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Rozen Maiden Zurückspulen (Studio Deen, 2013), Eps. 1-9
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The original 2002-07 manga by Peach-Pit led to a notoriously inconclusive ending, mirrored in the critically panned conclusion to the second season of the anime (2005-06). Rumor had it that the mangakas had become unhappy with the contract they had gotten from their publisher for their big hit, and so they brought the story to a hasty ending so they could receive better terms from a different firm.
In any case, Peach-Pit reused the characters and general premise in a new series, published in Weekly Young Jump beginning in 2008 and concluding in January 2014. In this version, Jun, trapped by the first manga’s inconclusive ending, contacts an avatar of himself in a different narrative world. (This plot device is reminiscent of the world-skipping adventures of Sakura and Syaoran in CLAMP’s Tsubasa).
In the alternative story world, Jun chose "Won't wind" on the mysterious note he receives, and so he never encounters Shinku as a middle-schooler. Instead he matures into a college student, retaining all the mental hangups that trammel him in the first manga.
With middle-school-Jun’s intervention, college-student-Jun builds an alternative-world Shinku, and together the two Juns and two Shinkus find a way of moving the now conjoined narratives toward a proper mutual resolution. The Anime News Network reviewer comments that “none of this makes a lick of sense,” but concedes that the story that results from this botched-together rewind gets to be pretty interesting as it moves along.
Studio Deen produced the anime adaptation of this version in 2013, with Mamoru Hatakeyama (episode director, Puella Magi Madoka Magica) as series director and Tomomi Mochizuki handling series composition and scripts (a task this artist also handled for YamiBo).
Character design was done by Kyuta Sakai, one of many animators who cut their teeth on Cardcaptor Sakura and Princess Tutu (gengas). Sakai had previously worked on Pita-Ten (character designer), YamiBo (episode animation direction), Strawberry Marshmallow (character designer/chief animation director), and most notably Higurashi/When They Cry (character designer/chief animation director). Lately she has received credit as character designer/chief animation director for the successful series Re: ZERO - Starting Life in Another World (3 seasons and 2 OAVs to date).
Sakai shared series animation direction with Hirofumi Morimoto. A widely-experienced animator, Morimoto had previously done gengas for Rurouni Kenshin, You’re Under Arrest, and Fruits Basket, and also episode animation direction for Getbackers and Maria Watches Over Us. He is best known as Chief Animation Director for the hit comic series Is This a Zombie?
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