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I found the picture below on Pinterest. The caption was 「松田＋幼女に夢見てる漫画」.

I don't understand the use of the に particle. I had already seen it used in the structure 「person + に夢見てる」 before.

I'm not even sure how to translate it. Would it be "to see a dream in"? I don't see how that makes sense though.

Now, on to the picture itself:

I'm having trouble with translating Matsuda's last sentence.

榛原は　案外

こういうの（は？）　ドライな

I'm thinking of "this is surprisingly dry". But what's "this" exactly? This situation? And it feels dry to Hagiwara? That's why the は particle is being used?

Or is this aspect/comment of Hagiwara that is surprisingly dry?

What does dry even mean here? Insensitive? Since Hagiwara seemed to be mocking Matsuda, I thought it could be "dry humor", but the definition doesn't seem to fit.

Maybe it's because Hagiwara was being too cold towards the little girl? I unfortunately don't have the previous pages, except this one. I don't know if it comes directly before the one I'm concerned about and it doesn't seem to help much, in any case.

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  • ～に夢見てる (short for ～に夢を見ている) is "to have illusion about ～". ～を夢見る means it's a concrete goal/dream, whearas ～に夢を見る means you embrace a vague fantasy/illusion about it. For example, 彼は留学を夢見ている basically means he wants to study abroad, but 彼は留学に夢を見ている is closer to "He believes studying abroad is good." If I understand correctly, the subject of 夢見てる is the author. To put it verbosely, the caption is "a (fan-made) manga where I (the author) have an illusion about (the combination of) Matsuda and a little girl".
  • こういうの refers to "this type of situation" (helping a little girl on the street). Since the topic of the sentence is 萩原, the omitted word after こういうの is something like ～について.
  • ドライ(な) here is an antonym for sympathetic/eager/emotional. It doesn't mean 萩原 won't help the girl, but perhaps he would do it in a more businesslike manner.
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  • Since 「夢見る」 is a transitive verb, I thought "to dream about" would be 「～を夢見る」. Can the に particle only be used with the て-form? What exactly is the difference between using を and に?
    – E. Matsunaga
    Commented Oct 13, 2019 at 19:40
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    @E.Matsunaga Please see the edit. If it were を, "松田+幼女を夢見てる" would mean the author believes 松田+幼女 is the ultimate goal, but that's perhaps not what she wants to say. Basically she's just saying "Isn't it fantastic if 松田 is with a little girl?"
    – naruto
    Commented Oct 13, 2019 at 20:07
  • I may be jumping to conclusions, but could it be that 「～に夢を見る」 is just for ambitions/life goals, 「～の夢を見る」 is just for the dreams you have while you sleep and 「～を夢見る」 is for both? Or can 「～に夢を見る」 mean something like "to fantasize/daydream about something that's good, but not necessarily the ideal/best". Like, could 「エルフに夢を見ている」 mean I'm imagining vivid pictures of elves and thinking they're nice, even though they're not necessarily the best fictional creatures?
    – E. Matsunaga
    Commented Oct 14, 2019 at 11:06
  • @E.Matsunaga エルフに夢を見ている (literally "seeing a dream within elves") means someone believes elves are ideal/wonderful beings regardless of the reality. Note that he is not seeing the picture of elves themselves; he is seeing some illusion/fantasy/dream via elves.
    – naruto
    Commented Oct 14, 2019 at 11:43
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    @E.Matsunaga Whether the elves did something or not is not important. "He is seeing/anticipating something good in ～" is all that is said.
    – naruto
    Commented Oct 14, 2019 at 13:04

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