Dreameater Merry started out, to me, immensely promising, with a cute heroin, a down to earth leading male, and cute girl characters throughout along with a dreamworld plot that I have always taken interest in. It introduces Merry, who is trying to get back to her world in any way she can, her way being defeating monsters from her world that come the real world and try to follow them back. The story progresses from that...kinda. The initial plot sounds great, and the first couple episodes had me. Then, I kept watching, and basically got a metaphorical fan-kick to the balls. I felt like I was watching 11 Eyes all over again. The pacing had picked up to a point where feeling rushed is an understatement, and it kinda felt like when your on the freeway and your gas pedal sticks. Your trying to figure out whats wrong and trying to stop it, but by the time you do, you crash to an unhappy ending (for the viewer).
The art was inconsistent, but at points I was actually quite impressed. It actually looked like it had a large production value at some parts, but then it would die down into what I like to call "filler art" mode, and merely makes it good enough to put on the air.
With the OP as good as it was, and I'm saying that with a ton of respect, the rest of the soundtrack barely kept my interest past the first couple of episodes. At first, with the bells in the first episode, I was quite excited, only to be let down.
Characters were plentiful, but lacked...well, character. There was alot of characters to work with, but all of their personalities are either boring or unoriginal (the only exception I could find would be Mistletine and John Doe).
Its hard to enjoy when everything else is so wrong. Needless to say, I was disappointed overall with this anime and wouldn't personally recommend it. However, if what I said you don't believe, go ahead and watch. But you have been warned.
