kuvalis.isom - 2016-12-18 05:26:44

No se termina de entender que es lo que buscan y queda inconclusa. Pero las secuencias de acción son de otro nivel, por si no les interesa mucho el argumento.

kabernathy - 2016-08-07 02:07:50

If you backed this on kickstarter then that good
but i feel sorry for you 

Under the dog plot from its kickstarter 

Our enemy is the light of Humanity

The year is 2025 in the city of Tokyo Bayside Special District, five years following the devastation wrought by a specially enhanced groups of terrorists at the 2020 Summer Olympics. Out of the ashes of that desolation, the UN formed a special covert branch headquartered in Tokyo Bay solely purposed with searching out and eliminating the forces responsible for the attack along with anyone even bearing a remote resemblance to them.

As a cover, the International School for Boys and Girls was established for the ongoing covert operation of discovering and recruiting gifted high school students, each with their own special abilities, and to coerce them in the service of an elite death squad. These troops are tasked with ferreting out and exterminating all individuals with powers like their own.

There is no choosing sides for these recruits and failure is not an option. Failure on the field assures not only their own, but also their loved ones' deaths. In order to assure compliance, each agent’s dearest loved ones have been secretly outfitted with a micro cranial bomb and all agent's actions and speech are closely monitored and recorded through a battle chip embedded in their brain. In the event the UN commanding officer determines an agent falls out of protocol, their loved ones immediately suffer the consequences. 

Sounds interesting right? Too bad they threw that all out the window with the OVA

Im not complaining about the character designs because i actually like them but its kinda sad that this anime seem like its what Studio GONZO would have put out before it went under.

If it does get picked up for a full series i wouldnt put it pass Production I.G to pick it up. As a first epsiode its would have been ok as a stand alone OVA it fails horribly. 

For fuck sakes the face of the whole UTD movement Athena doesn't even show up untill halfway near the end  after the bland main girl dies

The plot was a mess

The characters were ok but bland

The sound was ok kudos or those who spoke perfect engish and not Engrish

Overall the PV that were out were better than this. This is just a long PV.

mwyman - 2016-08-05 17:02:54

Even though Under the Dog is pretty unfulfilling, I still believe it is worth a watch. It falls victim to several disgustingly common tropes ("let's just wait for some convenient shit to happen before we kill this highly dangerous assassin", deus ex machina, etc.), and has only good Japanese voice acting and mostly terrible English voice acting. However, the world they set up was interesting and could've made for an interesting story if they had time to flesh stuff out. The character development is actually awful. I know they had very little time but they don't spend any time letting you try to connect with any of the characters. One of the few things Under the Dog does well is the action scenes and amount of violence. I wish more anime had this much gore.

The biggest problem with Under the Dog is that it is so short. Most of these problems would be fixed if there was more Under the Dog. :(

jettie.hoeger - 2016-08-03 00:55:22

I’ll keep this brief because I don’t think there’s an awful lot to be said about this anime and I don’t want to waste too much time on it. But here’s my thoughts. 

Under The Dog is thoroughly underwhelming. In short it misses the mark in just about every area. Having been quite anticipated by a lot of people, it is very unfortunate we ended up with what we have.

The first thing you’ll notice is that the animation is not to the standard we’ve generally come to expect in 2016, more it resembles something from the mid 2000s. The art style and animation is definitely nothing special as it is the best part of a decade behind but then again there’s nothing awful about it either. Character designs, while very generic and uninspired, are technically “passable” and the rest is simply sub-par. 

Speaking of characters, here is a fundamental weak point of the anime. I have no issues with archetypal characters because that doesn’t necessarily stop them from working well in execution and being fleshed out or well written characters in their own right. But Under The Dog lacks a single memorable or particularly well executed character, you feel distanced from them in moments when you are supposed to feel strongly connected and this
is for a couple of reasons. 

The motives of the characters are either not addressed or briefly mentioned in vague ways that add little to nothing to the actual characters. On top of this, they act in painfully predictable ways and their actions all just progress the plot. Some characters could have been explored well or potentially develop in some kind of future installment…….but due to certain events in the story, this opportunity is denied.

The story itself is arguable the worst aspect of Under The Dog. Do not expect to get any answers from this anime, it loves to raise things constantly but is lazy when it comes to providing answers. The motives that drive the plot are never really explored and you are left confused about the entire
experience.

At one point the anime attempts to act deep and philosophical in regards to a group in the story but it backfires miserably. It is instead contradictory to events in the plot and is blatantly a meaningless statement that the audience is supposed to consider clever.

Some may excuse the vague and unfulfilling nature of the anime by saying “it could have a continuation”. But as of now nothing has been confirmed and I honestly doubt a series or franchise of Under The Dog could be very good because there is absolutely nothing of particular worth to be found in what we have been presented with and has done nothing to justify a continuation.

The music was nothing special, standard affair and mostly bland.

Under The Dog as a concept isn’t beyond saving, I do want to stress that. It has potential sprinkled throughout but it fails to do anything interesting whatsoever. Under The Dog is simply completely forgettable, frankly insulting and I would recommend avoiding it.  

lennie.morar - 2016-08-02 01:20:22

Apparently Under the Dog is supposed to be a pilot episode for a possible anime series or movie series that has been realized through Kickstarter. The OVA has a total span of about 38 minutes, 10 minutes of which are the credits. 

What do I think of it? Going into it without knowing anything about the movie, I was actually pretty disappointed.  As a stand-alone, it fails. As a pilot, it does its job, so it's important to go into the OVA with the right expectations.

Why it fails as a stand-alone
The animation is above average but there is so little exposition of the characters and the story that it didn't grip me at all. This movie is very much about "show, don't tell", but due to it's tight 28 minutes length, all you hear are a lot of terms which you can piece together into a vague idea about what the story is about.

What is missing is the meaning behind this. When I can't connect to either the characters or the story, it's hard to pay much interest to what is happening. Only at the end my interest got sparked, but after having spent 25 minutes of asking myself why I am even watching, it is but a mild improvement and all in all, the experience left me unsatisfied.

Where it excels as a pilotAs I have already mentioned, the animation is actually pretty good. Especially if you are a fan of military warfare, the scenes don't fail to impress with their bombast. The movement during fights are nothing to scoff at either. If this is any indication of what to expect in a series or a movie, we're in for a treat.

The pillars for a good story are there. The lack of exposition actually makes you hope that future installments of the project will provide you with what the OVA lacks: meaning, context and an actual plot.

Would I watch an anime or movie series of this? Yeah, I probably would and I really hope that it will happen. So I guess it did its job well as a pilot. 

mchamplin - 2016-08-01 20:20:50

This review is written on the assumption that everybody who is reading has some knowledge about the OVA beforehand. 

Probably the weakest part of Under the Dog is the plot. The backstory for the OVA has an interesting premise with the site of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics being taken over by the UN due to terrorist attacks; all things considered it's an interesting premise that could have a lot of potential for intrigue. Unfortunately the short 20 minute time frame didn't even touch upon it. if this was the first episode of a series I would be slightly more forgiving, however for an OVA that more than likely wont get a follow up it feels like a waste of time even watching. It just doesn't feel like a complete narrative nor does it do a good job in establishing the world of the anime. 

The art is okay by mid 2000's standards. None of the backgrounds are particularly pretty and besides some nice action sequences the animation was serviceable. 

The character designs are forgettable. I can barely even remember what any of the characters looked like despite watching the animation an hour ago. This may be just down to personal taste but none of the designs were very appealing or stood out.

None of the characters have any character; often spouting cliche dialogue with no substance. I felt no connection with any of them which made eventual character deaths meaningless to me. 

For all the negatives I've given it it does have some positive aspects such as actual English voice actors for the English speaking military which is a welcome attention to detail which so many other anime don't seem to bear in mind. Also the action sequence at the end was well done albeit short with an interesting twist.

For an OVA it completely and utterly fails at telling a compelling story, however as a pilot for a potential series it seems slightly more promising. The story isn't properly represented within the OVA, the characters are weakly written and the environment art wasn't anything special. Animation quality was consistently okay throughout with some nice action scenes. 

I don't think I'm wrong in saying a month from now no one will be talking about Under the Dog, which is a shame. Hopefully this doesn't leave a bad mark on other potential anime Kickstarter projects that may end up delivering a stronger product. 

[In response to all of the 5 star ratings this anime has received] 

If you legitimately believe that this anime deserves a perfect score then there is little hope for you.