English failed understandably in this not-so-futuristic anime.
The first review for March this year is for an animal-themed anime, Inukami. This is a 2006 anime, so it will compete with Kiba the TV Animation. I wonder how long I can keep myself away from Myself, Yourself….
Story:-
Our nudist hero Raou is an inukami tsukai who has a pet dog whose hobby is sending Raou to jail. Occasionally, Raou does his part-time job of destroying demons and such. But most of the time, he has to dodge fireballs and the police force while chasing everything that is female (humans or demon, he takes them all).
As a simplification, this anime is a cross between the recently reviewed Nagasarete Airantou and Zero no Tsukaima. The only difference is that Inukami is much better than those two mentioned. The story by itself is not that great if you want to compare it to Zero no Tsukaima (they have many similarities because they are of the same genre) but other factors makes Inukami more palatable to watch.
The first reason is the hero Raou. Raou is one of the best protagonists from this kind of genre that I have ever seen. While his pet dog a.k.a. the female protagonist is pretty much a stereotypical carbon copy of the main female leads in Nagasarete Airantou or Zero no Tsukaima, Raou really is a breath of fresh air. The second reason why Inukami is better than those two is the much better control of the flow of the storyline. This series did not repeat the mistake that Nagasarete Airantou does, which is a complete void of plots and character developments between the start and the end. Well, Inukami did has those blackhole episodes towards the first-half of the series but that’s about it. Apart from those episodes, Inukami usually has episodes that advanced the storyline and helps character developments. No silly episodes like the main protagonist and his harem entourage going to hot spring baths doing absolutely nothing but useless fan-service or silly toilet humors really helps.
This series does have some weaknesses. One of them is how little some things are explained in the story. One example is how I only get to know that Raou is a high-schooler only after 7 or 8 episodes. Plus, this point is not expanded at all. Another is the careless grasp of timeline, where Nadeshiko asked why Kaoru tells his own inukami to get a ranking from Raou a day earlier, when it was supposed to have happened at least 7 days before.
The anime takes its own sweet time to tell the audience that Raou is still a student.
Character Development:-
A positive point of this anime, character design in this anime is very well done especially for the female characters. I do not remember any black hairs so maybe this is not a positive aspect after all.
Voice acting:-
Voice acting in this anime is mixed bag. Some characters like the female protagonist has good voices while others like Raou is just average. There’s none that are bad though (but no one outstanding either), so I will let it slide.
You will see a lot of this throughout the anime.
Music:-
The OP and ED themes are good but not so for the OST. The OST is almost non-existant, a pity for an anime this good.
The latest anime that featured The Scream parody.
Animation/Direction:-
Hmmm… I think the animation quality is pretty good, and fast-paced scenes did not suffer. Choreography for them is also done very well. The directing can only be superb if he/she can keep the audience with continuous episodes filled with storyline like that, or does he/she really is that good?
Conclusion:-
9 out of 10, tying Kiba the TV Animation. But overall, Kiba is still a better anime for 2006. Nevertheless, Inukami is excellent for its genre and a recommended watch.
Some screw-ups done by the director. Raou are supposed to dig inside the hole, not making a new one.
