Wanwan Sanjuushi

Guessing from the lack of reviews, I will assume this series was a sole phenomenon in Portugal, and maybe Spain?

The Dogtanian "Dartacão" opening song was such a hit here that every kid and adult knew how to sing it or as least hum the melody. The opening YouTube video in Portuguese has 712,378 views, and it's only one of the many ones.

The series was created by Claudio Biern Boyd. The 26 episodes were produced in 1981 by the Spanish international BRB and the Japanese Nippon animation.

It's a faithful adaptation of Alexandre Dumas' novel "The Three Musketeers", although it has some different details such as the ... protagonists being dogs or the protagonist's beloved being called Juliet instead of Constance. One can be sure that this series inspired many cartoons and was highly influential to the now famous "Beastars". Nah, just kidding.

This series premiered in Portugal in 1983 on Saturday mornings. It quickly became a success, being repeated several times in a public main channel. In the beginning of the 90s, it was repeated and also on another private channel in 1995.

All in all it was a light-hearted and very entertaining series with a classic good vs evil theme.

Dogtanian and the Three Muskehounds, or 'Wanwan Sanjuushi' was one of my childhood favourites growing up, I constantly watched and rewatched it! I just rewatched it again recently to live out my youth and it is still as good as I remember. However, I feel like it's something you can only truly enjoy if you have the nostalgia with it.

Story: 10/10
I always loved the story, it's a take on a book written by Alexandre Dumas from the 1800s. I think it is portrayed well and the pacing of the story is also very good. It is not rushed and seems very well thought out. Though, ... I have never read the original book so I have no idea how loyal it is, but as a standalone it is great. The different plot points are awesome.

Art: 9/10
I rate it highly due to nostalgia but the animation is quite simplistic and inconsistent. Though I think that adds to it's charm. The backgrounds are all very beautifully drawn and the character designs are also great.

Sound: 10/10
The music in this is AMAZING! I have ALWAYS loved the theme tune and it is so catchy. All of the background music is also perfect. Would highly recommend just for that on it's own. The voice acting could have been a little better, as a few characters sound stale, but I think it works fine. I only saw the English dub, it being on when I was younger, so I am not sure if it is the same with the Japanese dub.

Character: 10/10
I ADORE the characters in this! Again, may just be nostalgia talking, but I think they are all very unique and thought out, all with different personalities. The villains in this are also amazing and I adore them.

Enjoyment: 10/10
Honestly, there is nothing I would change about this whole experience. It is an amazing watch. Perhaps the voice acting for some characters could have been better, but I only saw the English dub so no idea how it plays out in Japanese.

Overall: 10/10
An amazing show, but only truly enjoyable if you watched it as a child, and are now revisiting it. I had no idea it was counted as anime until I saw it pop up on this site, so that is also really cool. I highly recommend you watch it. It is very child-like, as it is meant for small children, but the designs and story are really good still. I would personally recommend the English dub, but I'm sure Japanese or any other dub is good too.

Ok so for the classic series like Wanwan Sanjushi is that in the United Kingdom it goes by the name Dogtanian and the three Muskehounds and in Madrid, Spain it goes by the name D'artacan Y los tres Mosqueperros this series was liscensed by BRB Internacional in Madrid Spain and it was animated by the Japanese anime Studio company Nippon animation which I guess this is an Anime this series premiered in Japan on October 9th 1981 which is before Ulysses 31 premiered on October 10th 1981 and it was also within a week before Urusei Yatsura anime tv series premiered on October 14th 1981 ... around the same hour as Dogtanian and the three Muskehounds and Ulysses 31


Story 10/10
Story was outstanding because this has been adapted from Alexander Dumas classic story D'Artagnan and the Three Musketeers especially of how the story how it has been adapted but with anthropomorphic animals especially for the dog characters in every other part of the story.





Animation 10/10
The animation in the classic series however I really find it very great and suburb good because I have heard good things about the animation for this particular series like dogtanian and the three muskehounds because it kind of reminds me of another anime series Sherlock Hound which is another Classic series from legendary director Hayao Miyazaki because it's very good.



Sound 10/10
The sound is good I like the music in this particular series however I mean if you watch it and its original Spanish dub of this Classic series like dogtanian and the three muskehounds however it plays the Spanish theme song with opened the Spanish dub of the original anime performed by Popitos the music is composed by Katsuhisa Hattori who is known for Fist of the North Star which is in the Japanese dub of the anime but the music for the English dub of Dogtanian and the three Muskehounds is composed by italian music composers Guido and Maurizio de Angelis which are known for their songs for the Terence Hill and Bud Spencer movies and other work.



Characters 10/10
The characters are great in this particular Classic series most of the characters are like anthropomorphic dogs especially for the character like dogtanian which is basically how it's designed which is kind of similar to Snoopy from Charles M Schulz Peanuts comic strip at the time most of the other characters may be like anthropomorphic animal ones besides the dog character ones Milady de winter Who is the the spy who works for Cardinal Richelieu she's the only cat character in Dogtanian and the three Muskehounds.



Art 9/10
The art was good for the classic series overall because this how is the kind of how it meant feel your way.



Enjoyment 10/10
I really enjoyed this Classic series like dogtanian and the three muskehounds is that this anime series has been growing up good popularity in Madrid Spain and Japan and also in the United Kingdom for this particular Classic series which I have heard good things about this particular series which is almost to the extend to Sherlock hound and Ulysses 31.



Overall
Overall I considered this to be very great anime series especially how it's been adapted from the story from Alexandre Dumas of how they wanted to make this up how it all begin to start with and also if you have never seen dogtanian and the three muskehounds I highly recommend you to check out this Classic series you can watch it on either YouTube or you can get it on DVD because this is a well-known favorite because I can say is that it's a very great series to re-watch so you can watch it over and over again.

Here's another one that i remember watching vivibly as a child but never got to finish it's entirety. And this one so happens to be one of the most popular anime shows in Portugal. Right alongside with Tom Sawyer, Heidi, Maya The Bee and of course, Dragon Ball.

Dogtanian and the three Muskehounds (Or Wanwan Sanjuushi as it's called in japan) is an anime show made in 1981 by both Nippon Animation and BRB International. It's based off the novel "The three Musketeers" by Alexandre Dumas

Ever since it's airing on european televisions in the 1980s, it became an huge hit to the point of getting it's ... own merchandises. It even received a sequel made years later known as "The Return of Dogtanian". Which takes places years after the events of the anime. As well as we are given a CGI animated movie released in 2021.

However, we're not gonna go too deep into the franchsie itself, but rather the anime show that started it all. Which is why you're here in the first place.

So, how much this anime holds compared to what it did back in the days? Let's find out:

The story, like i mentioned, is based off The three Musketeers as it follows the story of the novels pretty well. Dogtanian goes to paris to become a muskehound and does what he knows best. Helping out thoses in need to prevent any incidents ever happening.

While the obvious difference here is that the characters became anthropormorthic animals, the key difference between this anime and the Duma's novels is that the character traits of Athos and Porthos are interchanged. Porthos became the secretive noble of the group while Athos became extrovert.

So far, aside the changes to the characters, the anime does a pretty good job following the anime pretty well. Telling the story of The three Musketeers faithfully.

So no issues with the story here.

As for the animation, even though this is a co-production between BRB International and Nippon Animation, Nippon Animation handled the entirety of the show with the animation throughout 26 episodes.

With that said, i have to say that the animation is pretty great for 1981. You get lots of details on certain areas and locations of France and the fight scenes look pretty good as well. Very detailed and fun to look at. The character designs are good as well. Each of the characters are given some nice looks on their outfits and designs as animals. Even Juliette doesn't look that bad but rather decent, as well.

Them you have the characters. Again, just like the story, the characters are also fun to watch and follow.

You have Dogtanian, who's the main protagonist of the series, who's very brave and not afraid of taking challenges againts thoses who get in his way to become a musketeer.

You also have the musketeers like Athos, Porthos and Aramis. Athos is more of the strongest of the three musketeers and enjoys drinking and eating alot. he can be a goofball at times while Aramis is more of a gentle swordman who enjoys reading books (especially the bible) and does poems to women anytime he's in a conversation with them and then you have Porthos, who's more of a bravest of the group who does anything he can to stop any bad guys anytime he sees them.

There are also other characters that do serve purposes to the story of the anime. You have Juliette who would later become Dogtanian's love interest and the small mouse named "Pip", who would appear later in the show as Dogtanian's sidekick that would help and advice him what he should think isntead of resorting into using his sword to attack.

And then you have the villains of the anime. First you have Rochefort, who would become Dogtanian's first enemy he fought againts, who spies on each of him and his musketeers and does anything he can to take them down.

There's also Vidimer, who's mostly a comic relief who tries so hard to put a stop to them by coming up with many plans. From making booby traps on them to even disguise himself as a girl just to trick them and basically, he fails at everything. he's quite an hilarious character, by the way.

There's also Milady, who also plans to kill Dogtanian and his musketeers with her schemes that she comes up with. Quite a gorgeous neko girl.

And finally, you have the prime minister of France himself, Cardinal Richelieu. Who wants to have the power to control King Louis. He's the one who orders both Rochefort, Vidimer and Milady to do anything it takes to take Dogtanian and his musketeers down. But sadly, he gets frustrated because it never goes the way he wants it to be.

There are a few more that i would like to talk about, but i just felt like theses characters i mentioned here are makes the story important.

Now for the sound. Like i did with Vickie The Viking, i watched the PT-PT dub of the anime since it's the only one available on Youtube and the one that i'm mostly familiar with. Never watched the Japanese dub, although i heard a few things about the anime that makes the sound of the anime different here. So i will check them out and update this review whenever i can. But for now, here's my thought on the sound:

The music is probably my least favourite part of the anime. Mostly because it re-uses the same score as the opening theme song of the spanish version but with different composition. I mean, it's nice to hear the opening theme song since it brings so much joy of watching this anime as a kid again, but when you start repeating the same song but with different scoring, it gets annoying alittle too much.

The sounds are pretty good. You get some unique sound effects added when it comes to fighting scenes which makes it more interesting and fun to listen, to.

And for the voice acting, or the Portuguese dub that i watched which was done by National Films, it's pretty good to a certain degree. On one hand, i'm impressed with how many voice actors did great performances for each of the characters. Milady's PT-PT voice by Maria Emilia Correia really gives a soothing and beautiful voice for an already beautiful catgirl. While António Montez did a splendid job at making the voice of Aramis in a beautiful and wonderful way. Giving him a very kind and gentle voice for an already kind and gentle musketeer. May António rest in peace.

So yeah, i think everyone did a good job at voicing the characters in the PT-PT dub. But Dogtanian's PT-PT voice actor on the other hand? Ehhhh, i don't know, man, it's not that the actor that voices Dogtanian, João Lourenço, did a terrible job at it. Quite the opposite, he did a good job as well, but i just don't think his voice fits for that character because from what i know about Dogtanian, he's a child. He's supposed to have a more child-like voice, so hearing João do an adult voice for him just sounds pretty off even for a great performance.

But other than that one instance, i think the dub still holds up very well. Given that it was done in 1983 and it's the only dub that is still available to watch after so many years is just as impressive as the PT-PT dub of all things Dragon Ball, except much better.

But yeah, so that's Dogtanian and the three Muskehound. Overall, i think this show still holds up to this day after 40 years. The story is outstanding, the art and animation is great, the characters are very memorable, the sound is good, but the music needs a little more work, the dub is still pretty good to a certain degree and bottom line, i had a great time watching this classic gem.

If you're a fan of literature-based shows who wants to watch a great adaptation of The three Musketeers, i highly recommend this anime. There's also the english dub for this anime, too. Not sure what it sounds like, but if you live in an english speaking country and want to watch this show in it's english dub, go to youtube and there you go. Have fun with this one. You won't regret it.

This may be an autracious rating i'm going to give, but i definitely want to give it a 9 out of 10. This anime is definitely better than Mickey, Donald and Goofy: The three Musketeers. Now that's a fact that cannot be proven wrong.

Now there's actually yet another three musketeers anime that also aired in japan and other countries during the 80s and 90s, as well. It's called "Anime Sanjuushi". This one is meant to be a much more serious adaptation than the more kid friendly one that i saw. Not sure how that one holds compared to this, but i will definitely check it out sometime in the future once i get around it.

Anyway, that's my review of Dogtanian and the three Muskehounds, i hope you enjoyed my review for this anime and i'll see you guys next time. ;)