First off let’s talk about what most (maybe just many) people were excited for: good sakuga and all around nice visuals. These initiatives to fund small anime projects are to support the medium of animation first and foremost, with things like Anime Mirai, the Little Witch Academia 2 campaign, the Animator Dorms project, etc. This is because people love good animation and want to support the industry. These projects also don’t really expect to be marketable since it’s more about the art, so they can be more experimental with story and animation which is very attractive to many anime fans. Kick Heart being a prime example of this.
With Little Witch Academia 2, also funded via Kickstarter, viewers got a nearly hour long film with multiple breathtaking cuts and great artwork. At nearly half the runtime, yet nearly 50% more funding, Under the Dog was a short film riddled with bad shot composition, poor art/color direction, a lot of off-model, and a seriously scant amount of sakuga – most of which were a few very short explosions which are a dime a dozen in anime. The production clearly went through issues, with the campaign staying silent for months as if they lost their translator or something; the director concurrently working on Akagami no Shirayuki-hime (which clearly had more thought and time put into it than this project); some staff leaving due to creative differences; and the creators taking production planning classes from Studio Wit and Studio Shaft with release being about 8 months later than planned. Suffice to say, the visuals did not meet expectations in any capacity.
Another main point of excitement was the story/setting; a story written in the 90s at the height of the cyberpunk/dystopian sci-fi anime era, created for the 2010s. The “serious anime”; no moe, no harem or light novel tropes, none of the anime that make people go “ew, anime”. I’m not saying I necessarily felt the same way, as I love moe and, while I for the most part dislike harems and light novel tropes, I don’t think they’re inherently bad, as I really like shows such as Ben-to, Twintails ni Narimasu, and Outbreak Company. With that said, having a more “serious” show with a cool sci-fi setting and aesthetic is something I whole-heartedly welcome and was excited for. However, what was released was nothing of the sort.
This is what I gathered upon first viewing: A shady organization is exploiting kids by forcing them to be assassins or else their parents will be murdered. The goal of the organization is to find some “white” person (not white as in race, but I’m white as in pure soul or something) to save the world. There’s also this big monster that they’re trying to stop. It’s all vague and completely uninspired. Much of the episode is spent having characters talk exposition to each other for the viewer, and then the other part is an elongated action scene that isn’t very well choreographed or animated. Then it just ends in a completely unsatisfying nonending fit for the goal of being a pilot episode. If you think I’m strawmaning and not representing the plot genuinely then I’m sorry to say that my description is unfortunately accurate.
Not only is the plot itself completely barren and uninspired, the setting is Asterisk Wars level. What I mean by that is that it’s meant to be a somewhat dystopian/cyberpunk cityscape yet it looks like a completely conventional 21st century metropolitan area; there is nothing that suggests that the story takes place in anything but a typical city as it contains no sci-fi elements. The assassins have some sort of not-clearly-defined power, but that’s more of a fantasy element than anything else. If you expected a city setting adhering to the aesthetic of Ghost in the Shell or Psycho Pass then you’re going to have a poor experience.
Now, for me, the most important part of a story by far is the characters; how I connect to, relate with, empathize with, or am engaged by the characters is the single most integral factor of whether I will enjoy the story or not. Under the Dog has no characters. The protagonist, Hana, has 1 defining trait: she’s sad that she has to do this because she doesn’t want to kill and that she loves her family so she doesn’t want them to die. That’s it. That’s it. She herself isn’t even unique as all the other kids in the organization feel this way, so she’s just a representation of all of her peers. The other characters? The boy? Zero personality. The shady organization? Shady and vague. The monster? Generic monster. The girl from the trailer? She’s on screen for about 5 minutes and just gets the crap kicked out of her.
For a story that was written nearly 20 years ago, you’d think it would be fleshed out over time and perfected. Frankly, I’m not sure whether this is the real story from 20 years ago, considering this has been admitted to really be no more than a pilot to get funding for a 26 episode series from an actual production company. This story feels like a side event to not take any creative output away from the actual real story, but still be enough (in the creator’s eyes) to be a fulfilling pilot. Well, I must say, it does not work as a pilot nor does it work as a standalone story. It doesn’t work as anything. It doesn’t work as a “turn your brain off and enjoy” film because it’s boring and the action sucks. It doesn’t even work as a “laugh at how bad it is” because there’s not even a ton of moments where it’s terrible like in SAO with the rapey fairy king; it’s just empty and lifeless so there’s maybe three or so moments to even comment on or laugh at. It’s completely useless no matter how you watch it.
The worst part is, I haven’t even gotten to the worst part. Remember how I said that these projects are for the art form? That they are supposed to be experimental? They don’t need to adhere to the expectations of consumers and shareholders. So, no otaku shit and no fanservice. Right? Wrong. In a 28 minute episode, there’s two fanservice scenes. Now, I’m not inherently against fanservice, I am a man who is attracted to the 2D after all, but as a story that’s touted as serious and not like today’s anime, both female main characters are sexualized. One gets partially undressed in front of the boy to deliver first aid to herself, which itself isn’t bad but the way it’s framed/animated and the fact that she meekly says “don’t look” clearly shows it’s meant to be sexualized. The second instance is during the final fight when the other girl’s shirt is ripped and her boobs are exposed. Really? Why is this necessary? This isn’t the Monogatari Series; this fanservice has no meaning to the story and it’s completely gratuitous. I don’t want to come off like an angry feminist, but when you have 100% complete creative control, why sexualize the female characters? Why the otaku-esque/HS romance scene with the girl blushing and meekly saying “don’t look”? Why the bland cityscape? Why the completely unoriginal story? Is this really the best that industry veterans can come up with?
I don’t know whether the creators are happy with this product. I don’t know whether the production issues affected the story at all and I don’t know for sure whether this story was intentionally not made with 100% effort due to the creators wanting to save the real ideas for the full story (though that’s what it feels like). What I do know is that the end product is not worth your time or money. Let’s hope that if a full series is made that it’s better.
