Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		3.5

Dream Eater Merry: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie Review

Lots of eating, not enough soul.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman March 15, 2012

Soul Eater: The Meister Collection and Soul Eater: The Weapon Collection were two of the absolutely coolest anime releases of 2011, a series which artfully (in both the literal and figurative senses of that term) blended an intriguing concept with an out of this world animation style that instantly placed the show in the top tier of innovative visual approaches in this often extremely diverse genre. They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but “they” should probably discuss this adage with the creative staff of Soul Eater to see how those folks feel about Dream Eater Merry, a series that skirts around some of the same ideas as Soul Eater (not to mention its very title) as well as trying to duplicate Soul Eater’s extremely ingenious production design. The problem with imitating something as distinctive as Soul Eater is the duplicator is almost consigned to failure when compared directly to its progenitor, and that’s largely the case with Dream Eater Merry. The show isn’t bad in and of itself, but for anyone who has enjoyed Soul Eater, this newer series is bound to come off as a not very compelling doppelganger, a pale reflection in both content and (especially) style that just can’t quite muster the bravado and charm of the original.

The ironic thing about Dream Eater Merry is that when looked at objectively there are enough salient differences between it and Soul Eater that whoever decided to put “eater” in the title and mimic Soul Eater’s out there animation style invited comparisons that weren’t strictly necessary. Dream Eater Merry’s titular character is a young girl who is kind of caught between a dream world and our real world, and she is trying to find some way to reenter her dream plane of existence. Part of Dream Eater Merry’s conceit is that there are all sorts of ghouls and goblins that exist in the dream world and who are aching to come to our mortal plane, but in order for them to do so, they must inhabit a human body. Merry (whose last name is Nightmare) doesn’t have that issue (and is in fact rather ironically attempting to return to her world), but Chaser John Doe, a menacing figure who looks like an anime version of Dark Night of the Scarecrow titular character, does, and the series starts with him attempting to chop up Yumeji Fujiwara, a young man who has been having bizarre recurring dreams about a gaggle of talking cats that are out to get him, cats who turn out to be minions of Chaser John Doe. Yumeji (the main human protagonist) is soon dropped in on (literally) by Merry, and Merry comes to Yumeji’s aid as Chaser John Doe goes about his nefarious business.

Dream Eater Merry is strangely hindered by the fact that it’s only a thirteen episode arc. The first several episodes deal with the odd ménage a trois of Yumeji, Merry and John, but once that angle is kind of blandly resolved, the series moves on to defeating a series of Dream Demons who want to inhabit various human bodies, and the show then becomes reminiscent of Yu Yu Hakusho, as one supernatural entity after another must be defeated. What’s odd about all of this is that whole plot arcs never really seem to build momentum or go anywhere— they must kind of happen, the characters deal with them, and then the show moves on as if it were all a dream, which, given its premise, might be a propos. But that tendency means there’s no real hook with this series, other than an admittedly captivating (if openly derivative) visual style.

There is one oddly distinctive thing about Dream Eater Merry, something which may recommend it (as weird as this may sound) to a particular lot of fetishists, namely those who worship the female midriff. Production house J.C. Staff and anime writer and director Hideki Shirane seem positively obsessed with Merry’s midsection, to the point where long lingering shots of her toned abs could almost be fodder for a very successful drinking game. This is some of the oddest “fan service” ever, especially since the more typical elements of fan service, like crotch or panty shots, are at least hinted at without ever becoming as explicit as they are in many other series.

Dream Eater Merry’s major calling card may ultimately be its animation, which while never quite at the level of Soul Eater still has a lot to recommend it. The dream world elements are rendered with a sort of soft focus pastel colored approach, while the character designs tend to be very sharp angled and sort of fierce looking. The series tends to indulge in various stylistic excesses (again, much like Soul Eater) with a sort water color sketch ambience to several key segments, as in the talking cat dreams. The series is extremely colorful and busy looking, but it holds together quite well in the long run and offers the viewer plenty to gaze at even if the story isn’t particularly captivating.

Dream Eater Merry: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Dream Eater Merry – Complete Collection is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Sentai Filmworks with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. A lot of this series is intentionally done in a sort of soft focus ambience, especially with regard to the dream world elements, and that may lead some viewers to believe they're watching a substandard transfer or even something sourced from standard definition. That is easily put to the lie by some incredibly sharp looking elements, including the general appearance of all of the characters (in and out of the dream worlds), as well as the "real life" sequences, which are noticeably sharper looking. However this series does have a generally soft look which is readily apparent in the screencaps included with this review, so those expecting the crystalline quality of, say, Soul Eater should be adequately prepared for what may be a letdown. Colors are bright, vivid, well saturated and very robust, and line detail is for the most part quite pleasing and well defined. The many different animation styles are blended together quite well, and the series also has a rather large amount of 3D CGI (rendered of course in 2D) that adds some nice and sometimes unusual looking visual appeal.

Dream Eater Merry: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Two lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 stereo audio options are included on Dream Eater Merry – Complete Collection, one in the original Japanese and another in English. The mixes here are virtually identical and both offer solid voice work. The English dub has a number of voices anime fans will recognize from many other releases, notably a lot of FUNimation outings and other Sentai Filmworks English language productions as well. The series probably would have benefited from a surround mix, especially with regard to some of the battle elements, but overall these stereo tracks offer sterling fidelity and decent enough depth and nuance. Dialogue is crisp and clear in both tracks, and the appealing music score also sounds great. There's some excellent LFE in many (if not most) of the episodes, though that of course would have been amplified (no pun intended) with a 5.1 mix as well.

Dream Eater Merry: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Clean Opening Animation (HD; 1:32)


• Clean Closing Animation (HD; 1:32)


• Trailers for Other Sentai Filmworks Releases

Dream Eater Merry: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Dream Eater Merry is a passable enough anime with some fun design elements, but it also never really fully exploits its set up nor some of the opportunities its characters offer. Those without a lot of foreknowledge about the anime's source manga or without a lot of experience with other similar (better) animes like Soul Eater will probably get enough enjoyment out of the series to warrant a look. Those with some background either with this franchise or with any number of other animes may find themselves a bit underwhelmed by Dream Eater Merry's lackadaisical approach and derivative storylines and animation style. This Blu-ray looks appealing sharp and sounds fine, though supplementary material is awfully light. This is one of those cases where a recommendation hinges entirely on the background of the individual viewer: there's not enough "there" there to make Dream Eater Merry an out and out shoo-in to purchase, but those who might want something a little different and fun looking may well want to check it out, albeit with the caveats above kept in mind.