Dream Hunter Rem - 1985

Dream Hunter Rem is an very original and unique anime 3 episode OVA series released from 1985 to 1987. It is about a character called Rem Ayanokōji who is a dream hunter. She is a woman capable of entering the dreams of sleeping people in an attempt to extinguish the demons causing the nightmares. The artwork takes shape in a very cute and friendly form but don't let that fool you, although the show appears gentle on the surface it is infact layered with many adult themes which your understand upon viewing. The backgrounds are vibrant and detailed with the occasional unique camera angle appearing. The kind that can only really be seen in shows made from this decade due to the immese time, effort and pride animators used to in their work. Unlike today, animation back then was considered equally, if not more important that the actual content of the show but then thats another article for a different day. In the meantime see the Ask John column entry for more info - Why Does Anime Not Look as Good as it Did in the 80s?

This show is very diverse in it's execution, shifting and alternating between many genres including fantasy, horror, drama and even the occasional romance. But perhaps one of the most fascinating and unique aspects of it all, are the educational Dream Sequences that feature in the middle of each OVA. I've never seen anything quite like these in any other anime before. They are wonderfully animated 2 minute shorts that use real science and sophisticated terminology to factually explain how dreams really when we all decide to go to sleep. I can confess to watching these segements more times than the actual show itself, they're that good.

Unfortunately you won't be able to see all the diversity that Dream Hunter Rem has to offer since the episode provided below is only the first half of OVA 1 since that was all that was released by AnimeCoalition. It is taken directly from laserdisc and therefore the quality is very good. However since being fansubbed back in 2004, the show has finally been rescued from obscurity and released on dvd in Japan. Currently a boxset containing all 3 of the original episodes plus extras is going for around $120 (Japanese imports have always been notoriously expensive). Usually i'd recommend such a purchase outright since the quality of the show far outweighs the heavy price tag however in this case i'll have to make the exception since there is a known audio glitch with the dvd release which is explained in greater detail in this animeondvd post. If thats not enough to deter you away, more salt to rub into the word is the fact the production company/distributor decided to save on expenses and not remaster the show, something that should be regarded as the standard now for older shows but clearly not in this case.

I therefore recommend picking up the original VHS or Laserdiscs which are very cheap and problem free, perfect in otherwords. However there is a catch, importing these are harder than dvds since they can usually only be aquired either from online auctions sites like Yahoo Japan Auctions at great cost due to the fact most sellers don't ship internationally therefore forcing most users to use online bidding sites like Mail Order Japan which do all the work for you including shipping to your country of choice but always at great cost including a number of fees and commisons. Your best bet is to either convince a fansub group willing enough to take up subbing the series or find an online friend who is based in Japan and can ship the products you want at a much lower cost although this option means they will be raw Japanese (without subtitles).

Download - Dream Hunter Rem - 01

Overall Grade/Rating: A-
Commercial Availability: VHS (Japan), Laserdisc (Japan), DVD (Japan)