Rozen Redux

Well adoring legions I must confess I am moved to say a few words... about Rozen Maiden.

It actually surprised me in the end by being quite a bit more satisfying than a formula kids show has any right to be. Actually I suspect it was a longer run in manga form, doubtless with more repetitive dull bits, but also with plenty of time to really cement and develop Shinku, who in the end really stays with me as one the more satisfying characters I've recently encountered. Her haughty elegance, cool demeanor, and relentless drive were all appealing enough, but her own frailty and compassion as revealed in the climax of the series were far stronger than what I've grown to expect. Best of all she showed that the Japanese can create a strong yet 'human' female lead that didn't fall into the domineering and neurotic Asuka trap.

Sugin Tou's secret motivations honestly surprised me and overall redeemed the Pokememon cum Dragonball nature of the face to face conflict in the series - frankly the biggest reason I can't unabashedly recommend it.

In the end there were a good three to six episodes of material really worth watching, including one absolutely hilarious comic relief episode that completely broke from mood of the story, but was well worth it for it's zanyness. Shinku's infatuation with Kun-Kun, the doggy detective puppet star of a children's TV show, sticks in my mind for being so random and seemingly out of character, yet feeling so *right* given that our heroine is a child's toy herself. For the most part I would have preferred a darker and more artistic treatment of the material, but I enjoyed it in a way that's hard to justify except as a fan of children's fiction who can imagine a magical fantasy in the tradition of Nesbit and an anime fan who can overlook all the usual failings.

My Doll's Game would probably be darker than anything suitable for younger children, and riff off the uncanny and the D/S themes lurking beneath the doll / owner relationship and my general (edited) backstory. I might even make all the action / interaction appear in dreams, daydreams and waking hallucinations, calling into the question the sanity of our protagonist and the veracity of the backstory. Certainly Amie's doll would have a dark, discarded, female doppleganger to be revealed at the end, and I think the three dead sisters and the more punitive aspects of the game would only be revealed later on.

But as for what the story itself would be, I haven't a clue. Certainly it would explore the nature of sibling relationships, and broken families. Perhaps part of my thesis would be that abuse creates patterns of behavior which are traps for future generations - not very shocking or deep eh? Certainly that childish cruelty can have adult consequences. The recursive nature of children playing out the experiences of their parents, and the doll as an expression of the child's hidden/forbidden self would be themes I'd want to touch on. I'd be tempted to touch on chronic illness, but I'm not sure if that would be merely a fetishistic formal element of the genres I'm dabbling in. I'll have to muse on the children I know, have known, and have been to see if there's any aspect of their character and situation that would be congruous with the ideas I've spread out on the table...