ザラ Notes: 悪夢ちゃん Akumu-chan

23 December 2012

悪夢ちゃん Akumu-chan

Title: 悪夢ちゃん Akumu-chan
English Title: Little Nightmare
Country: Japan
Language: Japanese
Year: 2012
Episode: 11
Cast:

北川景子 Kitagawa Keiko
ガクト Gakuto (Gackt)
優香 Yuka
木村真那月 Kimura Manatsu
キムラ緑子 Kimura Midoriko
小日向文世 Kohinata Fumiyo
濱田マリ Hamada Mari
岡田圭右 Okada Keisuke
川村陽介 Kawamura Yosuke
和田正人 Wada Masato
阿南健治 Anan Kenji
玉井詩織 Tamai Shiori
木村葉月 Kimura Hazuki
鍋本凪々美 Nabemoto Nanami
川嶋紗南 Kawashima Sana
南乃彩希 Minamino Saki
大友花恋 Otomo Karen
白本彩奈 Shiramoto Ayana
田爪愛里 Tazume Airi
豊田留妃 Toyoda Runa
石橋宇輪 Ishibashi Uwa
土岐瑞葵 Doki Mizuki
斎藤夏鈴 Saito Karin
高村竜馬 Takamura Ryoma

SYNOPSIS
Mutoi Ayami is a seemingly perfect grade school teacher that is well-liked by students and admired by her colleagues. However, Ayami is only pretending to be someone she's not as she is the complete opposite of her image.

A new student named Kotō Yuiko transfers into Ayami's class. Yuiko lives with her grandfather Kotō Bannosuke, who is a college research professor. Yuiko's grandfather has been teaching Yuiko and feels that making her attend school will decrease her learning ability, but Yuiko needs to learn how to live and socialize with other people.

Yuiko has dreams, or rather nightmares, about seemingly random people who she later encounters in real life. Yuiko thinks her nightmares are somewhat predictions of what will happen in the future and she asks her homeroom teacher Ayami to help her prevent her nightmares from becoming a reality.

REVIEW
Akumu-chan is an extraordinary drama about dreams and nightmares, and the possibility of dreams and nightmares actually happening in the real world. I don't really know what to make of the fantastical aspects of this production; it's not really something that is easy to explain or to make other people understand.

Mutoi Ayami: The truth is, the dreams that you see while you're asleep and your dreams about your future aren't that different from each other. That's because they are both dreams that you can't see with your eyes in the real world, but they are only something you can see within your mind.

I like Mutoi Ayami as a character and I think it's strange that she's made out to be someone abnormal in the drama when I think she's someone completely ordinary. I don't think what she's doing is necessarily bad, I mean it's quite normal to act agreeable with other people and to refrain from saying anything that is not considered socially acceptable, such as unwarranted criticisms or negative thoughts, etc.

It's fascinating how Ayami barely lives while she's awake, she just goes through the motions, but she's someone quite alive in her dreams. I think some people are more enthusiastic about living their lives in their dreams because in their dreams, they control the situation and can ensure that only good things happen.

Aizawa Miu: In order for humans to live, do they need lies or the truth?

If people see living their lives differently in their dreams, is that such a bad thing? On the contrary, I think it's good that people find strength from any which way they can, including fabulous daydreams, in order to cope with their exhausting daily lives. The only downside is when people take things to the extreme that they mistake their fanciful fantasies as their actual realities.