18if
18if
Synopsis
Waking up in a strange bedroom in a dream world, teenager Haruto Tsukishiro finds a strange app on his phone. When he activates the program, an odd woman appears and tries to drag him to her realm. Luckily, a mysterious, white-haired girl severs their connection and helps him escape, revealing that the woman is a witch; however, their conversation is cut short. As Haruto enters the realm again, he meets an anthropomorphic, talking cat named Katsumi Kanzaki. While the witch's minions pursue them, the white-haired girl opens a door for them to escape. After their ordeal, Haruto describes their savior—which only he can see—and Katsumi, the leading authority on dream world research, realizes that she must be "Lily," a being that resurfaces repeatedly across multiple dreamscapes. Hoping to leave the dream world through a blue door, they enter the witch's realm once again. Finding themselves in peril, Lily reveals the truth to Haruto: witches suffer from "Sleeping Beauty Syndrome," a coma-like sleep state induced by torment in their real world lives. Thus, they cannot wake until they are defeated in the dream world. After finally defeating the witch and locating the blue door, Haruto and Katsumi say their farewells, promising to meet up in the real world. However, when Haruto exits through the door, he awakens in the dream world bedroom once more. Seeking answers, Haruto and Katsumi try to uncover the mysteries of the witches, Lily, and Haruto's own inability to leave the dream world. [Written by MAL Rewrite]
Characters
Main
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Supporting
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Trailer
Recommendations
Reviews(20)
Neurochitin
September 29, 2017
People say 18if is like a box of chocolates: there are both good and bad parts and you won't know which one it is until you try. While I agree, I would rather compare it to an expensive box of luxury chocolates: all the flavours are exotic combinations, with ones such as broccoli-mango or truffle-chili. Initially you are turned off because you can't imagine these crazy combinations can possibly be good, but once you try some it becomes clear that they taste much better than they sound. Of course, there will always be some you dislike, but overall it's undeniable that a lot of well-placedeffort and experience has been put into them, and that they're certainly worth the expensive price. (Not that the price part applies to this anime.) 18if is a mostly episodic series, where each¹ episode is directed by a different director. The first 10 episodes are fully episodic; you can watch them in any order if you want, or skip episodes you don't like. The last three episodes consist of a short continuous arc that explains questions raised during the first 10 episodes. Note that if you skipped episodes before, you won't understand the references to these specific episodes. The premise for the episodic episodes is as follows: In every episode there is a different witch, representing a real-world person with Sleeping Beauty Syndrome, and Haruto and Katsumi have to help the witch get back to the real world. In addition, every episode (more or less) showcases some kind of real-world issue that serves as a theme for the episode — ranging from classic themes such as the idol industry to obscure ones such as Cambodian history. I thought all of these stories were quite interesting, but given the nature of the show there will probably be ones you won't like. Apart from the director of each episode, there is also Kouji Morimoto — known for staff roles in Majo no Takkyuubin/Kiki's Delivery Service and Akira, for example — as the co-director in every episode². This combination leads to the anime being overall very well directed, despite the fact that the episodic directors tend to be relatively obscure. The music in the show is overall very good too; of particular note is the OP song which I would consider excellent, combined with the unique OP visuals. The ED is different each episode, with the songs being of varying quality. The ED visuals are usually just simple credit rolls with flashbacks to the episode, over varying backgrounds, but the rest of the show's visuals are engaging enough that a flashy ED animation doesn't feel necessary. The animation quality is hit-and-miss, but it's always at least alright, with some episodes being exceptionally well animated (episode 7 comes to mind). I haven't played the source game, but the anime is strange enough that if someone told me this was adapted from a puzzle game I would just assume they're joking, so I wouldn't expect it to be a very close adaptation. If you've played the game and got a similar feel as what I'm describing, then you probably know what you're in for. Overall it's difficult to give the show one single score because it varies so much, but I enjoyed it enough that I feel a 9 is adequate, and there are certainly some 10 elements in my opinion. ¹: Episodes 1 and 2 were directed by the same director, but otherwise this applies. ²: One episode was exclusively directed by him.
