First Impression: Yume Oukoku to Nemureru 100 Nin no Ouji-sama

Synopsis

Set in a world where people use dreams as energy to live, a normal girl finds herself summoned her and is told that she is the princess. In the past, the dream world underwent an attack by the “yumekui” (“dream eater”) which resulted in the princes falling into an enchanted slumber. Now the reluctant heroine, with the power awaken these princes, sets off on a journey to save the world.

The Good

The concept is interesting and the execution is not too bad. The visuals made up for a lot of the positives of the episode and the mystery was well built-up. One of the lesser pros of the episode was how the characters were executed and how their dynamics were built. It wasn’t the main focus of the episode but it was there and it added a point of interest for the episode. Simply put, the episode did a solid introduction and there was a lot of cute visuals and a good mystery.

The Bad

Personally, it was everything I expected it to be, minus the original character. Just with the premise, it’s pretty easy to see where the series is going. And once again, we have the demure heroine with special abilities. On the plus side, she at least has a semblance of a personality. Then there is the “mysterious” character. On one hand, he’s got a refreshing personality but the way his mystery aspect was revealed makes his general story rather predictable.

Conclusion

It has one or two interesting points but overall, it’s everything you would expect an anime with this kind of premise would be. The demure protagonist, the temperamental redhead, and the character that is meant to be unique only to be revealed to have a possible past that may not be all that unique. The only real redeeming quality of the episode is that it has pretty visuals, a good build-up, dynamic and a solid mystery reveal. Maybe in the later episode, it will get interesting, but for the beginning half, it’s clearly taking the more general path that many shoujo fans or maybe adventure fans will recognize

Rating: 5.5/10