This delightful slice-of-life show is a “sequel” but the only thing it shares with the first season is the general world setting – I don’t believe there’s even any cameos of the first season cast. Therefore calling this the second season is a bit of a misnomer and shouldn’t stop a potential viewer from starting with this series.
Final Series Score: 11.5/12 Near Perfect
Rewatchablity: med – high
Pros: likable cast of characters, interesting world that the show takes place in, unique uses of magic keep the show feeling new, great OP/ED and background music, masterful job of creating the perfect slice-of-life feel, good job done by the seiyuus
Cons: Twist towards the end was a little too abrupt, animation style takes getting used too
Awards given to this show by this blog
- Strongest Female Character for 2008
- Runner-up for Best Slice-of-Life for 2008
- Runner-up for Best Ending Song for 2008
- Best Music Soundtrack for 2008
- Ranked #9 in Overall Top 10 Anime of 2008
Story
The world of Someday’s Dreamers resembles our own except magic exists and the government regulates the use of magic. Sora, an empathic and outgoing young woman, has inherited her deceased father’s great skill in magic and wants nothing more then to become a licensed magic user. Doing so will force her to leave her rural home to attend magic school in Tokyo. Along the way, as you might expect from a slice-of-life show, she’ll meet new friends, discover the unique joys of living in a city, and learn that even magic has it’s limitations.
Thoughts and impressions
In my personal experience, a very good slice-of-life show produces a unique effect (something like a soothing, mellow, warm feeling) that no other type of show can replicate. It’s one of the reasons that I like that type of show and it’s also a useful means to test if a certain slice-of-life show is good or not. In the case of Someday’s Dreamers season 2, I can say that it passed with flying colors with almost every single episode giving me that feeling.
Watching the first season right before this season aired made me worry that the plot of both seasons would be similar and I’d grow bored of the repetition. This turned out to be a baseless worry because there was only very minimal overlap in plot development. One of the overriding issues of the first season – the main character losing all faith in the ability for magic to be a positive thing – barely showed up in this season. And the issue that drove the second season (even if we didn’t figure what that was until late in the series) was completely absent from the first season.
The aspect of Someday’s Dreamers that most of the anime blogosphere spent talking about was the animation style which was a mix of photo-realistic backgrounds and simple character designs. It definitely was a unique look and, while I would have liked the characters to have had a more detailed design, it did grow on me. The thoughteven came to me that this design choice was intentional because it helped reinforce the idea that the characters lived in the world and not that the world was a prop for the characters. What surprised me was the fervor of some people’s hatred towards the animation style and their attempts to prove it was cheap and inferior. If animators never experimented, then anime as an art would never evolve and improve in quality. Besides, a show should be judged on it’s content and not if it has the latest animation bells-and-whistles.
Because of my policy of not revealing major plot points and endings, I can’t really discuss what I mean by saying the twist in the show towards the end was too abrupt. In hindsight, it’s a twist that’s plausible and I’m not saying it shouldn’t have happened but a few hints earlier in the series would have helped.
If you’re a slice-of-life fan and haven’t watched this series then I’d definitely recommend watching it. If you don’t like slice-of-life shows then this one probably isn’t for you but I’d still recommend watching an episode or two to see if you like the characters and the use of magic.
Essential Information
- 12 episodes
- genre:slice-of-life
- animation studio: Hal Film Maker
- director: Osamu Kobayashi
- OP: “fly away” by THYME
- ED: “Kawaita Hana” by micc
- Seiyuus of note: Kana Hanazawa, Marina Inoue, Tomoaki Maeno, Daisuke Namikawa, Fuyuka Oura
The Null Set 
I liked the OP by THYME 🙂
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