An introduction of 'Yumedamaya Kidan' (ゆめだまや奇談)

So Production I.G. posted some screenshots of Yumedamaya Kidan (ゆめだまや奇談), which will begin to air on 25 November 2007:

We also get more details of the story itself:

Naho, an eleven-year-old girl, lives with her father and her two-year-old brother Jun. Her mother died after giving birth to Jun, so Naho has to take care of young Jun at home. Understandingly, this situation is frustrating to little Naho. A girl of her age would be dying to go out and play with friends, but because of Jun, she has to give priority to her duties.

One day, a bizarre man, wearing a long coat and with a big suitcase in his hand, turns up in front of Naho. He introduces himself as "Kotaro the Dreamball Dealer" and tells Naho he can take her to a dreamland away from her everyday life. But after this encounter, strange phenomena begin to happen to Naho.

Now Naho is having fun with her friends, and several different worlds come and go before her eyes. Then she finds herself with his father and mother, only the three of them again... But as she starts feeling anxious, the next moment she finds herself wandering into Jun's dream!

Naho is confused. What would she ask to Kotaro? What does she really desire from the deep of her heart?

I said before that there is something about Yumedamaya Kidan's artstyle that reminds me of  the old-school horror manga master Umezu Kazuo (楳図かずお). I should like to add that there is something retro about the whole feel of the work. It also strangely reminds me of Tezuka Osamu's Marvelous Melmo (ふしぎなメルモ) - see this Wikipedia entry for info.

I hope I am not wrong on this - but the series seems to emit vibes of the sort of combination of harshness (厳しさ) and tenderness (優しさ) you see in old-school works but no longer in newer works. In Marvelous Melmo, for example, I have been told that the protagonist's younger brother turns into a frog and as he cannot consume water as a frog, he cannot take the magic candy to turn back into a human. Later, the younger brother is being cooked as food by someone, and the magic candy turns into steam, which somehow allows him to turn back into a human being. Furthermore, the bottle of candy is supposed to be refilled automatically, but at some point the refilling stops suddenly. By the time there are only two candies left, the protagonist has already become a grown-up. That is the sort of combination of harshness and tenderness I mean.   

Comments

[Snoop']

Wow, this sure looks exciting.
Old-school style anime are hit-and-miss ; it can be very moving because they have something most anime lack nowadays - ingenuousness and a will from the creators to convey a message.

Anyway, I'm mixing up "old anime" and "children anime that look like old anime", so I'll just say that the picture on Production I.G's site somehow reminds me of Tezuka Osamu.
ttp://www.production-ig.co.jp/contents/works_sp/1720_/index.html

[Wabisabi]

Yeah, I have to say that I have to highest hopes on this series in what is otherwise a dull season.

[Snoop']

I watched ep.1 yesterday.
While not as good as I hoped, it is still decent. If only the little Baku could STFU !

Below, a very short review of mine :
http://www.anime-kraze.org/smf/index.php?topic=11620.0

[Wabisabi]

I think there is only one episode...

Anyway, I watched it and I think it is so-so and seems to suffer from a bit of identity crisis. It is meant to be a children's show but they have made it so deliberately... Showa.

(I see from your review that you call yourself 'The Deranged and Perverted Frenchman')