Yumekui Merry – 05

Dream battles and dramatic artwork

Fosh: What a wonderful week I have had! Well I would be lying if I said that after suffering from a hardcore reboot of my computer. But thankfully I found my original disc to restore the damn thing, but lost all my files! WHYYYY!! Anyway that’s alright, I will restore what I can soonish. This week’s Merry review is now a tag review with Hime, so enjoy! Also as promised fan art of Merry!

Hime: I really don’t have much to do until Supernatural comes out, so Fosh has been kind enough to let me give my two cents in his posts about Merry! This episode kinda spoiled for me (I saw some terribly revealing screenshots) but it is all in the execution so I’m interested to see how this episode plays out.

Fosh: Plot this week is more about Merry adapting to her new life with Isana and Yumeji. We also meet a new girl named Yui who has a dream demon named Engi Three Piece. Yeah, she has a very well unique name; then again most dream demons have great names! A fight breaks out and Merry learns some dramatic information that shocks her.

Yui goes all badass!

Merry enjoys a little video game fun with her Wii-station-box

Needs some Vocaloid music in the background!

You need tickets to see this gun show.

After a few laughs with Merry experiencing modern life, Yumeji takes Merry shopping and learns some surprising information on Merry. He listens to her talk about being alone for a long time, roughly ten years wandering from place to place. Thankfully Merry doesn’t dwell on that subject too long; of course, she has to maintain that fun side of her. Before leaving the store they bump into Yui and her friend almost knocking the doll from her hand. Yumeji saves the doll and of course gets an eyeful of the girls’ panties and gets slapped; yes, only happens in anime! People always see up your skirts somehow, hahaha.

Depressed Merry, she needs a hug.

Now that’s the Merry we love! Cute mode.

Kiraboshi!? Or is that Ranka Lee pose?

You could always peek on Merry and Isana in the bath…or other girls.

Before they can return home, they enter a random battle zone! And enter a wheat field for finally meeting Engi. Merry taunts the angel girl and a fight breaks out between the two, however it is cut short when Engi explains something important about dream demons. She explains once a demon leaves the dream world they can never return to their own world again. Damn, talk about a huge bomb for Merry! This bit of news shocks her and Yumeji rushes in to snap her out of it, only to get himself injured by one of Engi’s weapons.

Yumeji- “Damn…She makes me want chicken wings.”

Merry is extremely flexible! Look at those catching sword with two hands skills yo!

Crazy face battle! Who wins? You decide!

Wait…I have seen this before, does Ezra ring any bells?

*Cough* Fairy Tail *cough*

Didn’t like Yumeji getting hurt here, but that change in art style with Merry was great! Loved the ink and sketched look.

Extra Dreams

Don’t cry, Isana! You will get your own dream demon one day!

DREAM TEAM, ASSEMBLE!!!

Merry-“Heh look at that bird chick with the crazy name, mine name is well…yeah”

Engi looks cool, I loved her design & getting to see more of her

End thoughts:

Fosh: The first bit was all about getting more info on Merry’s background and where she comes from; well it wasn’t her dream world but soon she will remember I am sure. She does get emotional which is a change from what most are used to for a main character, so a great change of pace knowing she can get that way when it matters.

Yui’s introduction seems great too; she is just trying to help Engi and you can also see that Engi isn’t all that evil. Then again most of the dream demons don’t ever appear to be evil, most are just lonely looking for a friend or someone to be close to. I want to see a truly evil one soon! I know there are various versions of the demons out there. The fight animation seemed to take a big crash, reminded me of that episode of Birdy, still fun to watch.

And now with that huge bomb dropped on Merry, not being able to return to her original world after all the stuff she has done till now is just bad. But I have a feeling she will find another way or realize she has friends in the real world and stay. During that scene I was so waiting for Yumeji to bust out some awesome power up! But ah well, looks like he will help Merry unlock some new power up.

Hime: Even though I knew it was gonna happen I was still like “Noes!” Yumeji got owned. He couldn’t have tackled the baddie or pulled Merry free, oh no, he’s gotta be the selfless sacrificial hero. Sigh~ It was so avoidable! But then again if he had where would we get our dorama? Now Merry’s soul will be crushed, and Yumeji…well, how much drama can you conjure while you’re a fking vegetable, honestly?! While I did see this coming from pretty early on, I’m interested to see how Merry will deal with it. I hope she doesn’t just mope and cry like the preview suggests. If she goes all revenge-badass, though, now THAT would be awesome! Fingers crossed for that reaction.

While the fight scenes in this show set a standard of being pretty decent, there hadn’t been a really fun/kinetic showdown since the first episode. This, I thought, delivered closest to that. While the flashbacks of the dream demon did break up the action kind of awkwardly, the fight itself I was pretty satisfied by. There was a real weight behind the movements while still keeping them graceful. The kind of “looser” animation really helps with that. But where adding more frames can make it look cheap, because there is less dimensional colours, this one kept shading and highlights in more so it didn’t feel as flimsy. Unlike some other shows *cough* Naruto. *cough*

The dreamscapes themselves continue to be cool, while I think they’re taking maybe a bit too much liberty with the colours sometimes. Colour pallets can’t just change guys! You should really have a reason for suddenly changing everyone to red tones! Aside from the obvious “bad shit is happening, for the dorama, for the dorama we must have red!” On a random note I didn’t know there was such a thing as “manly flour”? Nice one, Yumeji, even when you’re confusing you’re still entertaining. And…did they run out of animation at the end or something? What was with that still kind of scrawl of Merry’s “oh noes” face? Merry is artsy enough, thanks. I am dying to see what happens next, I don’t know if I can wait another week…Episode 6 brings the promise of John Doe!

Preview!

Just give Yumeji a kiss that will wake him, well maybe. Next week seems to be a drama themed episode with Yumeji knocked out. I did see Merry glow with some odd ring like formation, which we have already seen in the opening video. So, like Hime said fingers crossed for Merry to get all awesome on us!

Thanks!