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Rozen Maiden (ローゼンメイデン, Rōzen Meiden?) is a manga by the group Peach-Pit, with an anime series of the same name.The story centers around Sakurada Jun, a young hikikomori boy that finds himself indebted to a living doll by the name of Shinku. Jun's sometimes comedic, sometimes dramatic, experiences with Shinku--as well as the other six dolls of the Rozen Maiden--slowly bring him out of his depression and back into the world that he had abandoned.

In TV Asahi's "Top 100 Anime Ranking" polled in 2006, Rozen Maiden was ranked 9th on the list.

Story

Jun Sakurada is a Junior High School student who refuses to go to school after being traumatized by an embarrassing experience there (see Hikikomori). He has taken to locking himself in his room, never leaving the house, and spends the day ordering supernatural goods online. His older sister, Nori Sakurada, does everything she can to brighten Jun's dreary existence, but is unable to change his situation.

One day, Jun receives a letter claiming he has won a prize. The letter asks whether or not he will "wind" (まきますか？) or "not wind" (まきませんか？). It states that after he has made his decision, he must place the letter in the drawer of his desk, and a supernatural liaison will take it to the spirit world. Despite his skepticism, he follows these instructions, and discovers soon after that the envelope has vanished. Moments later, he realizes that a richly detailed wood case has materialized within his room. The box contains a strange realistic doll dressed in French aristocratic (synonymous with Gothic Lolita) attire. Jun carefully winds up the doll. The doll creaks, stands up on its own, then proceeds to slap him for handling her as crudely as he had. She introduces herself as, "...Shinku, the fifth doll of the Rozen Maiden."

Shinku is a doll from the unique "Rozen Maiden" collection, and before Jun can fully comprehend the weight of his new situation, a stuffed clown plush doll attacks. Shinku promises that she will save Jun's life, but only if he will vow to serve her. Thus, Jun becomes entrusted with the responsibility of protecting Shinku's "Rosa Mystica" whilst she is engaged in a centuries old fight with the other Rozen Maiden dolls for the title of "Alice."

The Rozen Maidens

The Rozen Maidens are a collection of dolls created by a craftsman named Rozen, whom the dolls refer to as "Father". Their primary source of power is a human host (referred to as a "medium") who wears a ring to symbolize their bond with the doll, although certain dolls have been shown to act without a medium. According to Shinku, she can only be at full power when her medium is present. Each Rozen Maiden has her own special personality, guardian spirit, and supernatural ability.

The Alice Game

The Rozen Maidens' apparent purpose is to participate in the "Alice Game", a lethal competition that promises the winner the right to meet "Father" by becoming "Alice," a girl of supreme beauty and perfection whose spirit lives inside of "Father"; she is said to be "more sublime than any flower, purer than any gem, and without a touch of impurity."[3]

The game encompasses duels in which the dolls fight each other using both their guardian spirits and respective abilities, such as the manipulation of strawberry vines, as well as the spiritual energy from their medium. The doll that loses the duel loses her "Rosa Mystica," the very essence that endows her with the ability to move. The lost Rosa Mystica, which contains the memories and emotions of the duel's loser, is then collected and absorbed by the duel's winner. The doll that acquires all seven Rosa Mystica will become Alice. Shinku, the central doll of the series, is notable in that while she does not refuse to fight, she does refuse to kill a sister doll and take her Rosa Mystica. A doll can no longer become Alice if she loses her Rosa Mystica which is her ring (that is used to transfer power from a medium), but exceptions to this rule have occurred.