Yumekui Merry (Dream Eater Merry)

High school student Yumeji Fujiwara has the ability to see people's dreams. Despite the visions never appearing clear or concrete, he is able to predict them by sensing the person's "aura." Normally, this skill is a fun trick to play on his classmates, but Yumeji only ever sees himself having the same nightmare every night.

To his surprise, the nightmare continues in the middle of the day even before Yumeji has fallen asleep. The unexpected event was triggered by a dream demon—an inhabitant of the world of dreams who wants to use Yumeji's body as a vessel to fully enter the real world. However, Yumeji is saved by the timely arrival of Merry Nightmare, another dream demon who can somehow physically manifest without a host and is instead trying to return to her own realm.

As more dream demons continue to push into reality, it is up to Yumeji and Merry to fight back against the invasion before everyone's nightmares materialize.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Edit

Background

As the source material was still ongoing at the time, Yumekui Merry received an original ending. The director of the series, Shigeyasu Yamauchi, made a comment during an official talk session saying that he had regretted how the anime adaptation had turned out. Following this announcement, original creator Yoshitaka Ushiki made a statement on his official Twitter expressing his disappointment about the director's comment.

The series was released on Blu-ray and DVD as Dream Eater Merry by Sentai Filmworks on March 27, 2012.

Edit

Related Anime

Adaptation:	Yumekui Merry
Character:	Kirara Fantasia

More characters

Characters & Voice Actors

Nightmare, Merry

Main

Sakura, Ayane
Japanese

Fujiwara, Yumeji

Main

Okamoto, Nobuhiko
Japanese

Doe, John

Supporting

Nakata, Jouji
Japanese

Treesea, Mistilteinn

Supporting

Yahagi, Sayuri
Japanese

Threepiece, Engi

Supporting

Endou, Aya
Japanese

Tachibana, Isana

Supporting

Kayano, Ai
Japanese

Kounagi, Yui

Supporting

Akiya, Tomoko
Japanese

Kawanami, Chizuru

Supporting

Ueda, Kana
Japanese

Threepiece, Pati

Supporting

Gotou, Saori
Japanese

Hercules, Pharos

Supporting

Miyake, Kenta
Japanese

More staff

Staff

Nakamura, Shinichi

Producer

Yoshikawa, Atsushi

Producer

Tanaka, Junichirou

Producer

Yamauchi, Shigeyasu

Director, Episode Director, Storyboard

Edit

Opening Theme

"Daydream Syndrome" by Marina Fujiwara (藤原鞠菜)

Edit

Ending Theme

"Yume to Kibou to Ashita no Atashi (ユメとキボーとアシタのアタシ)" by Ayane Sakura (佐倉綾音)

Reviews

Jun 19, 2016

ReJaKted

Recommended

CONTAINS A FEW SPOILERS

I had heard of the name of Yumekui Merry on several boards around the internet about a year ago. I had never really looked into it or even read about it in the aforementioned boards. But, the name somehow just stuck with me.

Then, a couple of days ago, a person I know recommended this anime to me after I had asked for a random recommendation meeting the criteria of ‘it just has to be interesting’. Well, I just watched it and his suggestion really delivered. That was just that, though. Yumekui Merry is only interesting.

Now is that a bad thing? Definitely not. ... But is it enough? Absolutely no. The concept of Yumekui Merry was pretty good. It was really slow at first but it had me hooked in its strange world by the third episode. What I am saying is that the execution was bad. So, to explain my qualms with this anime, I’m going to have to spoil it a bit.

Yumeji is your average high school kid. Well, not completely average. He can read people’s dreams. He is not a super cool fighter or an extreme genius. OK, that’s good. He’s rather upbeat. That’s nice. One day, when his life is in danger while he’s trapped inside a ‘day dream’ (think of it as a battle arena in 3D fighting games), he meets this supernatural girl called Merry. She saves his life. Pretty soon, after some childish complications I will not go into, they become friends and try to get Merry back to the Dream-world.

Ah, the Dream-world. Well, that’s the place where Merry, along with many other characters, hail from. In Yumekui Merry, there is the Human-world and the Dream-world. Humans exist in the Human-world (obviously) and they can also visit the Dream-world when they go to sleep. Nightmares (Merry and the gang) live in the Dream-world. They can go to the Human-world but, they need a host if they wish to remain there. Well, not wish. They can’t go back to the Dream-world once they cross over. And that’s the overall plot here: Merry somehow crossed over and she wants to go back. Can she? I don’t know. Even if I disregard spoiling Yumekui Merry, I still can’t tell you. This is because the show is incomplete. It needs another season or two which we will never get.

Now let’s talk about Merry. She’s an amnesiac Nightmare. Talk about cliches. It’s a good thing I don’t mind cliches because I don’t believe in originality but that still doesn’t mean I’m not irked by this. After 13 episodes, I still don’t know just what KIND of Nightmare (plot-point) Merry is. In fact, she doesn’t even regain a single memory over the course of the show. I get it, season one. Incomplete story. Yadda-yadda-yadda. But, this is not how you make shows. Apparently, the fault lies with the director and the animation studio because the Yumekui Merry manga (ongoing) has gotten much better scores and reviews.

And I hope that the manga is, indeed, better. This is because at this point of the review, I’m supposed to talk about the side-characters. But, I can’t do that as none of them were memorable. I’m not joking. I just watched this anime a few hours ago. The only somewhat memorable character is Yumeji’s blond school friend who plays no actual part in the plot. He spouts haikus and talks like a bishi (super handsome homo man). That’s it. What’s worse is that he became rather annoying to me in the latter half part of the anime. How low can this go?

But, HEY! The world presented is interesting enough for me to not drop Yumekui Merry. Merry and the other Nightmares kick some serious ass. The fight scenes are fluid and roughly animated but, that actually adds a neat flair to it. It’s kind of hard to describe. Merry wants to go back to the Dream-world. She kicks the asses of other Nightmares to send them back and free their hosts with Yumeji’s help. OK, I guess. This is how most of the fights go. There is an added tension in the last few battles due to a plot twist that what Merry is doing is actually very very wrong but that just makes the fights worse for me.

The plot-point of emotional death for hosts when a Nightmare is defeated had surprised me but, it was kind of in poor taste. It didn’t really any impact. After some initial concerns, Merry and Yumeji are left to just deal with it. “Oh, we believe what we’re doing is not bad at all. There’s no point in spending more time in looking for an alternative method”. Well, OK then.

Outside of the fight scenes, the animation is pretty standard for it’s time. There’s nothing unique about it. It sometimes fluctuates in between scenes but I have no problem with that.

Voice acting is pretty normal as well. Nothing to comment on there.

Now, the music. I have to say that the background music is gorgeous. It reminds me of the old cartoons with their cheery orchestral music. So good. I’m already downloading the OST as I am writing this. I didn’t like the Opening song, though. Even the visuals of the Opening was bad – too damn dark and brown. What is this? Gears of War?! The Ending song is lovely.

Overall, I have to say that Yumekui Merry is only an interesting show. It’s not good nor is it really bad. It could have been done so much better.

Is it interesting enough for me to read the manga? Sadly, no. So I’m going to give it a 7 out of 10. It’s not a 6 because… dat suondtrak!

Should you watch Yumekui Merry? Sure, if you’ve got the time.

Open

Gift

Jan 10, 2016

prismajane

Mixed Feelings

13 episodes of this anime didn't give this anime justice. The story was pacing well until it gets to one of the middle episodes. It returns to regular pacing until towards the end. Everything is rushed and you weren't given enough time to process what was going on. They had trivial stuff in the anime that I felt were teasers, as if they were going to have a back story or explanation them, but none at all. The main character was also VERY stereotypical MC at the very end. The concept of this anime wasn't widened out enough for us to call it a great, ...

Open

Gift

Nov 20, 2020

EggheadLuna

Not Recommended

"There really are no hopes or dreams."

The tagline is Merry Nightmare's famous catchphrase, and it hold true to the source material. In the world of Yumekui Merry, dreams and reality are one and the same. Originally created by a 東方Project dōjin artist (known for creating the somewhat-famous comic, "Advent Cirno"), the story has a fresh take on the Japanese lore of dream demons, known as muma (夢魔); and the trickling string of fate that ties them to the entire human race!

⚠️ This review has light spoilers ⚠️

—Story/Characters

This series starts off strong, with the introduction of Jōji Nakata's character, "Chaser" John Doe! This character is enigmatic ...

Open

Gift

More stacks

Interest Stacks

Anime Onegai Subbed, Redubbed and Dubbed Animes by Third Parties

by Shakitonu31

13 Entries · 5 Restacks

Manga Time Kirara adaptations (2007-2015)

by qef15

43 Entries · 22 Restacks

Manga Time Kirara + Manga Time (Original) Animes

by Shakitonu31

49 Entries · 32 Restacks

More recommendations

Recommendations

View All

More news

Recent News

Anime Director's Regret For Failure of Yumekui Merry Disappoints Manga Author

Mangaka Ushiki Yoshitaka posted on his twitter that he was disappointed to read a report of director Yamauchi Shigeyasu's talk session about Yumekui Merry. In t...read more

May 30, 2011 9:41 PM by dtshyk | Discuss (93 comments)

Sentai Filmworks Licenses Yumekui Merry

According to their official website, Sentai Filmworks announced on Thursday that they have licensed Yumekui Merry. Sentai Filmworks has not specified when and how th...read more

Feb 12, 2011 8:26 AM by Prizkilla | Discuss (12 comments)

More discussions

Recent Forum Discussion

Poll: Yumekui Merry Episode 1 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 ) Kuro4735 - Jan 6, 2011	189 replies	by Limi »» Jan 6, 5:20 AM
Poll: Yumekui Merry Episode 13 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 ) stevewiess01 - Apr 7, 2011	180 replies	by waalex11 »» Sep 12, 2023 8:12 PM
Poll: Yumekui Merry Episode 12 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Blackbird - Mar 31, 2011	82 replies	by Archean-Return »» Aug 10, 2023 6:25 PM
Poll: Yumekui Merry Episode 11 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Yumekichi11 - Mar 24, 2011	97 replies	by Archean-Return »» Aug 10, 2023 5:42 PM
Poll: Yumekui Merry Episode 9 Discussion ( 1 2 ) stevewiess01 - Mar 3, 2011	86 replies	by Archean-Return »» Aug 10, 2023 4:07 PM

Recent Featured Articles

Black★Rock Shooter Series Analysis

A series background of the anime version of Black★Rock Shooter and reasons why you should watch it. This analysis also includes recommendations of other anime series that have similar feels and themes.

by Ai_Sakura

21,132 views

Spoiler

Recommendation Action Background Analysis Friendship Heart-warming Music Sci-fi

Yumekui Merry

Alternative Titles

Information

Statistics

Available At

Resources

Streaming Platforms

Synopsis

Background

Visit MALxJapan
MALxJapan -More than just anime-

Related Anime

Characters & Voice Actors

Nightmare, Merry

Fujiwara, Yumeji

Doe, John

Treesea, Mistilteinn

Threepiece, Engi

Tachibana, Isana

Kounagi, Yui

Kawanami, Chizuru

Threepiece, Pati

Hercules, Pharos

Staff

Opening Theme

Ending Theme

Reviews

Interest Stacks

Recommendations

Recent News

Recent Forum Discussion

Recent Featured Articles

MoreTop Anime

MoreTop Airing Anime

MoreMost Popular Characters

Yumekui Merry

Alternative Titles

Information

Statistics

Available At

Resources

Streaming Platforms

Synopsis

Background

Visit MALxJapan MALxJapan -More than just anime-

Related Anime

Characters & Voice Actors

Staff

Opening Theme

Ending Theme

Reviews

Interest Stacks

Recommendations

Recent News

Recent Forum Discussion

Recent Featured Articles

MoreTop Anime

MoreTop Airing Anime

MoreMost Popular Characters

Visit MALxJapan
MALxJapan -More than just anime-