Someday's Dreamers: Lesson 2: Power Of Love (DVD)

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The second volume of "Someday´s Dreamers", "Power of Love", contains four episodes: "An Apron and Champagne", "I Want to be a Mage", "The Mage Who Couldn´t Become a Mage", and "Enormous Power in the Name of Love". Like many other anime series, this series is based off of a manga (Japanese graphic novel).

The story centers around a young girl named Kikuchi Yume. In the world of "Someday´s Dreamers", mages that possess a power to effect reality that´s only limited by their personal desire and abilities exist, and Yume is one of them. She´s spending the summer in Tokyo in training to become a fully licensed mage. Her new master is Oyamada Masami. Masami is a man, but apparently his name is usually a girl´s name in Japanese, so Yume is surprised to see him. The total time of Yume´s training is one month, after which she has to pass a test to become government certified mage.

There´s a government act, The Yokohama Accords, that sanctioned mages, and a system in place that allows mages to only use their powers when they receive an official request approved by the government´s magic department. Masami remembers that Yume´s mother was a mage of great power, but Yume only replies that her mother doesn´t use her powers anymore. Although Yume´s mother was instrumental in securing the Yokohama Accord, she now lives in the country as a simple farmer.

On the surface, this may sound like a typical magical girl anime, but the reality is that magic has very little to do with what the show is all about. Consider that there aren´t any villains, nor are there magical battles. What´s left is a serious piece about growing up and exploring life.

In the first episode on this disk, a child runs away from home. She´s in elementary school, and she´s had a fight with her mother over nothing- some old comedy records. Yume and Masami agree to help search for the child. Yume goes with the child´s mother, who demands that Yume use her powers to find her child. Yume has to refuse, as using her powers would interfere with Masami´s. Instead, Yume and the mother go to every place that they can think of where the child might have run off to.

Typical of "Someday´s Dreamers", this episode is shockingly honest. The show does not rely upon the mages´ powers to create the dramatic elements, only to facilitate the story. When I was four, I ran away from home after some yelling from my Mom. I remember getting a few steps out of the front door before things started to hit me. I didn´t have any shoes, and I felt my socks were going to be ruined. I looked around the cul-de-sac, and wondered where I could eat supper. I didn´t know anybody, it seemed like there was nowhere I could go, so I went back home on my own. When I was in middle school, I got involved in a neighborhood search for a little girl who had gone missing. The mom had turned her back for a second, and she slipped right out the front door. Watching this episode in "Someday´s Dreamers" brought both of those episodes back to me, and I imagine that practically everyone will have that same kind of reaction to at least one episode.