dkeeling - 2014-03-27 10:21:01

When it comes to projects that are made by the hands of loving fans, there's quite a grey zone as to how they should be judged as a whole. Touhou: A Summer Day's Dream is an OVA created by fans of the Touhou Project games and for the series it is based on, thus a lot of things are left up to interpretation and creative flexibility.

This may be where the OVA either creates an appealing atmosphere, or it may cause you to lose interest in the world that it is exploring.

Today, I'll not rely too much on numbers to represent what I think as a whole, rather, I'll provide some of the details that may help you decide whether or not spending an hour of your time watching this series will be an hour well spent. If you wish to avoid the wall of text, skip to the end of the review for a summary.

Story

A Summer Day's Dream focuses on appealing to people who are already fans of the Touhou series. If you are unfamiliar with the franchise, then the story may somewhat alienate you or bore you. It mostly relies on (rather minimal) plot that has been established in it's game counterparts, but it is woven together in such a way that the experience is fresh and a somewhat carefree expansion on details that don't really get elaborated on. That said, it relies on a lot of in-jokes shared in fanon and will probably be viewed as a very lackluster plot for anyone looking for deep story.

Animation

The animation in A Summer Day's Dream is pretty standard for an OVA. It's not too flashy, but the scenes are quite pretty to look at and are easy on the eyes. In terms of the characters, their animations do exactly what they need to and the improvement between episodes one and two in terms of overall quality is very noticeable. The general style would probably appeal to those who are fans of the slice of life and "moe" genres.

Sound

In terms of sound, this OVA doesn't boast a very memorable soundtrack. Most of the background noise is merely sound effects, with some music being played in select scenes such as the fights. However, the themes that are played don't really stand out very much. When you look at the voice-acting cast, there are a few well known actors playing the characters and I overall find the cast to be enjoyable.

Character

This is where the OVA falls quite short. Considering that this project is aimed at fans of the series, it already assumes you know about these characters and their general personality and purpose in the world. If you're coming in without prior knowledge, you could find yourself very disappointed in what you're presented with, a seemingly generic fantasy kitchen sink filled to the brim with cookie-cutter characters that are ultimately there to just, well, be there. Then again, there is a charm to be found in the characters and their interactions for others. It really is a mixed bag on how everyone perceives them.

Final Thoughts

As a fan of Touhou, there was a charm for me when I watched through this project. Sometimes I found myself a little bit bored but overall I think these works are somewhat solid. For fans of the series, you'll probably find a lot to like about these OVAs. For anyone who has never even heard of Touhou before, I think there's still something that you could find to like here. Overall, I'd recommend this to anyone who has some time to spare on a rainy day. It's not going to be the greatest anime you've ever seen, but it may just spark your interest in the series or at least entertain you for the short period that you watch it in, with some funny antics and enough content to pull you through the experience.