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「夢もキボーも」 (Yume mo Kibou mo)
“Dreams and Hopes”
While I know people are going to be disappointed with the lack of navel this week, you’ll get development instead, explaining a little bit more about the situation, and introducing a slew of new characters. Out of all the fresh ones brought to the table, mellowdere Isana’s dad wins, and earns the best dad award. Voiced by Fujiwara Keiji, the man only has a couple of lines throughout, but how epic the lines they were. He took Yumeji’s side while teasing his daughter, and still has time on the side to make a pun with Merry’s name in the same conversation. When a man has that big of a scar on his eye, you know he’s been through some serious stuff to know what he’s talking about. His slightly uncaring attitude towards Merry leaving while taking a smoke inside his own house would have any girl want to throw themselves at him. Luckily, Isana’s dad has been teaching our hero Yumeji the ropes to be an alpha. His response to two naked girls in a bath? Play it off with a casual line. Talking to that new tsundere without the dere in the hallway like it’s nothing? Done. Intelligently spending the entire episode sitting back and observing before deciding to help Merry no matter what she may think? I think I smell the man you could smell like.
The headstrong girl who fought against John Doe seemed to have it all together, but breaks down while longing to go home with an innocence akin to a child, giving a new layer to her character that catches Yumeji’s eye. The donut scene seems to emphasize that childlike behavior, similar to how you might give a toy to a newborn to calm her down. Since Yumeji can’t help her, she decides to leave on her own and continue on her search. It’s quite a sad predicament, yet also not too far off from being typical, but I admittedly still feel some empathy (the girl can’t even open a can of soda ;_;). The other half deals with a girl who has somehow shared her body with a dream demon, and is eventually approached by an “object” which activates the dream world. Other demons who want to invade the world require a vessel, but the method in doing such seems broad at this point. I’m assuming due to Serio and Yumi possibly sharing the same body, if Serio were killed, then it would enable the invading demon to take over Yumi’s body. Her walking out blank faced with the repeated symbolic petal finally disintegrating behind her says to me that at the very least, Serio’s definitely gone. There’s a strong indication that Yumi is the first human successfully taken over, so she will probably be a recurring character. Perhaps a really bad ass exorcism is in order? Incidentally, if John Doe wanted to use Yumeji’s body, his intentions were probably more closer to knocking him out rather than killing him.
Merry’s unique feel in the execution continues to deliver, with varied shots and backgrounds, making the scenes feel a little more alive and that much more beautiful, at least in the sense of cinematography. Like the dialogue with Merry, you’d see a shot of a donut here, a shot of the drink there, and then some closeups of her face, making it much more interesting to watch than long monologues in say, Index. The dream sequences are still the best parts of the episodes, with atmosphere suddenly turned to overdrive, and being the only source of action, it possesses some of the more unique displays of animation. I’m still loving the designs of the characters, and they look consistently great throughout, if not just because most of the scenes are closeups galore. I’m actually surprised they can draw so many intimate shots of Merry’s face without feeling too repetitive. Seeing her face just doesn’t get old.
Yumekui Merry’s still at the exposition stage with characters still being set up (mostly ominous), so there’s generally a lack of exhilaration so far. I hope Yumeji doesn’t take too long to team up with Merry, as the next episode seems like it may have a lot more with a new dream demon.
Preview
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Still lovin the op, ed I don’t much care for though.
Merry’s face when she had that doughnut + cute pajamas = New favorite char
a bit slow episode, but it is build-up, so I am fine with it…
I feel that the new cold-faced transfer student might have something to do with the assault to Yumi… just my guess.
Can’t wait for next episode and some more action scene…
Yumeji’s father is epic!
Mostly character development, but I liked it nonetheless. They should keep more of the fight scenes coming in the coming episodes otherwise it’ll become uninteresting.
interesting series, seemly worth to watch. totally out of cookie cutter anime. i have no idea what this episode about though( blame me poor brain)
Agreed on the less navels this episode, but we got to see more faces of Merry.
You’re gonna carry that joke along aren’t cha? lol
Depends. Which one?
Old Spice.
(And there’s more than one? /must search)
lol, this’ll be the last time.
Merry was one of the shows I was very interested in when the preview came out, but with regret I will have to pass.
unfortunately the super low budget animation ruins it for me – watching Infinite Stratos beforehand probably made it look even worse imho. Half the episode were closeups of the characters faces, the scenes are disjointed and everything felt very static.
In one section of the episode Merry managed to eat 3 donuts without ever taking a single bite on screen or being animated to chew. One scene Merry is holding a donut then…*abracadabra*…next scene the donut magically dissappears without the process in between being shown.
It’s a shame, if only this had an animation budget it could have been so much better.
While I understand and intensely disagree how the “lack of extra frames in movement” might detract you from enjoying the show, look at what you’re saying.
You want them to animate trivial things like donut eating? I feel like you’re missing the point of the show here.
Donut eating was just one thing I picked out to use as an example, there are many small things here and there which I feel have dissappointed. The small things can matter just as much, and even though it is ultimately insignificant a well animated donut scene is a boon over a badly animated donut scene. Surely chewing isn’t much to ask for.
A large part of anime is visual and imho the visuals for Merry imho could have been much better.
I figured, and I agree, it’d be wonderful if everything was as animated as a BONES show. Still, you said you were interested. I take it the story isn’t strong enough to keep you either.
“Still, you said you were interested. I take it the story isn’t strong enough to keep you either.”
I became initially interested based on what I read from Divine’s Winter 2011 preview, unfortunately the story hasn’t been strong enough on it’s own to hook me and make me see past it’s shortcomings.
Im liking the show so far. So I will keep on watching until I see a good reason not to. Is it just me or does Merry remind you of the girls from Ah! My Goddess with the face paint?
Could have used a little bit more background on Yumi’s character in her introductory episode (ie, who is she, and why do we care?). Otherwise a good episode, likely one of only 3-4 shows I’ll be following this season.
I wish they would at least show yumeji getting hit and Merry eating the donut. I’ll try one more episode till I stall it and wait for the rest of the episodes. I’ll check out the manga and see if it sparks my interest and rewatch the first two episodes ;_; Though, Merry looks too adorable in those pajamas.
Also, Yumi’s looks reminds me of Kobato and the girl in the PV reminds me of Akari…
I love Fujiwara Keiji, always playing the older cool guys XD
It was cool to see Merry in a different outfit, especially cute nekomimi pajamas!
This show owns. The dad is a badass, the male lead has a spine, and the heroine can kick some ass.
If this isn’t a formula for quality, idk what is.
Isana is too cute in this episode!!
I am really starting to like this show as one of my favorites this season. I kept getting Shana vibes from this episode, starting with the whole dream demon idea and how there are peaceful and violent demons from another world interacting with the real world. The doughnut scene paralleled the melonpan-induced cuteness in Shana. Merry’s innocence regarding the world and her independent nature also compare. As for the animation quality, I couldn’t care less how fluid it looks or how many shortcuts were taken. To me, the story and the characters have always been the most important criteria for me. I think they’ve nailed the surrealistic aspect of dreams quite well and I am looking forward to more.
With the addition of new characters, i am curious to what will happen in the following episodes.
The girl on the preview reminds me of Ika Musume ha!
WHERE’S MY BELLY BUTTON FIX?
copy-paste from the comment from epi 1 . -_-
but at least i understand some concepts now.
though the episode was good with a donut. ^_^
Loving the series until now. The story is moving along at a decent pace and we get some nice character development and a much needed Merry fix! :3
I’m surprised the setting of Merry is much more complicated than I expected. I hope it is, instead of making no sense like few people claimed elsewhere.
I also heard Yumi is an anime-original character, are we heading towards an original story, possibly?
I WANT THOSE PAJAMAS *Q*
I love the father, love the childhood friend, but Merry herself is still too superficial for me… her crying face didn’t move me one bit.
I don’t know why people are up in arms about the animation. I always appreciate good art direction which this show has. Compared to a cluster fuck of shit going on, where yes you do see stuff moving but it has little to no relevance to the scene.
The series itself isbeautiful to look at and, the soundtrack impressively hits the right chords.
On a side note Isaka is ridiculously cute.
Loved the color scheme here: https://randomc.net/image/Yumekui%20Merry/Yumekui%20Merry%20-%2002%20-%20Large%2035.jpg
Show is still moving slowly. If it continues at this pace, it might end up as another Legendary Heroes
I feel that the pace of the show could be a bit faster
but at the end with the new transfer student and the other girl that wanted to be a nurse
i think the next episode will have more to offer
Does anyone notice how Merry’s eyes are the same as those monsters from Berserk?
I get strong hypnotoad vibes from her eyes, personally. I’m just waiting for them to start glowing.
Does anyone else feel there’s some kind of connection between the Chaser and the father?
If I recall in episode one Chaser was smoking a cig, dad also smokes one. Chaser got half his mask smashed off, dad has a weird scar on his face, height and body type seem similar as well.
There’s obviously something fishy about her father, especially with the way he talks to Merry. It’d be an interesting twist if the father was Chaser’s vessel.
Oh wait, no. He wasn’t smoking a cig. I could’ve sworn he was though, lol.
I didn’t get action for this episode, yes. But still interesting. The story is building up, i hope the development continues and the climax can be kind of impresing (not that much, i got bad experience with flashy climaxes. Promise so much, give you so little)