Rozen Maiden: Traumend - Although mildly entertaining, it's way weaker than its predecessor.

Jun Sakurada is a troubled middle school student. While his parents are away on a business trip, he and his sister Nori are alone at home. Jun decides to drop out of school for personal reasons. Now, he spends his days at home in his room surfing the Internet, and purchasing merchandise from various websites. One of his packages ends up being a beautiful doll, but he doesn't remember ordering one.

After removing her from the suitcase, Jun winds the doll up and she suddenly comes to life. The doll reveals herself as Shinku, The Fifth Rozen Maiden Doll. Jun is forced to make a bond, and become her medium through a ring called the Rosa Mystica. He soon finds himself having to deal with his own demons, plus help Shinku survive a life or death game with her dueling kind called, "The Alice Game".-summary


First Season:

Rozen Maiden


Rozen Maiden Traumend: Second Season

After the fierce battle with Suigintou, the sister Rozen Maiden dolls continue with their lives, which is causing daily mischief for Jun, as well as each other, and watching their favorite shows. However, Shinku is forced to deal with the loss of a sister. During her grief, she is immediately forced into battle with an unknown Rozen Maiden revealing herself as Bara-Suishou: The Seventh Rozen Maiden Doll. She's determined to continue the "The Alice Game", by killing all of her sisters to become "Alice" and please their "father".-summary

Nope, nope, nope, didn't fool me one bit. I saw exactly where this one was headed early. The series reeked of a tear jerker from almost the very beginning. Right off the bat, the writers attempted to continue the character development concerning the dolls, with intentions on establishing an emotional link with the viewer, by over exploiting the dolls cute antics. This isn't a full blow against the series at all, because the driving force behind any work is the characters, and the viewer should feel for them. My only gripe is that because of this, the possible events were too spelled out in light of the tragedy that was soon to strike.

Rozen Maiden: Traumend is a solid follow up to its predecessor, but it's not on the same level, and fails in some areas. The entire first half is a serious mixed bag, and can be looked at in a number of ways. At times, it can almost come off as complete filler, but there are things going on such as character and light plot development. The first seven episodes is drowned in its comedy, which is hit most of the time, but those who were use to the action scenes of the first season will be bored most of the time. Others who enjoy the dolls very presence will be thoroughly entertained.

My biggest problem with this season is that the writers try too hard to establish an emotional connection. They simply just didn't let the characters work, and everything has to be pushed more. This will be the very first time I have an issue with character development. There was too much focus on the main dolls antics, and even their feelings to the point were Jun is almost left out completely. Adding to this, there were pacing issues as well, that heavily effected the plot this time around. Even the two new characters who were introduced weren't very well developed, and felt more like cheap carbon copies.

The drama in the series is also heavily over done. But don't get me wrong here, when it's time for the drama to work, it does work. There are some good moments that will provide a few tears for those who are attached to certain characters. However, at one time, a scene already achieved its desired and full effect, but would be heavily damaged due to its length. This worked against the series for me, and when someone else bit the dust, it had that "oh well" feeling to me. The series eventually shifts to a darker side, but I think it was introduced a bit too late, and simply didn't mesh right. Although the ending may satisfy most, for me, it was one of those type of endings that I love to hate, and I'll leave it at that. However, there are plenty I know who pretty much love it.

The animation and artwork is still pretty much on par with the previous season, and the action scenes are very well animated at times, and they can be cool to watch. The artwork is still outstanding, and one episode showed the dolls off pretty well displaying them in multiple outfits. This is actually one of the most creative uses for stills. I really enjoyed the soundtrack. There were a variety of songs with a few displaying some beautiful piano melodies, and each song worked well for its particular scene. But this time around, I didn't care too much for the opening and closing themes. The voice acting was very solid for the English cast to me. The voice actors fit very well with each of the characters appearances and personalities.

Overall, as a non fan of the mahou shoujo(magical girl) genre. This is still a series that I enjoyed. I will admit that there was a bit of disappointment here, since I enjoyed the first half so much. Still, this is a good series that I think is worth checking out. Rozen Maiden: Traumend contains the final 12 episodes with a 300 minute run time.

Pros;
-Nice artwork
-Some character development

Cons:
-Drama is too forced
-New characters aren't well developed
-Uneven first half