I really have to praise the animators for the fight scene at the beginning of this episode, especially the inbetween animation was just amazing when Merry went berserk. And great graphics like these work even better when the characters themselves are good as well. I mean, Yumekui Merry did exactly what I hoped that Dragon Crisis would do to: overcome the simplicity and cliches of their characters and get a lot of genuine drama out of them. The drama in Merry is innocent, but not shallow or dumbed down like in many other series.
The rest of this episode was an interesting episode, considering that John Doe appeared with a bit of exposition. ah well, if there is any place where this exposition fits, then it’s an aftermath like this in which the main character needs to take a while to recover, and it’s also a good point for John Doe to step away from his villain role and become more interesting. Although we really need more of him in the rest of this series.
Also…. this episode confirmed that killing a dream demon also has major implications for its host, because they’re killed in actually two different ways. These dream demons can do nasty stuff to their hosts, but they also help cultivate their inspirations. Getting rid of them also destroys these ambitions.
I’d also like to note that I like what the creators did with the soundtrack of this one. The tracks don’t stand out in their complexity, they are fresh and nice to listen to, using unconventional sounds and tunes. Personally I really like it when a soundtrack does that.
Rating: ** (Excellent)
So, when Merry kills a demon, the host is OK, but if someone else does that, the host loses his dreams. Interesting. Also, everything is better with catgirls.
@DmonHiro
Nope. The dream demons Merry killed had not yet bonded with their host.
I thought if the dream demon is erased the vessel is free without aftereffects, like what happens with Merry. That is not the case if the host is hurt or tortured to a great extent in their spiritual forms, like it seems the hunter of dream demons has been doing, and leaving them in that apathic state (due to the trauma of the experience I suppose). Or maybe that’s because they died while daydreaming.
“Although we really need more of him in the rest of this series.”
Oh, you don’t have to worry about that…
The thing is Merry thought she was sending back beaten nightmares to the dream world, and trying to snatch an hitch-hike back there in the process. Unless it looks like there’s actually no way back and all of her efforts were for the sake of murder. That shocked her a bit.