One day, Haruto wakes up on a round bed in a strange room, with the only familiar things around being his smartphone and headphones. After encountering a strange girl in white named Lily who claims to be his sister and a man who looks like a cat, Haruto learns that he is in a dream belonging to Yuko, a girl stricken with Sleeping Beauty Syndrome. Yuko is the Witch of Thunder, an all-powerful woman who makes the dream world bow before her to ensure she’s known the strongest, the best, and the most fun person around. Haruto’s sister tells him that he must wake Yuko up by killing her in the dream in order to break the “spell” she’s under, but Haruto’s got some other ideas about what might be keeping Yuko asleep. – ANN
Streaming: Crunchyroll with simuldub on Funimation
Episodes: TBA
Source: Multimedia Franchise
Episode 1 Summary: The Witch of Thunder rules her dream world with an iron fist, turning its denizens into avatars of cuteness and destroying anything that she doesn’t like. Enter Haruto, a sullen teenage guy who seems unaffected by the inherent strangeness of the dreamscape around him. He’s the only person who can see the elusive “Lily,” a legend of the dream world and a white whale of sorts to Professor Kanzaki, a researcher who appears in dreams as an anthropomorphic cat. As the two chase after this mysterious girl in white, the Witch of Thunder clues into their location and begins the process of bending the two interlopers to her will. Kanzaki is quickly dispatched, but Haruto refuses to see what is happening as anything other than a strange dream. It’s through this skepticism that he’s able to distinguish the Witch for who she is – the dream persona of a girl named Yuko, whose feelings were hurt by a group of bullies. Haruto releases Yuko, who then awakes again in the real world. But Haruto’s job seems far from over as he awakens and finds himself still within a surreal setting.
Impressions: Having been an anime fan for so many years, it’s difficult to avoid comparing a current anime to ones with similar ideas, especially if the earlier examples were executed more successfully. At first glance, 18if seems to be about a mysterious young man who encounters women with problems, and due to some inherent talent on his end is able to heal these women and release them from their suffering. Another anime that immediately came to mind was one of my favorites, the horror drama Mononoke. For those who are unfamiliar, Mononoke follows a character known as the Medicine Seller, who identifies and exorcises malevolent spirits. The show is fairly episodic, but one common thread between all the stories is that they shine a light on the injustices done to women throughout history (mostly Japanese history, but with some minor variations I think many of the experiences could be interpreted as fairly universal); the titular mononoke are based around various Japanese yokai and spirits, but are colored by how they originate from things like forced abortion, abusive relationships, and workplace sexism. I’ve seen some reviews that interpret the show as being terrible for women, in that the stories are built entirely around women’s suffering. For me, however, I found a lot of personal meaning in how the stories were presented – each story arc revolves around uncovering the truth, specifically the truth of the life lived by women and how their poor treatment represents an illness within society.
Having seen one of the very best representations of this kind of storytelling, it’s difficult to overlook a situation in which the structure of the show seems similar but the execution feels lacking in depth and nuance. Whereas the Medicine Seller’s otherworldly presence in Mononoke and his ability to uncover subtleties and details allows the truth of each situation to be exposed on its own (usually out of the mouths of the people who caused the problem in the first place), Haruto’s sarcastic disinterest and unaffected nature runs contrary to the fact that he seems to be naturally able to navigate and control aspects of the dream environment. He seems more alarmed by the fact that Lily, a girl only he seems able to see, calls him her brother than the fact that he’s about to be squashed by giant teddy bears or hacked-up by a vengeful witch. None of his actions seem purposeful, and while this might be typical for an anime hero getting oriented to a new and strange environment, the lack of any consequences for the character and his lack of focus, direction, or even personality leads directly to a lack of tension throughout the episode.
The episode itself attempts to bank on its presentation of the dream environment as disorienting and weird. Much of the first half of the episode is short on dialog and seems more focused around the various environments that Haruto encounters as he wakes up multiple times from within some sort of dream-ception. One thing that I love about animation is that it can be utilized fairly readily to create settings that cannot exist as easily when portrayed in live-action film. In this case, though, a problem arises from the fact that dreams, while often strange, still often have some element of reality to them. One of the most affecting things about the animated movie Paprika was that Satoshi Kon was able to capture both the reality and the strangeness of dreaming so completely. The dream settings were often mundane, or drawn from film imagery that wasn’t especially extraordinary; when pieced together with representations of the dream-specific feeling of being unable to run quickly or seeing faceless background “characters” however, the experience felt very genuine. 18if represents dreams as wacky abstract environments and characters that seem visually complete but purposely out-of-place, which definitely provides for something zany, but doesn’t give the same unsettling impression of a genuine human dream.
This, I think, is where the concept falls apart. Ultimately we learn that the dream world is something of a witch’s labyrinth a-la Madoka Magica; Yuko falls asleep in the real world as the result of some cruel bullying from her classmates, and a malignant dream in which she has sovereignty and has the luxury of being pampered and given total attention is the result. That set up seems fine except for the fact that there are literally zero visual connections between that reality and Yuko’s dream prison, and the attempt to connect the two conceptually through her need for control is pretty pasted-on. Add to that the fact that there’s the potential for some garbage gender dynamics between the “hero” – a typical teenage anime guy – and a bunch of girls(?)* with problems, and I’m very hesitant about where this show is going.
As much as the first episode attempts to present a visually engaging setting, there’s a major setback in the fact that the animation is merely functional rather than striking. Not every anime series enjoys the benefits a lot of lead time and great planning; I have no idea what the turnaround time on this show was and so it’s difficult for me to be too judgmental, especially when anime, despite being a visual medium, is almost always more about the story and characters for me. Sadly, though, it’s difficult to ignore the fact that the character animation in this first episode is kind of shoddy and underwhelming for a first episode and I’m concerned that, if it looks like this now, it will probably look even worse later on.
Having been an anime fan through Gonzo’s heyday with properties like Gankutsuou, I always kind of hope that they might somehow end up involved with another artful classic close to that level. While this show seems to want to make an attempt at visual uniqueness and the cultivation of intrigue via the route of confusing and disorienting the viewer, it falls short in establishing a story (or protagonist) that feels genuine, and that’s really a shame. Yes, things might get better later on and yes, all the sexist undertones may at some point be subverted in favor of something better, but I don’t have a lot of faith.
*I’m just speculating due to the use of the term “witch” which normally suggests some kind of malignant, aggressive, or otherwise contrary femininity, unfortunately.
Pros: Gonzo, you tried?
Cons: Visually disjointed. I interpret the set up as having some sexist undertones.
Grade: C-
