#yumemiru danshi wa genjitsushugisha

[tetrix-anime]

Yumemiru Danshi wa Genjitsushugisha (The Dreaming Boy is a Realist) - New Visual of Aika and Kei (Swimsuit ver.)

[mazojo]

Summer 2023 Anime Watchlist

Horimiya: Piece - July 1

Uchi no Kaisha no Chiisai Senpai no Hanashi - July 2

Ayaka - July 2

Wasure Hoshi no Volicia - July 3

Suki na Ko ga Megane wo Wasureta - July 4

Mononogatari 2nd Season - July 4

Yumemiru Danshi wa Genjitsushugisha - July 4

Watashi no Shiawase na Kekkon - July 5

Jujutsu Kaisen 2nd Season - July 6

Undead Girl Murder Farce - July 6

Rurouni Kenshin: Meiji Kenkaku Romantan (2023) - July 7

Sugar Apple Fairy Tale Part 2 - July 7

Kanojo, Okarishimasu 3rd Season - July 8

AI no Idenshi - July 8

Liar Liar - July 8

Zom 100: Zombie ni Naru made ni Shitai 100 no Koto - July 9

Dark Gathering - July 10

Bungou Stray Dogs 5th Season- July 12

Tonikaku Kawaii: Joshikou-hen - July 12

Shuumatsu no Walküre II Part 2 - July 12

Hataraku Maou-sama!! 2nd Season - July 13

Shiro Seijo to Kuro Bokushi - July 13

Shiguang Dailiren II - July 14

Shinigami Bocchan to Kuro Maid 2nd Season - July

Spy Kyoushitsu 2nd Season - July

Alice to Therese no Maboroshi Koujou - September 15

[my-anime-goods]

Yumemiru Danshi wa Genjitsushugisha (The Dreaming Boy is a Realist) - New goods with new illustrations from Abema Mart announced.

[anime-fyi]

Started watching The Dreaming Boy is a Realist and this seems like a mighty quirky romantic comedy. Our male protagonist, Wataru, is deeply in love with his beautiful classmate Aika, straight forward enough. Thing is, he wakes up one day with the thought that he's not really fit to be together with someone as good as her, and then starts putting distance toward her. This throws off Aika because she secretly likes him too, and everyone else in the class since he's clearly been after her for some time now. This awkwardness runs though the first episode, only exasperated by another girl coming into the mix.

Not sure what to think of this based on the first episode, but I'll keep following along to see how things evolve.

[animescreencolle]

Ryza no Atelier E06 || Yumemiru Danshi wa Genjitsushugisha E06

[nijigasakilove]

Natsukawa do be a little cute tho

[lazysano]

حرق معاينة الحلقة الأولى لأنمي Yumemiru Danshi wa Genjitsushugisha والتي ستُعرض في 3 يوليو 2023

[fzzr]

I'm not sure what to make of The Dreaming Boy is a Realist

When it comes to anime romcoms, Yumemiru Danshi wa Genjitsushugisha (The Dreaming Boy is a Realist, henceforth "Dreaming Boy") is certainly one of them. It's also... kinda a weird one. Not weird like Midori no Hibi or actually about something else like Fruits Basket just... off beat. Let me try to explain.

Dreaming Boy begins with our title character, Wataru, harassing the female protagonist, Aika, by asking her to go out with him. This is apparently his whole thing, to the point where it's what he's principally known for at school. Today, however, is different. Today he gives up and decides that the best thing for her is for him to stop constantly badgering her with unwanted romantic advances. And now the other half of the show setup: She's actually conflicted about the fact that he's decided to stop harassing her.

So, we already have to take a moment. We have this whole informed character background for the guy that consists of him being unable to take no for an answer for ages, but we see it on screen for only minutes. He's essentially being rewarded for bad behavior that we didn't see, giving us a double whammy of too-fast character establishment and unearned forgiveness before the first commercial break. Not a great start.

Back to the episode, the plot shifts to being about a girl who recently broke up with her long-time boyfriend making the moves on Wataru. This involves some dialogue dunking on her ex and... she objects that she doesn't really want to hear people insult him. Later when Wataru recognizes that he's being used as a rebound surface before she gets back with her beau, he says straight up that he's actually hurt. Huh. That's surprisingly emotionally intelligent for a show with the first few minutes I described.

To my surprise, this turned out not to be an aberration. Several episodes are about how the two main characters act in emotionally contrived ways but also include an serious exploration of social interactions or more nuanced emotional responses. And then in the mixed column, there's the story structure. From what I can tell, it begins at the top of act two of a tsundere romance anime. He did he shitty protagonist stuff in the previous season we didn't get to see. As a result we get to skip some tedious setup, but we also need to introduce a bunch of characters which means cramming them into episodes at the same time that plot escalation is supposed to be happening. It's a show at war with itself.

Back in the positive column I want to call out episode 4 for being a surprisingly good implementation of the "taking care of sick romantic interest" stock episode. First of all, it shows clearly that Wataru has cold symptoms the day before. The usual soaking by extremely hazardous anime water does happen (with him nobly protecting Aika from a splash from a car). He goes to school anyway and then falls asleep in class. Given that his reputation is generally neutral to negative, neither his peers nor teachers see this as something to be especially worried about. They just assume he's being grumpy and acting out. They only take it seriously when he collapses with drama more typical of how the trope usually plays. It then switches back to realism when it's pointed out that he probably was already sick and the splash of water was just the last straw. They keep him home from school and when Aika comes over to check on him, he actually wears a mask to try not to spread his cold. That might be just a COVID thing, but this is still one of the few times I've ever seen it.

This combination of anime bullshit with insightful writing is a microcosm of the contradiction of Dreaming Boy. It indulges in the tired tropes of its genre, but simultaneously examines how people actually interact and effect each other in a way that feels very true to life. When he is actually punished for his past transgressions it's not by the story imposing bad things on bad people. It's showing a practical example of how the past behavior leads to the present outcomes as direct cause and effect rather than symbolic narrative fiat. If it wasn't wrapped in an otherwise awkwardly implemented show, I would call it the next thing to genius. As it is, I just don't know what to think.

A meta comment

Anime is about animation, but a show like Dreaming Boy doesn't have much animation to speak of. This is a show that is mainly held together by its dialogue and thus, its voice acting. The voice actors for our principal protagonists are very new to the industry (this is the first main character role for either of them in a full length series) and they're doing a decent but not great job here. This isn't some budget-saving exercise, the rest of the voice cast is very experienced and you can sometimes tell. I wonder if this is contributing to the negative reception I'm seeing in some subtle way (on top of all the issues already discussed above).

(Interim) Final thoughts

This is my first post about an anime that hasn't finished airing. I'll revisit it once its done, or if it loses me. It's not uncommon for a show to be good in interesting ways while being held back by other factors, but it is unusual for those factors to be so close together. For now, it embodies one more contradiction — despite not being very good in absolute terms, it's also one of the shows I look forward to most every week.

[tetrix-anime]

Yumemiru Danshi wa Genjitsushugisha (The Dreaming Boy is a Realist) - Blu-ray Volume 1 Illustration. Release: 22 November 2023

[totosaurio3279]

Ribbons are justice

[my-anime-goods]

Yumemiru Danshi wa Genjitsushugisha (The Dreaming Boy is a Realist) - Kujicliff featuring goods with new illustrations (Valentine Day ver.) from 14 February to 14 March 2024. Release: Late-May 2024

[shiguresouma]

Yumemiru Danshi wa Genjitsushugisha (Serie de TV, 2023): el que la sigue la acos... la consigue

Quien crea que en un RomCom (ROMantic COMedy) las cosas van a pasar rápido, que vaya poniendo un pie y se baje al vuelo que eso no se va a pasar. Nada caracteriza tanto a una romcom que el desmesurado número de eventos y episodios que llegan a tener sin que los protagonistas lleguen a nada de nada. Y es muy real… cientos de episodios de manga, temporadas de anime…. películas…y nada… los protas de…

[saiyef]

[nijigasakilove]

So the MC’s sister and the girl he like are both tsunderes, no wonder his life so stressful. He can’t get a break at home or school lmao.

As soon as I go praising this show last week, they start skipping content and losing me with the pacing again. It feels like so much backstory was cut out of this episode that would have contextualised Wataru’s home situation.

It’s clear he’s a victim of emotional abuse and that’s why he has such low self esteem. Even at the end, after that heart to heart with his sister, he’s comfortable keeping things as they are because of how he’s given up. Sad

To make things worse, Aika comes and starts physically abusing him. Like damn bro just can’t catch a break.

I feel like this story has some potential with the complexities of the characters, but the adaptation is squandering any of that.

[sihasbi-kun]

Left: 6 years ago (2017)

Right: Now (2023)