first episode crammed the story of the first seven manga volumes into roughly 22 minutes.
54	* CostumePorn: The clothing of the dolls and some of the other sewn outfits made over the course of the series qualify.
55	* {{Creepy Doll}}s: From the Rozen series, we have [[{{Yandere}} Kirakishou]]. [[BrokenBird Suigintou]] used to be one before being revealed as an AntiVillain. [[spoiler:Then there's Kirakishou's new "sisters".]]
56	* CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass: 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 the 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 masters - one of whom was obviously more healthy - drained to within a hair's breadth of death by supporting only ''one''.
57	* CutShort: This was the fate of the original manga. Although, the next manga ended up [[StealthSequel continuing the story]].
58	* DeathSeeker: [[spoiler:Megu]], who has been sick, almost terminally so, for her whole life.
59	* DefrostingIceQueen:
60	** Suigintou after meeting Megu. Megu's interactions with Suigintou open her up in ways previously unseen. It's because of her that she got more understanding towards other characters as the manga went on.
61	** Hana in ''0''. She starts off closed off to others, especially to her own family, and it isn't until she meets and interacts with Souseiseki that she begins to wear down and open up to others.
62	* TheDoorSlamsYou: Let's just say it was [[TheChewToy very in character]] for Kanaria.
63	* {{Dreamland}}: The -seiseki twins can enter people's dreams to go to the World Tree. Also, some masters can go to the N-Field through their own dreams.
64	* ElegantGothicLolita: 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 [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lolita_fashion#.C5.8Cuji.2Fkodona.2Fdandy_.28male_Lolita_fashions.29 ouji/kodona style]].
65	* EnigmaticMinion: Laplace's demon.
66	* EscalatingWar: One of the most amusing chapters in the first manga.
67	* FairyCompanion: Sorta. The artificial spirits, little wingless [[Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda Navi-like]] lights, are this to the dolls.
68	* FlashbackBPlot: The lightnovel ''Die Zwillinge'' has lengthy flashback sections between Suiseiseki and Souseiseki and a particular set of previous masters. In the present they are both being torn apart by their differing opinions on Kazuha Yuibishi, Souseiseki's new master, but think back on these previous masters they both liked. The flashbacks further highlight things they learned under these previous masters that they incorporate into the present day.
69	* ForWantOfANail: The Rozen Maidens need to be accepted by their masters to ''exist'' in the world. ''Rozen Maiden (2008)'' is a world without Rozen Maidens since Jun chose to not be Shinku's master.
70	* GrewBeyondTheirProgramming: Or starting instructions, anyway. Which may or may not be intended. Even Suigintou, who grew beyond her loyal monomania toward Rozen and vengefulness toward Shinku to really care about Megu.
71	* [[HaveYouSeenMyGod Have You Seen Father?]]
72	** [[spoiler: He reveals himself towards the end of the manga.]]
73	* HeartwarmingOrphan: Averted for Megu. Although her personality is still as heartwarming as you'd expect it to be, she's not an orphan, and her father actually shows up once in the manga to talk with her. Also [[spoiler:later events suggest [[CreepyChild she's not]] [[DeathSeeker that heartwarming, either]].]]
74	* HiddenEyes: Jun's glasses occasionally fog up to create this effect.
75	* {{Hikikomori}}: Jun. Unwound!Jun grew out of it years ago and is going to college.
76	* IKissYourHand: In the manga it's more like "I kiss the ring in ''my'' hand."
77	* IKnowYoureInThereSomewhereFight: Suiseiseki did this to Souseiseki when she believed that Souseiseki was under a hateful influence from her master.
78	* InterclassFriendship: Between the rich young master of the Rose Mansion and the working class siblings Kiku and Hana.
79	* InvisibleToNormals: The N-Field and its influence on the world. [[spoiler:Kirakishou uses this trope to her advantage.]]
80	* ItBeganWithATwistOfFate: The manga started with Jun answering that yes, he will wind. The second manga was initially about what would happen if Jun answered otherwise, before the manga became a StealthSequel.
81	* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Jun. Also Shinku.
82	* JourneyToTheCenterOfTheMind: The N-Field. Since it has strong ties to the human psyche, some locations within it can directly interfere with the human mind, most notably the Dreamworld.
83	* KickingAssInAllHerFinery: Almost all the lady dolls do this.
84	* LittleMissBadass
85	* LivingToys: Starting from the Rozen Maiden themselves, but not limited to them.
86	** It is quickly established that ordinary toys and plushes have the sentience to be worried over their owners. The Rozen Maiden dolls can naturally make them animate.
87	** Tefuko in ''Rozen Maiden 0''. [[spoiler:She was an ordinary doll until she became infused with some of the Zeroth Doll's dreams.]]
88	* LoonyFriendsImproveYourPersonality: With Unwound!Jun, we can see how Jun's life could have been empty and meaningless without the dolls. After Saito manages to become his friend and the dolls enter his life, the trope starts going again.
89	* LoveMakesYouCrazy / LoveMakesYouEvil: All crazy and evil characters are motivated by love!
90	** 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.
91	* AMagicContractComesWithAKiss: In order to maintain a presence in the real world, the dolls need to make a contract with a human being. This specifically involves kissing a ring in order to form the contract.
92	* {{Magitek}}: The dolls are essentially just ordinary wind up dolls but with the key difference being the [[{{PowerCrystal}} Rosa Mystica]] that grants them their unique abilities and sentience.
93	* MoralityPet: Megu for Suigintou. First, her master's problem is obviously similar to her own, second, it's someone she can love without any conflict with "Father"s request, which may be a part of the trouble.
94	* MuggleInMageCustody: {{Inverted}} with doll masters in general, who are ordinary humans owning magical dolls. Played straight with Jun and Shinku though, since despite formally being Shinku's "master", Jun is de facto more of a slave to her (she often sends him for tea and slaps him when he disobeys her orders).
95	* MusicalAssassin: Kanaria. She is able to summon a violin and use the soundwaves to attack with.
96	* NobleDemon: Suigintou.
97	* NobodyPoops: 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!.
98	** [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] since they're magic dolls.
99	* OddCouple: Jun and Shinku. The nature of their relationship is rather ambiguous.
100	* OddlyNamedSequel: The original ''Rozen Maiden'' manga was followed by a new ''Rozen Maiden'' manga about a year after ending. They are spelled differently in Japanese, but both read as ''Rozen Maiden''.
101	* TheOjou: Even though she has no real family, Shinku is every inch an ojou.
102	* OrdinaryHighSchoolStudent: Nori Sakurada (and Jun), who actually are reasonably normal. More so with the sequel manga, where Unwound!Jun is a much more ordinary ''university'' student, while he'd been quite academically gifted in high school.
103	* ParentalAbandonment - Jun and Nori's parents are always away.
104	** Both of Megu's parents. Her mom has been mentioned as having left the family for good because she could not handle the stress of having a terminally ill daughter. Her father occasionally visits, but he too cannot cope with Megu's illness.
105	** Rozen. [[spoiler:He does show up towards the end of the manga and expresses his regret for abandoning his creations.]]
106	* PerpetualMolt: Suigintou, to the point that her presence is usually signaled by a few loose feathers drifting onto the panel/frame.
107	* PhantomZone: The N-Field.
108	* PhotographicMemory: The dolls recall exactly how long it's been since they last met down to the second.
109	* PimpedOutDress
110	* PolarOppositeTwins: The -seiseki twins; their heterochromia are even on opposite sides. Souseiseki is calm, collected, thoughtful and doesn't overuse her VerbalTic; Suiseiseki is loud, naughty, haughty and overuses her verbal tic.
111	** Souseiseki is very obviously hawkish and aggressive and Suiseiseki is timid and passive.
112	* RealEventFictionalCause: Although never directly stated, it's heavily implied that the tremors happening in Rozen Maiden 0 will eventually lead to [[spoiler:The Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, which is being caused by the effects of the Zeroth Rozen Maiden doll's dreams consuming reality.]]
113	* Really700YearsOld: All the Rozen Maiden dolls. Of course, it helps that they're, well, ''dolls''.
114	* RecurringExtra: [[ButtMonkey Kanaria]].
115	* RedPillBluePill: The plot kicks off by asking Jun whether or not he wants to wind Shinku up. In the reboot manga, he took the proverbial [[Film/TheMatrix "blue pill."]] The reboot turns out to be an AlternateTimeline, and the main timeline characters try to get support from the alternate Jun, thus dragging the war into his reality.
116	* ReflectiveTeleportation: Any reflective surfaces - mirrors, glass windows, water puddles - can be used as portal gates to the N-Field, a DreamLand that reflects the subconscious minds of people and their desires and sorrows. The main cast use these surfaces to travel to and from the N-Field in order to resolve conflicts related to the [[ForeverWar Alice Game]].
117	* ReplacementGoldfish: [[spoiler: all of the dolls are this to Rozen after he lost his daughter due to an illness. He spent a long time mastering alchemy and dollmaking in order to bring her back, but ultimately lost track of his original goal and ended up trying to create the perfect girl instead.]]
118	** [[spoiler: Tefuko]] is revealed to be one in ''Rozen Maiden 0''. [[spoiler: Her mother had a human daughter [[DeadGuyJunior also named "Tefuko"]] who died.]]
119	* [[RidiculouslyHumanRobots Ridiculously Human Dolls]]: Justified due to their {{magitek}} nature.
120	* ShootTheMedicFirst: A variation of this occurs in regards to the masters. While not medics in the strictest sense, they are a major source of the dolls' power in-universe, explained in-universe that the doll and the master share a soul as long as the contract is valid. If the master dies, so does the doll, [[spoiler:as exemplified by Souseiseki attacking her master in the manga]].
121	* ShoutOut: To ''Literature/AliceInWonderland''.
122	** One chapter of the 2008 manga has a garden of talking, giant roses. Some are quite rude, other are more decent, all love to gossip.
123	** Next chapter, Shinku and Kanaria found a crockett field with the Queen of Hearts shouting "Who ate my tarts!?"
124	* ShowWithinAShow: "[[Manga/CaseClosed Detective Kun-kun]]". Every single one of the Rozen Maidens has shown to be huge fans of the show, including, hilariously, [[NotSoAboveItAll Suigintou]]. [[spoiler:The exception being Kirakishou, who probably hasn't ever had the opportunity to even know it exists.]]
125	* SiblingTeam: Between the dolls at times, but notably:
126	** Suigintou and Shinku put aside their rivalry and become one during the fight with Kirakishou at the play and then again late into the manga when they enter Kirakishou's world.
127	** After Suiseiseki arrives to the Sakurada household, she and Shinku usually plot together on what they'll do next regarding the Alice Game, forming a team that lasts for most the rest of the manga.
128	** An interesting variation occurs in ''Rozen Maiden 0'' where the two sets of siblings in the Sui-Sou Detective Agency form sibling teams during team split ups (Suiseiseki and Souseiseki forming one team and Kiku and Hana forming the other).
129	* SiblingRivalry: All the dolls are sisters and they fight against each other, trying to take the life source of the other. Subverted with Suiseiseki who loves her sister so much she refuse to fight them, unless to protect her most beloved twin sister. [[spoiler:Played for drama when they are fighting to save their masters, yet Suigintou and Kanaria are to stubborn to even stay with Shinku, Suiseiseki and Souseiseki and fight together against Kirakishou.]]
130	* SmallNameBigEgo: 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.
131	* StealthClothes: Kanaria wears this at one point while trying to sneak into the Sakurada home.
132	* StealthSequel: ''Rozen Maiden'' (2008). While it originally seems to be a ForWantOfANail take on Rozen Maiden, it quickly establishes that the universe of this manga is connected to the universe of the first. The story even goes back to the original universe after some time and completely resumes where the old manga left off.
133	* SuckMyRose: Kirakishou has one growing out of one of her eye sockets; Barasuishou has a rose eyepatch much like it.
134	* ThankTheMaker: All the dolls, more or less.
135	* ThereCanBeOnlyOne: The goal of the Alice Game.
136	* TrademarkFavoriteFood: Shinku has tea, while Hinaichigo adores strawberries or anything with strawberry filling (her "unyuu").
137	* TrappedInAnotherWorld: [[spoiler:Jun goes into the N-Field with Kanaria, looking to find a way to save Shinku and the others from Kirakishou.]]
138	* TricksterArchetype: Suiseiseki.
139	** For a more sinister example, Laplace's Demon.
140	* {{Tsundere}}: Suiseiseki, Shinku, possibly Suigintou.
141	* VerbalTic: 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.
142	* VitriolicBestBuds: Mix of abuse and affection in relationships between some dolls and their masters.
143	* WellDoneSonGuy: Basically the motivation for every doll except Suiseiseki, who loves her sisters more than her father. Eventually, Shinku comes to feel the same way as Suiseiseki and Souseiseki also comes to share the sentiment later on.
144	* WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds: Suigintou.
145	** [[spoiler:Kirakishou probably qualifies, too. Given how badly she just wants to [[IJustWantToBeLoved not be alone and have someone care about her,]] it really begs the question of how she might have turned out if she hadn't been forced to GoMadFromTheIsolation.]]
146	* {{Yandere}}: Kirakishou.
147	* YouKillItYouBoughtIt: The sole mechanism of the Alice Game: The winner takes the loser's Rosa Mystica and gains her powers, while the loser becomes a normal doll. [[spoiler:Subverted when Souseiseki's Roza Mystica starts hurting Suigintou, who stole it (Suiseiseki was the one meant to take her twin's Rosa Mystica) but Hinaichigo's accepts Shinku smoothly. After some time of meditation, Suigintou understands that the real way to win the Alice Game is for the losing doll actually ''willingly giving'' her Rosa Mystica, something that just can be done via trust and creating a bond.]]
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Context Manga / RozenMaiden