Under the Dog

Wow Under The Dog was actually good, I'm impressed. I will say they did oversell it in kickstarter but hey thats how you sell a product and I'm not mad it is a solid 7/10. Its more substance than style because I would say this is basically something a seasonal anime can accomplish with the animation. I guess its harder to sell a story that isn't otaku pandering. But hey who knows maybe they thought they could have done this independently. But seeing as this is with KC and Orange I'm glad they worked with a competent studio. The CG is your standard Orange quality CG.Some scenes def looked more flashier than others and the backgrounds were simple but it got the job done. I feel that Hana was a good main character for the amount of screen time she got. Sadly we don't get to see the Anthea till the 22 minute mark. Again, it looks like they were selling a different product at first. Anthea's introduction puts everything in to perceptive to why she comes so late in the anime. It isn't a bad thing because Hana is still a good character. The last act is what the 2 acts before it built up to. And I do say it was worth the build up. The action scenes might not be OMG sakuga nut on my screen, but it was good and interesting. Most of the story is placed in high school where we see a gun fight going on. Don't let high school setting bother you because we only get that higschool feel for 2 or 3 minutes before everything goes ape shit. Whats great about it is that we get enough info in-between these shooting fight scenes but not overbearing to the point where we have exposition coming out the screen. There are plenty of things that the story shows you but doesn't explicitly tell you. For example the monster having green eyes as well as Hana and Anthea. They even spell it out for you in the beginning about how their hope became their nemesis. But you forget about that by the time you get to the second act. Overall there are other things but I don't want to go into detail just watch it for yourself. The entire anime is paced and directed in such a way where it feels like a mini movie. The best part about the feel of this narrative is that it feels like a 90s OVA. Oh how I miss the OVA boom. Anyways to wrap things up, was it the over the top action/mystery flick we were planning to see? No, but it is a decent to good action anime with great build up and nice characters. Enjoy the twist because this anime does something most anime wouldn't have. Thats all I gotta say without spoiling your experience. I seen titties so its a good anime.

Under the Dog was very disappointing for how much the creators hyped it up. It's only 28 minutes long with very little substance, so my review will be brief. Story: What story? We are just thrust into the setting with no clarification on what year it is or how the world became this way. This might work in other anime, but there is almost nothing here that pulls you in enough to even care. There's a bunch of random terms thrown around like "flowers", "the light of humanity", "pandoralization" etc that are never explained. Art: The art was decent. Definitely nothing to impressed about though,considering this took 2 years to make for an 28 minute episode. The animation was mediocre everywhere that wasn't a fight scene. The character designs were bland and lacked any flair. Nothing stood out about the art at all, but at least it didn't detract from the experience. Sound: Music was generic action music. No thought went into whether the music was actually needed for some action scenes, so it was often distracting and detracted from the experience. The VA was nothing special either. Character: This actually made me laugh a bit. there is absolutely NO decent characterization. Sure, it might be hard in an 28 minute episode, but considering it took 2 years to plan and make I would have assumed they'd make an attempt. Every line the main character spoke felt cliche and trite. She was basically a standard tragic hero, with no other substance to her. The other characters aren't even worth mentioning. I don't even know why they bother to give names to some of them. Enjoyment: I did not enjoy it that much. The action scene at the very end is what made me bump it up from a 1 to a 2, but other than that I feel like I wasted 28 minutes watching this piece of crap. Overall: I wouldn't consider it something worth watching. The animation is mediocre and nothing worth mentioning(contrary to the trailer they showed us before). The music is forgettable and annoying. The plot is not explained clearly, and the episode is bogged down by silly melodramatic moments where characters talk and talk and talk and overexplain stuff.

It's frustrating when something gets a lot of support, especially financial support, and builds up everyone's expectations just to end up being a huge and shallow disappointment. I get that. But to me, it's a lot more frustrating to see what seems to be the majority of people miss the point and hate something that frankly doesn't deserve that level of hate. This is the case with Under the Dog. First, let me briefly address the backstory of this OVA's development. To oversimplify things, Under the Dog was an idea from the 90's for a 26 episode anime that was never made. Certain people werevery passionate about the project though, and believed that they would have more success if it was funded by the masses, rather than by other companies that might want to affect the creative direction that the anime takes in order to fit their own agenda. They made a kickstarter campaign with a beautiful and exciting trailer advertising Under the Dog, and they managed to raise nearly $900k to make it. Fast forward roughly 2 years, and after various development issues and changes to the team working on it, this OVA is the result. So, the question that many are asking is, "was this worth the wait/money?" And here's where I want to make my point, because a lot of people are saying that it wasn't. Think about what we got, and think about what they wanted to make. This is a story that needs 26 episodes to make - their options were essentially to cram the entire plot into one short OVA, cheapening the entire story and ruining the entire idea of having more creative freedom on a project that they're passionate about, or to essentially make a teaser for the full story that makes us wonder but doesn't answer our questions right away. Personally, I'm very happy that I contributed $75 towards the latter rather than the former. This OVA is actually pretty spectacular as a pilot/teaser if you ask me. For one, it shows that there is indeed talent behind this project - yes, the visuals don't look as crisp as the trailer, but it still looks quite good and the animation during the action scenes was on point. Beyond that, there is a surprising amount of detail that builds a narrative on top of what is actually being said by the characters. A lot of people like to preach "show, don't tell" when it comes to storytelling, and a lot of anime does a lot of telling rather than showing, which to me isn't that terrible of a thing. Take JoJo's Bizarre Adventure for example, if they didn't explain everything that was going on all the time it would be impossible to follow, and a huge part of the style of JoJo's is the presentation of their long-winded explanations. In the case of Under the Dog though, I'd say that there's a lot more being shown than told, and I appreciate that as well. I'll probably start spoiling the episode a bit from here out, so this is your warning if you haven't seen it yet and are interested in avoiding spoilers. You can already tell that I liked this quite a bit though, so if all you're looking for is a recommendation, consider this it. What I liked about Under the Dog was the little things that it tells you about its world as you go along. Thinking of this as an episode 0 or even an episode 1, I have a pretty solid idea of what I'd be getting into with this story based on this one episode. It seems that something that was meant to give people hope is now some kind of military threat, so much so that even seemingly normal, unassuming schools are equipped to be completely locked down with barricades at a moment's notice. Whatever this issue is results in people turning into terrifying monsters that are immune to normal bullets, and there are at least 2 factions that take interest in this - the US military, and an organization that creates "flowers," which are girls that are trained to be assassins under the threat that if they fail, their families will be killed. These girls carry out dangerous missions of assassination as well as protection of certain individuals that are for some reason labeled "white," and I can only assume that their assassination targets are all labeled "black." The girls seem to be convinced that if they can finally find a person that is truly "white" that they can all be saved from this situation, implying that this so-called "white" person can bring an end to this military struggle that the world is dealing with. Whether this person can act as a cure to whatever makes people monsters or as some way to shift the power over this force to one side or another remains to be seen, but what is clear is that people who are "white" can change to being "black," which seems to mean that they will start turning into a monster and need to be killed. Naturally, this brings up a lot of questions, and thankfully, almost no answers. Let's assume that they'll eventually be able to make a full series out of this - I am deeply interested in what is happening and how things will happen from now on, which is a great way to feel at the beginning of any story. Here are some of the questions that I'd like answers to based on this episode (keep in mind, I didn't read the plot synopsis before watching so I only know the context that was shown to me in the actual episode): Why is the US military involved and not the Japanese military, given that this seems to be based in Japan? (This implies that whatever issue that is going on is being dealt with on a global level, or is considered important enough to apply the largest force possible to take care of.) Why is this military force at ends with the flowers and whoever controls them? What is causing people to turn into monsters? What does either side stand to gain by capturing someone labeled "white"? What is it that Hana injected into herself? Why do the flowers' eyes glow green? Do they have the power to disrupt people's guns or are they just observant of the correct opportunities to rush in for an attack? How much of society is aware of this issue? What powers do the monsters really have? Are they mostly biological or are they partially machine, based on the apparent force field that can deflect bullets? What was up with that badass gun Anthea used to actually damage that monster? Did Anthea's yelling at the end actually stop the monster, or was it just distracted by something else? If it did, seriously, what powers do the flowers have? And for that matter, why is it necessary to essentially hold their families hostage? What determines who will become a flower or not? I have other questions but if I get into too many details it'll just drag on too long. My point is, I have a lot of questions, and having questions means that I find the anime interesting. If it wasn't interesting, I wouldn't care and therefore I wouldn't have questions. But it was interesting, because it deliberately gave me a lot to think about and wonder about. More than anything, this OVA made me crave the full story, which is a perfect way to introduce a story. Yet, I see a lot of people complaining. Unfortunately, the majority of people that I've seen complain about this OVA have offered very little explanation of what makes them not like it (saying "it's shit" doesn't mean anything to anyone, unless you think that your opinion is so important that no one will need any explanation in order to agree with you). The main complaint that I've seen boils down to 2 things, the animation quality and the "lack of story." As for animation, if you were expecting it to look exactly the same as the kickstarter trailer, maybe you'll be disappointed. But it does look quite good to me, definitely still above average. And as for "lack of story," I think what people should be saying is "lack of conclusion" or "lack of answers," which is honestly the entire point of this OVA's existence. This OVA introduced a lot of concepts, it primarily follows 2 characters, a "white" person and a "flower," and both of them die by the end of the episode. Their stories got a conclusion, but the world did not, because the overarching story has not yet concluded. Anthea, the main character, doesn't even show up until near the end, and from what I noticed, she doesn't have a single speaking line of dialogue, just a couple grunts and a really great yell at the end. The OVA baits you into thinking that Hana and the one guy were going to be the main characters, only to reveal that they only existed in order to give us insight into all of the primary conflicts of the world that this story takes place in. I really disagree with the idea that no story is being told here, because in the span of these side characters' short stories, by the time they each died I had learned enough to be interested in this world and the many, many questions that I would now love to have answered someday. So, TL;DR: This is a fantastic pilot episode that raises a lot of questions in a really great way that makes me want more. I'm giving it an 8/10 because if there was a full series based on this, I'd probably give it at least an 8/10 based on the potential I see here. If this ends up being all that we ever see out of Under the Dog, I guess I'd probably lower it to a 6/10 or maybe lower. If you expect this to be a full story contained in a single episode like Little Witch Academia, you will be disappointed by this because it's written to only work as a 26 episode series. It's simply not a full story, but it's a promising start, and I think it deserves a bit more praise for how good it is at being what it is. Oh, but the English voice acting sucked 90% of the time. I was laughing at it for the wrong reasons, I kind of wish that it was Japanese people speaking "Engrish" instead so that I could laugh at it in a better way. There's a difference between "bad pronunciation" and "bad voice acting," and I'd take the former any day.

*SPOILERS FOR UNDER THE DOG* *Sigh* All that hype behind edgy, pretentious garbage. I mean, many people put money into this Kickstarter project with high hopes for a badass 30 minute OVA, and I'm sure many of you out there are disappointed. It's the Mighty No.9 of anime, minus the delays and stuff. The point is, we spent money on a passion project that somehow felt unpolished in every way; enough passion to make a mini-action flick, but not enough passion to tighten and polish it, meaning that now, it's loose and rigid. You may be asking: "What the hell do you mean?" Well, let's findout, shall we? STORY: 2/10 I can't explain much to you on what the story is about. Wanna know why? Because it doesn't even fill us in on what the hell its going on about. All we know is get there's an organization meant to kill hope, stop these things called "Pandoras", and that they are at odds with the US Military. We don't know anything about Pandoras. We don't know what's up with those special eyes these agents have. Hell, we barely know anything that's going on. We're just thrusted in without any real info as to what were plunging into. Apparently, if an agent of "Flowers" mucks up, that agent's family dies, which happens to our "protagonist". I'll expand on the "protagonist" part later. First off, this is edgier than a buzzsaw. Second, why exposition on the families of characters that die off anyways and'll have nothing to do with anything in the long run? Why not focus on explaining some of the things worth explaining, like why the US Military is handling an issue in Japan? It has interesting ideas, but hardly explains or capitalizes on any of them. I get that in a first episode, you shouldn't reveal everything right out the bat, but this was a stand alone project without any immediate plans on continuation. It was just one episode without promise for an upcoming show. Maybe it this was advertised as a promo for a full-fledged anime series, some of these faults would be a bit more forgivable, but the Kickstarter was for this one episode, not a whole series. An OVA should never do that. Even still, the way it goes about everything comes off as pretentious as all hell, as meaningless as that buzzword tends to be since it acts edgy and mature when it knows and is absolutely nothing, which just so happens to be the crux of why I can't understand what it going on in the end; the ending is just a bunch of pretentious and edgy phrases and buzzwords meant to make this sound cool. Then again, considering this OVA's art quality, a full series under this Kickstarter budget would look like ass, so I'm not sure if I'm glad this failed or sad that it didn't succeed. CHARACTERS: 3/10 Meet Hana, a secret agent high schooler with little time to develop due to being a Decoy Protagonist. A decoy protagonist is an advertised protagonist that gets side-lined or killed off for the sake of introducing a hidden main protagonist. Given that this was a 1 episode project, this is very upsetting. This could also be said about our male decoy "chosen one" protagonist, Shunichi. Technically, MAL lists him as supporting, but he was an integral decoy who was supposed to be the chosen one, but due to an encounter with a Pandora, ends up beginning the process of turning into one before getting time to develop as anything other that your typical high school kid thrusted into crazy combat, and is promptly killed off. Lastly, Athena, our TRUE protagonist. Given the amount of time she's on screen (only for the last 6-ish minutes), we don't really get anything other than a stone cold secret agent with a sympathetic side, meaning she isn't riveting in the slightest, just like everyone else. All other relevant characters are presented without much to them (including those other "secret organization" people at the end that just piss me off with their pretentiousness), and anyone else is a red-shirt, so good luck connecting with anyone, partially since they're rather bland. This proves that this should've just been marketed as a prologue given how uninteresting these characters are as of now. ART: 5/10 Given that this is 2016, art that looks rigid, barely detailed, and awkward, is basically inexcusable. Animation that isn't much better is just as hard to swallow,especially for an action OVA production. Sure, the acion looks cool, except for that one scene where the Pandora is running (that looks as bad as anime cutscenes for games in the 2000's luke Persona 3 and the first Blazblue game (though those have an excuse), and the explosion and wired multi-colored effects look cool, but the animation in everything else, including a lot of those action scenes, looks barely passible at best. Little moments of cool action effects don't excuse such low-tier animation and art with mediocre blood-effects and awkward 3D CGI, especially when you considered how stellar the art and animation were in the very first trailer, but I'll get back to that... SOUND: 6/10 The OST isn't anything special or really memorable, but nothing bad. That one blaring song with the violins is actually pretty cool and amps up the tension, or what ever tension there was in this bitch. Aside from that, nothing memorable but nothing bad. Just, inoffensive background music that simply goes along with the action. The ED is also just ok. The song for the backers of this project is ruined by the vocals that rub me the wrong way, which sucks because the instrumentals for most part are pretty nice. At least the voice acting for the American characters was nice, and that makes me feel that most of the budget went towards hiring people who speak good English. I'll give this anime a compliment when it deserves one, since it rarely does. ENJOYMENT: 3/10 The action gave me mild entertainment, but other than that, for the duration of the OVA, I was bored and aggravated, especially thanks to that atrocious and full of itself ending. It honestly wasn't nearly as cool as the original trailer from over a year ago. Speaking of the original trailer from over a year ago, NONE OF THE FOOTAGE FROM THAT KICKASS TRAILER OF AWESOME WAS EVEN IN THIS SHIT!!! WHY?! I would've much preferred that slice of well-animated, far more interesting action to...well, whatever the hell this was! It wasn't very fun. Not that it wasn't enjoyable in any aspect, or that it was boring to the point of agonizing, but it didn't give me nearly enough to get exited about, and for an explosive animated action flick, that's disconcerting, and actually infuriating, especially given the amazing first trailer that was much cooler than anything presented here. OVERALL: 3/10 RAW SCORE: 3.26/10 Despite me lowering my expectations just in case, I was disappointed by this project. I was looking forward to viewing it, and it failed to deliver on what I came to see; a fun action flick. It was uninteresting, hard to follow, needlessly cruel and edgy, not to mention pretentious, and a complete disappointment, not to mention that it was an abject failure. At least Sin City, another dark action-based story with a brutally unsatisfying ending about a protagonist dying, had wit and good writing. Sad to say that it was all for nothing, partially since they didn't even give us anything we promised, including footage from what we were promised. Needless to say, this kickstarter project was a failure. Well, with all that said, I bid you adieu.

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