Yumekui Merry

Yumeji Fujiwara has a strange ability. He can see the aura of peoples' dreams. Around himself, there is a black aura. A nightmare. Though Yumeji lives a comfortable life with his childhood friend Isana and his school's Literature Club, he's had a recurring dream of cats. Multiple cats attacking him, trying to claim his body so they can cross over from the nightmare to our world.

There is another party involved. A girl in a strange set of clothes. She falls on top of Yumeji one day and, after getting her hat back, finds her way into his world. Her name is Merry Nightmare, a dream eater. She has no memories of where or who she was, and seeks to return to the world of dreams.

Based on a manga by Yoshitake Ushiki, Yumekui Merry was adapted into an anime in the winter of 2011 by J.C.Staff. Touhou fans may recognize the author from his doujinshi work Advent Cirno, and the people handling the music as IOSYS.

Tropes used in Yumekui Merry include:
  • Action Girl: Merry and Engi.
  • Awesome McCoolname: Merry Nightmare
    • Chaser John Doe
  • Badass Adorable: Merry. You get in her way? Prepared to be pummeled. You mess with her when she's enjoying her doughnuts? Run. Hurt her friends? She will break the frikkin moon.
    • Also could be played with for John. When he's in Reality he takes the form of an adorable kitten with a cape. In the Dream World, he is very Badass.
  • Badass Longcoat: John Doe.
  • Barehanded Blade Block: Merry performs one against the Engi of episode 5.
  • Bare Your Midriff: Merry. The animators seem to be actively trying to put in as many shots of Merry's bellybutton as they can.
  • Bathtub Bonding: Isana and Merry get to know each other in the bath when Yumeji walks in. Isana notes this is the fifteenth time he's done that.
    • Later, John and Yumeji get in on this, only for Merry to walk in on him.
  • Beta Couple: Takateru and Saki look like they're shaping up to be this (with the Alpha Couple being Yumeji's harem).
    • SO adverted by the latest chapters in the manga...
  • Beach Episode: In chapter eleven.
  • Black Eyes of Evil: Ichima
  • Break the Cutie: See below
    • That and what happens to kids after the dream demons are killed.
  • Broken Bird: Chizuru.
  • Catch Phrase: Merry's one is "There really are no hopes or dreams."
  • Cats Are Mean: They're the first villains of the work, in fact.
  • Catgirl: Chaser John Doe has some working for him.
    • He later brings a whole army of them to help Merry and Yumeji.
      • They can transform into cats, sans-clothing, in order to escape from being hurt then transform back again with clothing starting to form itself around them.
  • Chained by Fashion: Chizuru wears a very prominent handcuff bracelet.
  • Clingy Jealous Girl: To an extent, Isana. She's not reallly all that clingy, but she DOES get jealous when a girl she doesn't know shows up asking for Fujiwara. It's Yui (and Engi) coming to train him and Merry. All considering, her jealousy may just be for Rule of Funny.
    • Taka's little sister for her "onii-chan".
  • Clothing Damage: A non-Fanservice type happens during Merry's fight with a Dream Demon in the 6th volume. Her opponent thinks that her coattails look like eels and he rips one of them off. Merry is not amused.
  • Cloudcuckoolander/Strange Girl: Yui, with her penchant for concocting strange stories about the dolls she collects.
    • Well, considering her family....
  • Club President: Mei, for the Literature Club.
  • Color Coded for Your Convenience: Yumeji can see what kind of dreams people will have from the color of their auras.
    • Sometimes he's wrong though, except for...
    • Black: Is 100% nightmares and daydreams when a Dream Demon tries to take over a host.
  • Cool Old Guy: Isana's dad, who frequently dispenses random philosophy-cum-life-advice to those who happen to be passing. See also Good Scars, Evil Scars.
    • Mr. Ijima, Yumeji's teacher in the anime, could be seen as this as well. Sure he has an extreme liking of rice, but his speeches to his students are quite inspirational. Of course, it's all a ruse, but...
  • Compressed Hair: Minato
  • Conspicuous CG: Giant fish bones, brought to you in CG glory.
  • Cry Cute: Merry, in her more vulnerable moments.
    • Isana in chapter 33.
  • Cute Little Fangs: Merry
  • Cute Bruiser: Merry. Chaser John Doe notes how much strength Merry can invest in those flimsy little arms.
  • Dark Is Not Evil: Merry and John Doe.
  • Dojikko: Victim of the Week Minato
  • Demonic Possession: What some dream demons attempt with their vessels.
  • Dream Land: Besides his eye ability, Yumeji can also enter the dream world of others - which surprises Merry.
  • Dream Stealer
  • Does This Remind You of Anything?: When John summons the cat girls to help with Yumeji's wound, look at the one holding the medicine. Is there any reason she has to hold it like that?
  • Dull Eyes of Unhappiness: The victims of Dream Loss Syndrome, who are not so much unhappy as unmotivated, almost to the point of complete catatonia. They were formerly symbiotes or possessed vessels of Dream Demons; when the demon is killed, all the dreams and ambitions of the human vessel die as well.
  • Exotic Eye Designs: Most Dream Demons have unique-looking pupils. For example, Chukai has cross-shaped pupils, while Chris Evergreen has tilting H-shaped pupils.
  • Expressive Mask: Chaser John Doe. It's very subtle, but his otherwise motionless mask can change from a frown to a smile or vice versa between shots.
  • Expy: Ryouta Ijima is quite similar to a certain smooth criminal/troll, Yuuki Terumi, even has the same Evil Laugh.
  • Evil Eye: Yumeji's dream-seeing ability.
  • Finger Gun: Chizuru does this a few times, saying "bang" as she does it.
  • Green Eyed Red Head: Merry
  • Girlish Pigtails: Isana, Mei.
  • Good Scars, Evil Scars: Isana's dad has a scar down one side of his face.
    • Merry has one on her right arm, she just keeps it covered until the Beach Episode in chapter 11. Yumeji had a scar, but it's long since faded. Curiously, his was in the same place that Merry's is. And now the spot where he had his scar is starting to hurt after he exits a daydream...
  • Hannibal Lecture: Maze gives one to Engi. See Heroic BSOD
  • Hellish Pupils: Merry's pupils are rectangular (like a sheep's or a tapir's). She has Unusual Ears, too.
    • All Dream Demons and people who are possessed by those demons have an unusual pattern in their eyes.
      • The first time we see Yumeji doing his aura-reading trick in the manga, a shape similar to Merry's pupils appears in his eye.
    • Considering her name is Merry', and that she has been compared to a baku (tapir-like mythological creature), this may count as Fridge Brilliance if it isn't deliberate.
      • It is deliberate. Word of God says that Merry had a little lamb is a little lamb was designed with a sheep in mind.
      • Also they change color from black to white in a Daydream.
    • This page shows some of the eye patterns that were seen in the manga. Clockwise from the the bottom-left: Chain Noir's looks like a chain-link, Engi Threepiece's is a triangle, Ichima's is a swirl, Chaser John Doe's is his mouth on his mask, Chris Evergreen looks like a sideways H, Maze Landsborough's looks like a sideways #, and Pharos Hercules looks like a sun or a shinning light.
    • In chapter 24, Yumeji's eyes took on the pattern of John's mouth on his mask when he first formed John's weapon. In Chapter 25, Yumeji's eyes took on the pattern of Ichima's swirly eye pattern when he used her power to call forth one of her giant toys to protect John. In Chapter 30, Yumeji's right eye takes on Chris's eye pattern when Yumeji uses Chris' Rocket Punch move
  • Heroic BSOD: Both Merry and Yumeji get hit with one. Merry when Engi tells her that, once they get into the real world, there's no way back to the dream world, and Yumeji after he realizes that by killing any Dream Demon who's already taken a vessel, they also destroy that person's dreams... both the at-night kind of dream AND the personal-ambition variety (the only exception to this being if is Merry the one defeating the Nightmares).
  • Hey, Its That Voice!
  • Hime Cut: Ichima, Minato, Yui and her mom too.
  • Hot Chick with a Sword: Engi
  • Hot Dad: Isana's dad is one in-universe.

So manly! *blush*

  • Hunter of His Own Kind: Both Merry and Engi, for different reasons.
  • Identity Amnesia: Merry just can't remember who she is.
  • I Don't Know Mortal Kombat: Merry loses 383 games of a Wii fighting game to Yumeji.
  • Idiot Hair: Yumeji's most recognizable physical trait. Merry remembers him almost solely by seeing it again -- she refers to it as an "antenna".
  • Impossibly Cool Clothes: Merry
  • Improbable Hairstyle: Engi's hair is shaped like wings.
  • Improbable Weapon User: John Doe has something that the author said was a cross between a saw and a guillotine. Yumeji, using his Lucid Gadget, creates a smaller version to use against Chain Noir.
  • Kick the Dog: Treesea and her vessel Mr. Ijima love doing this. Taken Up to Eleven in episode 9 when he beats up the vet girl after she kills her dream For the Evulz.
  • Large Ham: Chaser John Doe
    • Hercules seems to be one as well. It's SHOW TIME!
  • Lethal Chef: Yui. Her teacher calls her brand of cooking Magical Chemical Cooking. Yui's friend Nao has also said that not even a dog would eat Yui's cooking.
  • Light Is Not Good: Heracles is described as the guiding light (the kanji of his name make up the word for lighthouse), drawing other Dream Demons to Reality. Because of that, the whole balance between the worlds has been thrown out of whack. And then there's his personality...
  • Magic Skirt: For all the Fanservice of Merry's skimpier-than-normal attire, the show (so far) appears to be mercifully uninterested in Panty Shots.
    • Yui Konagi, Engi's vessel. When Yumeji does a diving save for a doll she drops, he saves the doll, but catches a glimpse. The audience also gets a peek in the manga..
    • Played in the manga by villain Maze Landsborough. At one point he winds up on the floor between Merry's feet, looking up; we see stripes reflected in his one eye, but not from her stockings. Yoshitake Ushiki's inventiveness and subtlety - establishing what kind of panties the heroine wears WITHOUT a single Panty Shot - is to be admired.
    • We get another brief one in volume five. Hey, when you've got Stripperific cat girls fighting, you're bound to get at least one.
  • Male Gaze
  • Manic Pixie Dream Girl: Merry fills the character role in the usual way.
  • Meaningful Name: The names of both lead characters are related to dreaming.
    • Yumeji - "Yumeji" means "Dream Road", or "Road to Dreams" depending on personal interpretation.
    • Merry's surname is Nightmare
      • Both of the protagonists' names explain themselves. Yumeji could mean "Path to the Dream", which is his Chekhov's Skill, while Merry Nightmare, as ridiculous as it may sound, just mean merry nightmare.
      • Merry full name is Sheep Merry Nightmare.
    • Many of the Dream Demon's names are this, like Chaser John Doe being a hunter, Maze Landsborough traps people in a maze, Chain Noir uses chains, etc.
  • Mega Manning: Yumeji can call upon the powers of Dream Demons he met before.
    • Technically speaking he could create pretty much ANYTHING he imagines, but he says that its hard for him to imagine anything he hasn't seen before.
  • Meganekko: Mei with her Nerd Glasses.
  • Meido: Merry has to dress the part when she works for Isana's dad. Later Yui starts working there part-time as well.
  • Mysterious Past: Merry.
  • Monster Clown: Maze Landsborough, the one-eyed imp-like Dream Demon could be seen as this. His Mooks, however, are this without a doubt.
  • Most Writers Are Writers: Yumeji, and the rest of the Literature Club, by extension.
  • Mood Whiplash: At one point, Yumeji is injured and at the mercy of Chaser John Doe, who coldly tells him that it would be incredibly easy to take over his body at that moment. Yumeji cringes at what's coming -- but John promptly states that to do so would be crude and unsportsmanlike ("I am a hunter, not a thief"), and summons a pair of cute voluptuous cat girls to tend to Yumeji's wounds!
    • Also Taka's story about his little sister where he talks about how she was sickly when she was little and kept being bounced from hospital to hospital until she could no longer smile. At least until Taka started with those ridiculous poems of his, sparking his dream of wanting to make everyone he meets laugh through his poems. He then pauses before saying that she's completely healthy now and even working part-time at a burger joint.
      • And you get another one from Chapter 36, when it is revealed that Takateru is Hercule's host, and his little sister being healthier is due to Hercules putting a dream demon in her, to use her as an hostage on Takateru
  • Mundane Made Awesome?: Isana's dad showing off his legendary Kick the Can technique, not to mention how he and Yumeji smash the watermelon in the Beach Episode.
  • New Transfer Student: Chizuru
    • Shiragi Kyou in volume five
  • Noble Demon: John Doe and his cats.
  • Nice Hat: Merry can't get by without it. It might be a covert Shout-Out to Touhou, since the author also writes Touhou doujinshi.
  • Oblivious to Love: Yumeji to Isana
  • Off-Model: Several scenes seem rushed and shoddy compared the rest.
  • Oh Crap: Yumeji gets this when he hears the people in his class talking about how they all had the same nightmare. He uses his dram-seeing trick and...every single person has the same black aura.
    • Happens in episode nine of the anime when Yumeji learns that Isana's been possessed by a Dream Demon.
  • Patient Childhood Love Interest: Isana
  • Perpetual Smiler: Treesea
  • POV Boy, Poster Girl: Yumeji is the main protagonist and a decent fighter in his own right, but without Merry, there would be no plot.
  • Prehensile Hair: Engi's hair is styled as wings which she can move.
  • Rapunzel Hair: Ichima and Engi
    • Treesea
  • Refuge in Audacity/Did We Just Have Tea with Cthulhu?: Mr. Iijima trolls the entire cast by visiting the STO cafĂ©; he sits down and orders coffee right in front of the protagonists. By this time they have already found out that he's Treesea's vessel and the one responsible for a lot of literally crushed dreams, and they're also painfully aware that he's scouting his next victim (Isana), but right then and there they can't do anything about it.
  • Red Headed Heroine: Merry. Well more of a Burgundy. Yumeji's a straight example.
  • Rocket Punch: Since he has Raymanian Limbs, Chris Evergreen does this. Yumeji is also able to do it later.
  • Running Gag: Two so far. Yumeji walking into the bath...and someone's already there, usually it's Isana. She notes that he's done this fourteen times before the two that we see in story. Later, Merry walks in on HIM. Also Yui telling people to depend on her as an older sister, and then being told she's younger than they are.
  • Sacrificial Lamb: Poor, poor Delga.
  • Scary Shiny Glasses: Mr Ijima in episode 9.
  • Self-Sacrifice Scheme: Leon's plan on defeating Treesea
  • She Is Not My Girlfriend: Yumeji about Merry in episode 5.
  • Show Within a Show: Full Hell Boarder Glitchou, a Tokusatsu series that Yumeji is a fan of.
  • Spell My Name with an "S": Do we go with Engi or its translation "Play"? Most say Engi.
    • As "Engi", it has the meaning of "meadow" in Icelandic which would be fitting considering that her dream world is a meadow.
    • Is it Treesea or Woodsea
    • Pharos Hercules/Heracles/Elcres
  • Star-Spangled Spandex: Chris Evergreen has this effect on the inside of his cloak.
  • Stealth Pun: Chaser calls Merry a "lost little lamb" when they first meet.
    • We later find out that Merry's full name is Sheep Merry Nightmare.
  • Stripperiffic: Arguably Merry, but Chain Noir's costume fits this to a T.
    • Definitely John's cat girls.
  • The Stoic: Chizuru
  • Sugar and Ice Girl: Chizuru in the anime.
  • Suspiciously Specific Denial: Yui: "I am not going to carve your name into a voodoo doll or anything".
  • The Symbiote: In episode two, what Merry said some Dream Demons do with a host.
    • Engi Threepiece is this to Yui.
    • Treesea and Mr Ijima.
    • Chris Evergreen is existing as a Symbiote to Mei, but he's about to take the next step when Yumeji and Merry intervene.
    • This actually the most productive way for Dream Demons and humans to interact. If a Dream Demon tries to take over full time, the host will wake up, possibly at the worst possible moment.
  • Theme Tune Cameo: During the first karaoke-bar scene in Episode 4. Someone down the hall is heard singing the OP, and doing a remarkably good job of sounding like the original singer.
  • The Nicknamer: Merry gives nicknames to some of the characters.
    • She calls Engi Threepiece "Eggplant Lady".
    • She calls Chaser John Doe "Cat Mask".
    • She calls Pharos Hercules "Lighthouse Guy".
    • She calls Mistilteinn Treesea "Wood Lady"
  • There's No Place Like Home: Merry's main motivation. Curiously (it may be a plot point), Merry doesn't have enough of her memory intact to understand why she wants to go back -- she only knows that she wants to go back.
  • Title Drop: In episode three as a nickname for Merry given by Yumeji, comparing her to a baku -- a tapir-like beast from Japanese mythology which hunts and eats nightmares. She argues that she does not actually eat them.
    • The fourth episode is also called "Dream Eater Merry".
      • It's because she actually refers to herself by that name when fighting Chris Evergreen, showing that she has accepted Yumeji's help. In the episode that introduces Engi, there's a flashback to this moment when Merry speaks about how Yumeji has helped her to discover something meaningful in her life.
  • Too Much Information: Fear not, Yumeji, Yui totally does not make voodoo dolls of people.
  • Trademark Favorite Food: Merry loves donuts.
    • Mr. Ijima likes rice
    • Yumeji likes tomatoes. This is because Tomato is a palindrome and Yumeji thinks that has a manly feel to it.
  • Ugly Guys Hot Daughter: Yui
  • Unwanted Harem: Arguably. Isana's feelings towards Yumeji are as plain as day, and both Merry and Yui have given some hints of having feelings towards him as well, Merry more so.
  • Waif Fu: Merry.
  • Wild Card: Treesea in the anime. "I don't have allies, only targets."
  • Winged Humanoid: Engi. Subverted since her wings are made up of her hair, but she can move them.
  • White-Haired Pretty Girl: Engi and Treesea.
  • White Mask of Doom: Chaser John Doe.
  • You Gotta Have Blue Hair: Isana's hair is lilac, Mei's is light green, Merry's is violet. Most of the demons' hair is an other-worldly colour anyhow.
  • Zettai Ryouiki: It would be easier to count how many females in this series don't have this going on.
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