Ranked #1849

Ginga Densetsu Weed

Edit: After I re-watched this series, I have decided to re-review Ginga Densetsu Weed. I realize that I wasn't in the best of moods while writing my previous entry and now I'll write this review with a more... Level head.

Ginga Densetsu Weed is the sequel to Ginga Nagareboshi Gin. Both share a few of the same characters and the like. Ginga Densetsu Weed, however, is much newer (having been made in 2005 while Ginga Nagreboshi Gin being made in 1986). However, being relatively new does not automatically make it great, but GDW might be worth looking into since there is an extreme lack in dog anime out there (that aren't cute anyway).

Yes, Ginga Densetsu Weed has comedy scenes, but this is no Massugu ni Ikou (A rather overly-cute dog anime). GDW is an action anime, with cannibal dogs, assassinations, and even Ninja dogs. Humans play almost no role in the anime.

The main character is Weed, an Akita / Kishu mixed dog that is the son of Gin (the main character in Ginga Nagareboshi Gin) and Sakura. Weed has an extreme sense of justice and is also a good fighter despite being less than a year old. He is perhaps the most annoying main character you'll ever find.

The voice acting was good to an extent. But voice actors were changed and some character even shared the same voice so it was clear that Studio DEEN wasn't trying very hard.

Probably the lowest point of Ginga Densetsu Weed is the animation quality. Studio DEEN had on and off days with this. For instance, the last episode had great animation, but there were scenes in other parts of the series that makes eyes bleed. Sometimes the animators would animate every limb separately to make a nice flowing animation; other times the most animation in a scene was moving the character designs up and down. Studio DEEN should learn proper canine anatomy before making an anime that involves dogs as main characters.
The background scenery was pretty though.

And speaking of character designs, Studio DEEN made some weird changes. They changed Gin's eye color from brown to blue (probably to match Weed) and made both Gin and Weed a pretty good shade of blue; almost to the point of being unnatural. Ben's collar seems to have changed color and other little tidbits are there.

The anime and manga differences are to be expected. The manga (running 50+ volumes currently) is longer and therefore is definitely different from the anime. The anime, being a measly 26 episodes, ends with only two arcs completed [Kaibutsu and Fight for Gajou arcs]. Some characters were never introduced in the anime and other times some scenes were changed from their original format.

The anime ending was also completely different.

Maybe the GDW anime is trying to be more positive than its manga counterpart. Considering that Gajou blows up, Sniper tries to get revenge on Gin, George is there, etc, etc, happened in the manga and not in the anime... Studio DEEN is still being hypocritical about characters and sub-plots by killing off some characters when they didn't die in the manga and adding characters that weren't even in the original story.

The Ginga Densetsu Weed anime overall was a let down.

This version just can't live up to the manga: It doesn't follow the original storyline at all, characters are left out that are vital to the story, Weed is whiner than usual, everyone was made into hypnotized robots in the anime and mutually accepted Weed as leader, they made the old dogs weak to make the younger dogs look cooler, and there are so many plot holes it's not even funny.


Ginga Densetsu Weed anime in a nutshell:

~ Pros:
+ OP and EN themes songs are great
+ Can be enjoyable to watch at some points

~ Cons:
- Inconstant animation
- Change from old voice actors/lazy hiring
- Too short compared to the manga
- Weed
- PLOTHOLES

End Note: Many people, despite there being obvious flaws in the anime, still enjoy watching this series (I admit that I did during my first run-through since I read the manga afterwords) so you really shouldn't skip out on GDW. It's just that... The manga's better. And Studio DEEN sucks at drawing dogs.
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My god I remember watching this back in 2007. This was seriously the most fun I've had watching a 26 episode anime.

The story is really interesting, it has two parts to it. The first part is about some lab experiment gone wrong in Japan that results in a half dog half lion creature that kills a bunch of the lab dogs, but befriends a german shepared who apperes later in the show. Its pretty weird and has nothing to do with the actual main story, except introduce the german shepard character and his strange past.

The second part is more about the akia dog Weed, and how he finds out that he's the son of the legendary bear killing dog, Gin. Weed goes on a journey to find his dad and on the way meets many other dogs before becoming their leader. Weed and co. encounter two evil great dane brothers who are trying to find Weed and kill the remaining family of Gin.

This anime has a lot of emotion for having dogs as the main characters. But its still great to watch, and if you are a dog lover like I am, you will love to see all the different kinds of dogs. What I think these series represent is the courage to fight for whats right, no matter the species. Weed goes through a lot of struggles in the show and becomes a better dog because of it, he grows from a scared little puppy to a fierce leader, like his father.

I haven't seen the original Gin series, But I'm sure I would like it because the concept is so ingaging. Never thought I would enjoy an anime about dogs more then most about people.

Take care everyone. read more