Dream Hunter Rem

Its been a while since I've watched this anime and it ain't up on the net anymore so here we go; based on memory

Story - 8
The premise is unique for a magical girl anime; our young teen heroine is a long line of dream hunters, people able to enter others dreams and combat the demons that lurk within those vulnerable to their influence. The parallel story arcs concerning the real world and the dream world and the transitions between can get quite interesting. Otherwise, the anime takes a lot of elements from fantasy anime (Valis style magic swords vs huge monsters), magical girl, horror (Kruger ... style killed in your dreams) and spiritual/supernatural/mysticism (Monks, exorcism and demons). The anime even has cute little interludes where a Chibi REM gives you a crash course lesson about dreaming! Plot arcs usually involve evil/spiteful spirits/demons that seek revenge for their brutal murder, want to cross over to the real world and just plain like killing people in their sleep etc.
Also beware some nip slips (since skimpy battle armour), horrid death sequences (cause you don't really die if you die in your dream; usually) and some 'I've seen enough hentai' moments since Dream Hunter was intended as a hentai first before being rereleased in its more commercially viable form.

Art - 9
This is one of the more well produced retro OVAs I've seen, featuring a nice array of colours and some very well choreographed action sequences. Art design goes anywhere from feudal to gothic to 80s fantasy anime which is all well; 80s anime settings weren't always drawn the best but they sure looked nice and had a lot of thought put into the design.
The characters designs are also nice (but 80s character designs always are).

Sound - 7
This had mostly pop synth and rock as background music, rather interesting and a nice Japanese take on 80s style synth music. No problems with SFX or VA either. New Dream Hunter Rem had far more kickass synth.

Character - 8
Dark green is a nice shade of hair colour for our heroine, Rem. She may look like a cute girl but she's just as capable as any heroic, selfless 80s action girl. Packing a huge revolver outside of the dream world and a trusty sword in the dream world, you know she can kick some ass. Her allies include a transforming dog and cat and a monk and a police chief who make for a interesting contrast and work well together. The main villain is given the deranged serial killer backstory who disturbingly, continues his work, even in death (key character trait, the bastard just wont die as we see in the New OVA series). Looks wise he's the clichéd evil guy in top hat and a cane, but given the two face treatment to make for a character who looks as dangerous as he is evil.

Enjoyment - 8
I liked this one a lot, very dark and violent at times but you were always rooting for Rem to come out on top. It always gave you a hope that things would end up fine. Besides, there's a car filled with more missiles than its own volume.

Dream Hunter Rem is one of my all-time favorite shows from ‘80s with a sexy, green-haired babe as the protagonist. Originally, Dream Hunter Rem was a hentai but if you watched the version that I did, the pornographic were edited out of the first episode and the later OVAs were adapted for TV due to the cult following.

○ Dream Hunter follows the tale of a badass dream detective, Rem, who, as the title designates, literally goes into the dreams of the victims of predatory monsters. Though there were tentacle things in other shows of the time, such as the scene in Urusei Yatsura with the ... gangly flower that forcefully ties Lum into its appendages, Dream Hunter REM fully incorporates the aesthetic into the demoniac battles.

○ Dream Hunter Rem practically pollinated the seeds of the famous tentacle rape fetish/fad in Japan. After this series, Toshio Maeda adopted the passion for tentacle rape and made “masterpieces” like Legend of the Overfiend and La Blue Girl.

○ Dream Hunter is such a fascinating idea because the plot is that you can stay alive inside of the dream, as long as you keep the mindset that a dream is a dream instead of reality (kind of like The Matrix). Even if Rem is dismembered, tortured, or skewered, as long as she keeps thinking of the situation as a dream, she escapes unscathed.

○ For all of the rabid horror fans out there, this series is a must watch. Or if you're into the psychedelic image of a teenage girl hopping around in a chainmail bikini and ‘80s aerobic stockings while fighting eight-foot demons left and right.

○ The stories had an eerie inter-dimensional theme, like something out of a Lovecraft or Philip K. Dick novel, which kept me engaged since I am enamored by those kind of things. Rem, herself, is very likable, she's moe (which is bizarre given the context of the story), intelligent, practically invincible while fighting occultic abominations, slightly lesbian, and flirty. I felt guilty liking her so much, when she was only written for porn.

○ The theme song is epic, and the synth ‘80s beats were entertaining. There was a bit of a plot in-congruency in the fourth episode of the original OVA, that had me scratching my head about certain character relations but despite that, Dream Hunter REM was ultra fantastic.

○ Dream Hunter is designed for those who enjoy B movie, bizzaro, fun… like ballistic car missiles, a villain in a top hat, and animal sidekicks intermingled with gory, terribad horror elements. It's hard to put enough emphasis on my enjoyment of this OVA, seeing as it's a very atmospheric piece. I give the original four-episode Dream Hunter Rem (OVA) a 7/10, and other OVAs a 6/10.

Quick take: Live action pornography doesn't have very good storylines either ... or so I've been told. There are many problems with this hentai-turned-legit series that I just found it hard to pay attention.

Ill be honest, I want to like Dream Hunter Rem. You see, Dream Hunter Rem was a hentai. Then it turned out people liked it, so they threw some clothes on the characters and removed the penetration. What were left with is a storyline that had much potential but fails to deliver on the basics. Each story follows the same basic arc, although the 3rd OVA does switch it up. It was ... the best of the series in my opinion, but spent so much time explaining family history that I nearly fell asleep. I rewound several time to try and get the full picture in my head, but I'll be honest, I still don't know what they were talking about.

Anyway, the premise is great, but the plot execution leaves a ton to be desired. I get it, the first OVA was originally hentai and most people aren't watching porn for the story, but I expected a bit more effort the next three times around.

Then there's the art. It's all over the place. Some things are consistently really good, like the important females *coughs* the one's who tiddies we're gonna see or even the inspector. Then the supporting characters tend to be bland or even oddly shaped and the monsters are just a blob of flashy lights and dark, muddy colors. Occasionally there's a lack of smoothness in the animation. This can be most prominent in the moving scenes.

The fighting leaves a ton to be desired and most of it is the incorrect length, meaning it feels as if it goes on forever or it's done in a few strikes. There doesn't seem to be a fight that feels to be the right length, something that seems to be almost impossible.

Acting is fine, but there are times where mouths don't move or they move and words aren't spoken. Most of the music feels screechy and incorrectly balanced against the voice acting. The not so screechy music is mediocre at best although the 3rd OVAs ED may make it to Spotify. I actually think you could improve Rem a bit by rewriting the score.

Characters are all "surface characters" - what you see is what you get, so don't expect anything deep. Except maybe some tentacles if you watch the original first OVA.

I found parts of the series hard to pay attention to and much of the poor animation, drawing, screechy music and bland plot leave Rem with very little enjoyment. Would I recommend? Like I said, I want to like Rem because the premise intrigues me, but the execution is not good at all. So, no. I would pass this series.