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Now in Japan
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Wednesday, 25 April 2007 17:00 |
 Three more jobs for the Dream Users, thanks to another batch of Yume Tsukai, with love and rejection being the issues this time around - and Rinko's about to find out that ploughing ahead without bothering to really learn about the dream that's causing the problems, isn't the smartest of ideas...
3 - Swelling Love
Rinko receives a call from an office worker who has been seeing strange things at work - a ghostly person who keeps appearing in the office. It's not just him who sees her, either, but the apparition seems to have a particular interest or connection with the office mail-girl, Yuuko Aomori, who's at a loss as to why the 'ghost' keeps following her around. Touko's quick to figure out the problem, though - Yuuko's in love with one of her workmates, Kouji Nagasaki, but she sees herself as too shy and plain to to anything about it, and the 'ghost' is the manifestation of how she wishes she really was. Unfortunately, this dream seems determined not to give up without a fight...
4 - Doyousei Appears
Rinko and Touko are off to Kyuushu, where a new Dream User, Satoka Sagawa, is working on a complicated case. Touko's been called in to help - partly as Satoka's a bit of a klutz and not the most reliable of people. With Satoka's parents being decidedly rich, there are some perks to working so far from home, but the case is an unusual one. The nightmare is inside a sculpture of a giant head, which is home to a gallery of pictures of a man named Masashi and his lost love, Megumi. Megumi had died a year earlier, but with Masashi unwilling to let go of his feelings for her, they've turned into something far more sinister than love...
5 - Family Affairs
Another week, another strange incident to deal with. This time, a father feels that something's not quite right around his home - bit he's unable to give Touko or Rinko and details about why he feels that way. Touko's not convinced there's really anything wrong, but Rinko decides to take on the case. With a little help from young girl Mayumi, she does a little investigating to see what she can uncover, but it's only when the family sit down for dinner and seem to get caught in a time loop that she finds the problem - and the cause: a dead relative who refuses to give up control of the family she left behind...
As much as it's fun seeing Rinko let loose with the heavy weaponry, I can't help but feel that Yume Tsukai's method for dealing with wayward nightmares is just a little daft. The more episodes I see, the more it's feeling like a mecha show in cute dreamworld trappings, and I'm not entirely sure it works as well as it could.
Satoka brings the number of Dream Users up to five (so logically there are two more to come), while the Dream Cyclone's appearance finally gives Misako something to do other than be sensitive about her age. Her method of activating the Cyclone is quite humourous, although I'd be willing to bet she wouldn't complain about losing her qualifications for that little job. Watch the show and you'll see what I mean.
Touko plays less of a role in these episodes, as well - in the opening stories, she was pivotal in figuring out what each nightmare represented and how to deal with it, while here she takes more of a back seat and lets Rinko do the hard work - and the wee'un isn't always successful. In a way it's good to know that the gang aren't invincible (Satoka's predecessor seems to have been killed "on the job", so it's not all fun and games), but you don't always get to see the consequences of failure when it happens, as it's not always obvious to Touko & co. The end of episode 3 would be a good example of that.
Part of me enjoys Yume Tsukai well enough to want to see more of it; another part of me keeps pointing out how daft the whole premise is and how it's probably not worth bothering with. At the moment, the curious side is winning - the show has its flaws but it's still enjoyable despite them, for now. How much longer that'll continue to be the case, remains to be seen... |
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