Let’s be honest: Dog Days had one of the most downright retarded premises of any anime in recent memory. Shinku, a Parkour master and winning contestant in ninja game shows, is summoned to be a hero in a parallel universe where he fights in a war between cats and dogs. No one gets hurt in the wars, and it is fought like the game shows he’s so skilled at.

Somehow, though, this dumb premise ended up being one of the show’s strong points. In the first episodes at least, the setting made for lots of hilarity. We had humongous explosions, evil chocobos, exploding clothes, transformations into puffballs, and tail wagging galore. It was more of a “this is so dumb it’s funny” but it was funny nonetheless.

But then everything fell to pieces. The creators tried to stuff some conflict about prophecies and demons in, and they tried to make the viewer actually take it seriously. Not going to happen. They forgot that the setting was insurmountably stupid. As a consequence, the show lost its sense of humor.

The other problem is that the creators wasted an unbelievable amount of time. I think that three quarters of the characters’ lines were exchanging pleasantries. Everyone is too polite, dog nab it! (sorry) This is made by Japanese people, sure, but there should be a limit to how polite you can be. Even if the characters don’t do anything, they always have to greet each other and say farewell. The worst part of all was the last two episodes, which were entirely devoted to Shinku saying goodbye to everyone.

The characters aren’t too well developed, since most of their screen time is spent exchanging pleasantries. A majority of them don’t do anything of significance at all (most of the Galette army, everyone from Earth except Becky, the maids, and more). The princess and Shinku’s main love interest pet, Milfie, has the personality of a sponge. I’m a fanboy of Eclair (the green haired girl) if you haven’t noticed yet, but I wouldn’t say she was well-developed, just entertaining. And she has great facial expressions.

Dog Days started out looking promising, but forgot that it was supposed to be funny and tapered off into oblivion.

• Plot / Script – 6 / 10 – An interesting setting, and funny initial episodes, but then it tries to be serious. Wastes too much time.
• Characters – 6 / 10 – +10 Eclair, -4 everyone else
• Production – 7 / 10 – Some sloppy animation.
• Overall – D-

Recommendations – Isekai Seikishi Monogatari, Zero no Tsukaima