The Essentials
Name: Someday’s Dreamers, Things that are precious to a Mage
Genre: Fantasy, Drama
Episodes: 12
Released: January 9, 2003 - March 27, 2003
Based On: Someday’s Dreamers manga series by Norie Yamada
Director: Masami Shimoda
Produced By: J.C. Staff and Rondo Robe
US Distribution By: Geneon
Major Japanese Cast
Yume Kikuchi: Aoi Miyazaki
Masami Oyamada: Junichi Suwabe
Go “Smiley” Kato: Hiroshi Iida
Milinda: Akiko Hiramatsu
Angela: Akeno Watanabe
Runa-chan: Sawa Ishige
Chief Ginpun: Kouji Tsujitani
Major English Cast
Yume Kikuchi: Kay Jensen
Masami Oyamada: Otto Towne
Go “Smiley” Kato: Dick Smallberries Jr.
Milinda: Stevie Bloch
Angela: Shereen Hickman
Runa-chan: Julie Maddalena
Chief Ginpun: Jake Martin
Scores
Animation: 7/10 (x 4 = 28 pts)
Story: 9/10 (x 4 = 36 pts)
Music: 9/10 (x 4 = 36 pts)
Coherence/Story Arc: 10/10 (x 2 = 20 pts)
English Dubs: 9/10 (x 1 = 9 pts)
Gut Score: 8/10 (x 5 = 40 pts)
Total: 169/200 (84.5%)
Review
Someday’s Dreamers is about a girl named Yume who has come from the Japanese countryside to Tokyo to study to become a mage over the summer. She stays in the building that Masami, her mentor, owns, and which is also used to run his Salsa club along with his partners Go and Milinda. Yume also soon meets another mage apprentice, Angela, during her training.
This series lasts during the month that Yume trains and learns about the place mages have in society and the types of powers they are able to use when they are allowed to use them. When mages are apprentices, however, it appears that the governmental department that monitors mage activity is pretty lenient, and largely takes a “no harm, no foul” view on things.
Yume has to use her powers to solve little every day problems mostly - fixing up an old house or repairing some graffiti. In the world Yume lives in, mages aren’t really used, or even appear to have the ability, to take major actions, though I suppose a very powerful mage could do something quite destructive if they put their mind to it. Yume also has to sort through her own feelings about magic, and whether she believes it is actually useful or not.
I’m not sure what the best word would be to describe this series. It’s just a good wholesome slice-of-life series where Yume has to learn what her place in the world is as a mage. It may be a little slow paced or narrowly focused for some people, but if one likes a good story, you’ll probably like this show.
My only beef with it is that somethings that I was expecting to be explained a little more weren’t. First off, we kept hearing how much of a great mage Yume’s mother is, but we never really actually found out why this was the case, or the significance of Yume being assigned to Masami, since in the first episode it appeared to be significant, at least when Yume told Masami who her mother was. Second, in one of the episodes, Yume witnesses something mysterious: she sees something that only she, apparently, can see. However, this is never explained or explored further. However, I think these are more minor points and don’t damage the overall story all that much.
Getting into the technical aspects, the animation is pretty clean, though not terrific and the music is pretty good. I thought the English dubs were excellent as well. If you’re looking for a pretty simple slice-of-life show, you should check out Someday’s Dreamers.
First Watched: May 2007
Do I Own: Yes
Do I Recommend: Yes
Josh’s Anime Blog Podcast Episode #59 is now online! In this podcast, I review the the anime series Someday’s Dreamers.
