GORE IN THE STORE
REVIEWS BY FANS FOR FANS
5 STAR FAB - 1 STAR RUBBISH

Beyond The Rave
Hunter Prey
7th Dimension
Army of the Dead
Splintered
Basement
Meat Grinder
14 Blades
Manson Girl
The Blackout
The Torment
The Torment
(Second Opinion)
Hierro
Psycho - Blu-Ray
Pet Shop of Horrors
Kaiji:
The Ultimate Gambler
Shelter
Fullmetal Alchemist:
Brotherhood Part 1
The Final
Bubba Ho Tep - Blu-Ray
Picnic at Hanging Rock
Vampire
The Dead
Resurrecting
The Street Walker
The Haunting Of
Molly Hartley
Soul Eater: Part One
Rozen Maiden:
Traumend Vol. One
Bikini Girls On Ice
Diary of a Bad Lad
Satan's Baby Doll
Feast 111
Phobia
A Lizzard in a Woman's Skin
Valhalla Rising
City of the Living Dead
Dorothy
Daybreakers
Daybreakers
(Second Opinion)
Harpoon: The Reykjavik Whale
Watching Massacre
Harpoon:The Reykjavik Whale
Watching Massacre
(Second Opinion)
Feast 3:The Happy Finnish
Raging Phoenix
His Name Was Jason
Left Bank
Ju-On: White Ghost/White Ghost
Spiral
Ghost Machine
Stag Night
Bitch Slap
The Descent 2
The Descent 2-Second opinion
Dance of The Dead
Henry Lee Lucas: Serial Killer
House Of The Devil
The Twilight Saga
New Moon
Salvage
Salvage-Second opinion
Dread
The Haunted World of
El Superbeasto
Saw VI
The Horseman
Triangle-Second opinion
Triangle
Cabin Fever 2-Third opinion
Cabin Fever 2-Second opinion
Cabin Fever 2
Stan Helsing
Pandorum
Pandorum-Second opinion
Open Graves
Paranormal Activity
Growth
Growth-Second opinion
Train
Antichrist
Wrong Turn 3
Coffin Rock
Orphan
Sorority Row
Drag Me to Hell
Staunton Hill
Summer Moon
Driftwood
Messengers 2

 

Directed by Kou Matsuo / Anime / Cert. TBC

Dir1 DVD – MVM – Released 12 July 2010 – RRP £15.99

Desu, desu, desu, desu, desu… Despite having a long-running manga and a couple of season’s worth of anime to its name, I suspect most people first come across Rozen Maiden thanks to the ‘desu’ internet meme; one of its characters’ verbal tics having been embraced with monomaniac fervour by a certain image board.

The show itself revolves around hapless teen loser Jun Sakurada and the cadre of magic-wielding clockwork dolls whose mysterious Alice Game he becomes embroiled in – the imperious Shinku, the cheerfully dumb Hina Ichigo, the mischievous meme queen Suiseiseki and her calmer twin sister Souseiseki.

Darker in tone than the first series although still laced with plenty of broad humour, Rozen Maiden: Traumend opens with Jun cramming to catch up on all the schoolwork he’s missed while the usually confident Shinku is haunted by her defeat of anti-villain Suigintou, whom she was forced to kill at the end of the last season.

The six episodes featured in Volume One also see two new arrivals: the white-haired, rose eyepatch-wearing seventh doll Barasuishou – who seems destined to be the show’s new big bad – and the second doll Kanaria, whose hopelessly inept attempts to best Shinku and Co. provide comic relief. It also seems as if the enigmatic Rozen, ‘father’ of all of the Rozen Maidens, has finally put in an appearance.

Rozen Maiden really shouldn’t work as well as it does; the gothic Lolita character design is fine but nothing special, the animation is adequate but unexciting and the characters themselves are by the numbers – Shinku is the ojou, Suiseiseki the tsundere, etc. – with a distinctive verbal tic given to each to shamelessly up their moe appeal.

And yet Rozen Maiden: Traumend is inexplicably charming. It is genuinely sweet when the haughty Shinku is enraptured by her beloved TV puppet show Detective Kun-Kun or when the boisterous Suiseiseki reveals how much she cares for her sisters. I don’t want any of these characters to die, but I know that the show is quite capable of killing them off. Sure, Rozen Maiden uses cheap tricks to make you care, but they’re tricks that work – and that’s the important thing isn’t it, desu?

Special features: English dub; Japanese audio with English subtitles.

Dave Axbey.

© London FrightFest Ltd. 2000-2010
__________________________________________________________