Under the Dog

it was trying too hard to be original while taking from too many other influences.

leaves you wanting more.... that you will likely never get to see without even telling you what the show is about...

at least the action scenes where fun but that alone can't save it from the mediocre ever thing else
 
I received my backers download, haven't watched it yet.

I've seen some screenshots though and it looks like a seasonal anime, which is a little disappointing, I was hoping for a bit more flair.
 
I watched this without knowing anything about it other than reading the really misleading synopsis we have on the site.
We end up following a completely different character and a lot of the plot information in the synopsis doesn't even get mentioned. I didn't really have any expectations for it so I wasn't let down by it, but there are some things about it that left a bit of a sour taste in my mouth due to the needlessly grim ending that just comes across as being cruel for the sake of it.

It wasn't all bad, though. Even though the animation and character designs were just okay, the action was decent. It's not movie or OVA quality, but it still holds up pretty well when compared with most TV anime. It's hard to judge the story when everything is so vague, but I was glad that the thing didn't just dump a bunch of exposition in between the action scenes. The story seems like pretty bog standard stuff anyway so it is possible to fill in enough of the gaps just using context clues that the story makes sense even if it's not particularly satisfying.

Rather than spending a lot of time fleshing out the plot, the episode attempts to develop Hana a bit with mixed results. She could have a been a very bland fill in character until the real main character gets there, but I did get a sense of her personality. Shame I still didn't find her all that interesting. Also, I found her voice acting to be kinda shrill in some scenes. They were trying to make Hana sympathetic so the ending comes as a gut punch as she and her family die for nothing. It's this part that I found a bit distasteful, especially the killing of her family after she died. I already got that the people she works for aren't good guys.

Speaking of not good guys. The military group was laughable evil weren't they? Just shoot up the school and then blow it to hell once they get what they want. They might as well just walk around twirling their mustaches. At least their English was pretty decent sounding.

None of the other characters leave much of an impression including the real lead which doesn't show up until the last minutes of the episode. She's impressive when in action, but doesn't leave much of an impression otherwise and it just seemed really gratuitous that she ends up with one of her tits hanging out. She doesn't get much screen time and she still has to spend like half of exposed.

Also this might seem a bit random, but was it just me or was the drone thing making hawk noises?

The OVA reminded me of a lot of the mediocre 90s OVAs I've seen. It's technically sound with some nice music, but in most other aspects it's pretty forgettable. I don't think it fully earns its grim ending either. 5 out of 10
 
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Well, I didn't hate it, but I do curse my past self for backing it at the BluRay tier. Christ, what an asshole. It's mainly because there are no cool music videos like with the Bubblegum Crisis set (which was also cheaper, natch) or sexy film grain and mullets. Hopefully it will have a good-looking case, at least.

It's also not nearly as stylish or pleasing to the eye as Crisis, but the action scenes were cool, with some scenes I really dug. Ando knows his stuff. Shame that the animation is not that great until the action starts, and the backgrounds aren't exactly up to par with Ando's older works, especially Hana-Saku Iroha. In fact, they are downright dated for the most part. The character designs are generic, and the much-touted Anthena (Such a typical Swedish name! Why not just call her ABBA instead?) is the only one that sticks out in the cast visually, though her cleavage and hoodie combo comes across as really weird. I guess they were going for the Spider-Gwen angle? Anyway, so it goes when you feel that your work has to be about high-schoolers.

Speaking of feeling derivative, did anyone get Berserk Unit 01 when the Pandora was introduced? Mists, glowing eyes, simian style of walking. It even had an AT-Field force field!

The English voices felt like they ranged from "random tourist pulled in from the street" to "an actual voice actor (that was probably touristing in Japan)", but at least their dialogue wasn't badly written, just trite. I did chuckle at the commander going all "destroy the hostels and the buildings!" So yeah, a wonkily pronounced word was the highlight of my watch. It says about as much about me as it does about UTD.

It looks and feels much like a middle episode of an ongoing Autumn anime, but it's very jumbled as a stand-alone work. Like ZK the ZAWAnator, I was not a fan of the grim ending, because it felt almost laughable at times, instead of coming across as "time 4 feels". I didn't really bother with even trying to think too deeply about the plot, but it didn't feel stupid. It was just not my thing, big time.

I'd maybe watch more if it existed, but I can take or leave a continuation of this.

5/10

ZetsubouKaiji said:
None of the other characters leave much of an impression including the real lead which doesn't show up until the last minutes of the episode. She's impressive when in action, but doesn't leave much of an impression otherwise and it just seemed really gratuitous that she ends up with one of her tits hanging out. She doesn't get much screen time and she still has to spend like half of exposed.
Click to expand...

Yes to all of this.

ZetsubouKaiji said:
Also this might seem a bit random, but was it just me or was the drone thing making hawk noises?
Click to expand...

"Nope, I heard it as well. And it reminded me of the much-touted mechanical designs on the Kickstarter page, and what we got was that drop pod sounding like a cheap sampling. Whoop-de-doo.
 
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I feel very much the same as the both of you.

For a 20 minute action flick, it wasn't bad, for everything else it tried to be, it was a bit meh.
I was expecting much higher production values out of this and the first few minutes of the show really let me down, however it seems to have been a bit of a stylistic choice on the character front as the action scenes admittedly had some really nice care and attention put into them, mainly not bullet spraying everywhere, some great explosion animations (that are always a guilty pleasure) and the general body movement of the main characters.

Having said that, I feel the backgrounds could have been more inspired, I'm not sure why we needed a high school setting for this other than they thought it would sell more. the bait and switch between who we thought was supposed to be the main character was a tad annoying, but Hana carried her part of the story well enough, she wasn't an amazing character by any stretch, but as a tool to introduce how badass Anthea is supposed to be, it worked. Pity Anthea only got about 4 minutes of screen time though, 3 minutes of which she had a boob out.

There's really not much to say, I'm glad we didn't get much exposition, the show worked better as 25 minutes of non stop action, and I can see how this could be an ok-ish first episode in a proper TV show. As it stands, it's just a bit of an oddity, or curiosity. I didn't dislike it, but it's hard to emote about it too.

All in, it's a pretty well made short in terms of action scenes, but it's an odd thing for sure. I find it hard to recommend this to people, but reluctant to be too harsh about it too. Like Hasse, in hindsight I wish I backed it at the digital tier and not full BD, but part of me is glad this got made.

3/5
 
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