Audience reviews
20 · Sample from the first available page, separate from the total number of ratings.
Daxonzion-
Before starting the review, I will not go in with too much details for each category, such as Story, Art, Sound & Characters. Instead, I will explain what this title did best and worst in a simple manner, knowing that this is an OVA with only 1 episode and a 38 minutes of runtime.
Now, let's begin
The 2016 Under the Dog anime was originally a crowdfunding kickstarter project funded by the fans who are willing to see what potential story the show could bring. The kickstarter campaign ended up being a success with more budget going in than the original goal. With that, Under the Dog project was made into reality.
After the release of the OVA, the fans's expectation of it being a good anime seems to be destroyed. Being an anime with a nice visual but a confusing storyline, uninteresting…
Read at the sourceO_T_T
Possibly the most pointless OVA ever made.
Under the Dog is pathetic through and through. I doubt the entire staff were inept, but it was at least most of them. I'm lost as to how this even got to release without any of the rest raising their hand and saying to the room; "Fellas, this is awful. Please tell me this isn't the finished product."
Supposedly Under the Dog was originally a concept for a 2-cour anime, with this OVA possibly acting as an episode 0. In that regard, it's even worse than a standalone work, as it fails to feel like a primer for a longer story. The world and lore isn't set up at all, and the supposed main character doesn't even do anything until the final few scenes. Like the design of the girl on the poster? Cool, you get about five minutes total screentime of her.…
Read at the sourceEblouir
Uhm, I'm seriously not sure if the people here watched a prequel or if this movie is part of an even bigger franchise---I just watched it by itself and despite some reviews saying that this is bad, I must say that I enjoyed this thoroughly.
The story is kind of vague at first and it started with this seemingly normal family and how they are in the eyes of one of the children, a teenager named Hana Togatsu. She described her family in the most normal way and without any background knowledge, you would think that this would be just another slice of life. Except that it's not. Minutes into the film, you will be introduced to the fact that Hana is no normal teenager. She is actually an assassin, with a mission to keep someone alive and to eliminate some sort of monster.
I don't want to spo…
Read at the sourceStryker96
** Please watch the ONA before reading this review. Don't get biased by the reviewers **
I had high hopes for this and while the end result didn't meet the expectations, I wouldn't mind being a backer for a full lenght movie.
In my opinion the big mistake made by the creators is, indeed, relying solely on crowdfunding; nice concept, but very impractical.
but let's stop with the "what if" and review the actual ONA, starting with what I liked (be positive yay)
It is visually stunning, from the static art to the actual animation it's nearly flawless.
The character designs remind my of ufotable's (especially the ones for God Eater) and anyone who knows me knows that I FREAKING LOVE ufotable's designs.
As for the characters themselves, that's where the problems start, as they're completely…
Read at the sourceFlawfinder
Under the Dog is a thirty-minute OVA backed by a bunch of naive fans on Kickstarter who looked at the cool trailer that was made before production had actually started on the thing, saw it was about girls with guns, noticed the director of that incredibly stupid Blast of Tempest anime was behind it all, and have gained nothing from their sixty dollars but a jar of betrayed tears and access to something I easily watched for free and the creators couldn't care less because they've got all that Kickstarter money, yo. Yes, I wised up to the practice of Kickstarted anime after falling for it more than five times (thankfully, in time to avoid the dreadfulness that was Santa Company) and wasn't paying a single cent towards a medium that has fooled everyone so much it's a wonder anime still has fa…
Read at the sourceLord_Sinclair
Under the Dog is very good at what it tries to be, so long as the viewer also understands what Under the Dog is trying to be, which is a pilot show for something more.
PREFACE:
For those unaware of the history behind this anime, Under the Dog was financed via a Kickstarter campaign, which is unusual, to say the least. After a couple years in development, Under the Dog was released as a single episode lasting just over 30 minutes in length. A sizeable number of fans and supporters were disgruntled with the final result as many had expected something more expansive.
However, many fans fail to realize the tremendous cost that goes into creating an anime series. Even with a successful Kickstarter campaign, the creators of the show had to make a decision as to how much they were going to at…
Read at the sourcePeasantChan
Just what is going on with Under the Dog?
In a nutshell, I think a lot of people have missed a pretty important memo.
Story time: In Seattle back in April of last year, some folks from the O-Network interviewed Jiro Ishii and Koji Morimoto, the writer and producer of Under the Dog, asking them about their upcoming OVA project. (reference below) Under the Dog was originally written back in 1996, and Ishii said he had intended it to be a 26 episode project. For the mid 90's, they thought the show was a little ahead of its time, so they tabled it for later.
The narrative revolved around a unit of 'gifted' individuals known as Flowers; hybrid super soldiers that waged war as their handlers saw fit. failure was unacceptable, and desertion meant death for the Flower and their family. I could g…
Read at the sourceTensai_Tenshi
The short film for Under the Dog, the successful Kickstarter campaign, finally came out 2 years of waiting. Was it worth the wait, and if you contributed to the crowd-funding initiative, was it worth the money? The answer is a definite no.
First off let’s talk about what most (maybe just many) people were excited for: good sakuga and all around nice visuals. These initiatives to fund small anime projects are to support the medium of animation first and foremost, with things like Anime Mirai, the Little Witch Academia 2 campaign, the Animator Dorms project, etc. This is because people love good animation and want to support the industry. These projects also don’t really expect to be marketable since it’s more about the art, so they can be more experimental with story and animation which is…
Read at the source404Fox
I imagine whoever wrote this, was inspired from something else. That in writing this, they took their favorite parts of that story, and rewrote it here. Think of watching the last 2 episodes of code geass without watching anything before that. That's what this is. The huge impact without any context or backstory. Even if one exists, you won't see it here. Lots of action and pretty lights.. but no story.
As another reviewer said: Michael bay: the anime
So story? none. It was almost cringy to watch, but alas, I kept hoping something, anything would be given an explanation. Even if it were the most out of place thing ever, just please tell me what the hell is going on. But for naught.
The art was good. Consistent, had lots of explosions, and looks pretty sharp. Overall I would've expected m…
Read at the sourceLordFabio
Alright I'm not going to waste time: I'm a backer of the original kick starter and I know this production was always a long shot to begin with. We paid our $20, $40, $60 in hopes of being able to say: "Look animation in Japan is fantastic, you just need a great set of minds behind it!" Did we get that? Nope. Not close.
Story: 2/10 I'm just going to say that there's too much jam packed into 20 minutes of nonsensical best guessing. This production was supposed to be a 1:30.00 length film, at minimum. However the kick starter did not make it that far and we were left with a 26 minute sad shadow of "what might have been." There's great ideas, and extensive world that should have been imagined on a greater scale than it was. A story that starts with secret agents and ends with aliens; but at n…
Read at the sourceghstindashamploo
In Hana’s first face-to-face encounter with US military she is forced to shoot and kill a soldier. As the soldiers body slumps to the floor we are presented with a brief shot of her hands, still griping the gun, trembling violently. The orchestration quiets briefly. The heavy breathing and the poignant earnest in Hana’s voice as she yells at Shunichi to stay close to her communicates her distress. All of this happens over the course of a few seconds as she only has a moment to lament before pursuers force the pair to keep moving. This is what great storytelling looks like. This is character development through visual narrative. Scenes like this (and there are quite a few in this short OVA) speak volumes about the directing talents behind this anime.
The art and sound in Under the Dog is…
Read at the sourceCodeBlazeFate
*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 find out, 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 organ…
Read at the sourceMalarkey
Just remember, that when watching this, make sure not to make use of any higher brain functions otherwise you may be permanently effected.
Absolutely nothing in this entire movie makes any sense, even within the context of its own phlebotinum, which is barely existent in the first place.
The only things that I can even praise this movie on would be the explosions and use of English voice actors.
Although hilarious, the English lines were few and far between; and I can find explosions anywhere, anyway.
There is utterly nothing I got from this anime besides negative 33 minutes of my time that I will never get back. As another warning, if you are someone who appreciates a good story, or a story at all, don't watch this. Even if you are someone who loves Michael Bay action flicks, this is…
Read at the sourceHaiiroTama
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 were very 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 t…
Read at the sourceBlankslatenator
I have a military background and flat out enjoyed episode 0 of Under the Dog. It is not a stand alone Masterpiece, but as a Pilot episode, it does a lot per second, take a full length film and divide it by four. I highly recommend rewatching at least once in order to take in what is there.
Story- 8- For a 28 minute pilot episode this had a very good story for what it was trying to achieve. Its not a for a general audience and definitely does a way more niche spin than I thought it would. In particular the military tactics blew me away on how accurate and detailed they were. There is an actual ANPRC 150 radio animated to perfection, there is a scene where the soldiers actually switch from safety to semi appropriate to the situation. It was impressively original to watch, and the brutal rea…
Read at the sourceWieneru
I can't believe this. This was nothing like the show that was advertised when they started crowd funding. The scene from the trailer which isn't even in this was better than this entire film. how did this even get delayed it wasn't even that impressive. It doesn't have anything to do with "a world 5 years after a terrorist attack at the 2020 Olympics" Crowd funding is a way to fund projects that sponsors normally wouldn't back but this takes no risks. its super generic and has so much of what is popular this is a waste of people's money. There is no character in this at all, the designs have no flavor and the whole thing just screams generic. I didn't care about any of the characters, and why was there a giant monster. that was not what I thought this was going to be about when i read the…
Read at the sourceKingKatsura
EXPLOSIONS. guns. EXPLOSIONS. tropes. EXPLOSIONS. unexplored characters and themes. EXPLOSIONS. Welcome to Michael Bay, the anime.
*explosions suddenly erupt in the background of this review*
Under the Dog is an aesthetically beautiful circlejerk of explosions and underdeveloped yet overtly heavy handed themes. Plainly put, this is a bad anime.
Story - 1/10. There is no cohesive story here. There is little to no narrative explanation to the premise, something that works very well in certain anime, but not in a 30 minute amalgam of explosions and blood. Without spoiling too much, Under the Dog tries to show you a heavy, dark story in the background of its fast paced, action-centric approach. However, nothing is explored beyond face value, and from what I saw, Under the Dog is more about…
Read at the sourceAvotheNinja
I was pretty impressed with how this came out although it had a lot of different things from the trailer and was over-hyped. I wish I had known about the kick starter and had a credit card to back them up at the time.
This is my first review on one so please excuse any mistakes I do.
Story:
It must be mentioned that we are thrust right into the middle of it with not much explanation or exposition. I feel like this is because the OVA is supposed to be a pilot, and therefore it may get a season if it passes. However we do get some explanation through what happens and it is enough to at least grasp what is happening. In other words, "show to tell" instead of "show and tell." Otherwise the episode played out like an american action movie, but a good one. 8/10
Art:
Not much to say here other…
Read at the sourceernietinkle
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…
Read at the sourcemoodie
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…
Read at the source