Ore No Test: Yumekui Merry

Its raining moe-ness this winter season. And one of the outstanding animes which I have been waiting for is this; Merry Dream Eater, or Yumekui Merry for short. Produced by JC Staff who gave you last year's Ookami-san, Index II and Milky Holmes, what we'll be expecting are lots of flat-chested fanservice and striped high-knee socks in action.

As the synopsis tells us, Fujiwara Yumeji has the power to see a person's dream in the form of colored blobs surrounding the person's body when he looks at them through his fingers, and identifies it based on the color's quantity and variations. You could say its a gift, as he uses it effortlessly to foresee his classmates' dreams when they asked for it. Though as for him, when he peeks out his dream, it always has been dark.

Black, the color of death, which implies to nightmares. The very same nightmare that's been occuring to him too often since the episode started. Yes, the pursuit of cats.

For some reason he's being chased by talking cats in gloves and boots on a rather unworldly scenery similar to SHAFT's Madoka Magica. Only that they've got moving fishbones as clouds. And his last dream was a warning that their boss is coming to get him next time.

As for Yumeji's life, he's been living together with his childhood friend Isana. Hmm, not bad. She's gentle, she's cute, and she's a meddlesome waifu! They're friends with Saki and Akiyanagi. Seriously, there's always an eccentric girl and a weird fellow supporting the main character for every anime isn't it? Saki has a Ritsu-like aura while Akiyanagi has a habit of making one-liner poems to tease somebody. As how I see it, Yumeji's also a part of the Literature club along with Akiyanagi and saki, with the glasses-girl Hoshino acting as their club president. And it seems like there's a twin teacher, but we'll get back to that soon.

That's a rather nice position isn't it? Anyway, Yumeji got into this situation when he was walking home when this girl fell from the tree arguing with the crows.

Merry Nightmare. Her name, or that's what she call herself. Judging from her looks she certainly is not normal. Though people around her don't realize that. Upon falling on Yumeji, she lost her puffy hat and immediately searched for it, leaving the confused Yumeji behind.

Continuing his walk, Yumeji found the girl's hat beaing dragged by a familiar cat. As he took the hat, he finds himself into the dreamworld again. Only that, he's awake, and whatever damage dealt to him is real.

This Spawn wannabe is the leader of the cat gang. He's Chaser John Doe. I might assume he's also a cat considering his mobs. Chaser's ambition is leave the eerie dreamland and walk onto the real world. In order to fulfill that, he must acquire a vessel from the real world. In other words, Yumeji.

Now there goes Merry to the rescue, awesomely kicking cat butt. Merry is also a being in the dream world but in contrast to Chaser, she's trapped in the real world and aims to go back by beating the hell out of Chaser. But as how the story goes, Chaser retreats leaving the them behind while Merry chases after him begging for a way to go back to the dream world. And what happened? She miserably failed.
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For the first episode Yumekui gave a good impression so far. Good story, good pacing, although I dislike the part when Isana talked to Saki and Akiyanagi. Its so unnatural as if she was forced to introduce them while responding to the pun at the same time.

What I like in this series is Merry. Why? Because she's so amusing. She shows a lot of expressions in the first episode. More importantly, she reminds me of certain Touhou characters. First is her puffy hat, that bears resemblace to to Yukari Yakumo's hat which both had ribbons. Then her way of talking to the crows just like Aya Shameimaru. Okay maybe I'm thinking too much. Ayayayayaya~ But that doesn't take the fact that the OP and ED themes are done by IOSYS - who makes a lot of popular Touhou PVs.