Creative Staff
Writer/Artist: Aqua Mizuto
Translated by: Mai Ihara
What They Say
There’s a bright and shiny magical place up in the sky where people’s dreams come true. For a fair exchange, the shop’s proprietor Lin will gladly turn those dreams into reality. But be careful what you wish for, dear reader. Sometimes the most passionate desires can bring about the biggest heartbreak! Four short stories of fantasy and imagination for everyone who’s ever wished for a dream to come true.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
A tree in love with a human…
A toy that wants to truly befriend its owner…
An amnesiac whose only clue to the past is a beautifully shaped ring…
A shy schoolgirl that longs for the courage to approach her unattainable crush…
Four stories, four longings, and four encounters with a mystical store.
The Yume Kira Dream Shoppe flies through the dusk sky as its shopkeeper Rin listens for wishes that travel on the wind. Through the wares of the magical store, Rin can make desires a reality, but only at a price. Four different characters each give something dear in exchange for a wish, but will what they receive be all they’d hoped?
The Yume Kira Dream Shoppe is a collection of four short stories, whose only common thread is an exchange with Rin, the proprietor of the Yume Kira Dream Shoppe. Because the stories are so short, I can’t delve too deeply into them without giving the whole plot away, but they read very much like modern-day fairy tales along the lines of The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen (the original story, NOT the Disney version) where love, desire, and sacrifice lead to bargains with a magical character. The stories are sweet but sometimes border on saccharine. Each tale is a one-shot, and this title would probably appeal to those who prefer short-form stories, lovers of fairy tales, and manga newcomers who don’t necessarily want to get overly involved with a multivolume series on their first try.
Rin and Alpha are the only characters who show up in each of the stories. The second story provides a nice background to Alpha, the walking, talking plushie store assistant, but you never really learn much about Rin. There’s no explanation of the origin of Rin’s Dream Shoppe, nor is any background given on its proprietor. Like many magical characters in fairy tales, Rin just is the way Rin is, and no one questions it. Interestingly, Rin doesn’t fall into the fairy godmother category as the Shoppe always exacts a price for an exchange, but neither is the androgynous proprietor completely unmoved by the store’s clients. Unlike The Little Mermaid’s sea witch or Tsubasa’s Time-Space Witch, Rin doesn’t run very hard bargains and does lend a helping hand to turn endings that otherwise would have been tragic into happier ones.
Content Grade: B
Art Grade: A
Packaging Grade: B
Text/Translation Grade: A-
Age Rating: 14+
Released By: Viz Media
Release Date: September 4th, 2017
MSRP: $8.99
