Reviews

When I first began this series, I was really impressed with the series ability to do away with expectations, and it also had a very unique take on pacing and visual stylization, even more so than Heartcatch Precure. This was actually able to work to the series' advantage, as it was able to showcase Yume's perspective and make the events and people in her life look like they would from the eyes of both a child and a young lady. The series also had an excellent sense of humor and was unafraid to explore its comedic side, which boosted the quality of several episodes that may have been boring otherwise, regardless if this humor may have fallen flat. On the other hand, the series somewhat fell flat in terms of plot, as it suffered from sometimes vague (although never boring) plots or simply excess filler; this isn't a bad thing persay, and while it was very unique to have Yume as the only character who was actually a magical girl (not including Asahi as this only occurred in one episode, this season at least), the other characters suffered significantly for this; they felt much less developed and more along the lines of filler, simple plot devices at times to hold the other Dreamy Mates. Tokiwa in particular could have used more character development, as even her introductory episode was delayed several times and seemed to have been redone over. Some issues of the series were also never fully explained. What happened after the Queen left? Why did Sugiyama's Black Schema prevent Yume from entering his dream? How did a Dreamy Charm break his disguise? While the series was indeed a refreshing break from previous anime, I suppose I looked too deeply into it and overanalyzed, seeing development where there wasn't nearly as much. That said, it was still an outstanding series, worth at least a rewatch or a first look to many people. This series was able to draw the line between classic "non-fighting" and modern "warrior" magical girls, something some shows seem to struggle to do even today. I would like to give this season a 8/10 overall, for these accomplishments. It has set a new standard for magical girl anime in the future.