Akumu Chan

Guess what I found, a drama that's NOT a romance!! I can finally stop my run of similar sounding drama reviews with this Jdrama; Akumu Chan. The drama is about dreams and premonitions and here's some fun trivia: akumu is Japanese for night mare! And this is hot off the press guys! Only 7 episodes and counting!

So anyway, the plot is about Yuiko a transfer student at elementary school. Her home room teacher Ayami pretends she is the perfect teacher, always smiling and being friendly to every one. But really, she's a bit of a psychopath so to her Yuiko is just a bother. But it really becomes a bother to her when Yuiko starts telling Ayami about her nightmares. More than just nightmares, Yuiko has prophetic dreams and with her grandfather's research her dreams can be recorded and watched. After convincing Ayami to help, the trio try to understand Yuiko's symbolic dreams and prevent misfortune. Every week there is a different person to save, but they don't feel like stand-alone episodes because of the underlying plot (e.g. Ayami's lucid dreams and sleep walking and Yuiko's grand father's assistance). In fact, so much more gets added per episode I struggled to slim it down for you! I like the mix of having one problem resolved every episode while still having an ongoing plot. It stops me getting dangerously addicted to the series and keeps it quite fun because with out something going right the whole drama could get really depressing. Most of the prophecies are about Yuiko's class mates but the dreams are really rather frightening with murder and kidnapping and the such! It's almost disturbing!

For all these nightmare scenes there is a lot of CG, a lot more than I've ever seen in a drama! They aren't as bad as the ones in the Ouran High School Live Action (those were just cringe worthy!) but they are still quite mediocre. Especially the over-used wiggle eye thing that Yuiko does, apparently it's her awake REM state, but it just looks alien! Well, CG aside, the acting is really impressive! Even Kimura Manatsu (Yuiko) who's only 11 years old!! I'm sure the really scared and shy Yuiko isn't that hard, but she has perfect use of posture and vocals to portray her character! Her smiles look completely natural too, she's better than a lot of adult  drama actors in fact! Kitagawa Keiko does a good job at being Ayami too! There is one scene where she decides to stop fake smiling. She waves her hand across her face and POOF entirely different person!
Enough about the acting (it's like drama coursework all over again), more about Ayami's character. I've never known a character with her personality before, so it's all very exciting. Although at first she is completely heartless and admits that she could kill her students when they annoy her, she still worries when Yuiko warns her that her students will be in danger. I'm undecided on whether this is an inconsistency or just a more obscure part of her personality. Ayami has interesting dreams too: lucid dreams. Dreams where she is aware that she is in a dream and has complete control over them. Watching her prance about with her 'dream prince' eating all the sweets she can, it's a complete contrast to her daytime self. Although she has quite a cynical perception even in her dream! Yuiko and her grandfather are just your every day eccentrics. Grandfather with his Einstein immitation and Yuiko trying to look like Cruella Deville they are quite the pair to look at, but quite boring in personality.
The revelations are coming out left right and centre at the moment and I really don't know how much to tell you. But although it's called 'a family drama enjoyable from kids to adults' the topics and philosophy in this are way too heavy for kids! It's extremely interesting though! All the theories about subconsciousness and the such, they actually make me think! It's called a comedy too and although it's not hysterical, the show does have some humorous qualities. But don't watch it thinking you're watching a comedy show because there are no joke just of quirky moments. So that's all I can say for now and with the most recent revelation being so big, I can't wait for the next episode to be subbed!!

Sorry, there's no trailer or another promo pic so have a gif of Ayami!

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