Initially, I wasn't too excited or hyped up about the show because I didn't feel any type of enjoyment. Most of the times the humor felt forced along with most of the drama however during episode 3, that was the biggest turn around for me. Everything after that episode had me completely anxious, and excited to see what's going to happen next episode! Before I knew it the damn show was over. The story itself is really engaging. I think that the biggest part of Stray dogs that I enjoyed most, was the shows well delivered, strong, dramatic and supernatural story-line. One of the biggest issues that I had, that I also noticed a few others had this problem, was the balance. Sometimes, stray dogs was a comedy, then a drama, and then finally back to comedy. The poor balancing negatively affected my time watching it because it really took away some of my engagement not to mention my enjoyment with the show. That said, the story is actually pretty solid. In terms of the stories supernatural occurrences, it reminds me a lot of both the series Durarara and Baccano. Oh, and I cannot forget the comedy style! although, thinking back I don't remember whether or not both DRRR and Baccano used over the top reaction faces..
That aside, the whole gang warfare, port mafia vs armed detective company reminded me a lot of yellow scarves vs the dollars. Of course Stray dogs version of this is more about justice than revenge. Now I did enjoyed Stray Dogs comedic routines. It is always refreshing to have a bit of comedy and fun after dramatic or serious events have occurred. It really does take your mind off of things for a while. I believe that uniqueness was Stray dogs strong-point overall. It is is one of those titles that's simply fun to watch because of an interesting story with unexpected and exciting new developments.
As far as animation and art style goes, visually stray dogs reminded me a lot of Baccano! even some of the characters looked like they belonged in Baccano. I noticed that Bungou Stray Dogs setting and character designs have a strong 1940s-1950s feel to it. I think that whoever the key animator was, and whoever was in charge of doing the background settings did an amazing job with it. I loved watching the fight scenes occurring in this show. Fights and action scenes are perhaps one of the most noticeable things caught my attention the most. During fights, I noticed that the fast paced animation used greatly increases the intensity of the battles. In addition to that, I also observed that when it comes to fighting, when characters are talking to each other, there is also a sense of build up. I knew that right after characters would finishing talking, there would most likely be some sort of turnover and the quality of the fight would turn out even greater. Character designs were pretty interesting, the eyes were most unique to me. They weren't quite oval shaped nor were they round. For some strange reason male characters features tend to stand our more than the females. I noticed that are drawn to be more "pronounced" so to speak. They did a great job making a good looking main character for the Fujo's to go nuts over too.
Sound was pretty great too. I enjoyed both the soundtrack and voice actors used in Stray dogs... well except Chiaki Omigawa. Her voice is like nails on a chalkboard. She sounds like a boy going through puberty, that is how bad her voice is. Every other voice actor I had no issues with. The background music was pretty good too. I like that during battles, the music would help intensify the fight. Lastly, I loved that vocals were used in most of the songs, rather than just sticking with instrumentals.
Character growth and development is featured in the show however, it's not really prominent. I feel like the events in season 2 will definitely help characters develop more so that they aren't too.. plain. My biggest issue with the characters is that none of them really stand out. Having a long lasting impression of the characters in stray dogs seems almost impossible due to their uninteresting traits along with personalities.
Enjoyment for the show was pretty strong. I think that this was easily my 4th favorite title airing this season. It does deliver quite a lot of drama, action, and mysterious elements. I do believe that because of the way the show is written and introduced that it doesn't appeal to everyone. My overall feeling for the show is that it felt too incomplete, like they are relying on season 2 to make things even better. Despite that that though, I believe that stray dogs delivered enough greatness to make me want to come back for more. I was impressed with just about everything featured in Bungou Stray Dogs.
