Under The Dog...
Over the weekend, I had a peek at the crowd-funded anime, Under The Dog...
Under The Dog is itself, fairly short, at only about thirty minutes and suffers from an incomplete story. This is understandable as it was meant to be the first episode in a larger story. Like the trailer, the action is fast, furious and bloody. The female soldier shown in the trailer, Anthea, is not the main focus of the feature, but, Anthea does appear later in the main feature. The main feature centers around Hana, a member of an elite special operations force known as "Flowers".
Without spoiling the story, there are elements in Under The Dog that are similar in some ways to Claymore where elite soldiers with special powers walk a fine line between retaining their humanity and becoming monsters themselves. In Claymore, the elite soldiers eyes take on either a silver or gold glow depending on which side of the line they happen to be, while in Under The Dog, the eyes of the elite soldiers glow green.
Under The Dog is a bit slow in the first few minutes, but, the pace quickly accelerates once opposing soldiers show up. There is plenty of red ink and gore on exhibit in Under The Dog. There is a scene with one exposed breast, but, otherwise there are not really any naughty bits. Both the trailer and the main feature are beautifully rendered and show extraordinary attention to detail. I should also point out that that scenes in the trailer do not appear in the main feature. My best guess is that the events in the trailer occur before the events in the main feature.
Unfortunately, given the underlying production issues, the enormous cost of the actual production (approximately $600,000 for the first episode) and the difficulty in securing funding for further episodes, it remains to be seen if there will be more Under The Dog. Overall, Under The Dog, has some flaws, but is quite entertaining in its own right. I would give Under The Dog a 3 out of 5.
According to Wikipedia:It is the year 2025, five years since devastating terrorist attacks put an end to the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games. The UN has taken control of the former Olympic site on the edge of Tokyo Bay, placing it beyond Japan’s jurisdiction.
Hana Togetsu is a seventeen-year-old high school student who lives in the area. Not your typical teen, she belongs to a special unit run by the UN. Hana is sent on a mission as a transfer student to a public high school on Enoshima Island.
Her target: Shunichi Nanase, a boy in her class.
As Hana is about to make contact with her target, a middle-aged man appears at the school asking for Shunichi. The situation turns critical when the American military arrives at the school in pursuit of the man.
As the bloodshed escalates, another teenage girl begins to make her way to the island to break the deadlock.
Under the Dog was originally conceived in the late 1990s by Jiro Ishii, intended as a 26-episode series. When the project was resurrected, the team behind it chose to fund it through Kickstarter to retain creative freedom. The staff consisted of Ishii, director Masahiro Ando, producer Hiroaki Yura, character designer Yūsuke Kozaki, and composer Kevin Penkin. Though the project was successfully funded, Creative Intelligence Arts and Kinema Citrus separated due to creative differences, and Kinema Citrus took full control. The split resulted in the replacement of some development staff, including Yura being replaced by Koji Morimoto and Yoshiro Kataoka.I've seen the two-minute trailer for Under The Dog and the one episode that has been produced. The trailer shows, in graphic detail and with spectacular flair, a female soldier in various combat situations where other soldiers are mercilessly shot, blown up or otherwise ripped to pieces with great heaping quantities of blood.
Without spoiling the story, there are elements in Under The Dog that are similar in some ways to Claymore where elite soldiers with special powers walk a fine line between retaining their humanity and becoming monsters themselves. In Claymore, the elite soldiers eyes take on either a silver or gold glow depending on which side of the line they happen to be, while in Under The Dog, the eyes of the elite soldiers glow green.
Under The Dog is a bit slow in the first few minutes, but, the pace quickly accelerates once opposing soldiers show up. There is plenty of red ink and gore on exhibit in Under The Dog. There is a scene with one exposed breast, but, otherwise there are not really any naughty bits. Both the trailer and the main feature are beautifully rendered and show extraordinary attention to detail. I should also point out that that scenes in the trailer do not appear in the main feature. My best guess is that the events in the trailer occur before the events in the main feature.
Unfortunately, given the underlying production issues, the enormous cost of the actual production (approximately $600,000 for the first episode) and the difficulty in securing funding for further episodes, it remains to be seen if there will be more Under The Dog. Overall, Under The Dog, has some flaws, but is quite entertaining in its own right. I would give Under The Dog a 3 out of 5.
