“David Production may be a new and young animation company, but they’ve really proven themselves so far. They’ve got their own identity already and they’ve produced nothing but well written series. They’re definitely a new company to look out to.”
Yeah, I wish that I could write that right now, but DOGS is so hilariously bad that it’s a miracle that the producers even agreed to release it. It’s basically a 4-episode OVA (based on the DOGS manga apparently), but it’s so badly produced and written that I don’t think that anyone is going to be able to take it seriously.
The biggest of its flaws is its hopeless overacting. Every single character tries to look as cool as possible, but they overdo their coolness way too much. The result is four episodes full of incredibly cheesy and overacted drama whose only merit is that it’s so hilariously bad that you’re bound to have a laugh or two at how ridiculous it is. There are of course also a lot of emo faces that only make things even less believable, considering how little build-up every story has.
Another problem with this show is that it’s based on a much larger manga, and this series does absolutely nothing to hide it. That’s why the four episodes are just a bunch of random chapters animated, without bothering at all to try and fill us in about what’s going on, why things are happening, who the characters are, and they simply cut off when their time is up, leaving a massive amount of plot-holes open.
Of course, it’s not like this series isn’t enjoyable. This OVA is best watched along with a bunch of friends and liquor; it’s a great way to pass an hour. Obviously, that just doesn’t warrant any kind of praise or high review score. The only praise I can give this series is that the art is pretty decent: it looks crisp and clean and while nothing amazing, you can see David Production’s influences. And of course the Engrish curses were awesome.
I know that this series was based on a much larger manga and all, but that’s no excuse. Hitsuji no Uta for example was also based on a large manga, and yet it did succeed in condensing its story into only four episode, with some amazing results. If that series could do it, then why couldn’t DOGS?
| Storytelling: | 2/10 |
| Characters: | 2/10 |
| Production-Values: | 7/10 |
| Setting: | 4/10 |
Huh. I just placed this anime to my to be watched list this morning. Good thing I read your review before I try it . . .
This OVA was adapted from the DOGS manga > a prequel to Bullets & Carnage and it’s only 6 chapters. It’s not “just a bunch of random chapters animated”
I’m suprised that you actually finished it; it was too painful to watch so I stopped at the beginning of the 2nd episode. From what I’ve seen (which isn’t a lot) it was pretty faithful to the storyline in the manga. After all the manga does make you feel that are lots of questions left unanswered, but I still liked the manga.
To be fair, the OVA reflects fairly well the style over substance approach of the Dogs manga, which, incidentally, is the one volume of misc stories rather than the current, on-going on. And what you see is actually more than what you get from the manga chapters, so I’d say they did a fairly good job given the limited scope of the source material…
Building off of what Lez and Silverya said, the OVA’s aniamted DOGS manga which basiclly introduces all the characters that appear in the Dogs Bullets & Carnage manga. I recently read the Dogs manga and I can say that all they did was animate almost exatly the source material they were given. So while I do agree with your critizisms, I think they are a bit unfair.
Ah, okay. So the faults don’t lie with the ones who adapted it, but rather with the manga authors and the idiots who found it a good idea to adapt it. That indeed makes more sense, but it’s also no excuse for the poor quality of this OVA.
I have only read the 1 volume Dogs manga and it was a fun action packed volume,indeed it was just an introduction to the Bullets & Carnage manga that is currently being published so if you only read that volume you might feel like you are left with many questions unanswered but I still think one can appreciate the amazing action.
I have no idea what they did in this ova,I might just watch it now that I have seen your review.
And once again,not being familiar with a manga,you use inexact information in your review 🙁
I will say that the story has more substance as a read than a watch. Like what was previously said, these chapters in the manga weren’t meant to tell much story, but rather give some background on who the characters are before the real story takes place. In that sense, they’re only supposed to be enough information to leave you informed without giving too much away about the main story arc where these four characters’ circumstances collide. So that much about it I give my defense. As an ova it fails, but it also wasn’t something that would’ve made a good OVA with what these chapters were intended for. So I can’t really blame the manga for that.
Now, whether or not the story in the ‘main arc’ is good or not is a different cup of tea altogether. I think that the storytelling still suffers from choppy science fiction and (as was mentioned in this review) a bad job in putting any depth and explanation into what’s going on. However, it doesn’t seem to me that the story itself is entirely unbearable but rather that they have too many complex plots to really flesh out any one.
Well anyway, that’s my opinion. I suppose that’s not very helpful for anyone who has no intention of reading the manga but hopefully that explains a little on why it is what it is. I think DOGS is average at best, but I don’t think it’s completely mediocre.
psgels, did you check out who wrote the screenplay for this?
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/people.php?id=68904
lol
“If that series could do it, then why couldn’t DOGS?”
maybe because they were just not interested in doing it.Afterall you’re supposed to be buying this with a manga so normaly you’ve read a at least one manga volume before watching this,why should they care about what some random dutch guy who downloaded it from share is going to think?
Same goes for Tsubasa Tokyo Revelations btw
(i’ve just reread what i just wrote,it comes off as a bit harsh,so i’ll add that i’m not ranting or mad at psgels,just pointing something out)
Actually the one thing that I don’t understand is why bother to animate only 4 chapters ? The ones who haven’t read the manga, wouldn’t understand a thing! The could produce an anime or make the ova longer than 15 minutes. For me it’s fun and interesting hearing Takahiro-san, Ohtsuka-san and Ishida san vocing the characters, cause I’m reading the manga, but for others there’s no interest I think…
Thanks for the warning I was going to watch this since I heard the manga was good.
I think your score is a bit too low. Other studios have attempted the same and done worse.
I was shocked to see the low score (this is really low, even from your standards), but after discovering who wrote the screenplay from the earlier comment, my hopes that this OVA could be good took a massive hit. The overacting was that bad I assume…
The manga was one of my top favorites, I’ve only seen the first two as of now but I have to admit the anime didn’t turn out like what I expected it to be . . . but I don’t think I’ll be giving such low scores though. Ehehehe.
I guess this is one of those series wherein manga>>>>anime adaptation, like in most cases. *sigh*
wow, the score is unexpected for me. I think this is one of the more adult-themed anime this season which I like a lot, other summer shows are like..craps except Tokyo magnitude. I never read the manga but the anime sure makes me feel great after watching it. I agree with the act all cool thing but I also think they are mature enough to do it. And I want to know the background of the four main leads too. The graphic is clean and action scenes in this is fun enough to watch, since it should be an introduction for people to try reading a manga, for me, they ‘d done pretty well for that purpose.
One bad points of your score : when it get 75/100 score or lower,the production values will be something like 7 or 6 (or 8,but its reallly rare.9 is impossible)
That’s what I’ve seen from your given score…
Okay, I get that the animation/action wasn’t that terribly good but your review on it wasn’t very fair either. You didn’t exactly find out more about the manga and came to the conclusion that ‘it’s a bunch of random chapters’ when it’s actually based on one volume that introduces the characters to the story before its sequel Bullets & Carnage.
Ooh, now I’m curious. I might watch it for some masochistic entertainment. D:
I’ve watched over 300 anime this was in my opinoion a really good anime i was lookin for a 5th episode when i saw the reveiw i hope who ever wrote this review dies from aids
now some idiot with production rights gonna read this awfull reveiw and it wont make it to a 20-200 episode series 🙁
My dear Mark: what?
first of all: just because my opinion differs from yours, I should die of aids? Did your parents really raise you that way?
Also, there is no way that a producer is going to read these kinds of reviews. I’m way too unimportant for them. Especially to influence them. 😛
psgels: DIE IN A FIRE!!! If your job is reviewing animes.. you fail at that.. SOoo if you can’t even accomplish your job in life, why should you live?
you my friend…are a retard. Dogs the anime was great and funny, your just another stuck up critics that can’t see the true simple entertainment of a short anime, I wish there were more episodes, but I wish there were’nt anymore of you….die.
Haha, i think you’re just too..rude, but everyone has their own view of seeing things
and well, to be honest i kinda liked the ovas :3 even with so-called “crap looking” it was funny, and i really enjoyed
now it’s up to everyone
Woah, it seems this is another one of Code Geass, there are those who think it was amusing and interesting but not really all that…
and there are those who flame, flame and flame just because there are few people (most likely many but still) who don’t agree with their point of view…
I personally enjoy your reviews as it gives me a good idea whether to watch an anime or not.
It also seems interesting how most of the “flamers” all seems to add “die” somewhere in their review. Perhaps this shows they lack the literacy needed to create a proper argument? I would enjoy reading a proper debate too…
Anyways I personally found that it was interesting enough for the number of OVAs especially due to the amusing aspects + the excellent animation.
I personally think the manga is great and there was no need for this ova, would it be great if they followed the manga instead of introducing the characters. And personally I’d rather have studio ganinax or Studio madhouse do the animating rather than whatever company did the ovas, Personally they were sub par and them by themselves were yes, poor quality, As a avid follower of the manga, I was very let down when I watched just a part of the OVA, I honestly couldn’t finish it. It was just so.. disappointing. This series is very good and they deserve much better than those pieces of crap OVAs…
hands down for me, if you read the manga, its 100 times better than the ovas.