Someday's Dreamers: Lesson 1--Magical Dreamers

Imagine the Harry Potter series reconfigured for adolescent Japanese girls and you may have an idea of what to expect from Someday's Dreamers: Lesson 1--Magical Dreamers. This gentle and somewhat fey quartet of anime episodes follows the apprenticeship of 17-year-old Yume Kikuchi, a rural Japanese girl who comes to Tokyo to learn how to be a mage (or wizard) under the tutelage of handsome 30-year-old Masami Oyamada. Lessons in good citizenship are mixed in with the various hocus-pocus instructions, and students of contemporary Japanese culture (or J.K. Rowling fans, for that matter) may have a few light satirical chuckles over the Bureau of Mage Labor and its inevitable miasma of bureaucratic regulations and requirements. Anime fanatics expecting knockabout bad-boy shenanigans, graphic violence, or the antisocial chaos common to this genre, will be surprised at this gentle and charming good-girl adventure in which everything is wholesome; even Yume's clear attraction to Masami is kept as chaste and pure as humanly possible. Presented in both Japanese (with English subtitles) and English-dubbed versions, this opening volume, rated 13-up, is recommended. Aud: P. (P. Hall)