Dream Hunter Rem

Dream Hunter Rem (ドリームハンター麗夢, Dorīmu Hantā Remu) is an OVA series directed by Seiji Okuda and originally animated by Orange House before being now held by Sai Enterprise and Zain. It was originally going to be a one-shot Hentai OVA which it got more popularity to the point where Seiji Okuda, started to make more OVAs and make an extended non-Hentai Special Edition version of the 1st episode. It's about a Dream Guardian known as Rem Ayanokoji as she defeats demons infecting others dreams and sometimes other evil spirits.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) The concept of making an anime reversing the role of dream entering characters like Scarecrow and Freddy Krueger is very interesting and well-executed as instead of the main dream-entering character being the villain. This one is a hero who is preventing the dream infection of others from happening rather than causing it.
 * 2) After the first original version of the 1st OVA. The animation and audio while still can be at times a little sloppy (forgiven considering the budget of the studio and director as well as still being obscure nowadays) has greatly improved and looks great for the most part.
 * 3) Very great voice acting in which the extended 1st episode fixes some of the bad parts such as toning down Rem's grunts and screams and Rem's voice is very cute and well-done and Naoko Matsui did a very great job improving her voice work.
 * 4) Very likable characters such as Rem who is very kind, caring, justice loving and will protect everyone regardless of the threat and Detective Junichirou Sakaki who is very caring as well and will help Rem in most cases.
 * 5) The special edition of the first OVA improves the story, fixes most of the audio issues, video issues, animation issues, making the first antagonist more menacing than being a generic pervert villain which he now wants to absorb the life force of others dreams instead of pleasuring them, removing all Hentai scenes and improving dialogue.
 * 6) Most of the stories while simple, are fun to enjoy and still show a lot of likable characters, emotion, action and good morals.
 * 7) It also balances some comedy and wholesome scenes to step away from some of the edgy parts of the series and does it well. Though it's not too edgy and one of the tamer mature OVA series and uses shock value for good and narrative reasons.
 * 8) Very well-done background music and as well as any of the ending music and one bonus music video from the 5th episode that is very catchy and emotional at the same time.
 * 9) It inspired many mature Magical Girl manga/anime to be made such as Puella Magi Madoka Magica and Magical Girl Apocalypse unfortunately as well as some poorly made ones such as Magical Girl Site and Magical Girl Raising Project.
 * 10) Unlike most graphic content OVAs at the time (except the original version of the first episode). It tends to use the graphic content in a very wise, responsible and narrative fashion and does it for the plot and story context for every episode and avoids using too much edgy graphic content compared to OVAs before and after the series' creation.
 * 11) Though very obscure nowadays and never talked about as much. It did have a very lucky chance for the series to get in a crossover TRPG game known as Super Heroine Chronicle which has other famous heroine characters and Rem gets along with most of the heroines even the tsundere characters in it and keeps her usual personality without being flanderized.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) The animation, audio quality and the first OVA's voice work can get sloppy at times though excusable considering the budget the animation studio and director had at the time.
 * 2) The first original version of the OVA didn't age well as it was a very generic Hentai action story and had very short length compared to the other episodes.
 * 3) It never got licensed or localized. The possible reasons are either it was too obscure for anime licensing companies such as ADV to localize or Enkou's chanting would be too hard to dub and translate.
 * 4) Rem's backstory and info is never revealed as much which would've been a great idea to expand the series and lore and learn about where she came from and her parents (her mother was shown only as an illusion in episode 2).

Trivia

 * The original version of the 1st OVA is only released on VHS while other episodes are on VHS, LaserDisc and DVD.