Inu to Hasami wa Tsukaiyou

Dear Japan:

It seems almost every season, there’s one of those shows from your country that plays on fetishes or a rather bizarre sequence in the anime world. This time, it involves a girl and its….dog. Then, it decides for some odd reason to add the concept of scissors to the mix because we know it’s one of the dangerous gadgets suitable for “punishment”. As for the punishment itself, the receiving end is none other than our dog of the series, Kazuhito Harumi.

Inu to Hasami wa Tsukaiyo (also known as Dogs & Scissors) is an animated series based off the light novel of the same ... name written by Shunsuke Sarai. For a series about books though, this show sure likes to play around its other angles. So now begins the story of a dog and its master. (one sadistic if I might even add)

The show’s delivery essentially begins with its accurate delivery and promise. In fact, there’s a feeling of seriousness in the beginning. Our main male protagonist Kazuhito (a bookworm) is eager to read books and novels. As a fan of Shinobu Akiyama's works, he is determined to get the inside scoop of those words written in those text. But then one faithful day, the unthinkable happened. To be honest, if you thought your day was bad, Kazuhito’s day couldn’t get any worse because of what happens next. He becomes something he never thought he’d be and hence begins this strange tale.

As mentioned before, the show takes itself seriously at first. The scene involving Kazuhito and his fate is depicted as brutal and violent with even blood added in the mix. The aftermath however turns out to be much more humorous when we find out that the woman Kazuhito gets acquainted with adapts a sadistic nature to her personality. Dressed in black clad clothing and armed with a deadly pair of scissors, Kirhime Natsuno is a woman that delivers the punishment to our not-so-lucky protagonist. Because of the punishment he receives, the show itself leans towards borderline animal abuse at many stances. Although it seems to be humorous at many cases, the series itself becomes intolerable after many of those repetitive moments. It doesn’t help by the fact that the dog also both intentionally and unintellionally provoke Kirihime at many occasion that results in those punishments.

As far as the plot goes, the series sticks with its premise at first. In fact, it takes its turns early on to finding out the culprit responding for Kazuhito’s fate but more importantly to stick with its original plot. However, the series later on becomes a cluster of absurd comedy that makes little sense or no progression to the story at all.

The story itself also consists of many characters although the majority of the cast consists of female characters of different nature. There’s a masochist, an idol, a maid, and even a yandere. These characters all connects to the tale of the sadist and the dog in some way although mostly depicted as complete nonsense. For instance, the idol (aka the Shining Girl) of the series known as Maxi Akizuki plays little role besides trying to take the spotlight while mostly failing to do so. Then, there’s even a yandere character that clashes against Kirihime in almost borderline incest moments. Other characters later on in the series also presents absurd comedy in different nature related to the concept of competitions.

The relationship between Kazuhito and Kirihime is one of the more dynamic aspects of the series. Almost every episode focuses on them although the development between the duo is quite sour and sometimes way out of line. For the most part, Kirihime abuses Kazuhito at almost any time when she feels something doesn’t go according to her way or when the latter says something that shouldn’t of been said. However, if we look carefully, there’s also cases where Kirihime does treasure Kazuhito and vice versa. Even more so, Kirihime seems to get jealous at times for the dog and acts on those frustrations to carry out her punishments. As for Kazuhito himself, there’s a lot of humor revolving around his character with his new life as the dog. He doesn’t go out to hunt or guard the house but instead still follows on his goals to read books. Even as a dog, his determination seems to become avid as ever.

As noted by its absurd comedy genre, this show doesn’t loosen that style any bit at all. The comedy of this show is ridiculous, as in ridiculously bad. Kirihime’s scissors is just one primary example as a weapon that’s out of this world with inhuman capabilities. Kirihime herself often acts like the boss but she shows insecurity of herself especially in regards to her female body structure. This gag is made fun of nearly every episode because of her small breast size. (assumingly A-Cup). It doesn’t stop there though because her physical nature is made fun of that result in undesired consequences for Kazuhito. This repetitive running gag feels almost like an endless loop at many occasions with the misunderstandings. Later on, a yandere type character also enters the story that formulates a triangle which spells out even more misunderstandings. There’s case of fan services from here and there although it doesn’t fall into the ecchi category. What it does fall under though is the seemingly endless and repetitive gags ranging from masochism to sadism to dog abuse.

There’s some action as well but it’s mostly carried out in a comical fashion. The way the characters move and fight makes it clear at first but the transformations and execution is painful to watch. It tries to follow its themes involving the seven deadly sins as well but most of this is downplayed as nothing more than a textbook of mistakes. At one point, I question myself why I watch this show. Perhaps it might be the small chance of a decent mystery as briefly shown in the beginning of the show but this later wavers down with nothing more than nonsense once again.

Artwork wise, the term generic is what comes to my mind at first glance. Even the dog is portrayed as being generic with its design. He doesn’t look dangerous at all but instead of someone of frail nature. On the other hand, Kirihime’s design does look a tad noticeable with her black clad outfit. Her scarlet eyes and long black hair gives her a more dangerous look. On other hand though, idol characters, maids, and yanderes are designed in this show exactly what you might expect.

The music aspect of this show is almost a joke like the show itself. The OP song "Wan Wan Wan Wan N_1!!" by Inu Musume Club is portrayed as comedy and does its job as such with its sequences. In the song, we see characters dancing while doing animal movements complete with some flashy outfits. The dog though? He’s there in the background usually suffering the abuse. The ED song doesn’t do any better either with bits of fan service and a similar style of its comedy genre. The OST is also hardly noticeable although we do see some of the more dramatic moments carried out in a serious fashion. Finally, I didn’t feel like any of the VA portrayed their roles in an outstanding way. The only noticable voice though might be the voice of Kazuhito when he was once human. If we notice carefully, we never get to see his true face. In other words, the voice of his character when he was human gives off a sense of realism in this ridiculous comedy of nonsense.

For a comedy series, this show sure likes to play around with the genre; a bit too much perhaps. At many points, it feels like if you’re watching not just a parody but a series crafted out of nonsense. By nonsense, I mean nonsense as in making no sense at all while defying the laws of a decent story. The story itself also had a strong promise at first but breaks itself apart with its random gags and repetitiveness. In short, this show is one of those anime series where it tries to be “so bad, it’s good”. However, it just ends up with the first part as in ‘bad’. I know my expectations might be a bit high but being bad sometimes should have its limits.

Sincerely, a disappointed viewer.

“Japan never fails to surprise me with their anime”

Anime, without we realize has turned us into some people who likes weird things or even taboo in some society. We are getting used and even being desensitisized with japanese weird taste, Like ecchi that basically soft porn, incest that mostly all people in the world against it, and even turn us into a lolicon. Now, they even will make us turn into more weirder with the love between an animal and a human. Prepare for this?

STORY (4/10) - Inu to Hasami is basically your generic of romance comedy anime with some harem in it. The premise ... of the story can be seen in MAL page. But its like what its said, its about a highschool boy who is being killed when he tried to save a girl and he’s being resurrected as a dog. Now, he’s turned into a pet for a girl that he saves before. Summary, this anime will be focussing on interaction between Kazuhito (the dog) and his master (Kirihime). The interaction that happen is not always about the romantic but also the funny. Usually, the jokes is about when Kirihime abusing her dog.FYI, she is sadistic and the punchline jokes that Kazuhito always do is pretty much makes the viewers at least gets smile or even laugh, though sometimes it isn’t funny at all.

If you think the premise are absurd enough, then you’re surely surprise what will you find in this anime. In Inu to Hasami, you will find many absurd things that even you wouldnt think before. From absurd battle, wracky story, and furthermore, nonsense comedy. Its feel like you put many things into one box. But aside from that, Inu to Hasami is pretty easy to follow. Even the story is absurd but atleast you will understand about what this anime about. Though, its still absurd. SO absurd.

Aside from all that aspects, Inu to Hasami is pretty enjoyable anime to watch despite of how absurd this anime is. The jokes is literally the one that keeps me still watching it until the end. Of course, there is sometimes that even the jokes isnt funny at all or even makes you wanna punch the character.

ART (8/10) – Aside from the absurd story, the art in this anime pretty much well made and the reason why i still keep watching it until the end. The art is so vivid, colorful and the background itself is pretty detailed. Like in Kirihime’s room, the way this anime draws the bookshelf within the books looks so realistic. Moreover, the colorful art makes this anime is more enchanting and didnt make our eyes being tired from watching it. Sometimes they using comical style, especially when it comes to punchline jokes from the dog aka Kazuhito. The art in the battle scenes are also quite good, The art drastically changes if the battle scenes were appear.From the colorful art they turned into more darker, the effects also is quite stunning and increasing the atmosphere of “battle feels”. But, from the drastically itself it can makes the viewers feel uneasy, though its great they can change the art style and madely well done. but it makes the art itself didnt consistent. However, the art is stil great.

SOUND (6/10) – First from the soundtrack, the opening song of this anime “Wan Wan Wan Wan” by Inu Musume Club. This song is like the story itself, its absurd and didnt really catchy. I always skip the song anyway, since the song is silly and not really attractive. But aside from my egoistical perspective, this song is suitable with the anime itself and really present the anime itself. But aside from non-catchy-music, The video music in the opening itself is quite funny and again, using comical fashion and some parody jokes this video is funny on its own way, even in the openin music video the dog is still get abused.Though the song is still bad..

For the voice, the seiyuu in this anime is great. I mean, they really suitable with their own roles and characters personality. Like Yayoi that being voiced by Hiromi Agarashi, Hiromi Agarashi is really suitable for child role since her voice is childish and have cute tunes. Her voice is totally makes Yayoi is so loveable and makes you wanna hug her. But not just Yayoi, all the seiyuus is also did their job very well, though sometimes the voice feels seems off.

CHARACTER (6/10) – First of all, i must say all the characters in this anime is unique. Its great to have so many unique person in one story. Great and unique characters are the key for making the story more interesting. But in this anime, they waste it all. Since this “all unique characters” are like the side dish. Well, i know this anime is focussing on those weird couples but still... Those characters beside Kazuhito and Kirihime, its just like a figure. They didnt have any space for developments.

For Kazuhito, he is a bookworm guy who loves book than anything in this world and like any MC in another harem that usually doesnt really care about their harem and also, dense. For Kirihime, she is a famous writer that being adored by Kazuhito and she is Kazuhito’s master. Kirihime is also asadistic girl that usually abuse Kazuhito. But despite of all that abuse, she also have a dere personality and quite caring especially if its about Kazuhito. Despite of all that, this formula is pretty common in romance comedy harem today. Dense main character while the heroine falling in love with him. Though the one that makes this anime is different is your main character is....... a dog.

CONCLUSION (6/10)
Funny things about this anime is no matter how absurd this show was, but its still watchable. Though we still didnt used to see a Love between a dog and a girl is pretty hard to been accepted, but if you like beastility of course this isnt a problem. Anyway, since this is fantasy we can forget about the taboo and anything else and i find this anime is entertaining and pretty nice anime to spend time with, though dont get your hopes too high in this anime.

This is a story about books.

Dog & Scissors starts somewhat promising on its own terms. Nowadays you don't happen to see a story like this unfold and there might be a good reason for this, because it's condemned to be an unsuccessful attempt at creating something unique.

There's acutally a story given to this series. The writer Akiyama Shinobu's trying to finish the last book of the collection of The Seven Deadly Sins. On the other hand the bookworm Kazuhito has a passion for every book and writer in the world, especially for Shinobu and he wants to read this last book badly. So badly, that ... the day he dies in a robbery where he protects a woman, he doesn't accept death and is resurrected as a dachshund dog. After coincidences occur he happens to live together with his favourite writer. The problem of the plot is that it's not going anywhere from that point on. Strange things happen and are resolved even stranger. The promise of an absurd and random comedy wasn't exaggerated, but it's just too random.

The first three episodes always introduce new things and aspects. Jokes, characters and a random diversion of the story. After this the anime goes on repeat and all these things don't change a lot. This might feel like an infinite loop of repetition that finishes after 12 episodes. So the only thing to expect in the next episode is how they repeated old jokes again.

Rarely the animation feels a little bit off, but overall the quality's good and fluent. At times there're even references to other animes and they're built in pretty well. The spectrum embraces cute illustrations with serious animation. Nothing more to say about the art here.

Even less to say about the sound. The best thing about this anime is Marina Inoue and her performance, even though it's often forced at times that doesn't justify she's bad. She's awesome and a pleasure to hear. The OP song might be sinister, but I like to hear it and it's one of my favourites this season. Altogether the sound in the show's nothing special, though.

The shiniest aspects of Dog & Scissors are the characters and there're quite a few really singular personalities. But just because an anime has distinguishable characters won't make them any good or even likeable. So Akiyama Shinobu is revealed as Kirihime Natsuno, a 20 year old best selling author who lives alone and has a foible to torture other people with her scissors. Kazuhito ends up as a dog living in her apartment and even though he's a dog Natsume can read his mind. Why ? Because speaking dogs are terrifying, but however. There's about none character development ongoing and everyone seems to finish off as they were in the beginning. At last there's a really strange love story happening between them. I want to say see for yourself, but really don't.

From episode to episode more characters join the story of those two. They truly differ as everyone has an unique personality, but most of this personality stays the same for everyone and is always the same in every single episode. It's like noone even wanted to give them proper development and thought this was a good idea. It was not. It's tremendously bad.

You can compare the enjoyment of this anime to your enjoyment of eating really hot wasabi. It's a really small pleasure to watch this weekly in a season, but if I imagine to watch more than one episode at a time I'd rather take the wasabi. This story was about books, but after watching it I don't feel any smarter or more educated about books. It's the opposite. I feel like I've forgotten books I read because of the plain stupidity. If you enjoy bad repetitive jokes, strange and awkward characters, a story with no plot and/or love between humans and dogs this might be something to watch for you.

Overall Dog & Scissors's a bad example of a comedy in the big ocean of comedies. The strangest thing about it is the episodic structure like you find it in regular shows, but with an attempt to bring an ongoing story in it. So it's an episodic non-episodic anime and this could be good in a parallel universe where the issues of the story happen to be solved or revealed. In this one they aren't and there's a lot more better animes than this. Go watch them and don't bother with this failed experiment. If you already watched everything, you should rewatch Ginga Eiyuu Densetsu. Still better than watching a grown woman wanting the children of a dachshund dog.

Spoiler Free

Story - 3
The introduction and the given premise was fairly interesting, showing potential as it seemed to deviate from the norm. The first 2 episodes show promise but beyond this point nothing particularly new is introduced into the story (other than new characters) and the plot becomes highly repetitive. After about 1/4 of the way in, you can generally derive a pattern in the the sequence of events.

I understand that this anime is a comedy but the lack of variety results in the humour going stale very quickly. Though it is generally lighthearted, the transitions into serious scenes are poorly done (or just ... pop up out of the blue) that you can't help but feel awkward watching things unfold.

Characters - 3
Nothing special or unique about the characters within this series. Most of them have only a single defining trait about them (ie sadistic, attention whore, insecure, masochist etc) that dictates almost if not all their actions and reasoning. As such, most events and interactions are predictable and repetitive.

There is very little character development occurring as the series tend to focus too much on having characters stick to their one defining trait, and cases where characters do something more will often feel out of place and forced.

Art - 5
Mediocre. Nothing about it stood out, but nothing about it was bad either.

Sound - 4
The voice acting often feels strained horribly forced as if they're can't find appropriate lines for the characters, instead using whatever lines you'd typically get in certain situations. Other than this, it is very standard.

Enjoyment - 6
This anime has its funny moments, but they don't tend to last. The lack of anything outstanding or unique as well as the many weak aspects of this series makes it easy for you to lose interest.

I personally don't think this is worth the watch, there are many other anime out there that achieves the goals of this series, or at least performs better overall.

Story: story events only last about an episode with at multiple times conclusion of episode doesn't give a since of closure for what happens.Also any attempt at dramatic storytelling is counteracted by the silly things characters do or jokes they tell.

Art: Dog x Scissor animation seems to have low production value with nothing in particular that looks detailed or pleasing to the eyes. even with the low production value it's still watchable with only a few redeeming factors .

Sound:Most music is generic or not very memorable. The only thing that stood out was the opening which had somewhat catchy music. But the next time I ... watched it. It angered me as What I once throughout it was funny but now I think its to stupid.

Characters: The characters are over the top with most having some type of mental problem that border lines on insane with a murderous little sister a Suicidal bookish girl and a commando maid.

Kazu: The most scene-able one among these characters is a dog who functions as the strait man for the series. He himself is an okay character even if his only desire in life is to read. Throughout the show he mostly only reacts to the thing around him and doesn't change much as the series continues on.

Enjoyment: For this category i mostly enjoyed myself while watching dog x scissor with it's simple comedy good enough for you to chuckle or lol. But my enjoyment was hinder by the repetitiveness of some jokes and the logic bendingly ridiculous things that happen throughout the series.

There is no way of getting around the fact this anime is absolutely mental, i mean completely barking mad, but if you go in knowing that you can have fun with it. The relationship dynamic between are two mains makes for a lot of funny slapstick moments, in fact there is a lot of adult-ish humour in this show, if anything it is at times very funny. Also, it the relationship between dog and owner(ish) is at times sweet and endearing, but mostly its just batshit insane. randomly jumping from mystery, to fight scenes to writing contests this anime is all over the place, don't ... try and apply logic, it wont work. Although you could say this is bad, i think its one of the strengths of the show, you genuinely have no idea what could happen at any point. If you have some time and you want to watch something which doesn't require much thought or investment and gives you some cheap laughs, watch this.

This comedy doesn't pay homage to other shows, but rather borrows countless random characters and plot elements, then mixes them all together without even trying to form a cohesive story. I think the more you try to explain this show, the less sense it makes. There are some rather humorous scenes and dialogue so at least there's that.

If you can enjoy a ridiculous show without trying to understand it, then it's worth at least the '3 episode test'. Just keep in mind that the rest of the show is more of the same. Don't expect any character or plot ... development and you won't be disappointed.

Took me a few episodes to figure this show out.

In 2006 a little show came out called Inukami. In it a fox spirit (Kitsune) girl fell in love with a human, he however only saw her as a yokai and didn't respond. The girl being a bit on the Tsundre side "punished" the guy whenever he offended her or looked at someone else.

Ok, take that exact premise only make the guy a dog. Not a dog spirit that spends 90% of the screen time in human form, just a dog. Got it? Crank up the girl's hornyness and Tsundre part to 11... towards a ... dog... that isn't interested because he's a dog, also because as a human was ACE.

Uncomfortable yet?

Add in every single anime tag you can think of. Battling maid, idol, bro-con...etc just throw that in there and have them all sexually attracted to the dog.

The worrisome part is, I can't tell if this is meant to be satire or not. It feels like it sometimes but the "joke" is always one of two things. Animal abuse (Tsundre part) or hints at bestiality (attraction to... a dog part).

Yeah this one is weird, it did start off entertaining as a comedy you're not meant to take seriously but it kept devolving episode by episode until all that remained was the ew parts.

In fairness the art is beautiful and the animation very fluid, the voice acting great and even the music charming... but the subject matter is on Mars it's so way off the mark! I did find it entertaining though so it left me rather confused. Not an easy recommendation.

Overall, this anime is pretty fun to watch, i love all the character, the opening and ending music sounds good for me. I just don't like the story, maybe i need to read the manga too, but in the anime seems incomplete. Very poor story, but what else can i do. Good anime btw, no problemo for me

Overall, this anime is pretty fun to watch, i love all the character, the opening and ending music sounds good for me. I just don't like the story, maybe i need to read the manga too, but in the anime seems incomplete. Very poor story, but what else ... can i do. Good anime btw, no problemo for me

When does a story have too much satire? It's when the author doesn't take what they write seriously so why should the audience. Even in the parts that should be taken the most serious can't because the audience has learned that nothing about what they are watching is important but instead a joke.

Watching this show the parts that were the most serious and heartfelt were drowned by a downpour of silliness that nothing had any meaning. A story about death and moving on is reduced to a statical circus of over-the-top characters with oversized props and 2-dimensional personalities instead of anything meaningful. Case in ... point the protagonist Kazuhito comes across several people from his past life all of which were impacted greatly by his death. Instead of dealing with the issues or emotions that come with that loss, the story shifts to ridiculous anime showdowns that don't belong in a series with the theme of writing and what it means to be an author at its core. This is most egregious with the episodes centered around Madoka and Hami, two characters who were the closest to Kazuhito and the most impacted by his death. While it is true that each one did have the chance to pour out their emotions and begin to find closure with his death and reincarnation, the moment was quick and fleeting as the story shifted into a fight scene that offered less emotional impact and resolution than confronting the reality that the characters faced and overcoming it like realistic people. Honestly, this was the biggest issue with the show along with a treasure trove of other problems ranging from:

Characters appearing and immediately being taken away before the conflict begins
The fact that only two characters could understand Kazuhito without explaining why (although that might be explained later in the LN)
Kirihime's sadistic character traits which does not count as a fleshed out personality
The rest of the characters were caricatures and not close to having real personalities
Many story lines ended as briefly as they began without satisfying resolutions
The overwhelming amount of violence in a show about books and writing that seeming highly unnecessary even as comic relief
Repetition of jokes that were barely funny the first time

But the show was funny overall. While this is a matter taste, this is definitely a show that was made to cater to a extremely niche audience and people with a particular sense of humor. Saying it's not for everyone is putting it mildly. It does have its strong suits

Kazuhito and Kirihime relationship (as deranged as it is) can be heartfelt at times when they open up to each other and deepen their bond.
Kazuhito and his sister is similar although it could be greatly improved after her arc
Kazuhito and Ham was the most meaningful and it was refreshing to see her character taken seriously however briefly which proves that she didn't need to be a constant nutcase.
The animation, specifically, the more cartoonish moments were the best of all as they did wonders to express Kazuhito's feelings without needing to hear him speak.
There were jokes that were especially funny like Kazuhito vs. his sister's curry

If there was ever a show that could've benefited from someone taking the time to look over what was written with a red pen and a fresh pair of eyes, it would be this one. Flesh out the parts that were designed as deranged satirical humor and change novel components that would deepen the characters and their development. Add a overarching plot would go a long way as well beyond Kazuhito and Kirihime just messing with each other, and you would have had a much better story. Maybe not a masterpiece but something that could be taken more seriously while still retaining the satirical humor that made it enjoyable to watch.