‘Cause I’m waiting for tonight
Then waiting for tomorrow
And I’m somewhere in between
What is real and just a dream
“Somewhere in Between” (Lifehouse)
We share a fascination with dreams, right? It’s perhaps our only chance to do the extraordinary, and further than that, to do the impossible. I treasure that time when I’ve just woken but am not quite awake yet, when memories of dreams are still vivid, because the stories I weave in my sleep are infinitely more entertaining (at least to a drowsy waker) than anything I could create during my conscious hours.
In the first episode of Noragami, Hiyori finds herself in a state like the just-woken dreamer. She questions whether she has dreamed Yato up, or if he and the supernatural events transpiring are indeed real.
Of course, Hiyori ends up discovering that they are. As such, Hiyori will have no choice but to go down a certain path that’s yet to be explained. For us, of course, dreams are not reality, and we can choose to remain a dreamer or to go and try to capture something great and seemingly beyond our reach – a different kind of dream, but those that are no less powerful and ones that require us to move, rather than stay still, to leave the dream or “in between” and push ahead..
Although Noragami will move surely leave this “dream theme” behind in subsequent episodes, I’m glad that it’s one the show visited in the first episode. It just goes to show that a funny animated series of retread tropes can still move us (or at least me) to do something worthwhile, like momentarily asking myself this: Am I living in my dreams, living in a real, life-changing way, or living somewhere in between?
Dreams…Mine are often not worthwhile to remember; though, one gave me the idea for my best short story.
The other anime which opens with a dream of sorts this season is Nobunagun, which I decided to give a whirl because so many bloggers were saying that it was fun. On the other hand, I find it rather vacuous–too vacuous to even find the words to describe just how empty it is of value. 🙂
True – I didn’t think about that comparison with Nobunagun. Maybe the series would seem less vacuous if two of our fighting characters didn’t carry the DNA of Ghandi and Sir Isaac Newton. -_-‘
I know! I said to myself: “Yet another over the top action series playing with historical figures!” But, Ghandi and Newton seem to be particularly terrible choices to place in an action anime.