Being the Nana Mizuki fan I am, Dog Days and its cast and staff drew me instantly despite the extremely familiar synopsis (Zero no Tsukaima anyone?).

‘Republic of Biscotti faces a predicament by the invasion of Galette Leo Knights. In order to save the country, Princess Milchore summons a “hero” from the outer world. Shinku, a junior high school boy living in the Earth, is chosen as the hero.’

Now if I only just read that passage above I’d probably consider it one of those all too common ‘boy meets girl and things happen’ anime. But given last seasons Yumekui Merry and Madoka, which taught me not to judge a book by its cover, it’s best to leave no stone unturned and hopefully Dog Days will be as good.

Now about the cast and staff, the anime is produced by Seven Arcs, the very same folks who gave us the Nanoha franchise, Sekirei and Inukami (recycling concepts?), and the director is Kusakawa Keizou, the same director for Nanoha A’s and StrikerS. Dog Days has an all star seiyuu casting with Yui Horie (Yuki Cross from Vampire Knight), Nana Mizuki (Fate from Nanoha), Mamoru Miyano (Zero from Vampire Knight) . There’s a lot more vocal talent in supporting roles such as Youko Hikasa (Mio from K-On!), Ayana Taketatsu (Kirino from Ore no Imouto) and Ami Koshimizu (Kallen from Code Geass) plus many others.

Onto the first episode itself. The episode opened with the OP of SCARLET KNIGHT, sung by Nana Mizuki, which is a awesome ani-song styled blend of symphonic rock, techno and J-Pop. The animation sequence is certainly reminiscent of Nanoha A’s in terms of direction and similarity of scenes. After the OP we’re introduced to the events that make up the synopsis. In the camp of the Galette Leo Knights, their troops are resting and preparing for their invasion of the final defences of the Biscotti Republic as Godwin, an important looking Knight speaks to Leonmitchelli, who is the leader of the Galette Knights. She reminded me somewhat of Reinforce, with the white hair and darkish outfit.

After the ominous speech of assured defeat of the Dog Princess and her country, we shift to the meeting hall of said Dog Princess, Milchore Biscotti who reminds of yet another Nanoha character, Caro Ru Lushe, pink hair and all. As the elders bemoan of the hopelessness of their situation, Milchore decides to use their trump card of summoning a hero.

We shift towards the ‘real world’ as we know it and we’re introduced to the male protagonist of the show, Shinku Izumi, who appears to be a very enthusiastic athlete. As he pulls off manoeuvres which no teenager I know of can do, he departs to school with his friend Becky. It turns out they go to an International School and Spring Break is right around the corner. Shinku’s plans of heading to Britain during Spring Break are soon ruined when he manoeuvres right into a portal which transports him to a mysterious fantasy land.

He is greeted by the Milchore and remains incredibly calm for someone who’s been kidnapped. (imagine if they planned to eat him instead) While Milchore explains her reason for summoning him, the battle begins to break out with the Biscotti defences being overwhelmed quickly. Milchore decides to transport herself and Shinku back to the castle as quickly as possible by getting on her Choco…I mean Cellkull.

The battle progresses and turns out is being commented on by several people such as a General and an aide of Princess Leonmitchelli. It turns out this ‘war’ is actually a valid entertainment event for athletics and is conducted in a safe manner with extremely powerful attacks only rendering the cat or dog soldiers back into a chibi ball form.

The ‘war’ is also a form of competition with various accomplishments earning points for soldiers/participants. It seems to avoid losing the war and to mainly avoid nationwide depression, Milchore summoned Shinku. Knowing how much our new hero loves competition and athletics, he eagerly accepts his role. Milchore announces to everyone of Shinku’s arrival and he debuts in a gymnastic fashion, staff, clothes, introductory line and all. The episode concludes and it ends with the ED, presenter, by Yui Horie which is a nice, soft song.

The entire premise is somewhat cliched in nature but for me this episode was actually fairly decent. There’s a good setting (fantasy kingdoms and all), character cast here which gives it some potential to come off as a good, fun, light-hearted show. The male protagonist Shinku is pretty likeable so far as well, there’s not too many who would remain calm like him given he’d been kidnapped and he’s in front of a cute girl (of course this is in an anime context). For me I remain optimistic about this show, since so far there’s nothing really bad about the show at all, and its still only episode 1. I’ll probably be blogging this weekly, given that this show is decent thus far and I’m a sucker for seiyuu, especially my favourite, Nana Mizuki. This show is likely to appeal nicely to seiyuu fans and moe fans.

Fractale, Infinite Stratos posts coming soon, for now

Signing off,

Steel