Title: Dog & Scissors

Director: Yukio Takaashi

Studio: Gonzo

U. S. Distributor: Sentai Filmworks / Section 23

U. S. Release Date: June 10th, 2014

Format: DVD / 12 Episodes / 300 Minutes

Genre: Comedy

Age Rating: TV MA

Overall Personal Rating: C+

Synopsis:

Harumi Kazuhito was the ultimate bookworm, spending days at a time with his head buried in his beloved books, and little could make him happier than perusing the pages of his favorite author, Kirihime Natsuno. Unfortunately, Harumi’s life goes to the dogs – literally – when he gets himself killed while trying to stop a robber!

Thanks to the power of a true bookworm, however, Harumi inexplicably finds himself reincarnated as a dog… which might not be so bad if dogs could read. Or if the woman who adopts him didn’t have twin predilections for playing with scissors and tormenting her new pet! But what truly makes this strange reincarnation the worst of all possible worlds is that she’s also his favorite author! The horror! Can Harumi find a way to live with this tantrum-throwing typist, or will her crazed clippings prove to be his undoing? Can he escape her constant hounding via the doggy door, or is he barking up the wrong tree?

Commentary:

Sometimes anime just exists because they do and there are times when those anime are great just because they are. In the case of Dog & Scissors I can’t say that either of those instances come into play.  The simple fact is that this strange little sierras has an almost indiscernible plot line and mostly lacks any internal essence to propel it through 12 episodes. To have a young man who is a book worm cut down in the most exciting time of his life and transferred into the body of a odd little dog is sad in itself. To then have him become connected to a scissor wielding crazy woman who just so happens to be a popular author adds more pain to the suffering this story has to offer. Granted there is some redemption in their relationship as things more forward, but in general the torture continues throughout the 12 episodes.

The series is not a total failure because studio Gonzo has a hand in its creation. The creative minds at Gonzo understand how to take even the weakest story and make it look good. I’m not saying that they created a masterpiece, but they did give us a series that looks very good. That being said there is still something to be mentioned about the characters and their uniqueness. The strange quality to the top authors is light and adds some good humor to the story and when push comes to shove the main female character, Kirihime, shows some humanity in her emotional bonds to Kazuhito the dog boy.

Overall grade: C+

Honestly, there are plenty of anime that don’t have much reason to exist and I can’t completely write off Dog & Scissor. The series showed some real promise in the first few episodes, but never really developed and in the end was just s series of somewhat humorous episodes that just take up time. The look of the series stood up to the high quality that is expected from Gonzo. If you are looking for a series that just has some rather odd and torturous stores of a young man/dog who just wants to read books and has to live with a crazy author who has a thing for scissors.