Yumekui Merry

^I get either a Dragon or Big Bad vibe from John Deeeeewww; I don't imagine we'll be seeing him again for a few episodes, until Yumeji and Merry finally learn how to work together.

EDIT: Oh, and if anyone's curious about the name of the little girl in episode 3, it's Minato. For some reason, the fansubbers didn't carry over her Third-Person Person.

edited 23rd Jan '11 7:30:52 PM by RedSavant

I doubt John Doe will turn out to be a pure villain at all. Mainly because he lost his fight with Merry. Major villains don't do that. And his position of having some idea what's going on, but not knowing entirely puts him closer to the wildcard position

And he's just magnificent. Everything about him. I would be disappointed if he's a straightup villain.

I get a definite future-Enemy Mine/Teeth-Clenched Teamwork vibe from John Doe. He's been preying on Yumeji previously, and Merry has zero reason to like or trust him, but each side has some information the other wants.

edited 23rd Jan '11 8:57:17 PM by JakesBrain

Besides, if he was evil he'd have a more obviously sinister name. As it stands, CHASAH JOHN DEEEWWWWW is more hilarious than anything else.

'John Doe' is vaguely ominous. Kind of ruined by the cat ears, though

This show has more gratuitous midriff shots of the heroine than most anime. Not that I'm complaining...

Hell, I can't remember another series that even did this, let alone relied on the trope so openly.

What do you mean heroine? Merry's midriff is the main character. Merry herself is supporting cast.

Hm. Question. It seemed that Chris didn't know how to get his way back, but apparently Merry beating the shit out of him forced him back. (Or he died). If it's that simple, then how is it that Merry can't go back?

Also previews seem pretty indicative of the "angry individual confronts MC, [[EXPOSITION]], MC learns that what s/he has been doing had unintended consequences but eventually decides that it's worth it anyways, as the alternative presented by angry individual is unthinkable."

The MotW parts are pretty dull. On the plus side, the first half of this episode had some impressive Les Yay

^ Definitely agreeing with you on the Motw part. You have 12 episodes, people, you cannot afford to do Motw if you are planning on having a reasonably paced climax.

Man, what a show. Definitely one of the best of the new season, though with gems like Freezing and Mitsudomoe making up the bulk of the lineup, that's less of a compliment than this show deserves.

Judging by the way thing are currently going, we get to meet that angel-looking Muuma in the next episode. In the manga, Yumeji rescues Merry from a Heroic BSoD by being wounded by the Dream Demon right in front of Merry. Merry not only snaps back, she goes into some unholy combination of Mama Bear and One-Winged Angel to defeat the demon. Yumeji makes it safely out of the daydream and walks home with Merry, before the psychosomatic effects of being wounded in the dreamworld hit him and he collapses into something like a coma.

Here's the interesting part, the part that I think is going to make up a major space in Episode Six (the halfway point of the show): Yumeji falls back into his own dreamspace, and who should show up to save him and heal his psychic wounds but CHASER JOHN DOE and his catgirl platoon. John Doe promptly turns into Basil Exposition and explains why he's no longer interested in using Yumeji as a vessel — there are bigger problems developing, problems that will affect Yumeji, Merry, and John alike if nothing's done about them. Yumeji asks if this means they're allies now, and (before sending Yumeji back to Merry and the real world) John shrugs this off in truly Badass fashion: "Neither ally nor enemy. I'm merely collecting information at the moment. But these abnormalities pose as much of a threat to me as they do you... And I am the Chaser. My ally is Truth."

Apropos of nothing: If this gets a dub release in English, do you think they ought to see if they can't dig John Lee out of retirement, or wherever he is now, to play Chaser John Doe? I don't know why, but I just get a distinct Trevor Goodchild vibe from him.

Here's a sample of his voice, just to prove what I'm saying. http://www.spike.com/episode/16833/st/2779208

edited 28th Jan '11 2:37:47 AM by JakesBrain

Episode 5 is out! Time to get this thread back onto the front page.

...I think I've spent too much time in the Touhou fandom. Couldn't help but notice that Engi Three-Piece has lovely armpits. Actually, her whole character design is very cool - most now that I think of it, all of the Muma so far have been.

Huh. So her armpits were the first characteristic of hers you noticed.

Anyway, three cheers for Yumejui being a useless male lead that's actually useful.

Also, I got bored and read ahead a little in the manga and I have to say that Chaser John DEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEW is quite the pimp.

edited 5th Feb '11 2:51:19 PM by Bocaj

I love the chapter(s) the next episode is going to be based on.

I'm not up-to-date on the subbing groups doing this series, or even if there are multiple groups, but the sub I watched did a name translation for Engi, calling her "Three Act Play." Which bugged me just a bit. :/

The one I watched did that too.

^^^Well, that, and right where her armpits meet her back. Actually, that whole area. In all seriousness, though, her character design is badass, and I hope Merry doesn't end up killing her.

Yeah, 'Three-Act Play' just doesn't sound very good. It's also an order of magnitude less cool than 'Chaser John Dew' and 'Yumekui Merry' in terms of epithets.

I don't think we have to worry about Merry killing Engi. The problem is what happens if someone else kills her — we saw what happened after Serio died.

I really hope we don't see Maze in this series — his villain arc takes up the better part of three volumes, and I can't imagine that they have enough room to tell that story in the space they've got left, especially since they're probably going to devote some time to the Beach Episode. Pray for a Season Two.

Also, I concur that Three Act Play is a bad translation. In the manga, Engi's name is given in katakana as Engi Suriipiisu, indicating that it's supposed to be pronounced like that. Merry, John, and Chris have all been given the same treatment — the only reason Engi's name has fallen prey to bad translations is that there's an IMPLIED Japanese pun in it.

edited 5th Feb '11 3:42:08 PM by JakesBrain

I envy you a little for being able to read the manga. That, and I can't quite remember where to get the raws. So all I've got is mangafox.

I love Engi's character design. I also really like Engi, because she's a nice Dream Demon using a human host.  ^*

The Elf demon was a nice Dream Demon cooperating with a human host. She lasted, what, five minutes?

I was scanlating some of the chapters and posting them on /a/; I gave it up when I realized that about ninety-seven other scanlation groups, more capable of putting out an organized effort, were jumping on board. Granted, their styles leave something to be desired (aside from the whole "Three Act Play" mistranslation cropping up again, I saw one of them give Engi's last name as "Sleeppeace", which is appropriate but not accurate), but I shouldn't be badmouthing them — in my own efforts I tried to Ted Woolsey it up a bit.

edited 5th Feb '11 5:32:35 PM by JakesBrain

^I follow the Woolsey school in my own translations. While I'm really interested in the little fiddly bits of language, the majority of readers likely don't care about what 'Kisama' really means, so I enjoy translating that as 'you son of a bitch', etc.

Anyway... yeah, the Elf Dream Demon was killed rather quickly by... I forget what. Perhaps that girl Isana befriended?