Yumeria

Tomokazu is a typical high school teenager: he is average height, has terrible grades, and has never had a girlfriend. However, on Tomokazu's 16th birthday, he awakens to find himself lying next to a naked blue-haired girl. He had just had a dream that night where he saw her flying around fighting a strange enemy. The only thing she says is "mone," so her name becomes Mone. Now everytime Tomokazu goes to sleep, he finds himself fighting the Faydooms in the dream world.

Yumeria, at its core, is a harem series. As the show progresses, more beautiful girls mysteriously end up in the dream world with Tomokazu and living at his house. When they sleep, they arrive in the dream world and fight the Faydooms to save the future of the planet. The story is pretty simple, but it works. One thing I am grateful for is that it avoids being a monster-of-the-week show. Most of the series is spent fooling around, which is a blast, but it does get a little more serious later on.

I think the show is funny; I laughed at a lot of the jokes. Most of the comedy is sexual humor with lots of hilarious dialogue. In Morea, the dream world, Tomokazu gives power to the girls by touching them. Then there is Tomokazu's teacher, who is attracted to Mone because he has a lolita complex.

The characters are fun and likeable. Tomokazu isn't a bland, cowardly lead. He is a self-admitted pervert, and this fact alone drives a lot of the comedy. In one scene, Tomokazu sees up Mizuki's skirt when she falls down and she asks him "Did you see?" His response isn't "Oops! It was an accident! I'm so sorry!", but "I can't help it. A guy is naturally like that." All the girls have feelings for Tomokazu. However, Mizuki, Tomokazu's childhood friend, receives the most attention. The show does a fantastic job with Mone's character, even though all she says is "mone," which is really cute. I do like Neneko, but her repetitive "Nono da (That it is)" line can get grating. The females aren't just there to be ogled at though, because they all have a roll to play in the story.

The show has quite a bit of fanservice from several outfits and differing female body types. Nanase is the large-breasted mature woman while Mizuki and Kuyou are the ideal, perky high school girls. Mone is more on the petite side and Neneko is an out-and-out loli. I think all the girls are rather attractive looking thanks to the alluring character designs. There are a few bath scenes, a beach episode, and the girls' naked transformation sequences put them in skimpy, skin-tight battle suits.

The artwork is good and the animation is all right. It does look a little stiff in places, but not bad at all for a TV series. There is some recycled animation for the attacks, which does bring down some of the excitement during battles. However, they aren't very long and they don't resort to using the same attack to finish off the enemies every time.

I've seen many harem shows, but I still had a lot of fun watching Yumeria. The characters and the comedy are what makes Yumeria what it is: an entertaining show. And frankly, that's all I really want from my anime. It's not be the best show ever made, but it's darn fun. Recommended for those who like cheerful, lighthearted shows.

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Written by Marc Frost on Mar 02, 2014