The Show:
Don Houston wrote a
good review of the first volume of Yumeria. He thought
it was okay but flawed. I thought I'd give an alternate view, since
I really enjoyed the show. I'm a big fan of harem anime, you know
where one guy is stuck living with five or six beautiful woman, and Yumeria
is a good example. It's not the jiggle factor or the cute girls that
attract me to these shows though, it's the humor. Invariably the
guy who ends up living this dream life is miserable, and his misery is
always shown in the most amusing way. This series is no different.
Tomokazu Mikuri is a typical sixteen year old guy. He doesn't
get good grades, doesn't have a girlfriend, and doesn't really excel at
anything. He's an orphan, so he lives with his cousin, Nanase, who
is only slightly older than he is. His life takes a turn when he
goes to sleep one night and dreams of a world where a cute young girl fights
a giant alien ship. It's an exciting dream, but things get even more
exciting when he wakes up in the morning: The cute girl is in his
bed with him, totally nude. The only word she can say is her name
"Mone."
The next evening when he goes to sleep, he returns to the same dream-world.
Only this time his classmate, Mizuki, is there too, and she's dressed for
battle. In the coming days Tomo discovers that the dream world is
being invaded by aliens who are trying to break through and capture our
world. The only thing that stands in their way are Tomo and the female
warriors including Silk, who is from the dream world and stays there, Kuyou
a relative of Tomo's who has come to live with him, and Neneko, a little
neighbor girl who is in the dream world for some reason.
Protecting the Earth from the dreamworld invaders isn't the only thing
that poor Tomo has to worry about though, he still has to go to school
and try to pass his classes, though his teacher has started hating him
for some reason and makes that almost impossible.
As Don pointed out in his
review, this show suffers from schizophrenia: it is a harem comedy
while everyone is awake, and a team superhero show while they sleep.
While that bothered him, I thought it worked well. The show obviously
doesn't take itself too seriously, and the battle scenes in the dreamworld
are done tongue in cheek.
The thing that I really enjoy about the show is the odd anime humor
that the show has in abundance. My favorite character is Tomo's teacher,
a sadistic guy with a Lolita complex who delights in tormenting Tomo.
I loved it when he passed out the midterm tests. Everyone did well
except Tomo who got a zero. When the poor guy complained that some
of the questions on his test were marked as correct, his teacher replied
that he "felt waves of evil intent in your handwriting. There's nothing
to give other than a zero." In another scene Tomo is late to school,
so as a punishment he makes Tomo play dodge ball against the rest of the
school: and they get to throw a spiked metal ball at him.
The downside of the show is that the dream-world plot isn't that interesting,
and that the characters are generic cut-outs. The latter didn't bother
me much at all, since this is mainly a comedy show, but I wish they would
work on making the events in the other dimension more engrossing.
I did think the show included a little too much fan service, but most
of it was worked into the show fairly well, and a lot of it humorous, so
it didn't seem as gratuitous as it normally is. Aside from these
minor complaints, this is a fun show.
The DVD:
Audio:
This DVD offers the original soundtrack and an English dub, both in
stereo. I alternated tracks every episode, and found them both enjoyable.
The English cast did a very good job and the dub looks and sounds natural.
There were no audio defects, with both tracks sounding crisp and clear.
I wish they had included a 5.1 track, but its omission isn't a big deal.
Video:
The widescreen 1.85:1 image looked good. The lines were tight
and the image was clear. The colors were bright and solid too.
Digital defects were very minimal. A nice looking disc.
Extras:
The only extras on this disc are a clean opening and closing.
Final Thoughts:
Okay, so the characters aren't original, nor is the whole harem theme.
Even so, Yumeria is a pretty funny show with a lot of silly absurd
jokes. The dreamworld action scenes aren't as thrilling as they could
be, but they still gives a the show a bit of a kick. If you don't
take it seriously, and the show certainly doesn't, this is a fun program.
Recommended.
Buy: