Someday's Dreamers - Precious Feelings (Vol. 3)

Rating:
Summary: Anime coming-of-age drama with a paranormal slant
Review: "Someday's Dreamers, Vol. 3: Precious Feelings" offers the final four episodes of this achingly beautiful, heartfelt dramatic series and brings the story to a powerful, uplifting close. The 12-episode Japanese animated TV series posits a near-future where a government "Bureau of Mage Labor" recruits and trains "mages" to use their Special Powers (usually of a psychic nature) for the civic good. The focus here is on a group of young people in training in Tokyo, with special emphasis on one girl, a young teenager from rural Japan named Yume. The story arc contained in these episodes follows Yume's crisis of confidence after an elderly client regrets her request for a "mage action" and suffers a disaster thereafter. Yume plays back the events and incidents leading up to this point, seeks advice from her teacher, friends and fellow trainees, and goes off on her own for an all-night journey of self-discovery, before coming to a plateau of understanding.

This series, particularly in its final stage, has several messages for adolescent and teenaged viewers about using your skills wisely, accepting the inevitability of loss and defeat, and not always second-guessing yourself. Fans with the patience to stay with it past the slow parts and overlook some of the New Age-type magical touches (e.g. Yume's all-purpose dolphin spirit entity) will be amply rewarded by the great care taken in the dialogue and characterizations to pass on basic truths about love, destiny, purpose, inner power, sacrifice and growth.

Despite the supernatural flourishes, the animation is executed in a straightforward, realistic style, both in character design and background detail. The action is rooted firmly in the streets and neighborhoods of contemporary Tokyo. (One valuable extra on the DVD offers a slide show of color photos of Tokyo taken to provide models for much of the background art in the series.) The home base for most of the characters is a "salsa club," owned and operated by Yume's teacher, Masami Oyamada, who employs most of the other main characters. The multicultural flavor introduced by this club and its Latin music sounds is enhanced by the multinational range of characters, which include the attractive Latina bartender, Milinda, and the dour English mage, Angela, with her large cross pendant, long skirts, and short blond hair.


Rating:
Summary: An Excellent Ending
Review: In its last four episodes, the story of "Someday's Dreamers" suddenly but subtly augments itself with a little extra dose of substance, and it gives the show the impact and emotional punch it has mostly lacked to this point.

Inoue-san may be a bit more confident now than he was when we met him in disc two, but it hasn't helped Yume any. She's begun to question intently both the meaning of Special Power and why she ever decided to become a mage. Meanwhile, Master Chief Ginpun himself gives her a perplexing assignment for her mage certification test.

Here, "Someday's Dreamers" succeeds where many other shows fail--when it begins on its more philosophical bent with these episodes, it avoids both making Yume overly angsty, and using meaningless, pseudo-philosophical jargon to appear intelligent. Instead, Yume's questions seem like the sort of thing a young mage might actually ask herself in that situation. (Okay, so there's some suspension of disbelief involved. Work with me, here.)

At the same time, we learn more and more about Oyamada-sensei's heretofore mysterious past. Once again, Dreamers demonstrates its balance; despite some fairly lengthy flashbacks to help explain about Oyamada, it never feels like we're being barraged with exposition. And finally, the end of the show feels both appropriate and satisfying.

If you've followed "Someday's Dreamers" this far, there's no reason not to get this last volume. And those who dropped out at the beginning because the cuteness level was too high might even want to try coming back in with these episodes. Truly a fine conclusion, one that pushes "Someday's Dreamers" from being a "pretty good" show to a "really good" show--and if Dreamers is your cup of tea, maybe we're even talking greatness.

~

Rating:
Summary: An Excellent Ending
Review: In its last four episodes, the story of "Someday's Dreamers" suddenly but subtly augments itself with a little extra dose of substance, and it gives the show the impact and emotional punch it has mostly lacked to this point.

Inoue-san may be a bit more confident now than he was when we met him in disc two, but it hasn't helped Yume any. She's begun to question intently both the meaning of Special Power and why she ever decided to become a mage. Meanwhile, Master Chief Ginpun himself gives her a perplexing assignment for her mage certification test.

Here, "Someday's Dreamers" succeeds where many other shows fail--when it begins on its more philosophical bent with these episodes, it avoids both making Yume overly angsty, and using meaningless, pseudo-philosophical jargon to appear intelligent. Instead, Yume's questions seem like the sort of thing a young mage might actually ask herself in that situation. (Okay, so there's some suspension of disbelief involved. Work with me, here.)

At the same time, we learn more and more about Oyamada-sensei's heretofore mysterious past. Once again, Dreamers demonstrates its balance; despite some fairly lengthy flashbacks to help explain about Oyamada, it never feels like we're being barraged with exposition. And finally, the end of the show feels both appropriate and satisfying.

If you've followed "Someday's Dreamers" this far, there's no reason not to get this last volume. And those who dropped out at the beginning because the cuteness level was too high might even want to try coming back in with these episodes. Truly a fine conclusion, one that pushes "Someday's Dreamers" from being a "pretty good" show to a "really good" show--and if Dreamers is your cup of tea, maybe we're even talking greatness.

~