StoryWhen I started watching Yumeria, I really had no idea what I was in for. I had heard rumors it was a sci fi series, and others that it was of the ecchi variety. Nevertheless, I decided to just pop it in and see what happened. Needless to say, I was a little disappointed.
Don’t get me wrong, the first few episodes aren’t that bad at all. The series opens with Tomokazu narrating the fact that it’s his birthday. He falls asleep and wakes up in a dream world where pointy robotic creatures of sorts are flying around causing mayhem. Enter Mone, an absolutely obnoxious little girl (who says nothing but "Mone" like some sort of goddamn Pikachu), who ends up lying next to Tomokazu when he wakes up! Now, even though Mone’s nasal cree started getting to me right away, I still felt like Yumeria had something going for it. We follow Tomokazu to school where his perverted teacher acts in a spazzy manner and makes me laugh. We meet more of Tomokazu’s relatives and friends who end up joining him in his dream world through unexplainable means. And above all else, there’s not a lot of ecchi, making the fairly generic action, yet amusing and interesting storyline stand on its own.
But then, my friends, something happens. The ecchi kicks in. I’m talking full blown jiggling out of nowhere ridiculous ecchi. And that, I’m sorry, is just not my cup of tea. Yumeria starts out decent and turns into a ridiculous jiggle-fest whose entire purpose is to help young men around the globe lose some of their sperm after a rousing love session with their right hand. On top of the gratuitous fan service, Yumeria also attempts to make the plot somewhat interesting and fails miserably. The entire idea of the battles in the dream world ends up being unoriginal and boring. The fights are truly generic and after about 3 transformations (jiggling in tow, of course) I was sick of seeing anything related to a battle. In addition the pacing is horrendous. The first few episodes have a good deal of action in the dream world, which made me hope that even if the ecchi was ridiculous, that the plot might save the day. If only that were the case. Instead, probably two thirds of the entire series ends up being a generic harem comedy worthy of the toilet. Literally most of the episodes revolve around Tomokazu (who, I swear, changes from fairly normal to a raging horny bastard in only a few episodes) and him trying to cop a feel with everyone – including his SISTER. We see him and his horde of girlfriends at school and at home, always doing annoying things. Mone follows everyone around like a mentally challenged poodle yapping "Mone Mone! Mo ne ne! Mone!" ... how about SHUT THE FUCK UP! The ham sandwich that I ate today (which is currently digesting in my body, feeding my cells with all sorts of tasty nutrients... mmm) has more intellect than the left toe of stupid Mone. Just stop talking already!
...anyways, needless to say, the plot of Yumeria ends up sucking hard. I found myself totally uninterested in the weak dream world plot near the end (which, I might add, tries to cram a lot of story suddenly into the last two episodes, even though the previous five were stupid harem garbage), and in general, found almost nothing redeeming about it. The teacher stops being funny and ends up looking creepy. The girls are so stereotypical for an anime series that I wanted to puke everywhere and then eat it. I didn’t because I wanted to keep that ham sandwich safe and sound in my belly, but still, it’s the thought that counts.
So let’s see: boring unoriginal story which could have been interesting and sci fi and ended up being a generic ecchi filled harem series... a high rating? Survey says? *Red X flashes on the screen*
AnimationAnyone out there who claims Yumeria had absolutely gorgeous animation probably has never seen any other game-to-anime transition out there. Admittedly, some aspects of the animation were quite stunning. Specifically, the desolate look of the dream world with its cubes in the sky and destroyed buildings was very pretty to look at. The special moves were interesting the first time (but not the other 324925893276 times we saw them in only twelve episodes), and the character designs were "cute", though generic.
Once again though, the ecchi really ruined it for me. I don’t like seeing huge jiggling breasts just for the hell of it. I don’t like seeing those same breasts jiggle wildly when the transformation scene is happening. So hey, call me biased but that will influence this score a little. In addition, the character designs and coloring scheme were so utterly generic and done before that I couldn’t help be irritated at the lack of originality. Why is it that all harem comedies or dating sim transitions must have characters with bright sea green, neon pink and violet hair? It looks like someone vomited up a bunch of crayons all over the characters’ heads. They looked like every-other-harem-female out there. Nothing stood out about any of the characters that made them memorable or interesting in any way, due to how plain they looked. There was the girl with the glasses, the girl with the long hair, the two Lolita-bait girls, etc. Good animation in general but too generic and too ecchi-filled for me. SoundShockingly enough, the dub for Yumeria was quite good. So good, in fact, that I liked it better than the original Japanese version. Shocking, I know, but it’s true. The Japanese audio was also decent, but I think I preferred the dub a little more. Out of all the actors the one that deserves a "please shoot me now, in the head, five times, with a javelin" award was definitely Mone’s voice actor, in both languages. Good god she annoyed me. The rest of the music was totally forgettable so to be honest, I don’t know what to write here. I remember synths but nothing else, and that really says something about the quality of the music. CharactersThe cast of characters in Yumeria, as I’ve already alluded to, is boring and lifeless. Tomokazu is a freakishly perverted young man who wants nothing more than to feel up everyone, including his relatives (*shudders*). The girls have no personalities and no depth, except the extremely poor attempts at giving them any sort of past or brain power. They exist to yell "waii!" (or in other evil cases, "MONE MONE!"), sit around jiggling in bathing suits, or grope each other in another one of Tomokazu’s fantasies. Oh, and also to fly around and fight in battles that are lame. The only character that saves the day even a little is the teacher, who also ends up being merely creepy and not funny by the end. OverallOverall, I give Yumeria two thumbs down. Little to nothing is redeeming about it. Even if you love ecchi, I still think you’d probably end up considering this a generic harem comedy. The plot is forced upon you in the last few episodes after a heavy period of inactivity, and ends up sucking. The characters are shallow and pointless, the music forgettable, and the animation unexciting if you’ve seen even a small amount of anime series out there. Would I watch this again? Hell no. I could have spent those 6 hours doing something more interesting like vacuuming the cat hair off my couch. I won’t make that mistake twice!
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