horace.bartoletti - 2015-06-26 06:11:33

Bounty Dog was an anime on the moon, there is no dog, they are on a mission, don't know what said mission was but the were on it. I tried to look away from the screen as much as I could to protect myself, but it didn't help much. I still don't know what the plot was, it was probably just too deep for me, I can't even ironically rate this highly.

ondricka.shanelle - 2014-12-01 09:42:48

BountyDog had massive potential, the chance at being a near-masterpiece.It's diverse in its sci-fi attributes, carrying things that can befound in Ghost in the Shell, Cowboy Bebop, Prometheus, etc. What italso carried, however, was a 50-minute run-time. That's the key issuewith this OVA, the fact that it shouldn't have been an OVA in thefirst place.

Thesetting is similar to what you'd see in Cowboy Bebop, mainly themovie Knockin' on Heaven's Door. In the future, we have colonies onthe moon living in dome-glass structures with the ability to controlweather, along with having many other technological advancements.While it's the future, much of it carries a light modern vibe,much like Cowboy Bebop. It's a future of advancement, yet it's alsoan economic landscape where not everything is of top-notchquality.

This is all carried out in superb animation with evenmore superb detail. The work on design really paid off, creating abelievable, futuristic environment. They carried this out to such alevel that if the team behind Bounty Dog were to translate all oftheir technological designs to a live-action Hollywood movie, therewouldn't need be much work to be done on building the universe, as alarge portion is there in deep detail. However, this doesn't continueinto the functioning and lite history to these designs, as the OVA isstill held back by its run-time.

Another thing to applaud isthe sound design as a whole. The opening has a catchy low electronictune with some vocals, yet does not carry an ending theme or anending period for that matter. Time is valuable here, and they haveto make use of every minute they have. To the music in the series,it's also at least above average, but I would consider it good forits setting. This OVA was created after the 80's, yet the soundtrackdoes feature some trumpet-sounding, electronic tunes. That isn't allit has, however, as the OVA also carries some slower electronictracks that carry slightly different vibes. The soundtrack might havenot been able to carry over as well as the visual design, consideringthere's not any orchestrations, but it's very serviceable where it'sat here.

The story is another thing that should have beenapplauded, but can only be appreciated in reality. The story itselfisn't original, but it's formed together from an interesting mash ofparts of plots from different sci-fi hits. It may spoil if I were todirectly name which ones are related, but there are several I couldname right off the bat. The story has all of these elements to it,and had the potential to go into them with more depth and create moremeaning. Instead, the time-limit of 50 minutes made them have to actdifferently. This is a real shame, as what we have here has somewonky pacing issues that skims over some moderately important detailsthat one may have wished to be better explained, or that one wassimply confused by the lack of explanation. In fact, it may evenrequire more than one viewing to properly understand everything thatoccurred with this pacing. That was a part of my experience withBounty Dog, but it should be noted I was working with the subbedversion.

Briefly towards the voice-work, the dubbed versionwas a bit unsatisfactory in its execution. I usually work with dubsas I'm not a fan of reading, but I just felt the dubs weren'ttreating everything in a way that made it as believable as theJapanese voices. Online there is mainly only the dubbed versionsavailable, so if that's what's bugging you, I would recommend lookingfor the subtitled version even if it's a tad difficult.

BountyDog features not only a believable world, but reasonable inhabitants.It should be appreciated that no-one in Bounty Dog lacks basic commonsense. Even when a mass of citizens or side-characters are shownhaving reactions and discussing, they treat situations in a way thatyou would expect. Not only that, but the "heros" of thisstory are not overpowered in any sense. They're just like anyone elseand can be beaten by an unnamed individual on the side. They'retrained mercenaries which would make them skilled, but they are stillbeatable. This isn't presented that much as the entirety is stillonly 50 minutes, but it's noticeable.

A downside to thecharacters of this OVA is the lack of development. There is anattempt at some development in the main character, but the storyspeeding by makes that attempt lack any weight. The other characterssuffer even worse from this, making those closest to the main feelonly a tad more familiar than a no-named, one-liner character. Thisleads to more disappointment towards the length. However, when thesecharacters interact in the OVA, they still do so reasonably.

BountyDog has the start of the creation of a potentially great universe toit, but that isn't gone into detail in this OVA. Sadly, due toobscurity, this OVA never led to a further release of the sameuniverse. What we have here is a visually-detailed short-film thatbriefly relates many aspects of other more famous science-fictionstories. It does rush the story, but simultaneously, it treats theviewers with respect that they're intelligent enough to follow alongwith no crutches. It's a refreshing feeling, but is still heavilyaccompanied by disappointment. Bounty Dog is definitely worth thewatch for its moderately short length and its overwhelming amount ofquality. The story is a bit generic, but is interesting in how itrelates many different elements. I would appreciate any continuationof this world in even an unrelated side-story. I want to see more,but that will likely never happen. There may be some hope withsearching other works by the staff, like how the character designerfor Bounty Dog happens to have been also involved in every iterationof Ghost in the Shell. That would be the first place to start(possibly even being a spiritual successor to what we have here).

Ona side note, Ines' scruffy hair is off limits.