We had our first look at the art of the DOGS OAV back in December. It was questionable, particularly for Badou and Haine’s designs, but I decided to be optimistic. This optimism seemed to have paid off, as the short trailer that surfaced last month looked brilliant. There actually aren’t many shots of Haine in the trailer, but Badou, at least, looked terrific. (Camoflague print is still missing from jacket, but I’ll live.)

Now, some character sketches seem to have surfaced, and it looks like we took three steps forward just to take ten steps back?

Now, Mihai still looks great. His facial expressions and angles are great, and his outfit is pretty spot on as well. Naoto’s turnarounds look fine, and her facial studies aren’t half bad either, albeit a little generic-feeling. At first glance, Haine doesn’t look terrible either: I love the boots in his turnarounds, and the top row of faces on his facial studies looks pretty good. What gets me are his eyes on second row — especially on the left-most face. Also, that guy needs more forehead, man. The more I stare at it, the more I want to get into art kid super critique mode.

And Badou. God, look at Badou’s face! He doesn’t even look consistent from face to face on that design sheet! What is this freaky-eyed, long-faced monstrosity?

AHHHH!!!

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

….

All kidding aside though, it’s really weird to see these sheets, honestly. I’ve always known character design sheets for anime to be pretty spot-on with their animated counterparts, and these just throw me for a loop because I just rewatched the footage from the trailer and Badou still looks great! What’s up with this nonsense? I almost feel like we’re being trolled. In the end, I guess it doesn’t really matter how shitty these sheets look as the actual animation remains as awesome as it was in the trailer. I find these character sheets kind of insulting to Miwa Shirow’s art in general, but it isn’t like we haven’t seen huge style shifts from manga to anime before. It usually turns out okay, even if it’s a little different.

I’m just kind of fearful of some random cheap crap showing up in the backgrounds:

That’s what I immediately thought of when I saw that Badou. Do not want.

The animation looks gorgeous and, for me at least, erases many of the doubts that came with the first look at the artwork a few months back. The character designs are very faithful, as are the backgrounds, and the action. The music reminds me a lot of Baccano!, which threw me off a little at first — it’s very energetic, upbeat, and kind of hookey, which clashes with some of DOGS’s darker undertones. But considering that the OAV will only follow the storyline from “Stray dogs howling in the dark” rather than Bullets&Carnage, the humorous energy isn’t all that misplaced.

The trailer itself isn’t a great indication of story, so those unfamiliar with the manga probably won’t be impressed by much, though the action does looks nice. I’m really eager to see a trailer that will show more general background music and that will show speaking parts. I listened to the first drama CD again not long ago; it still sounded great, so I’m excited to see it all match up with their animated images. Gleeeee.

In the meantime, I’ve got “volume 0″ of Viz’s release of the DOGS manga on preorder and can’t wait to get it~.

My second thought is that those character designs look pretty generic all of a sudden. From left to right: Badou looks a bit more feminine and flamboyant than I’m used to… I think it’s his face? I don’t know, but I miss the camo pattern on his coat. Haine actually doesn’t look that bad. His proportions are full of lulz, and I really don’t know what’s going on with that left arm of his, but honestly, Shirow has some funky proportions sometimes too. Naoto is pretty unimpressive, but I don’t think that angle’s helping. Her face looks kind of off, and I can’t see the detail that needs to be on the hilt of her katana. Mihai probably looks the best here. His face is spot on, and the rest of him looks passable.

Really though, it isn’t that bad. The characters are far from being bastardized, and the background looks pretty good too. In any case, it’s just promotional art. How the animation ends up remains to be seen, and that’s the important part, right? This might be the first time a manga is adapted into an anime as I’m reading it, so I can’t say how purist I’ll end up being, but as far as first impressions go, I’m reasonably pleased. At least I don’t have to worry about the voice cast.

(Hattip: DOGS LJ Community)

It might be too early to be speculating, but I wonder what this might mean for future DOGS anime? It’s hard to say how long of a project DOGS: Bullets and Carnage will end up being, but considering it’s scheduled to be at volume four by the time the OAV releases, there’s enough material to fill up a normal season now. Does this mean we’ll eventually see a normal-run series based off Bullets and Carnage? I’d like to think that chances are high…

It was kind of interesting that while I was writing it, I realized that it really isn’t as amazing or unique as I sometimes like to think it is. Honestly, I think I fell in love with the artwork more than anything else, but forcing myself to write what I think about the other aspects of the book was pretty enlightening. Funny how that works, huh?

I was thinking about also writing a review for the DOGS side story, Hardcore Twins, but I’m not sure if it’d be worth it. I mean, it’s like a 20-page comic introducing two characters that appear later in Bullets and Carnage… would someone really read a review for something like that when it’d likely take less time to just read the comic? Then again, I guess the same could be said for SEED Supernova, which I reviewed out of sheer boredom. Ho hum.

OMG TAKAHIRO SAKURAI IS HAINE. AKIRA ISHIDA IS BADOU. JUST LIKE THE DRAMA CD. OH MY GOD. And Taneguchi of Code Geass will be involved. Holy shit. This makes me so happy.

I swear I don’t normally post this kind of fantarding nonsense. But I make the exception for DOGS because I love DOGS. I really need to get off my ass, reread everything that’s out and review the sucker because it really deserves more love.

My only concern is obviously the fact that DOGS is not a finished manga. I’ve said many times before that I hate it when they make anime adaptations of manga that hasn’t been finished, and as much as I do love DOGS, deep down, I’m very, very terrified of the prospect that they will somehow ruin it by giving it a lackluster ending of some sort. Miwa Shirow has been infamously slow in his updates, often going months at a time without a new chapter, so I really can’t say when DOGS will ever be finished. Ever since the drama CD came out last year, the prospect of an anime seemed very close, but I’ve always wondered… how are they going to pull that off?

Of course, the DOGS story and universe is very flexible, and as such, I can see it going off in a dozen different directions. This is the kind of universe that invites many interesting interpretations, and I’m interested to see what, if any, changes they’ll make to the existing material. I wonder if they’ll just take the concept and run with it like Fullmetal Alchemist? Or will they try to faithfully follow what’s there and make up some sort of ending like X? Or will they take what’s there and leave it open-ended with the intention of coming back later when there’s more material to work from, like Loveless? Of those three series, only FMA was any good, but even it didn’t make it out of there with a good ending. Has there ever been a 100% wonderful anime adaptation of an unfinished manga? None that I can think of off the top of my head.

That said, I feel as if the first volume of DOGS works well enough on its own. It’s basically just character building, but it’s very good character building, and each of the four sections works well enough as a standalone one-shot. If they go that route and only adapt the first volume, I could see this working out incredibly well. I think right now, that’s the option I’m hoping for. I suppose it’s really too soon to say. I’m still excited to see all of these characters in animated format, and I’m utterly in love with the voice cast here.

This is so exciting. Eee.

To be fair, I don’t think it’s actually all that popular in Japan, but it has a decent-sized overseas cult following online. The fact that Miwa Shirow decided to take four years off between the first volume and the second volume probably hurt also, and the fact that the second volume’s chapters still release rather irregularly is a really annoying factor. But his art is gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous, and while the story isn’t really all that original (it’s about people that’ve been experimented with and genetically enhanced in a post-apocalyptic-type world), it’s intriguing all the same. (Okay, so it gets extra points with me for having lycanthropy parallels too.) The characters are excellent and I think there’s someone for everyone to take to — the first volume details the basic stories of four main protagonists. They don’t really seem to have anything to do with each other at first, but their paths gradually converge at the end of the volume. I love stuff like that.

The second volume is where they really start interacting though, so I really hope Viz will also pick that up whenever Shirow finishes… But yeah, I’m really glad to finally hear that DOGS will be coming Stateside. And I’m kind of amused that Viz is the one getting it, though I shouldn’t be surprised. Viz has come to completely dominate the manga scene, just like FUNimation seems to be owning up the anime side. I mean, TOKYOPOP was their biggest rival, and they’re not even at SDCC! That’s an even worse signal of defeat than ADV’s pathetic presence at AX, and they’re not even pawning off their titles yet. Oh, well. Despite TOKYOPOP’s quick downward spiral, the rest of the manga industry seems to be doing okay. Del Ray and Broccoli are still upbeat, in any case.

Damn summer conventions are way too close together, and I don’t have time to talk about everything that gets announced. But anyway, tonight, I just wanted to shout the joy about DOGS finally getting noticed. I can’t wait to pick up my copy in April. :3 (Oh, hey… I just realized I haven’t reviewed this. I think I’ll have to go reread it soon and spit out a review!)