Vevara in Your Dream is a monumental work in a lot of ways. For its director syo5, this short anime that only lasts for 10 minutes and 3 seconds is his phenomenal debut in animation storytelling, having done some animation works in the past and illustrated a lot of beautiful worlds of others and his own, this anime is his first big work that tells a story, a world, and a message. Breaking through as an indie. For its soundtrack composer whoo, Vevara in Your Dream is his first and last anime that he ever composed under the nickname on the credits. And for anime distributions, it's the first ever anime that's stored in the blockchain. Distribution that didn’t last long and the anime is now on YouTube for all to see. The circumstances around the anime are unique, but it's not what makes Vevara in Your Dream special. It’s not the reason why Vevara in Your Dream is a work so dear to my heart, rewatching it a lot of times that I have lost count. At its core, Vevara in Your Dream is a short, stylized, and personal story about reviving dead dreams and facing your own nightmares.

Awakened from her dream is Sana, gasping under her blanket in a room that couldn’t be described as bright. The clock shows 4:03, her hand is trembling, setting the mood for the story that’s about to be unveiled. The grey and bleak colour palette revealed itself making the colours of everything look muted yet stylish at the same time. The ambient noises of night time, the lack of lights and the little details on every Sana’s gasps helps with conveying the mood in a way that felt direct. It felt anxious, lonely, and fearful, without a lot of words spoken.

Awakened from her sleep is Sana, what awakened her this time is not a nightmare that she couldn’t escape, but a whistle from a friendly creature. He introduced himself as Vevara, a creature that could bring drawings to life, inviting Sana’s to explore the dream world with him. The lack of colours in this anime made the presence of colours in the dream world pop out in what’s otherwise a bleak and grey world. Its world is filled with flowers that bring colours, with a seemingly abandoned environment that’s filled with life. I have never watched an anime that looks like this, the short runtime and the nature of indie works allows the creators to take a lot of care into its visuals that not only serves as an eye candy, it’s also used to set the mood for the story, accompanied by a beautiful soundtrack that fits just right. The world is isolated by nature, from its bleak colors to the lack of characters, but the visual directions made it lively for the type of world Vevara told its story in.

Halfway through the story, it’s starting to become apparent how little there is from this anime when it comes to its story. There is only so much story that you could tell with 10 minutes and 3 seconds of runtime. While the possibilities of worlds and plot that could be told with it is almost endless, there are a lot of things to be considered for a work with such a short runtime to not fall flat or over bloated. Vevara in Your Dream kept it simple, the story is the kind of story that could be told with only two characters with a script that’s no longer than two pages. Vevara in Your Dream told its story in a way that doesn’t necessarily show nor does it tell its plot points, what it shows is the emotion, how painful it is to face your own nightmares, how bitter the realization that you can’t ever draw things that looks alive, how no matter hard you tried, the possibility of failure will always be there. How pitiful Sana is.

Its dialogue is sparse, attentive viewers might notice the symbolisms that the anime has but they are well hidden and could only be understood by people that might have experienced the frustration that Sana’s had, and viewers that are experiencing it when they watch it. But its narrative is by no means shallow. While its gorgeous visuals are for all to enjoy, I believe that the message the director syo5 is trying to send is very specific to the people that felt like they have failed as a creator, but that doesn’t mean it could only be enjoyed by this specific subset of people. Dreams are not exclusive for people that are willing to create. Everybody has a dream, for one of successfully achieved dreams out there, there are countless dreams that are being crushed to death, crushing their willingness, motivation, and moral as a human being and this is something that a lot of people have experienced. The relatability might vary with experience of our own, but the themes are universal to all people that have experienced failure. The anime touched it in a very personal way with a fairly positive outlook albeit with some touches of pessimism. This might rub some people in the wrong way but despite its universal theme, telling a story that touches everybody's heart is not the point of this anime.

This is not a story that tried to represents all people that had their dreams broken, coming with an answer that everybody’s satisfied with is not something that Vevara in Your Dream is interested in. It's a story about Sana and the people that feel the same. Just like how a simple compliment could mean the world to people, Vevara in Your Dream’s short and beautiful story might touch your heart within 10 minutes, and it means the world to me.