Review: Yumekui Merry 1

Merry Nightmare looking up at the sky

Well, from the looks of the show and previewed, it would be a fantasy-type anime. Most of these shows aren't really my type, so I wanted to give this a try. I had no idea what to expect, so I'd just see if I would like it or not. But otherwise, I wanted to see what was "action-y" in this season.


Well, our nice protagonist Fujiwara Yumeji is a student who has the ability to see the aura of people's dreams, including his own; and there is one dream that's been happening to him every night. This one involving a gang of cats trying to kill him, along with a odd figure only known to him as " Chaser John Doe" trying to take over his body to enter the real world. Meanwhile, Merry Nightmare, literally falls out of nowhere to meet Yumeji for a split second (well, a tree she was sleeping in, but you get the point), later meeting with him in his recurring dream.

More dreams after the break!

Dropping in!
(And now to wait for someone to photoshop the clothing off....)

Okay, through the episode, lots of episodes arise, which was incentive to keep watching. Merry is a very interesting character, and I'd love to see what type of person she'll turn into as the series goes on. Near the end of the episode, the animation was very swift and emphasized the quickness of the scene. The dream world's atmosphere is also very nice, reminding me of Soul Eater and Bleach.


One thing that really annoyed me, and kept coming up, was the animation, soundscapes, and character design.

Example No.1

As you can see, the characters are really simple, not many ways to tell them apart, other than their hair. This leads to many look alikes; using the picture as an example, I see an Itsuki Koizumi, and a Nagato/Konata look-a-likes. And then there are the backgrounds. It's just the characters in the foreground, and then the background is completely blurry, no matter the distance they are apart from the background. (This would put more emphasis on the characters, but again, they're a bit dull.) Along the same line, the camera angles were in odd places, ranging from Merry's stockings to the backs of all the characters. Next, this might be hard to describe without seeing the anime, are the soundscapes. I haven't payed much too attention to background music before, but this really caught my attention. Why, you might ask? Well, the reason why is because the background music is so loud that it almost overshadows the conversation between characters. It was a very large distraction when I was watching.

All in all, Yumekui Merry is a pretty interesting show, following concepts, a la Soul Eater. The story is still a bit of a blur, but I hope that'll be cleared up in the next episode, along with other issues, like the animation and sound. Specifically, I'd want to see the character's outlines more defined, and the soundscapes to be more in the background and less obtrusive.

Yumekui Merry, Episode 1

Plot Advancement: 3/5
Fantasy/ Action: 3/5
Characters: 2.5/5
Episode Plot: 2/5
Animation Quality: 2/5

Overall: 2.5/5