I See A Red Door, And I Want To Paint It Blue – 18if First Impressions

You ever have one of those times you fell asleep and then had a dream? How about one of those times where you fall asleep and can’t wake up from that dream? Maybe that dream where you fall asleep and then get trapped in a game by the insane Witch of Thunder? No? Just Haruto then I guess. So this is a show I was kinda meh on the premise of, then I heard the OP and was curious and then my IT Director recommended it and this guy literally only watches 3 anime at a time because he has to time prioritize. Due to all of this I decided to give it a shot and man was this show strange. Like, Catherine without (at least not yet) the daemons and sex/abortion dreams. Spoiler warning ahead for the first episode!

The show starts out with a trippy enough OP and a strange scene where a blonde woman throws a chicken and a guy with a talking beak for a crotch out as play things and proceeds to turn the man into a cake and the chicken into a panda. Then things get weird and I mean WEIRD. Enter Haruto, strange protagonist of our strange story. After meeting someone who called him big brother (and to kill people), and a talking cat who claims not to be a cat in the real world, things start to kick up a bit. We have the introduction of the red doors, which lead into the world of a witch. This could be, among other things a giant alligator, a heard of sheep, giant teddy bears, or the direct lair of the witch herself. The only way to leave a witches domain is via a blue door, the discovery of which is an adventure unto itself.

Haruto is subsequently disarmed and beheaded while informed of how the Witch of Thunder is a girl who has the “Sleeping Beauty Syndrome.”  This along with a number of other girls afflicted with the same disease are the “witches” of the dream world. The witch of Thunder is actually a very plain and boring girl who after having a cruel prank played on her finds herself falling asleep and adopting this persona of a spoiled and rightly insane person. Haruto then convinces her (after not dying from the beheading) to open her eyes and effectively strips her naked wakes her up from her Sleeping Beauty Syndrome. It seems that Haruto is trapped in the dream world as when he leaves the blue door, he finds himself back in the strange surreal bedroom he awoke inside of and decides to go back to sleep.

The art style is vibrant and unique to say the least, and apparently there’s a different art director per episode. Quality is a bit lack luster for this one and they use an interesting and non offensive type of CG. However the show has this random split screen thing it does every minute that makes no sense and would normally detract, but considering the entire show is one giant acid trip then well its all par for the course. The Japanese voice acting was pretty good and I actually really like the guy who voices the cat (Takehito Koyasu) as he’s done a number of great roles including one of the most interesting bad guys from Gintama and a little show I kinda maybe like named JOJO’S BIZZARE ADVENTURE. Another point I’d like to make on the VA work is that Funimation apparently is also streaming this (I’m on that Crunchyroll life) and its already been dubbed and everything so give it a shot. The sounds are interesting and music is pretty interesting adding the right amount of tension and support of the show that rallies in lieu of the less detailed art. I’m not sure how I feel about the art because I can tell its supposed to be surreal and not the beautiful examples of animation we’ve been seeing lately but its not anywhere near bad enough for me to auto-pass. This show is unique and crazy enough to hold my interest for a three episode test (partially because Dio) and I can’t tell you how I even think this show is going to go but I’ll post up more in a couple weeks. However while I’m not of the mind to give it a rating yet, the show is rocking a 5.79 rating on MyAnimeList, so that’s a thing. If you want to see what a drug fueled dream must be like, give this show a shot and leave a like or comment before a witch turns you into a dream cake.