Sheex

Admittedly, I tried very hard to enjoy Someday's Dreamers as much as possible; in fact, going in I was practically convinced that it was a top-notch series by the premise alone.  However, my level of disappointment steadily grew the longer I watched, ultimately bottoming out around the middle of the series.  While it managed to turn itself around and end to a sound bit of a closure, the fact that it took a number of reluctant, forced watches to get through leaves me with a fair amount of skepticism regarding its quality.

That's certainly not to say that Someday's Dreamers was bad;  quite the contrary - it had the makings and the mechanics of a top tier series.  I'm not quite sure where it took a wrong turn, as its characters were mostly likeable, its story well composed, and overall quite decided in its intended direction.  Yet, regardless, it ended up being utterly droll and monotonous at times; at its very best moments I was only mildly entertained.  Perhaps it was its emphasis on childish, simplistic topics, but the story never gave me any incentives to care about its events aside from the fact that its characters were generally amiable.  Even more, some events, such as Angela's sporadic confession toward the middle of the series, just seemed completely out of place, especially since they were given no follow up.

In many ways it seemed as if the series had a topic quota to fill within its twelve episodes, and randomly mixed and matched its events to compensate time slots as needed.  Ultimately, most of the mage requests sent the heroines' way just seemed bland, as they tried to elicit a wide array of emotional responses with minimal viewer involvement.  Overall, I'd say it suffered from the same flaw that hurt the similarly approached Shinigami no Ballad - compelling premise, un-compelling content, and an ultimately average anime.

While it might not have had the most enticing story components, at the very least Someday's Dreamers looked nice.  With smoothly integrated CGI and catchy character designs, for being five years old it didn't look the part.  Even so, I noticed on a number of occasions a jump back and forth between the usage bright and dull colors (between day and dusk primarily), which provided for some odd scenery from time to time.  Though it's not an extraordinarily big deal, it does make backdrops such as sunsets look a bit odd.

Lastly, I noticed some minor inconsistencies with lip synching toward the end of the series, as a few scenes looked to be almost entirely static with hardly any mouth movement at all; though, in all fairness, this might have just been a problem with my video and not something within the anime itself.

While nothing extraordinary or spectacular, the large number of simplistic piano pieces fit the series like a glove.  They oozed the very casual, laid back feel that makes slice of life series come alive, and I found them to front the intended atmospheres when the story didn't quite pull through.  In fact, when I did find myself bored, I tended to sit back and listen to music in the background for entertainment, and it never did disappoint.  Top notch voice acting rounds the rest of the sound score out, as while the side characters were pretty standard, the main cast (especially Yume) were all fantastically voiced.   

Someday's Dreamers characters were...quite an eclectic assortment.  Some, such as Yume, I really liked; others, like Angela, annoyed me to no end.  While the main characters versed well rounded, distinct designs, the supporting cast just didn't seem to do much.  Each character was only briefly touched on in one way or another, which made them seem a bit dull despite being a recurring cast; save for Yume, I never really got to know any of them come the story's close.  After having their respective stories told, they seemed to vanish in importance; their significance devolved to little more than mere scenery props.  Thus, while ultimately all the characters served their respective roles, they never really got beyond being mere pawns of the story, and that perhaps was their only true weakness - had they been animated in such a fashion to attach themselves to the viewer, I think the quality of the series as a whole would have skyrocketed dramatically.  All in all, they had the potential to be great, but only ended up being good.

Despite its faults, I can easily see some people liking Someday's Dreamers more than I did.  Even so, I can't overlook the fact that it intrinsically bored me on many occasions.  At the very least, for fellow fans of slice of life it's something not to be passed up, as even I thought it to be slightly above average overall.  The moments of boredom aren't so much "turn it off and go do other things" moments, but more along the lines of "meh, something interesting happen please."  Take it or leave it, but at worst you'll come out satisfied, and at best, as others have told me, completely blown away.