「夢と水着と海の色」 (Yume to Mizugi to Umi no Iro)
“Dreams, Swimsuits and the Color of the Sea”

This wasn’t nearly as fanservice oriented as I thought, and the show earns massive respect in that regard. Imagine that, actually using a beach episode to develop a main character.

Underneath the rather tasteful fanservice, Merry’s issues don’t go ignored, and Yumeji gives some consulting, using the way too convenient Gritcho as a basis. Merry’s issues themselves however, aren’t really new in anime. She’s basically Simon from Gurren Lagann, and Yumeji’s Kamina, because the only way Merry’s problem is solved, is because he believes she’s doing the right thing. It comes off more as ignorance to me than anything heroic, because Yumeji really doesn’t know if Engi is right or not about Merry’s actions. If Engi is right, will we see another fallout like this one? TTGL did it twice I suppose.

As for the other characters, it seemed like a lot of them were there just so they could get something revealed about them while they’re all together. I liked how everyone did their own thing though, just casually enjoying the beach. Pretty chill compared to your usual beach episodes. Most important of the supporting cast right now is probably Kawanami Chizuru, the red-haired bijin with a pretty miss swimsuit reveal scene. I mean, they played that out like she was AMAZING, but I was just like, am I missing something here? Anyway, they continue their discussion of Isana’s dream of drawing (I support this dream btw), and she basically just smiles that Isana hasn’t told anyone. Wouldn’t it be such a shock if Chizuru harbors the type of demon that likes to know her enemies before she rips their dreams into pieces? That’d be so amazing though, so I’m going to go with that for now.

Saki and Akiyanagi also get some development, but it’s more on the romantic side, so ..yeah. Slightly unexpected, and their character match is pretty rare. Tomboy with a Bishounen? It’s almost.. gay. Almost. It’s only interesting if it were to be used at a later part of this season, rather than just be a development taken from the manga that won’t even be covered in time. Again, I’m going to assume the former is the case, because it’s more awesome that way.

And we can’t forget the battle of the week, this time taking a kid’s dream away, which was pretty cruel. And it figures it’s a weak looking girl beating a burly guy, because the opposite wouldn’t “look right.” Imagine if she was a guy instead, whaling on a frail looking girl with those vines. It’d be more cruel, yes, but it’d be more powerful emotionally, at the expense of angering viewers who can’t stand to see such things, which basically describes FREEZING. Except that one chickened out in many instances and used female on female instead, but I’m rambling. In any case, the fights are always a fun departure, always providing the eye candy, and it served to introduce “Mystletainn (Sayuri Yahagi),” the other extremely powerful being rivaling Elcres (I think they made her too cute to be the villain :/). It didn’t click at first, so I was like, wait, why is her design so cool? Now it makes sense. Basically, they were like, “this is her, and these are her vines. Are they not awesome and isn’t she so good with them? *wink* *wink*” Ahem, but yeah, don’t be surprised when Merry’s dangling in the air binded in certain ways a few eps from now. Judging by this episode though, I trust the show won’t go there?

Next week looks intense, as we return to Engi, and Merry’s resolve will be tested once more. I’m intrigued. You?

 

Preview

24 Comments

  1. It’s too bad they didn’t make Merry take of her coat… Well, whatever.
    I didn’t really get the content of your last question, but Mistilteinn is an anime only character, so whatever it was you don’t want the mangaka to do, if it happens, it’s not the mangakas fault.

    Btw, you should’ve included the clown Dream Demon from the preview, he’s just too fun.
    And he’ll reveal the color and pattern of Merrys pantsu!

    virox
  2. Is it me or is Kawanami host of the Mystletainn?
    We dont know yet the motives of either, but some sort rilvalry with Elcres seems to be going on…
    Nice romance startup between poet bishounen and tomboy girl, it actually ineterests me more than main pairing of Merry and Yumeji…

    ewok40k
      1. This is not a spoiler:
        She is not Mistiltainn’s vessel. They have different pupil shapes (Remember that scene in … episode 3 orso, Kawanami’s pupils get a cross-shape when she’s controlled by her dream, while Mistilteinn has crow’s feets-shaped pupils.
        There is only one more anime original character and this character was at the beach too, so this character is most likely the vessel of Mistilteinn

        virox
  3. I dont really think of Merry as fan service. She has the body of a young boy and not at all cute. The 2 that were playing volleyball and jiggling all over the place that was fan service. She is about as unsexy as a main character can be (other then Victorique in Gosick but at least in her show she is really cute with her long blond hair and doll features for Moe action).

    Karmafan
    1. She may be flat as a board, but she’s supposed to be apparently, fitting into that loli moe aspect, similar to Shana, Louise, Taiga, basically J.C. Staff’s forte. Her unique points are her navel they keep playing on, and her ability to tear up to everything. Oh, and the childish nature too. It’s hard to argue that Victorique is any better, because she’s pretty much the same type, but her cunning wit makes her seem much older, and that makes her attractive (to us). Different strokes for different folks I guess.

  4. Unrelated to the review and not really important but I really like Isana’s face. I mean look at her! It’s just so goofy looking with her smile. haha Anyway, I’m kinda disappointed that they didn’t make Merry take off her coat and that thing on her arm. Show Spoiler ▼

    That anime only character is really cute too. I like her and her… vines. 😀

    Show Spoiler ▼

    Solarguardian
  5. Hmm.. so far I feel happy yet at the same time a bit disappointed. I’m mainly disappointed because I feel that the chance of an anime original ending is high (well, there’s not that much material yet). However, it’s still enjoyable!

    @ Solarguardian
    Me too! Although I already thought Isana was always cute. Well Merry has really cute expressions too actually and also Yumeji this episode when he was so happy about seeing the “heroes” haha.

    Oooh…

    https://randomc.net/image/Yumekui%20Merry/Yumekui%20Merry%20-%2007%20-%20Large%2001.jpg

    That looks kind of nice…

    Silver
    1. 「メリーの水着はもう少し何とかならなかったんですか?」

      “Couldn’t you have done something a bit more with Merry’s swimsuit?”

      Yumeji’s implying if Isana couldn’t have given her a better one. He’s clearly not a fan of the school swimsuit.

  6. I don’t really get the “dream loss” that they were talking about last episode. It seems like if your dream demon gets defeated you become all emotionless from what we see of other characters. HOWEVER! Dream loss did not happen on the president and this has yet to be explained why exactly.
    This was almost the same issue with Letter Bee where Sunny was still able to bake cookies while Zazie’s parent pretty much became vegetables but they were able to close the loop by saying she still had some heart left while Yumeki Merry has still left it unanswered…

    koager
    1. Answering in spoiler, just in case:
      Show Spoiler ▼

      virox

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