Story & Characters
So there's a fantasy world known as Flonyard which is resided by people with animal ears and tails, and in this
world there are two countries continually warring each other: the Republic of Biscotti and the Kingdom of Galette. After
suffering from many defeats, Princess Millhiore of Biscotti decides to summon a hero from the modern world, and luck was
on their side, some super athletic British kid living in Japan named Cinque is transported to this magical wormhole and
quickly proves to be a even match to the Galette Army. One thing they aren't aware is that once having been
summoned, the hero will be unable to return to his home world. Not the most auspicious start, and it only gets more
dysfunctional from there.
There are thousand of shows about a-hero-summoned-from-Earth-to-save-an alternate-world, but how many are there as bland
and as generic as Dog Days? Okay, with its bland fantasy conceit, Dog Days seems initially show sign of ruin.
"Wars" aren't just war, there's no bloody battles, massacre or whatsoever, the cute little doggy and
kitty people just run through playground while energetic commentator describe the ongoing battle, and nobody gets
injured or killed, they revert back into some cute blob things that look certainly came out from claw crane dolls.
There's no great casualty on both sides, just a mindless competition. IT'S A LITTLE CREEPY!
As it barrels forward, scattering a certain majesty to the speed and thoroughness with which Dog Days self-destructs, it
opens with every advantage an anime could hope for and then over the course of thirteen episodes squanders it all,
leaving itself barren of all but the occasional withered remnant of interest. It's a collapse worthy of the old
RPGs, the resultant series is a flailing mess.
That the series is marketed to fanatical anime fans isn't an inherently bad thing, after all that's why it
manages to crawl into existence, but it doesn't stop there, in fact it's just priming the pump. The series may
begin as a generically heroic tale, but before the end it delves into monster-hunting, military adventure, and
ultimately dark drama. Geeky details, Cinque and Millhiore's relationship is pure puppy love, which seems
appropriate enough. And the latter is given background story with old friend Leo that paint them in shades of
teen-oriented shoujo, and their burgeoning friendship is ramped up to irritating levels of adaptations of visual
romances. More's the pity; they might've helped but couldn't wrestle this outrageous amount of overused
ideas.
Rating: 2
Art
Even its production is steeped in otaku trivia, and its very animation is aimed at fanatics. The series' utter
devotion to fan-pandering can be less impressive in its thoroughness, but in a bizarre world where everyone has a pair
of mammalian ears and a bushy tail, furry-fetish prosthetics are clearly not as much of an issue as national defense. No
great effort was sensed here, the dog theme is taken to a magical level of extreme cute, there are floating islands and
giant ostrichs that seem pretty cool, but overall, everything looks like a cheap production of something that would
definitely be on the top list of diehard anime fans with a fixation on cute. And the character designs are hardly worth
mentioning either: the main protagonist is yet again another spiky hair blondie (Yes, gotta give him blond hair so he
can look like...... Cloud Strife), princess Milhiore's appearance is likely borrowed from Nitendo Mario series,
even footsoldiers look the same, down to their silly hat. It's hard to think of a more unimaginative piece of junk
than this, which uses bland designs from one otaku fetish to the next and doesn't even try to add fresh ideas to
the premise.
Rating: 5
Sound
The series' voice acting is faithful to a fault, preserving the original dialogue in all its illogical, lifeless
glory. The acting is very flat — particularly where everyone has a cheesy voice to match their cute faces — but it,
and even the uninspired dialogue are ultimately of little consequence in the face of fatal flaws such as the
series' painfully conventional score and unpleasant undertones. Naturally, seiyuu Mizuki Nana and Horie Yui supply
the soundtrack with simple theme songs comprised mostly of one- and two-instrument compositions.They are used with
similar simplicity — loud, higgledy-piggledy, and without much in the way of imagination. They won't sell many
CDs, but they get the job done.
Rating: 5
Presentation
A lot of Dog Days is pure insipid, you've seen this kind of story and thousand times, and furthermore, you've
seen it in better-animated and better-written. The series looks and acts exactly like every other empty fantasy romance
out there. Sure it's cute, but not remarkably so. Sure its optimism and simplicity may make you want to gag, but
with a little effort. You know how they say that you can't look away from a train wreck? Dog Days is very similar
to a train wreck, both in its speed and the totality of its ultimate destruction, but unlike the wreck, it's all
too easy to look away from. And that's death for a television series.
____________________________________________________________________________________________
Story: 2
Characters: 2
Art: 4
Animation: 5
Voice: 2
Music: 5
Overall: 4.5
Good
Bad:
+While it's not entirely bad, it's fatally not good.
(Here watch this, way better.)
Rating: 4
Final Verdict
3.6667 (below average)
Reviewed by Weskalia, Dec 31, 2011
