This is pretty much the overall plot of a little anime called If I See You In My Dreams, which focuses on a sales person by the name Masuo Fuguno who is incredibly unlucky in love and even more so when a fortune teller tells him that he'll never be with a woman for the rest of his life. However, he intends to change that through hell or high water due to his crush on a kindergarten teacher by the name of Nagisa Shiozaki. Nagisa, has had her own personal struggles with men which has led her to be a little shy, but also quick tempered when things don't go her way which often leads her jumping to conclusions without getting all the facts straight. As much as Masuo struggles to tell Nagisa his true feelings, he often has the help of his friend Isobe Namiko to help steer him in the right direction for a price (money) because apparently she is always broke and her help doesn't come for free. To make matters worse, there is another girl in the picture by the name of Miho Hamaoka who is a co-worker of Masuo who develops feelings for him due to his chivalrous nature of helping her out when she needs a little support in her life due to the predicaments she constantly puts herself in. The crazy thing is that starting off Masuo has no idea that Miho actually has strong feelings for him and that he is simply doing the things for her not because he is trying to court her but because he tries his best to be a courteous and respectful human being.
All these misadventures in Masuo's life are told in 16 7 minute episodes in this quaint little anime about not being able to catch a break with regards to his love life and how often doing the right thing can give him more trouble in his life than he actually wants especially when he truly wants to be with the love of his life so much.
Pretty much every episode follows this formula minus the odd exception, Masuo makes a little headway with regards to getting a little closer to Nagisa, things should go according to plan, but then something comes up - often involving Miho such as being trapped in an elevator with her, helping her when she is sick, protecting her from a perverted boss or perverted co-worker and despite doing the right thing by being a legitimate caring person it annoys Nagisa and she often gets the wrong idea that Masuo would rather be with Miho over her despite Masuo's attempts to prove to her that there is really nothing going on between them. This obviously becomes more complicated as the series progresses and Masuo realizes that Miho is really developing feelings for him but he truly feels that Nagisa is the right woman for him.
Masuo as a character I think is adequately well done. He does have a good moral compass and despite being unlucky in love, he does choose to make the right decision because there have been several circumstances in this entire story where he could of been a truly rotten individual but he decides to be the better man even though making the right decision means annoying Nagisa and possibly destroying his chances of being with her in the process. When things manage to happen that work in Masuo's favour you'll discover it leads to some incredibly heartfelt moments where your going to say d'awwwwww to yourself.
The comedy throughout this story is surprisingly solid and it's really fixated on a lot of physical gags mostly involving Masuo turning into some kind of substance such as rock, brick, sand, snow, or ice and completely breaking apart or sinking to the floor because he realizes that when he does something that completely backfires in his face and every time he turns into a material of some sort he often wonders if he can truly recover from this set up. It leads to some incredibly entertaining laugh out loud moments. He doesn't even have to turn into a material where he crumbles apart - he can sometimes turn into a flattened piece of paper and even fly away or wash away all depending on how dire his outcome is when it comes to specific events that happen in his life.
One thing that I will mention is that in just about every episode your going to see a little bit of nudity from both of the two female love interests. I suppose the anime has to do something to keep the viewer engaged and I find it somewhat laughable that even though the episodes are only 7 minutes long, the story has to have a reason for one of the two female leads to bare their breasts or be completely naked. It's more silly than anything else but for as attractive as the female love interests are, it would be understandable if the male audience wanted to see them naked. Masuo has had the opportunity to see his love interests naked at least once.
The animation is standard late 90's flare. There is nothing really about the animation that stands out from what you would see made at that time. It's still relatively solid but it's not really going to blow you away either. The music on the other hand is really well done. The ending theme is really nice, and there is a lot of excellent background music used throughout the entire anime. Your going to hear a good mix of synth tracks mixed with some very nice ambient jazz music during some of more the heavy dialogue moments of the entire anime.
If I See You In My Dreams is a competently made humorous romantic anime that doesn't really do much to keep it from being better or worse than other romantic anime out there. With a small cast, it manages to give enough time to all these characters in these short 7 minute episodes that by the end your going to have your favourite girl that Masuo should go after. Your going to have to wait until the very end to see which girl he ends up with or is he still going to be unlucky in the world of love. I just hope you can find a few things to laugh about it while you watch the misadventures of Masuo as he balances these two women in his life whether he likes it or not.
