The young magician Yumi has a crisis of faith and isn't sure if she wants to finish her training.  The surprisingly good anime series Someday's Dreamers come to a satisfying conclusion on this third DVD.

This is the story of a girl growing into a woman while undergoing a month of training to become a licensed mage.  She has made some mistakes, and had some doubts, but now the end of her training is near.  She just has to pass her final exam to become accredited.  Will she be able to do it?

The first episode on the disc, Yumi and a Girl and a Summer Seed, has Yumi interview a person requesting help from a mage while her sensei, the somber Misami Oyamada, is detained on business.  A woman's father has gone missing, and she would like to locate him.  But it looks like he moved out on his own.  Maybe he doesn't want to be found.

The last three episodes form one story arc where Yumi's faith in her power is severly tested.

Yumi answers an old woman's request.  The lady is going into an assisted living complex, and would like to see her house as it was when it was first built 50 years ago.  Yumi changes the house back for a few hours, but when the time has elapsed, the old woman is very sad, and mummers that she regrets making her request.  That night, the house catches fire, possibly intentionally, and Yumi feels responsible.  She travels back to some of the other locations that she has used her power, and finds that she didn't change anything.  The shop windows that were repaired in an earlier episode are scratched and damaged by vandals again, and the boy whose leg she healed has not gone back to playing soccer, his one passion.

Yumi then finds out why Oyamada seems so sad when he uses his special power.  Even her trainer wasn't able to save someone he cared for.  She realizes that magical powers cannot provide fundamental solutions to problems.   If she can't fix things, why use her power at all?

Her crisis of faith comes to a head when Yumi finds out what her final examination will be.  The head of the Mage Labor Bureau says that she must use her power on her teacher, Misami Oyamada.  Both student and teacher are perplexed over what that means.

How will Yumi come to see the value in what she does, and how will she pass her test?

This is a short series, only 12 episodes, but it was one that I was sad to see end.  The stories were small, slice-of-life type tales that reminded me slightly of the work of Harvey Pekar.  (The writer whose work was adapted into the movie American Splendor.)   I quickly fond myself enamored of Yumi and the rest of the cast.   Though I enjoy more action-oriented anime, the quiet tone of this series was a welcome change of pace.  A wonderful show.
 

This DVD gives you the option of listening to the show in the original Japanese or an English dub.  Both are in stereo.  There are removable subtitles for the signs in the show, and an English translation.

I viewed this DVD listening to both tracks, and I prefer the audio for the original language to the English dub.  The dub was a good one, with the voice actors putting a lot of feeling into their characters, but it didn't seem to have the impact that the Japanese track did.   I also didn't care for Angela's voice in the dub.  She is from England, and while the actor dubbing her voice wisely decided not to give her a strong British accent, the accent they did give her, while more subtle, didn't sound realistic.

The sound is very clear and crisp.  The slightest background sound was easy to discern.  The music would often start of softly and swell over the course of a scene.  It was very effective technique and added a lot to the feel of the show.  There was good use made of the front soundstage also.

Video:

The video was presented with a 1.33:1 aspect ration, and looked pretty good.  The image was soft, and the colors were a little muted, but I suspect that was a conscience choice that the creators made.  The tones and colors of the show fit well with its slower pace.  A good-looking DVD.

The Extras:

There are a couple of extras included with this DVD.  First off is a series of photos taken for reference material.  This 2½-minute reel uses the theme music as a soundtrack.  It was very well done, with the pictures changing to the beat of the music.  I quite enjoyed it.

Next up is a series of conceptual art drawings.  There are 24 sketches all together, which show how the characters were originally intended to look.   The last extra is a 10-minute reel of trailers for other Geneon anime series.  As I have stated before, I really don't like preview reels were all the trailers are strung together.  I much prefer being able to see a menu of the available shows so I can chose which one's I'd like to view.  I often will go back to the trailer before I order a new series, and having to scan through ten minutes of previews is too much work.
 

Final Thoughts:

This was a very enjoyable series.  The show had a lot of charm and appeal, and a wonderful cast of characters.  Every time the ending credits started to roll, I'd look at my watch, surprised that another half hour had flown by.  Hopefully there is a sequel in the works.  Highly Recommended.