OMG FANGASM NOW.
OMG TAKAHIRO SAKURAI IS HAINE. AKIRA ISHIDA IS BADOU. JUST LIKE THE DRAMA CD. OH MY GOD. And Taneguchi of Code Geass will be involved. Holy shit. This makes me so happy.
I swear I don’t normally post this kind of fantarding nonsense. But I make the exception for DOGS because I love DOGS. I really need to get off my ass, reread everything that’s out and review the sucker because it really deserves more love.
My only concern is obviously the fact that DOGS is not a finished manga. I’ve said many times before that I hate it when they make anime adaptations of manga that hasn’t been finished, and as much as I do love DOGS, deep down, I’m very, very terrified of the prospect that they will somehow ruin it by giving it a lackluster ending of some sort. Miwa Shirow has been infamously slow in his updates, often going months at a time without a new chapter, so I really can’t say when DOGS will ever be finished. Ever since the drama CD came out last year, the prospect of an anime seemed very close, but I’ve always wondered… how are they going to pull that off?
Of course, the DOGS story and universe is very flexible, and as such, I can see it going off in a dozen different directions. This is the kind of universe that invites many interesting interpretations, and I’m interested to see what, if any, changes they’ll make to the existing material. I wonder if they’ll just take the concept and run with it like Fullmetal Alchemist? Or will they try to faithfully follow what’s there and make up some sort of ending like X? Or will they take what’s there and leave it open-ended with the intention of coming back later when there’s more material to work from, like Loveless? Of those three series, only FMA was any good, but even it didn’t make it out of there with a good ending. Has there ever been a 100% wonderful anime adaptation of an unfinished manga? None that I can think of off the top of my head.
That said, I feel as if the first volume of DOGS works well enough on its own. It’s basically just character building, but it’s very good character building, and each of the four sections works well enough as a standalone one-shot. If they go that route and only adapt the first volume, I could see this working out incredibly well. I think right now, that’s the option I’m hoping for. I suppose it’s really too soon to say. I’m still excited to see all of these characters in animated format, and I’m utterly in love with the voice cast here.
This is so exciting. Eee.
On one hand, YEY. Dogs has been one of my favorite manga for years and I’m glad to see that it’s got popular enough for an anime.
On the other hand… WHY DAMMIT, WHY DIDN’T THEY CHANGE THE CAST?! I like both Sakurai and Ishida, but they’re simply NOT RIGHT for these roles. On the drama CD they both did a good job but didn’t sound authentic to me at all. Argh.
By the way:
“Has there ever been a 100% wonderful anime adaptation of an unfinished manga?”
Ouran Host Club. At least in my opinion the anime is 100% wonderful, and better than the manga in every possible way.
“Ouran Host Club. At least in my opinion the anime is 100% wonderful, and better than the manga in every possible way.”
I agree with Kuromitsu. Ouran was fantastic.
I’ll admit I’m scared for DOGS though. Really scared even. On the other hand I’m happy with Sakurai and Ishida. I thought their voices were awkward with the characters at first but damn …. I grew to like Bandou/Ishida.
Well, if I dislike the adaption I’ll be at least satisfied with voice acting.
Kuromitsu – really? I loved both Sakurai and Ishida in their roles, especially Ishida. He sounded perfect to me. I was really astounded by how easy it was for me to tell who all the characters were by their voice considering I have a pretty typical weeaboo grasp of the language itself.
Hm. I may have to check out Host Club eventually. I read a few pages of the manga and was pretty turned off by over-the-top shenanigans, but it may be easier to stomach as an anime.
Saimaisama – Agreed, I think. I’m not sure how scared exactly I am for the integrity of the story uet though — I think I’ll wait until more is revealed, though I’m a little bummed that Miwa Shirow doesn’t seem to be connected to the project much at all.
I don’t know – they just weren’t “Heine” and “Badou.” All the while I didn’t hear the characters themselves but Sakurai and Ishida playing roles that didn’t suit them, IMO. I managed to get used to Sakurai by the end, but Ishida stuck out like a sore thumb throughout the whole CD. (By the way, sure, it’s pretty easy to tell who is speaking – after all, both have pretty unique voices. But I think this in itself is not a mark of good acting…)
Also, they’re both typecast so often that for me at least, they both have an image that’s completely at odds with these roles, especially in case of Ishida. It’s sort of like watching Arnold Schwarzenegger in the role of Romeo or something. He may not be half bad, actually, but you (well, me) just can’t get over the fact that it’s Arnold Schwarzenegger. Not to mention that I can’t shake the feeling that they weren’t chosen for these roles because they were the best the sound director could find but because they’re both very popular.
Anyway, seiyuu aside, what makes me scared is the staff. First-time director, a chara designer who’s never done characters till now (he did monsters and mecha), the writer who did Linebarrels and Chocolate Underground, and wrote scripts for Nabari no ou and Kaze no stigma…) Not very promising.
By the way (gah, my brain doesn’t work today), the UJ scan mentions that the story of “Stray dogs howling in the dark” is going to be adapted, so I suppose it’s going to be only the first volume… which points towards and OVA but of course it still can be anything.
And as for Ouran – one thing to remember is that it’s an affectionate parody of the shoujo romance genre, especially the anime. I found that while the manga often cops out or resorts to clichés (and in the end it turned into exactly what it was parodying in the beginning :/), the anime cheerfully wallows in being over the top and making fun of itself, its characters, practically every theme and trope of the genre and even its audience (oh, RENGE) – and does it in a very understanding and intelligent way. (Which is no surprise as it was written by Enokido Youji, the often overlooked man behind Utena.)
You’re right that Sakurai and Ishida are typecasted a lot, and in that sense, they’re playing roles that don’t particularly suit their usual ones, but I still feel like they did a pretty good job regardless. For a something that didn’t have any visuals to go with it, and for a language that I don’t understand all that well, the voice is all you have to define character with, so it really made me feel good that I could get so much character from the voices and comprehend so much of the mood and feeling of the narration from just the sounds. I think the mood and emotion was the most important thing. There’ve been plenty of actors who’ve succeeded in roles that were wildly different from all those they played before (I really wish I could use Jim Carrey and 23 as an example, but I haven’t seen 23 and don’t think I’ve seen enough of his acting in that movie to judge by).
I didn’t recognize most of the staff and didn’t think much about it last night when I posted this, but now that you mention it, that is a pretty big point of concern, especially the first-time director. And the character designer. Shirow’s art is too beautiful to be butchered here… I’m secretly hoping that Taneguchi’s involvement will be bigger than it sounds currently; I at least have faith in that guy. The idea that only the first volume will be adapted is also reassuring. An OAV would be great, though I could also see them stretching the story out to fit into 12 or 13 episodes — all of the characters’ pasts have points worth expanding on, even from the little bits we’re given in Stray dogs. Hinting at things and skirting around things that are revealed in Bullets and Carnage would also stretch things out a little. Like I said, the environment gives for a lot of potential exploration and expansion beyond what the manga already offers.
I always have a hard time with satires that sit on that line between actually being a satire and falling into the trap of what they’re supposedly mocking — the little bit of Ouran I read didn’t really give an impression of satire (I think this may be because I’d read it shortly after a volume of Perfect Girl Revolution), so I wasn’t impressed. I’ve heard plenty of good things about the anime though, so yeah, a series for one of these days… when I hack down my current to-watch list. :3 Utena is also something I’ve been meaning to check out for years.
To be honest, I couldn’t really follow the manga, but maybe I’ll have more luck with the anime :O