Summer 2017 Anime: 18if

Synopsis

Tsukishiro Haruto woke up in a dream. However, this enigmatic, bizarre and crazy world was not his dream. After meeting a mysterious girl who claims to be his sister, Lily, and a cat-man who claims to be a professor, Haruto learnt that this dream belonged to Yuko. She’s the Witch of Thunder who’s known for her all-powerful mastery of the dream world, beauty and fun personality, and would punish any who’d think otherwise. In order to get out from that dream, Haruto needs to kill the Witch. But, Haruto chose to save Yuko from her own dream instead.

Comments

Please bear in mind that the aforementioned synopsis is not for the entire series, but only for the first episode because, apparently, each episode will be directed by different person, thus, having different styles.

What this anime does best, I think, is its world-building, thus plot. It was evocative and enigmatic. Its dream-world setting and different  directors for each episode provides this series with countless possibilities, each, I hope, will be more wacky than before. Different from another anime, too, 18if did not bother with exposition. It leaves its audience to figure out piece by piece what’s going on. Although I think it’s going to be a slow-paced series, it’s the kind of that tend to go nicely as time go.

The setback, however, is the main protagonist, Haruto. He’s the usual blank-canvas protagonist, whose only trait is his common sense (he’s the only one who wants to get out of that world). Aside from that, none whatsoever. It’s really weird that the antagonist and (worse still) supporting character, the man-cat, have more personality than Haruto. The man-cat turned out to be a curious, a bit arrogant researcher, while Yuko (The Witch) turned out to be a depressed high school girl wanting to escape reality. An uninspiring main protagonist and a really good plot. But, as I said, this is the kind of anime that went of really slow, but turned out good in the middle. Indeed, a worth shot.

Facts and Figures

Trailer and Screenshots

The Indonesian Anime Times | by Paksi Pradipta