Dreams in Japanese animation

[Arigato-sama]

A common feature in Anime and Manga is the existence of "dream episodes" that affect the main character. I suppose this is an aspect of Japanese culture, though it sounds a bit confusing to Western audiences. Could someone please explain what is the role of dreams in Japanese animation?

[jetfire]

Sometimes it's to let a character know what he/she should do as their next step to achieving a goal/solving a problem, sometimes it's to make a character realize certain traits/flaws about themselves, and sometimes they are premonitions of the future or recollections of the past. In any form of show, whether it be japanese or american, dreams mean different things. But I think what I described does occur in anime quite often.

[Pedro The Hutt]

I've only ever seen "First dream of the new year" specials in manga such as Excel Saga and Azumanga Daiou. Those tend to be rather amusing. >.>;; And had no lasting effect on the characters. (In folklore though, the first dream of the new year can supposedly have a major impact on the quality of your year)

[Apolyion]

Dream sequences are common to all forms of entertainment in both western and eastern cultures. Books, TV, movies... many of them have dreams as part of the story. Some of them are entirely about dreams. There's nothing unusual, uniquely Japanese, or inherently confusing about it. Sometimes dream-centric stories can be disjointed and suffer from bad flow as the character shifts between being awake, and dreaming... or even goes from dream to dream... but that's not something that only happens in anime.

Popular American sci-fi/fantasy shows like Stargate, Babylon 5, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer generally have multiple episodes where dreams play a major role in the plot or that take place entirely within dreams. As well as movies (especially horror movies) - the whole Nightmare on Elm Street franchise for example.

Dreams - especially dreams of certain sorts, such as dreams that seem real or dreams that involve flying or falling - are the subject of superstition and creative inspiration worldwide. Specific to Japan, I think the only beliefs that may be unfamiliar to a westerner is that the first dream of a new year is prophetic, and that sleeping with a weight on your chest will bring nightmares (specifically in anime I've seen several shows where cats sitting on a character's chest caused nightmares, this may be linked to Japanese superstitions about cats - there seem to be a lot more superstitions about cats than about dreams in anime...)

[Arigato-sama]

Thank you for your comments. They were very enlightening.