「パスティヤージュ参戦!」 (Pasutiyaju Sansen!)
“Pastillage Joins the Battle!”

WAIT, WHAT? SEVEN ARCSSSSSS!

Okay, got that out of my system. Yes, I know I’m overreacting, but let me have my moment. Dog Days‘ just won the year’s award for [Most Surrealistic and Kinkiest Transformation Sequence] this side of Aquarion Evol’s orgasm-inducing gattais. Finding the words to describe my exact feelings is hard, but suffice to say, I was disturbed. And yes, I do know that I’m saying this in a show where defeat is indicated by the gratuitous disintegration of clothes. Sexualizing characters for fanservice was never something that bothered me much, and to be fair, even the first season of Dog Days has oodles of its own light-hearted service moments. But what Seven Arcs has done here with Becky’s transformation scene seems to go against the light-fantasy sensibilities of Dog Days and pushes it straight into the realm of erotica, something akin to the infamous toothbrush scene of Nisemonogatari, but without the same stylistic and directorial flair. And…well, it’s jarring to see a show do something so beyond its nature, even though the art and animation of the scene was bizarrely interesting to watch. You can clearly tell that a lot of (questionable) effort went into the scene, especially when you consider that it was all traditional key-frame animation. Whether you liked the scene or not – or even just plain didn’t care – it’s unlikely we’ll see it again if the first season is anything to go by, and even if it appears again it’s not like it’ll drastically change up dog days in any way, so I’ll close the book on this case here.

On to the actual episode, the war between Biscotte and Galette continues on as the cast take turns in the episode to reintroduce their battle capabilities with a variety of match-ups and team-ups. In other words, classic Dog Days, served just the way you like it with energy beams and disintegrating clothes. Nanami properly joins the Biscotte-Galette fray in this episode, and boy is she an entertaining character to watch, going toe-to-toe with Cinque from the get go, and being such a fun tease! What’s mildly interesting is also how Nanami basically takes the position of Cinque last season as she is slowly acquainted with the powers of a hero, from the crest cannons to power gear, all while putting an aquatic spin on things and being seriously badass. (Still, Hoverboard > Water Skates. Come on, this is damn near indisputable, right?)

This episode also sees third faction Pastillage properly joining the battle royale to get some asymmetrical warfare going on with their distinct aerial superiority. And yes, I’m really excited about the potential this 3-way war holds, but it’s too bad that for now things don’t get as wildly chaotic as a Starcraft 2 match, since Biscotte and Galette quickly teams up to take back the “kidnapped” Becky before she gets converted by Couver’s flirtin- ahem, I mean, persuasion attempts. Well, we all know how that goes down no thanks to the OP, so cue Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Rebecca! The whole thing actually turned out far better than I had expected; my initial impressions of Couver was less than stellar, (And to be honest squirrels give me the impression of being insanely annoying) but she turned out to be a really entertaining character that just wants to stand as equals with her closest friends so as to remain connected with them, which is something I can really empathize with. With Becky likely to be joining the fray in the next episode, I wonder how well she’ll be able to stand up against other two? Perhaps we’re in for some Nanoha-esque magic?

Full-length images: 01, 04, 10, 14, 16, 20.

End Card

27 Comments

  1. Becky just lost her virginity 🙁

    well this episode was interesting (transformation sequence didnt happen, i didnt see anything, i didnt see anything i…), but i was realy disapointed that nanami vs cinque fight was a beam battle.

    i mean comeon you shown us at the end of s1 that they can fight in a high acrobatic fast paced mode. maybe they’ll save it for later 🙂

    Zeross
    1. Disregarding the transformation sequence at the end, the overall episode was still very lighthearted and fun to watch. It was nice watching the teamwork between Biscotti and Galette.

      Couver was also very cute. Aoi Yuki does a great job voicing her.

      MasterDragonKnight
  2. I saw poor Becky’s traumatic experience as an out-of-place roast of transformational sequences in general; also, Seven Arcs, please die now. ^_^ (I will admit I laughed at it, but at the same time I found it in incredibly poor taste.)

    Jean
  3. A few words of wisdom for directors:

    – Just because you can use CG, does not mean that you should use CG.

    If you want to have a transformation sequence, that is fine, but do so in a way that does not confuse the audience. CG is a tool that must be used well, or it will just appear odd and out-of-place. If the CG is consistently used and integral to the series (such as for animating mecha), than it is perfectly fine to use it. Otherwise, keep all the styles the same.

    This was also the case for the first season, during the concert in episode 11. The first concert was done in the same art style, and it blended seamlessly with the rest of the series. But the second concert chose to use CG, and it distorted the faces of all the characters, sticking out like a sore thumb.

    – Like all things in life, fanservice should be taken in moderation.

    Depending on the series, fanservice may or may not be called for. In a typical ecchi harem series, the threshold would be higher. But in a serious show, less would be better to not distract from the mood. In a fluffy series like Dog Days, fanservice like this and this is adequate. The overall mood of the series should be kept consistent. Dog Days is a fun, lighthearted show, so there is no need for excessive nudity.

    MasterDragonKnight
  4. I may be the only one that actually liked the transformation sequence – I mean it came so far out of left field to break the cutesy norm it was borderline awesome.

    Colour me surprised =)

    Thundershock81
  5. Really, that transformation was out of place, this is Dog Days, not another magical girl series with hardcore fanservice, XD.
    But good, while it is not repeated as detailed later. ¬_¬ as if they didn’t followed.

    Shadow74
  6. On the other hand, I have to make clear how great and funny episode was: AMAZING XD lol, and I want to see “Lyrical Rebecca” in action.
    Squirrels are furry niceties out of the joke they suffer in other comedies (although it is true that one had better not disturb them, they can be aggressive when necessary) lol XD

    Shadow74
  7. I face palmed when I saw the transformation sequence. Not that I hated it by any means, but it felt completely out of place. Though I guess I can laugh it off as a parody of all the bad transformation sequences (mahou shoujo and otherwise) I’ve seen over the years ^^;. It’s not surprising that this happened though, I mean, this is Seven Arcs :p.

    What made me laugh the most in this episode was the scene just before the transformation, with the squawking while Rebecca was holding up her arm XD. I was like “nooooo!!!!!”, then it happened ^^;.

    x
    1. Yeah. It’s no CG at all which completely surprised me. Seven Arcs definitely put a lot of thought and effort into that scene. Oh, plus they added a lot of their uhh… stress into that scene didn’t they. My god it just completely surprised me…

      Silver
      1. Obviously someone in 7Arcs forgot that memo that they won’t be making ecchi and ero scenes anymore.

        Anyway, it was really a pretty bad trans seq. I would have liked it better if they would have just copied the trans seq. style from Nanoha.

        But yeah! Becky = ranged maho shoujo hero…. People in 7Arcs miss Nanoha that badly?

        The Moondoggie
  8. Yea, that transformation sequence was extremely disturbing. It was the first time I’ve ever felt like a perv while watching anime or even freaking hentai. My main problem was just the age of the character. If Rebecca was a woman instead of a middle schooler I’d probably have issues with it. Then again I freaking hate loli’s.

    JonnyStorm
  9. The cords and everything are fine, because the country is supposed to be the most tech advanced, so her getting powered up by getting energy injected into her I get and it would’ve been fine.

    The actual transformation itself… That’s… Yeah… I’m totally not going “is she being changed or violated? I can’t tell”.

    Dorian
  10. transformation sequence OOOH boi!….a little strange. BUT HEY it anime! bout to peep ep 3 right now. guilty pleasures….ON ANOTHER NOTE..i wonder if I would like this show all the same if the characters were FULL ON FURRYS, ya know? no visible skin on bodys and face….would that make me racist??? hmmm. but i don’t know cuz it never happened..wtf am i talking about

    BROOKLYN otaku
  11. When I read the comments looked at screens before watching the ep I was thinking “Oh its prob just really fanservice-y”. I was not prepared for the crayon doodles, water coloring smudges and awkward tentacle skin tugging bits…

    For me its not even like fanservice, its just…. awkward. It seemed soooo out of place I thought I was being trolled by fansubbers or something…

    Different/unique/original isn’t always a good thing. They knew how to do good cool fanservice-y magical girl sequences, I’m wondering who let this go live. Must have been high as shit 😛

    Azuma
  12. Jesus, what the heck was that transformation sequence.. It totally felt awkward. I agree with most of the comments that it was just WEIRD.

    I think the most jarring of it all was that as a viewer who’s watching Dog Days exactly for the cutesy and mindless aspects, watching that sequence actually made me uncomfortable. Not sure what the animators or producers were thinking when they thought it was a good idea..

    wilhelmson

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