Rozen Maiden

    (Tokyopop, 2006)
™ and © 2003 PEACH-PIT

Internet e-commerce has been a boon to anti-social shoppers who’d rather loaf at home. Among them is the surly teen-age delinquent Jun. With his absentee parents out traveling, he tunes out his obsessively doting little sister and habitually orders phony New Age products just to return them and eke out cheap laughs.

But Jun gets stuck with his peculiar purchase from the “Spirit Hollier” of a “Rozen Maiden” windup doll named Shinku. Amazingly, Shinku comes to life and demands his fealty as her slave, lest he die! Suddenly, Shinku commands Jun’s toys, reveals that his parents’ mirror is a portal to an alternate reality, and staves off her intruding enemy Suiginton. Now, both of them must enter the “N-Field” to find her lost protective spirit.

Treating each other with selfishness and disdain, these characters invite little sympathy despite the Goth shojo style. Crafting a darker version of DearS, Peach Pit suggests a reason exists for Jun’s hermit-like existence, but that isn’t reason enough to care for this strange cast and dysfunctional toy story just yet.

— Oliver Chin

From the Publisher

Jun Sakurada has withdrawn from the outside world of friends, school, even his older sister, who loves him dearly and cares for him in their parents’ absence. To cope with the severity of his personal exile, Jun has taken to ordering products online and them then returning them just before the grace period ends. But when a website instructs him to place and order for a beautifully rendered doll in his desk drawer, what arrives the next morning can't be returned. From the creators of the manga series DearS comes this metaphysical comedy about the trials of loneliness and Internet shopping.
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