At first I wasn't too impressed. I actually started watching this a few years ago with a friend but we stopped at episode 7, and later on I've come to realize that it was the absolute worst episode to stop watching the series, for you've just only watched the compulsory introduction for the whole situation.
Story:
Basically the series starts with a young dog, called Gin being raised as a bear-hunting dog by this harsh grandfather in an equally harsh mountain-area hich seems to have an eternal snowstorm. Of course there's also this ultra-dense young boy character, Daisuke, who really reminds me of Ash Ketchum from Pokemon and Pazu from Miyazaki's Laputa - Castle in the Sky. After the introductionary episodes the series really changes, as the human characters fade into the background and all of the dogs start suddenly speaking. After this, the series is all about dogs trying to gather a large army to defeat the most infamous bear of the mountains, Akakabuto. And from this on, the series starts to get interesting. Bottom line: Watch the whole series. If you plan on dropping it, please watch more than seven episodes before you quit. You wont regret.
Art:
80's. That's all I can say. This is one of those old animes where the style's quite aged, but it really fits the series. In terms of production, I had some complaints about certain small scenes repeating, like bears falling to the ground after being defeated or the exact same dogs getting squashed under a bear's giant foot over and over again. Also, theres lots of blood. Blood and gore!! If Elfen Lied wasn't enough for you, watch this! It's actually fun how this series was released in four VHS-tapes in Finland ages ago as a children's series. I can't possibly imagine the amount of cutting needed: It's like trying to change the Saw-series to a kid's movie by only cutting certain scenes.
Sound:
Well.. really sounds like this music we call by the name "Iskelmä" in Finland. The opening and other tunes with vocals are quite cliche and embarrassing. In addition, there is this generic epic soundtrack going on with an added commentator. Not actually poor, but nothing special. However the OP sure is memorable, if nothing else. Ha!
Character:
Interesting. This starts as an anime with obvious main characters, such as Gin, the Grandfather Takeda and Daisuke. But later on as the series really starts rolling, the characters are all mainly different leaders of dog armies. All of the dog characters which actually have personality are very likeable. Especially Moss, Ben and the Kai brothers are all very great characters. They all posess a different kind of leadership and it's nice to watch how they act in different situations. Gin is your typical young and strong dog with lot's of passion and a pure heart. And Riki is this super-epic mysterious father-figure. The bears are all quite so-and-so. All they really do is growl and act very aggressively.
Enjoyment:
I certainly enjoyed the series and I think it's definately worth watching. However there are some annoying things and flaws in this anime. I don't know how to say this clearly but sometimes the series is just so overly epic and remiscent of this Japanese soldier's morale that it gets annoying: Everyone is always ready to die for their comrades and most of these heroic suicides could be avoided easily. Also a bit annoying is the fact that there always seems to be this new dog who is the strongest of all and when there's hundreds of dog's in the army, it gets hard to tell, who exactly is the best of them all. It's kinda like Pokemon: Every movie introduces this new best-of-the-best-of-the-best Pokemon-god. Also, why do Ben and his dog's always have to fight the new dog-leaders to near-death before they get them to join the army? And why can't they just kill the god damn bear? Why don't they just blast him to oblivion with a grenade launcher instead of this traditional rifle-hunting with a dog-accompanion? And do you really need like hundreds and hundreds of dogs to kill one f*****g bear, and where do all of these dogs suddenly disappear in the ending scene? Huh?
Overall:
I'd recommend watching this. It has it's flaws but overall Ginga Nagareboshi Gin is a good series and I think it deserves it's place as a classic. If you like dogs, epic moments, bad music, blood & gore, and watching hordes of dog's get crushed under an oversized bear, this is definately the series for you!
