Dog Days – Quick Wrap

Scenes of awesome must be shown 3 times from 3 different angles.

With the debut of the 13th episode of Dog Days, the anime finally comes to a close. There are numerous similarities with the Nanoha series, including the character designs as well as the spell and weapon designs. How it compared…well apart from having more vibrant art thanks to high-definition, it’s a mixed bag.

To sum up the series in a single phrase, it’ll be Moe-fied Dynasty Warriors. Except that the “wars” are humane (if you can call it that) and nobody that gets struck down actually dies. In fact, it’s closer to an athletic competition than a war. However, the same mechanism applies – you have commanders with special abilities that can wipe the floor with the normal grunts (like with Dynasty Warriors).

The Storm Trooper effect - the more there are, the less likely any real damage would be done.

You can’t be blamed if you were to call this show derivative. You get a main character, Shinku, who is accidentally summoned to a different world without a way to return (such as in Zero no Tsukaima), and the commanders of the forces fight on birds that more than just resemble Final Fantasy‘s chocobos.

The destructive potential of any organism is inversely proportional to its mass.

The character designs are pleasing, and the skills displayed are varied and colorful. However, the show is also peppered with fanservice, so depending on you, you may or may not enjoy that bit much; especially when the under-aged characters get involved. While characters do become naked, the nudity is not explicit (although lately that has been the excuse for Blu-ray releases of certain anime series).

Yellow Chocobo~!

The battle scenes are essentially one-hit finishes, so if you seek strategic planning and stuff, you’d be disappointed. That doesn’t stop those scenes from looking cool though. The “conflict” that arises in the show is also resolved in a matter of 3 episodes, so there isn’t really a “true climax”. There is enough room for a sequel if the producers so wish, but the anime concludes acceptably in a happy and rather ambiguous sorta way.

It’s a short series that probably wouldn’t earn any awards in the story department, but the pretty animation and flashy combat moves are probably enough for the action lovers. So if you did like to see how Dynasty Warriors would look like with cute leaders, rather than the anime that defile the three kingdoms, this would be a better series to watch.