Someday's Dreamer ep.1-4

December 29, 2003 | 10 Comments

I have to say that I purchased the first DVD + box purely based on the fact that I like the illustration on the box and the DVD cover. Well, that'll teach me. I mean the show is not bad or anything like that but rather it's not the sort of story that seems to engage my attention. The show seems to be formatted on what I called "mission of the week" storyline, where the main hero gets to help a one-off character in an episode and then do the same thing all over again for another one-off character in another episode. As a result, little to no character development is given to the regulars, at least not much in these first four episodes. And in most cases, the character development is tied to the 'mission of the week' that the main characters are involved in.

Someday's Dreamer or Mahoutsukai ni Taisetsuna Koto tells its story from the perspective of a 17 years old teenager called Yume Kikuchi. Yume has come all the way from a small town in Iwate prefecture to Tokyo in order to be trained as an apperentice mage. In the first episode, the viewers get to see Yume's confusion as she arrives in the busy city while carrying a lot of luggage. Thankfully, instead of encountering a mugger, she instead encounter a nice young guy who decided to help her lifting her heavy luggage to the train station. Feeling indebted, Yume wants to repay the kindness of the guy. Unfortunately, her method of thank you is one where she magically shoved a bunch of money into the guy's pocket and shirt as her train departs the train station.

A couple of hours later, Yume arrives in a big building where she meets her instructor, Masami Owayada. Masami quickly introduced Yume to the rules and regulations of being a mage. To begin with, mages are not allowed to use their magical power without permission from the Bureau of Mage Labors. In fact, all mages must be registered and have a licence to practice their magic. Yume, realised that she had made a big mistake when she tried to repay the kindness of the young guy who helped her. On top of that, she found out later on that the guy has come to the Bureau of Mage Labors to return the money to Yume and to tell her that he doesn't need her money.

Episode 2 continues from episode 1 where Yume who's now filled with guilt, attempts to search for the young guy to apologise for her rash decision. Meanwhile, Mr.Owayada is told by the Chief of Bureau of Mage Labors to pay special attention to Yume since apparently the money that Yume stuffed into the pocket of the young boy had never existed before. So, in other words, Yume's power is strong enough to actually make money out of her will. Back to Yume, she's almost given up looking for the guy when she noticed him working in a fast food restaurant. After some conversation, the guy revealed to Yume that he was offended at her because all of his life he's always trying to survive on his own. He doesn't need a hands down from anyone.

The guy also explains that his attempt at helping Yume was sincere because he can understand what it feels like to be helpless. He revealed that he actually lost one of his legs due to an accident. When he saw Yume looking confused and scared the first time she arrived in the big city, he wanted to help her because he once felt that way after he lost his leg. The guy then stares wistfully at the soccer field and say that he once wanted to become a professional soccer player but had to forego that dream now because his prosthetic leg is not suitable for an activity that requires fast speed. Hearing his story, Yume considers it for a moment and then decides to use her magic power on the boy.

Upon unleashing her power, the guy suddenly finds himself in the middle of a professional soccer game, where both of his legs are intact. He then managed to kick the ball to the goalpost and find himself surrounded by a bunch of kids who want him to teach them how to play soccer. Now, to be honest, I'm actually not sure what happened to this guy. Did Yume actually restored the guy's leg that was amputated a long time ago? Or did she simply give him the courage (through that fantasy) to play soccer regardless of his condition? My guess is the first one because not long after that, the Bureau of Mage Labor identify an unregistered magic use for healing, a power that IIRC, is not allowed to be used without a proper procedure.

The third episode allows the viewer to get a little glimpse into the personality of Yume and another apprentice mage from England called Angela Charon Brooks. In this episode, the two apprentice mage are assigned the task of helping a nightclub hostess to be able to be featured in the media (television, radio, newspaper, etc). Mr. Owayada realised that the request is quite abstract and asks Yume to find out the reason as to why this client submit an application asking for magical help from the mages. Yume and Angela soon finds out that the woman is in love with a man who's currently in prison. The woman wants the man to know that she still loves him despite the fact that he's now in prison. She doesn't want him to lose hope while he was in prison. And she feels the best way for him to know that she'll be waiting for him if he reads that in a newspaper or other media.

Hearing this, both Yume and Angela agree to help her out to fulfill her request. From this, we get to see how both Yume and Angela approach the situation. While Yume's persistence is mostly motivated from her desire to help the client, Angela's persistence is mostly motivated by her desire to prove that she is a powerful apprentice mage. Regardless of their motivations, neither managed to make the client's wish into a reality. Knowing this, Mr. Owayada who has been secretly observing the client's good will nature (she often donates her hard-earned money to charity), decides to grant the wish himself. Not long after the case is closed, Yume finds out from a newspaper that their client has won a lottery and staged a press conference to tell the media that she's going to donate all of her winning to charity. She also tells the press that her reason is to let her loved one, who's currently in prison, knows that she still loves him.

In the fourth episode, Yume encounters a very young boy who turns out to have the potential to become a mage. The boy, however, hates his special power because his friends often accused him of using it to make himself better at school. As a result of his hatred for his own power, he can't use it very well. The boy normally is okay with this but tonight, he really needs it to stop the rain that can ruin his plan of moon-watching with his friends and teacher. Hearing his story, Yume remembers how she used to dislike her special power as well and decided to help the young boy. With her help, Yume managed to give the young boy, his friends, and the teacher a rain free evening as well as a picnic on the moon (again, I'm not sure if this is just their imagination of if it actually really happens in reality). Because of this, the Bureau of mage labor once again detected an unregistered use of magic. However, since Yume was channeling the young boy's power, they never find out that it was her who help the boy. The episode ends with the arrival of a new mysterious woman who seems to have a connection with the chief of mage labor.

As you can probably notice, my biggest problem with the show is the fact that sometimes I can't tell if the result of Yume's magical power really happens in reality or if it simply creates an illusion where the people who are under the illusion think that they're doing something they normally can't do or be in someplace they can't possibly be (ie. the moon). I also for some reason dislike the extremely saccharine content of the show. This is a funny thing for me to say since I like Fruits Basket, which also has its share of saccharine moments. The difference is that, I think Fruits Basket managed to keep its saccharine levels to a minimum and most of the time followed it with a rather sarcastic humour. Unfortunately, this is not the case with Someday's Dreamer. Thankfully, this is a show with low episode count (13 episodes) so I don't see too big of a problem with continuing the show since I do like the artworks after all.

© memento 2003