OP Sequence

OP: 「わんわんわんわんN_1!!」 (Wan wan wan wan N_1!!) by 犬っ娘くらぶ (Inu Musume Club)

 

「犬も歩けば棒に当たる」 (Inu mo Arukeba bou ni Ataru)
“Even a Dog will Bump into a Pole when it Walks”

What would a season be without an anime about scissors? As discussed in the latest podcast, scissors are the new “in” thing so be sure to jump on that bandwagon! Luckily, Inu to Hasami wa Tsukaiyou isn’t focused too heavily on the protagonist’s obsession of scissors; rather, it’s about the relationship between an author and her pet dog. So have no worries, this is a show centered more around comedy than it is around fetishes.

Inu to Hasami wa Tsukaiyou starts with the introduction of Harumi Kazuhito (Sakurai Takahiro) who is your typical bookworm. He loves books, reads them religiously, does well in school and he’s seemingly so average that even as a human-being, he’s given a generic body (and no face). His favorite author happens to be Akiyama Shinobu whom is a bestselling author across many genres in Japan, although very little is known about the author. One fateful day, his life ends after he protects a girl in a cafe during a robbery. The robber manages to escape, but unfortunately for Kazuhito, he dies and ends up in limbo for a brief period. By acts of God (and possibly Kazuhito’s strong desire to read Akiyama Shinobu’s books) Kazuhito ends up with a second chance at life – in the form of a dog. He retains his memory and his love of books, but aside from that, nothing seems to be going his way.

As luck would have it, the girl who he saved at the cafe ends up finding him at a pet store and buys him! This girl introduces herself as Natsuno Kirihime (Inoue Marina) and happens to have a strange connection with Kazuhito because she can read his mind. She also hordes a large collection of books in her library, free for Kazuhito to read. This is when he finds out that Kirihime is actually an author herself – and not just any author, but Akiyama Shinobu (his favorite author)! I would think that Kazuhito died and went to heaven, but that’s just about where his luck ends. As it turns out, Kirihime is a bit of a maniac herself and likes to carry around scissors just to torture Kazuhito every time his thoughts get out of line. She also seems to be talented in other areas besides writing, but she’s clearly lacking in the area that matters most to Kazuhito 😉

This pilot episode was a great setup for what’s to come for our unlikely couple. It brings together two strangers and gives the audience a feel of their relationship (even if it’s a violent one). As crazy as Kirihime is, she cares enough about Kazuhito to keep him around and let him indulge in the things he loves (reading and eating). Sounds like a good life to me! The series is actually more than just a comedy about the antics between the two though. Future episodes are going to revolve around mysteries that Kirihime and Kazuhito get themselves involved in – which I’m sure will include Kazuhito’s missing wallet and the cafe robber. Judging by the intro and ending, it looks like there’s also going to be a vast cast of characters to join them so I’m sure there’s going to be a lot of sh*ts and giggles along the way.

As the first episode I watched this season, Inu to Hasami wa Tsukaiyou exceeded my expectations, especially being primarily comedy. It didn’t make me laugh out loud (anime rarely does sadly), but can be a good breather for breaks in-between all the moe and thoughtful anime this season. The characters feel very standard at the moment (with few distinguishing traits) but there’s potential between the two that can lead to many comedic scenes if executed properly. I’m looking forward to see how this actually plays out for the series later on – especially with more mystery tones layered in.

Full-length images: 08, 19, 25, 27.

 

ED Sequence

ED: 「レモネイドスキャンダル」 (Remoneido Sukyandaru) “Lemonade Scandal” by 秋月マキシ (Maxi Akizuki)

Preview

129 Comments

  1. Don’t know if I’ll be watching this, but having the two main characters be a female and a dog (even if there’s a guy inside) sort of leads to some rather…. strange implications.

    Kuntzy
  2. She’s rich, intelligent, knows how to use the carrot and stick approach, writes great books that appeals to all ages, has good taste in lingerie, full of self confidence, recognises that you can’t neglect physical activity and even considers martial arts to be worth doing to inspire others in action through writing, great at cooking and cleaning, likes to be thoughtful behind the scenes, does great parody references and looks great when training… and is also a fictional 2D character. This is me right now.

    That aside, I somehow feel obligated to point out the insane amount of Jojo references that seem to be on the rise in recent times. This week goes to Iggy, which is a very important dog in the third arc of Jojo, basically a voodoo sandstorm dog with lots of attitude.

    Giorno Giovanna
  3. Was going to skip this until I read your review. After having just finished watching it, I’ll have to agree that it’s a good pilot episode. Though the comedy could use some work, maybe that’s what the slew of upcoming characters are for, I guess. I was also annoyed by Natsuno during the robbery scene, but at least she appears to be repenting– when she’s not trying to stab our hapless hound. Lastly, I expect that the OP will grow on me… eventually.

    This isn’t anything groundbreaking, but it seems interesting enough to watch for now. Thanks for your impressions, Cherrie!

    Beedle
    1. Wow, I’m glad that I was able to get someone to give the first episode a shot! =) Thanks for reading! That’s the whole intention of first impressions after all ^^ (even if we’re not going to blog it).

      I didn’t think the comedy was that funny, but I guess everyone has their own taste and I don’t want to put down an anime when it’s only the first ep =P

    1. Is it really animal cruelty though?

      As I understand it, the reason why people disapprove of animal cruelty but not person cruelty is because of the belief that the animal is some innocent, generally well-meaning creature that wouldn’t be able to understand why they’re being mistreated.

      But in this case, it’s just a person in a dog-body. And he’s mouthy to boot.

      Rasen
      1. I hate slapstick in general. I could care less whether its animal or human, it’s just boring as hell to watch. This show seems to be dementedly based on slapstick. The day I find slapstick funny is the day I stop watching anime altogether. However, I do understand why people find such cheap nonsense entertaining though.

        But bringing up the animal abuse BS for this show is just plain stupid. Really, I don’t even see a dog here, just a whipping post. Guys are used for whipping post in anime all the time & hardly anyone ever have a problem with it. If they want to bring that garbage up then they should hit the core of the problem first: It’s alright to torture a dog like that because we all know it’s a guy in there. Guy whipping post in anime is just another form of sexism, of which anime is completely full of.

        Megas
  4. A nice first episode. I saw Chiwa Saito in the cast so I thought she’d be the one voicing the sadistic author. Remembering her role as Yozora though, Marina Inoue fits the lead role just fine. Also Kirihime-san looks really good in that black outfit.

    Zhinvu
      1. I was expecting to get down voted by this community of sensitive easy to butthurt anime fans that cant take criticism and agree with the posters of this site as if they were gods.

        Gourmag
      2. I may act like a suck up at time, but it’s simply giving credit where credit is due.

        And generally people get down voted for acting like jerks (Trust me, I know. I can be a bit of a douche to arrogant people and guys who spoil stuff, and I get down voted in kind) which would be the case here.

        Kuntzy
      3. @Gourmag: People are criticizing your criticism. Even if you were a god, not everyone has to agree with your post, so there’s no need to be a sensitive easy to butthurt anime fan that can’t take criticism. And yes, I’m criticizing your second comment for its sheer hypocrisy.

        Anyway, maybe if you actually discussed why you felt this pilot episode was boring, you’d attract less negativity.

        Personally, the humor fell flat. It might change when more characters are introduced. If the opening is any indication, our main pair are not the only eccentrics in this series.

        The opening song made me cringe with all the random dialogue, and the overuse of “wan, wan, wan!”s, intentionally or not because of the dog-theme of this anime, sounded to me like a rip-off of both Working!!’s catchy opening songs, Coolish Walk and Someone Else. I may be subconsciously comparing them, come to think.

        The animation is pretty fluid, but then again, this is a pilot episode.

        So far, there are only two (or three, if you count the potential for comedy) factors that make me interested enough to give this the three-episode window: 1) the characters appear to be layered/self-aware (see my earlier post for why I think so), and 2) the mystery, while not particularly keeping me at the edge of my seat, is enough to keep me interested in knowing where this will go. Maybe this series will surprise; Date A Live and HenNeko certainly did, in my case.

        There’s also our Chekhov’s object: Kirihime’s Final Book. I’m sure I’m not the only one predicting the potential for drama right there. There are quite a number of ways for that drama to unfold, particularly since Kazuhito explicitly states that not reading it is his greatest regret.

        Beedle
      4. @Gourmag

        “I was expecting to get down voted by this community of sensitive easy to butthurt anime fans that cant take criticism and agree with the posters of this site as if they were gods.”

        I dunno of people here are aware but this his how many people outside RC view people here: they even call us “cheerleaders” in LiA.

        Sadly, this is a bit true I think. I noticed that people who post views that disagree with the blogger, they get downvoted. This usually leads to huge arguments sometimes, and there are people who can’t let go of the fact they were downvoted, hence our “cheerleader” nicknames outside RC.

        From: http://www.lostinanime.com/2012/10/first-impressions-psycho-pass.html
        Show Spoiler ▼

        I always said that the upvote button is a good idea but the downvote button isn’t.

        TheMoondoggie
      5. Damn TheMoondoggie that hit a cord. It’s bloody obvious that the group here don’t like negativity even when it is warranted but it’s not like it can’t be handled when it’s warranted – as opposed to unbridled negativity which just get on people’s nerves. It’s also obvious which case we have in this scenario.

        The upvote downvote system can’t attest for everything but it’s doing a damn good job here.

        Megas
    1. Bro, don’t bother. Any anime they blog about on this site is near-perfect. A sorry parody of the Chinese Communist government, it is free in outward appearance, but persecutory in reality.

      Here’s my opinion of the anime that I’m sure will get voted down.

      – Cheap animation and bad grafix. Thanks, but no.
      – Comedy just ain’t funny. Try Danshi Kōkōsei no Nichijō.
      – I don’t get (or like) the overarching theme about the dog’s near obsession with books.
      – I guess this is what I get for a newb director to direct a ambitious series.

      A Republican
      1. Cheap animation and bad graphics are bad but remember that not every studio has the same budget as Sunrise or Gonzo.

        And I’m just sure you have bad eyesight or is watching this in stream rather than MASTER RACE HD downloaded from torrents.

        If this is still bad for you after watching it in HD, then WTF is Photokano now?

        TheMoondoggie
      2. @A Republican

        Finally someone that agrees with me. Every time someone has something negative to say about an anime (except the bloggers) you always get downvotes and people typing butthurt comments about it.

        I seriously never seen anyone aside from a large minority disagree with the bloggers and if anyone tries to disagree with them you are downvoted and banned, like I was for speaking out back when Eureka Seven AO aired.

        Gourmag
    2. Thanks for your opinion, but like Beedle said, maybe if you actually discussed WHY you didn’t like the episode, it would help a lot. People aren’t down voting you because they disagree with your comment, they down vote you because you’re not adding any value with your comment.

      Also – as a writer on RC, I’m not blogging something because “Omg, I think this is the most awesome anime to be released and I think everyone should watch it!!“. I’m not trying to act all high and mighty to make everyone follow the same shows I do (although it’d be NICE if they followed my posts, I don’t expect them to). The purposes of first impressions are to promote anime and try to get people interested in shows that may not have been their top pick from the preview. It also gives a medium for people to discuss their own thoughts. So I’m sorry if you think everyone here “treats us as Gods” but that’s not the intention.

      1. Even if I stated what I disliked I would still get downvotes. The community here simply cannot take any criticism even if it is blatantly logical. Like this episode was extremely boring, I did not need to go into detail of how boring it was because it was simply boring. Even If I did state details as to why it was boring people would still defend it because it feels like they are somehow protecting the blogger that put time into blogging about this. See how only the comments that speak good about the series get upvotes while the people that disagree get downvotes. Whats worst is that getting enough downvotes completely blocks off your comment.

        The community basically are like “Bloggers are love, Bloggers are life”

        Gourmag
      2. @Gourmag:

        So…let’s see if I understand the gist of your post.

        1) You wanted to express your dislike of an anime, but didn’t want to take the time or effort to express your reasons.

        2) You already knew you were going to get downvoted, but posted anyway.

        3) You jumped immediately into a personal attack on people who disagree with you.

        4) Your logic is circular and meaningless: “I did not need to go into detail of how boring it was because it was simply boring.”

        You either love those downvotes, or you came here to troll. Actually, I suppose those aren’t mutually exclusive.

        You’ve spent more effort justifying why you couldn’t be bothered to justify your position about the show and insulting other people, instead of actually justifying your position about the show.

        Rasen
      3. @Goumag:

        That’s not actually true. If your complaints have some sort of merit behind it, people will support you in some way if they feel the same, and it’ll show up on your upvotes evening up with your downvotes.

        You want to know why you’re being downvoted? It’s because not only are you not bothering to say anything as to why you felt the way you do, you’re also saying the community and the blog sucks to top things off. You can’t expect people not to downvote you if all you do is come in and say that “ah that was boring” and “you guys suck, not worth bothering.” To that end, you even expect to be downvoted and asked for it, yet you’re complaining about it and blaming the community and the site for it? That’s as backward as it gets.

        I’m sorry, but it’s your fault. You’re the one who’s not putting in the effort into any constructive conversation here and you’re the one who assumes (you know what they say about assuming) everything will come with massive down votes if you criticize. If you give up on the community to start, I don’t see why the community shouldn’t give up on you to start as well. It’s just common sense. A guy comes up to you and just says the show you like sucks and that you suck with no reason aside from well, “you just suck”… would you just take it with a smile on your face? No.

        If you took the effort to voice your actual opinion and back it up with something remotely reasonable instead of an empty comment that’s just offensive to viewers that liked it, I can and would bet you your comments will stay up and not be hidden. You’ll get some downvotes sure, but everyone gets them these days due to the presence of upvote/downvote trolls, so they’re not really a good indicator in that context, and shouldn’t be used as a representation of the community.

        Really, if we didn’t have any room for criticism here, there wouldn’t be a running blog in the first place. Just take a look at Shingeki and Suisei recently. There’s a fair amount of criticism there, and they’re even upvoted because people go to the lengths of typing essays to explain why they feel that way. And that’s the difference between your comments and theirs: actual effort.

      4. Zephyr, I think you’re way off base here. The original comment was, “This was a pretty boring watch.” The only way that’s different from someone posting “I liked this episode” or “This episode was good” is that it’s a negative reaction. In that context Gourmag isn’t saying anything offensive other than that he didn’t like the episode. You can clamor about in depth examinations, but on the other hand is that demanded of people who only comment to say they liked an episode? There shouldn’t be a double standard that negative opinions need to be detailed analytical essays while positive opinions can be as simple as “It was good.”

        Heck, creaothceann was the first one to actually call someone out by saying Gourmag’s comment was boring and that comment is upvoted 3:1. That goes back to Gourmag’s point that anything negative about a show is downvoted and anything positive is upvoted regardless of how benign the negative comment is. It’s one thing to criticize the Gourmag’s later reaction, but you can’t lump that into what the original comment was. Sure you can say Gourmag is combative in later comments, but that’s more a case of two wrongs don’t make a right. In a vacuum there shouldn’t have been anything wrong with his original comment, so all this subsequent back and forth wouldn’t have happened. My point is Gourmag is not the only person fueling this situation so it’s definitely not only his fault as you say.

        spike
      5. In light of this thread, I would like to point out a comment on this show that could be construed as “negative”, yet did not receive a landslide of downvotes. This is a perfect example of what Zephyr has asked from commenters who wish to leave criticism.

        While I agree with Zephyr, I wish he had said it in a gentler tone. Some of the paragraphs he wrote come off as accusatory, but I think that’s because it’s easier to let emotions take over in the face of disagreement. Coming off as mean, even with the best intentions, is enough to make others scoff at the Random Curiosity community. (If Zephyr omitted his second and third paragraphs, then his comment would be great. …Love ya, Zeph.)

        I think the key here (something spike is getting on to) is that downvotes are correlated to negativity that is perceived, irrespective of content. Sure, you may dislike a show, but the presentation of that opinion is also important. Compare “This was a pretty boring watch” with “I sat through this, but regrettably I don’t think I’ll be sticking around for the long haul”: the former is blatant, but the latter gives the impression that the commenter genuinely tried to enjoy the show, but couldn’t.

        Xumbra
      6. @Gourmag @spike @Xumbra

        First off, I do apologize if my previous comment was a bit more accusatory than expected, as that was not my intention. I do admit I tend to get carried away in cases like this, but yeah, for me it doesn’t feel right when I come in and I see comments that aren’t particularly true (especially if they insult writers and/or the community).

        In general, what Xumbra says basically hits the nail on the head. It matters a lot how you present your opinion. I didn’t mean that you should be writing essays, but that there should hopefully be something in it that hints at least a little as to either why you didn’t like it or that you “tried watching but couldn’t enjoy it.” In some ways, the original comment can be construed as not particularly offensive typically, but you should also keep in mind that it would be offensive to people that liked the show because of how you worded it.

        In any case, I’d like to just clarify one thing regarding the upvote/downvote system, which is that at this point, the amount of upvotes and downvotes mean nothing unless your comment actually gets hidden. Just because your post has more negatives than positives does not necessarily mean that it’s a bad comment or that most of the community disagrees with you. Generally, it’s perceived that it means this, but there’s just a lot of trolls out there these days, and what’s perceived is far from the actual truth.

        Ultimately, I don’t know what you’ve seen community wise, this is one of the better communities around from what I’ve seen. There are a lot of nice people here to say the least and I think you’ll find that they’d gladly welcome you if you gave them the chance to, even if your opinions differ. Just make sure to not put too much stock in the upvote/downvotes… and I guess try to refrain from combative comments like “I was expecting to get down voted by this community of sensitive easy to butthurt anime fans that cant take criticism and agree with the posters of this site as if they were gods,” because nothing good can happen from this, and likely your first comment was downvoted into oblivion more so as a result of that statement, rather than of the original one itself.

      7. Presentation matters yes, but you’re only reinforcing my point that there’s a huge double standard for positive vs. negative posts. Here’s what I mean:

        Xumbra: “the former is blatant, but the latter gives the impression that the commenter genuinely tried to enjoy the show, but couldn’t.”

        -But why is there this assumption that simply saying “This was a pretty boring watch” implies the commenter didn’t genuinely try to enjoy the show? That actually only lends credence to the point that fans of shows are imposing their own bias onto anything negative and assuming that because it’s a differing opinion there must be something wrong with the commenter or how he/she did things. Again, while the comment is admittedly very blunt, that’s a far cry from being offensive or insulting. And with a similar comment from Zephyr:

        “In some ways, the original comment can be construed as not particularly offensive typically, but you should also keep in mind that it would be offensive to people that liked the show because of how you worded it.”

        -This again raises more issues with the fans than the actual commenter. As long as the commenter isn’t being offensive or insulting there shouldn’t be any reason to not provide an honest opinion. By saying that person should change their wording to adjust to the fans of the show, you foster an environment that squelches honest discourse and exacerbates the feeling that only fans looking for confirmation bias are welcome. If readers see that even benign dissenting opinions will draw ire then that only makes it less likely that they’ll be willing to express those opinions in the future. I’ll admit I’ve personally run into this problem before and many times just don’t bother posting some criticisms I see because it very rarely leads to decent debate.

        But as for the latter combative comments affecting the original one, I can’t comment on that because by the time I saw this both were hidden. But again I will note those combative responses came after creaothceann called out the original comment. And I’m not even saying creaothceann is to blame because honestly his comment was fairly benign too. But again it very much follows the idea that positive=upvote=okay to call out others vs. negative=downvote=not okay to call out others. So unless you hold commenters who make positive comments to the same standard of having to watch their wording, then negative comments shouldn’t have that requirement either.

        And regarding the voting system, I think it’s just a fundamentally flawed system in general. I’m much more a fan of having something similar to a “like/flag” distinction instead of “up/down.” That way people who think a comment adds something can like it, while if there’s really a trolling or offensive comment it can be flagged for moderation/removal. The up/down system just inherently fuels confirmation bias, but again I think that’s a societal issue that isn’t limited to this blog (and is getting away from the point).

        spike
      8. The basic thing for me though is that you generally can’t expect people to respond with flying colors and a smile if you’re saying that a show someone generally liked was “boring” or “bad” or what not. It might not seem offensive to you, but it does offend people that did like the show, especially if you don’t say why and if your opinion is in the minority. It’s not so much a double standard as it is that if people feel the same way, they don’t need as much to understand where they’re coming from. You can’t blame people for their response in this context. It’s a tad skewered yes, but at the same time, typical people will react more strongly to things that are negatively against your own opinion more than anything… which is something I’m pretty sure you’ve seen this a lot in other places too (and may be true for yourself as well).

        And really, when you get down to it… compared to a lot of communities, RC is one of the generally more civilized and nice ones around. Sure, we usually have a tendency to think more positively toward series than many other places, but that’s partially what makes RC what it is: a place for people who aren’t as critical to hang out and just enjoy anime.

        Some people may find fault with this (and it’s fine), but at least some respect should be given to how a lot of people go about things here, and it shouldn’t be too much to ask for slightly more in your comments if you didn’t like something that most people did (even if the result is somewhat skewered). Again, it’s not as much asking for an essay as for something more (anything more) than just “it was boring,” which seems benign, but is something that is really irritating to people that like a series. And in the interest of good debate/conversation too… “it was pretty boring”… isn’t exactly a good starting point ya know?

        And regarding the voting system… the big thing is that one shouldn’t be using the upvote/downvote system as a guide for what’s a “good” or “bad” comment at this point or reacting based on it, because it rarely reflects the content within the comment. The only time it generally reflects something is if you’re actually downvoted to the point where you’re hidden, which is not something that usually happens unless your comment is very offensive, trolling, or a spoiler.

        To this end, I’m quite sure the reason Goamug’s first comment was hidden in the first place had a lot to do with his second comment after he reacted combatively to the call out, because you’ll see a fair amount of criticism (and debate) in other posts that don’t get hidden (some don’t even have a lot of downvotes!).

        Sure, part of the issue was also the call out from Creaothceann in the first place… but at the same time, the big thing is Goamug’s second comment states clearly that he expected to be downvoted and he clearly knew this community was one that would downvote the first comment he posted. Yet he still posted it, and then complained about it when he knew what was coming. Basically, he posted the comment knowing what was going to happen, and you just can’t put much blame on the community and the guy who called him out because of this. In addition, as someone who viewed the site for a while, it should’ve been known also that he could’ve also avoided all the controversy in the first place by just adding a bit more.

        Again, yes, the community is a tad skewered against views like his, but even so… it shouldn’t be too much to ask for a tad more just in respect of the community in general. You just don’t go anywhere if you go into a community and ignore the way things are done… especially if you’re aware of how the community typically does things.

        And last but not least, yes… it’s a flawed system, but it’s better than nothing and works EXTREMELY well toward combating spoilers. If there was something better, we’d think about swapping it, but there’s nothing really much else out there that’s really workable at the moment.

      9. “this community of sensitive easy to butthurt anime fans”

        I love the random aggression of this statement in contrast to the lengths you guys are going to defend yourselves to someone that clearly thinks the lowest of everyone that uses this site.

        “Sure, we usually have a tendency to think more positively toward series than many other places”

        How can you guys as writers be expected to draw people in week after week trashing the same show over and over would be the bigger question. I can’t see any fault with being lenient with viewing and less critical for the sake of allowing positive discussion. Do people like Gourmag really expect you to go as far as to blog a show while calling it boring?

        Anon
      10. spike, first of all, I’d like to thank you for letting me know about the confirmation bias idea. I haven’t thought about comments that way, and I really appreciate you bringing it to my attention.

        Now I don’t know why the double standard exists, but the best thing I can offer to you right now is insight into how I as an individual think and act. (And for the record, I have not downvoted a single comment in this post.)

        When I was little, I was taught that if I don’t have anything good to say, then I shouldn’t say anything at all. I was also taught that if I were to offer criticism, then I must sandwich it between two compliments. In general, these two lessons taught me to favor positive statements because apparently positivity makes me feel happy and at ease. After all, I don’t want to visit a blog post to see the commenters bashing the show without justifying their complaints. Now that is just how I think; I don’t know if others are eager to downvote comments that don’t appeal to them, but if they do then this may explain why.

        After you mentioned me earlier, I took a closer look at the downvoted comment and I change my mind: on its own, the comment “This was a pretty boring watch” is not offensive or insulting. I remembered the bias you mentioned earlier, and now I think that seeing it downvoted may have affected how I initially perceived the comment. When I click to unhide the comment, I think to myself “be careful, this comment has been rated as negative by the Random Curiosity community.” With that mindset, it seems that it has affected how I felt about such a benign statement. I want to thank you for calling me out on that.

        This brings us to the comment rating system: I agree that up/down is a fundamentally flawed, but I have no idea if like/flag will perform better. To me, in up/down, down carries the simple connotation of “I disagree with this comment”; but in like/flag, flag carries the more serious connotation of “this comment deserves to be removed.” One could view each of these systems as isomorphic in its +1/-1 structure and claim that the people who would normally downvote will now instead flag posts just as frequently. Yet one could also claim that after a commenter sees the option to flag, she will become cautious to use it. Again, I don’t know what will actually happen because like/flag hasn’t been implemented on this site, but I can only (poorly) guess how users will act.

        I hope you find this helpful, and thank you for replying.

        Xumbra
      11. Zephyr, Xumbra: I think my double standard point wasn’t expressed very well. I totally understand the reaction from fans not liking to hear someone’s negative opinion about a show they like. People generally don’t like to be told they’re wrong. However, in my mind that’s a different scenario from you guys as the site writers saying that commenters need to change how they write if they have a negative opinion. I was more referring to you guys using a double standard to handle comments. Looking back on my comment it got muddled with the separate issue of dealing with fans imposing their own biases.

        So resetting the table a bit, my point was that as the writers (and I assume moderators) you guys set the tone and guidelines for what is acceptable and encouraged discourse. From that perspective I can understand that “this was boring” is not a good way to start a discussion. But in that same vein “this was good” is in no way adding any more to meaningful discussion. My contention is that as the moderators you guys should not treat those two sentiments any differently on their own merits. Either you establish that all comments should be more detailed, or allow simple comments of both positive and negative nature. By saying that commenters should watch their wording only if they have a negative opinion, there is a tacit disapproval of their opinion in its original form. In doing so you create an environment where even the most benign differing opinions are not encouraged and that severely limits open discussion.

        Now, given that it’s understandable that fans might react strongly, this is where the inherent trickiness of moderation comes into play. How you guys want to approach that is up to you and what kind of audience you feel this site is meant for. But just to give an example, Alan Sepinwall (a TV critic), has as one of his basic rules for all commenters: “you talk about the show, not about each other.” Granted he goes quite extreme (deleting any comments violating his policies), but it does then force the commenters to keep things civil. It’s a rather heavy handed approach, but for the most part it allows both positive and negative opinions without descending into mindless mudslinging. I’m not saying you have to adapt this style, but I think it’s an example of moderating the tone of debate without necessarily changing commenters’ ability to express their honest opinions.

        My main issue has always been that I felt you guys were setting a dangerous precedent of limiting that ability of expression in selective ways. In my view, as the moderators your focus shouldn’t have been on the original post so much as everything else that followed. I just felt that maybe you guys weren’t seeing the forest for the trees, but it’s very possible we just have differing opinions on what moderation should be.

        Having said that, I don’t really want to get into a discussion about the voting system because as I said my issue with the up/down system is more of a general societal issue that’s way beyond the scope of this discussion. I’m guessing you guys spent a lot of time weighing various systems and their relative strengths and weaknesses so I don’t think it’s a great usage of time/effort to rehash that. But if you want to continue that I’m open to it, but just in a different time/place. All the different points are starting to confuse me a bit ><.

        I know this doesn't specifically address all your individual points, but I hope it clarifies what the crux of my argument is. I'm not kidding that all the different issues being discussed were getting too muddled for me. And Xumbra there's no need to thank me for anything. It's been refreshing to have this kind of debate in a civilized manner.

        spike
      12. Oh. This is trickier and more bothersome than I thought.

        Here’s a theory that I have: the double standard is here because of the site’s audience. As we know, currently it is acceptable to leave positive impressions on the site, yet unacceptable to leave negative impressions without justification. The commenters somehow have taken this to heart, and I think this stems from the writers and moderators setting their expectations, either by explicitly stating what they are or by implicitly writing their impressions of an episode. An example of the former is Zephyr’s notes about the zero tolerance policy on (Shingeki) spoilers; an example of the latter is a writer saying that a show is fun, but boring at times — a commenter echoing that statement would probably not get downvoted as much.

        If this theory is correct (and my theories rarely are), then we should change our standards. The site could have a section dedicated to the commenting policy, the writers could write in a more neutral tone (I don’t read each and every post, so I don’t know if this is true — sorry guys, I still love ya), and so on. You get the idea.

        This may be related to the complaints I’ve heard about this community becoming polarized; I think discussing this may be a small step we need to take.

        Xumbra
    3. Before this season started, I made a bet with someone that people would make sure that their disapproval and dislike of current anime will be heard by all, because they’re just too weak individually to accept that other people’s taste differ from themselves and instead of just being left out, you lash out at the fanbase in frustration as you don’t understand how people can derive entertainment from something that doesn’t appeal to you.

      You’re nothing more than a child, wrapped in some fantasy that you need some validation from other people that this show is indeed, boring, due to having experienced too many times of being labelled as an outcast. As you realise that people wouldn’t sympathise with you, instead of prepare yourself for rejection by stating that you’d receive downvotes outright.

      If the only way you can get other people’s attention and acknowledgement is through self-pity and looking down on other people for having inferior taste, I do suggest you find better ways of conveying yourself than avoiding discussion altogether.

      I stayed silent to see how many people, like the relatively nice writers on this site, would cater to you before you were satisfied, but it seems like that’s still not enough to treat your inferiority complex.

      Giorno Giovanna
    4. *Popcorn* Looks like I’m late to the party orz.

      My 2 copper on topic
      I liked dog & scissors, I can see why people are calling it boring and such, but hey one man’s thrash is another man’s treasure – Inoue Marina playing the role of an S is sufficient enough reason for me to watch this show. (Though I call the robbery scene complete BS) KEEP CALM AND CONTINUE WRITING maybe?

      My 2 silver off topic
      I have this golden rule – If you don’t have anything constructive to say, then don’t. It is as simple as that. Sure, you are entitled to your own opinion, you may have genuine reasons to dislike a show, but why waste the time and energy to say “this show sucked” when you well know nothing positive is going to come out of it?

      To use an analogy, let’s say you’re a hardcore Chelsea fan and hate Man U to the core. That doesn’t not mean you can/should step into Old Trafford and start yelling “Man U sucks!!”, because if you do – I wouldn’t be surprised if you find yourself beaten up. Similar logic applies here.

      In the end, it is important to be respectful – You may/may not like a certain genre/show, but that doesn’t mean others don’t. Nobody likes negative discussion/drama, or do they?..

      My 2 gold about up/down system
      Many others have time and time pointed out the inherent flaws of the system and I generally agree with them. (For the record I have never upped/downed anyone) Since there is no strict guidelines, the up/down system has become more of a “I like/dislike” rather than a “helpful/not helpful”.

      That said, it is important to remember that some people who up/down might be trolls. Then there’s also the mob mentality effect/irrational fanboys, which sadly RC isn’t exempt from.

      All in all, everyone should take the up/down system with a pinch of salt – it gets the job done (usually), but it is far from ideal. There are better solutions/alternatives out there but as they say – if it ain’t broke don’t fix it..

      LightnDark
  5. New fetish show? Not really, unless you like being a bit cruel to your pets. And look at our heroine, Kirihime, who owns a pair of scissors, that is a huge part of the plot.

    Wait what?

    TheMoondoggie
  6. I’m watching this to see Yozora and her dog crack up jokes and solve cases. Though not extremly funny the episode did not disappoint, and on both sides, as it already ended with a cliffhanger.
    I’m heavily against animal cruelty too but it’s not like the show glorified it.
    It’s pretty funny how her real name, Natsuno Kirihime, sounds even more like a pen name than Akiyama Shinobu.
    I want to eat kebab.

  7. Judging from entertainment view it was enjoyable
    I think it’s gonna be pretty interesting how the the relationship between two main characters will be developed
    And imo the the anime cruelty doesn’t matter. It’s still in a tolerable range and it’s just an anime comedy for God’s sake. Different from animal cruelty in real world…

    shua
  8. Got darn, that chest it so pitiful….yet I’m drawn to watch the series because of it. Yes, because of the girl’s ridiculously flat chest and how they have no shame in showcasing it. DON’T JUDGE ME!

    frubam
  9. I was honestly so pissed at the female lead that it will be difficult for me to want anything but her death and reincarnation as a dung beetle (sapience in tact of course).

    On the other hand the dog is funny. I’m ashamed of myself =/

    rufe
  10. Mmmmmh,leave some bad impression at first,but it was funny especially the bloodshot eyes of the Dog(haha really laughed hardly with this)
    Well,it wasn’t really a good first show but I’m gonna keep watching in order to see if it’s worth quality.

    NothingLess
  11. Better than expected so far, will keep it up 🙂

    And while her three-size description was hilariously off, I don’t consider her a DFC. She’s got a perfect slim/sporty look which I find much more appealing than the countless moeblobs hoisting wobbling fat around.

    Mentar
  12. Haha the few people here being criticized because they speak the truth. I feel for them as I too found it boring. GONZO or not, it’s regrettably bad. And being GONZO I can actually understand why this pilot sucks. Let’s see if it spin better in ep 2.

    fairx
    1. The first few downvotes were because they disagreed with him, not because of “truth.” The rest of the downvotes are because he’s acting like a butt-hurt troll because people didn’t agree with him.

      Rasen
  13. I sat through this, but regrettably I don’t think I’ll be sticking around for the long haul. I didn’t connect with any of the characters, didn’t really find much of the humor funny at all and couldn’t ignore the glaringly bad animation in some bits (how about those magically disappearing bars on the dog cage?). I think my favorite bit has to be when the protag takes a shotgun blast to the face at near point-blank and somehow only winds up some blood trickling down his face and his eyesight so intact that he can make out Kirihime perfectly as he’s fading from life.

    Oh well. I’ll count on Cherrie’s coverage to see if it actually gets better.

    Toto
    1. I don’t think the magically disappearing bars was a mistake. It was a choice made for the sake of not obscuring the expression of the dog. You’ll see that done in manga all the time. Windowframes, glasses frames, they’ll all disappear when the artist feels it’s more important to show the face or the character.

      Rasen
  14. Just finished watching now-not laugh-out-loud , but funny enough for me. And I thought that I was addicted to books!!!!Kazuhito’s got it bad =P
    Anyway , I’m not even going to bother with the 3 episode rule-I’m carrying on with this to the end for a weekly dosage of randomness.

    Aki-Chan
  15. I had higher hopes for this show because of its great voice cast, but it was a pretty lackluster start to a somewhat generic premise. And this isn’t to say having a generic premise is a bad thing, but being boring and uninteresting is. I personally don’t find the character interactions and antics between the main characters worth watching, but I’ll keep checking this show out to see if it picks up.

    Cleaningagent
  16. Wow. An anime from Gonzo that actually decent and watchable. What a surprise. How long has it been since Kaze no Stigma? 5? 6 year? Hope that it won’t ended up like Linebarrel or Rosario+Vampire.

    Terrorhunt
  17. I just wish this wasn’t made by Gonzo. This anime was just ugly, most of the animation was stocky, shaky and WHO THE HELL thought that those see through bars for the cage were a good idea?

    Apart from this is really enjoyed the episode more than I thought I would have and will continue to watch for a few eps, if only to listen to more Sakurai and Inoue Marina.

  18. Thinking of puns involving dogs or scissors…

    …Man Kazuhito’s life is getting ‘ruff’, I wonder if this show will make the ‘cut’.
    (ok ill stop Dx)

    I’m not putting this strange show down, I’m actually interested surprisingly….
    Gonna look forward to more episodes.

    silog
  19. I honestly have no idea what to expect in the next episodes, but I’ll keep watching just ’cause of my strange attraction to crack animes like these. 😀 I just can’t get enough of the book withdrawal parts.

    Cassiee
  20. I really liked this anime already.

    I just love seeing all those expressions on the dog. I never knew a dog could have that many expressions, mostly hilarious too 🙂

    Already there is chemistry between the two leads, reader and writer. It certainly has potential. And finally a female lead that is bad-ass and not the stereotypical panty-hysterics.

    What I did not like?
    Well, the silly comments about animal cruelty. I have not seen any -_-. Sure, he got tied-up and got a bit of his fur cut off but he was not hurt in any real way. Neither did he receive any psychological damage as he is happily living with her. Ofcourse, he has an anime male lead’s mind, not a dog’s. Compared to the abuse most male leads suffer from tsundere/yandere love interests, this is weaksauce.

    Oh, about her showing off her lingerie. Did anyone else felt like she did that to see how the dog-boy reacts to sexual stimuli, to make sure he is “safe” to live with? I felt it was a final test for living together.

    Faolan
  21. I’ll give it a few more episodes. This episode did not convince, but there were some good moments and it has some potential. Look forward to seeing if it improves 😀

    The Shizard
  22. It reminds me of an old Nickelodeon show called Eddie Mcdowd. Even though that show was about the human turned into a dog having to do 100 good deeds to turn back into a human. With Inusami (yeah my own abbreviation muhahaha) I can’t tell if Kazu will stay as a dog permanently or die after he finally reads Lust.

    Maybe Hime can’t write the Lust book because she can’t train in growing bigger breasts and leveling up her sex appeal, not that she doesn’t have any >;p

    I’m forced to watch Horrible Subs since none of my favorite fansubbers like Vivid and FFF are doing subs just yet ;/

    Magoiichi
  23. Well, let’s see if people automatically vote down this comment even after I give my reasons for not liking it.

    To start, I hate animal cruelty. I hate it even more than cruelty to humans because at least a human might be able to do something to change the situation and other people recognize the cruelty for what it is. With animal cruelty there’s little the animal can do and if you’re popular enough you can run a dog fighting ring, get arrested for it, and a few years later you’re making millions playing football again with fans cheering you. So already this girl has to fight uphill to make me like her.

    That’s a problem because the main focus of this episode is setting up the situation and introducing us to the more colorful character (since Kazuhito’s main point is just that he likes books) of Kirihime and so far, all I’ve seen of Kirihime unfortunately gives me a very bad image of her.

    In order:

    She’s an incredible author who makes the newspaper and sells millions of books and her books greatly changed Kazuhito’s life. That in itself isn’t bad so much as I keep seeing manga, light novels and anime feel the need to emphasize how incredible someone is through feats like that. Toning it down a bit would make her much more bearable to me.

    When the struggle occurs and Kazuhito got shot for her sake she didn’t appear to even notice. She might feel a bit of anger near the end of the episode, but that’s after quite a bit of time of her doing the following – tormenting a dog (which I’ve already explained is a major problem for me). In any case that entire apathy at the store makes it very hard to want to see any more of her.

    Lastly, how she handles the situation at the end. Since I’m pretty sure the twist is that Show Spoiler ▼

    or something like that it seems absolutely ridiculous for her to go there instead of just going to police, explaining that she was at the scene and “overheard” something important.

    So my impression of what is arguably the most important character in the show (since Kazuhito seems to be there more to interact with her) is that she’s cruel to animals the point I’d be calling the police (and she threatened a man to get that animal in the first place), she’s extremely hyped, she has little empathy and instead of doing the rational thing she deliberately appears to be doing something very dangerous.

    From what I have seen of her in the first episode just can’t like her, and when she’s the main point of the first episode it means that I can’t like the first episode.

    The series as a whole might be able to get better from here, but this was a very rocky start for me.

    Grant
    1. Again, I have to question: is this really animal cruelty? (https://randomc.net/2013/07/01/inu-to-hasami-wa-tsukaiyou-01/comment-page-1/#comment-990347)

      Also, while it was annoying that she didn’t seem to notice the person yelling at her at the store-hold up, they didn’t give any indication that she purposely CHOSE to ignore him. Some people, when they’re concentrating, REALLY concentrate. Food could be on fire next to them, and they wouldn’t notice. (I know people like this)

      Rasen
      1. Well, so far I’ve gotten two votes down and no one’s had the guts to actually explain why they thought it was a bad post. You were the closest by responding at all, so kudos there.

        Anyway, on your post. The act of tying someone up, threatening them with a sharp object and giving every indication that you are about to kill them (and actively stabbing at them with that sharp object) is something that nine out of ten people would probably say “yeah, that’s cruel”.

        I don’t care if he has a human mentality, she is still acting this way around a dog (and remember that at first she had no idea that he was originally human). Also, what the viewer sees is a girl chasing a dog with a pair of scissors. What the audience sees in a visual medium is very important. An episode of Star Trek TNG that was supposed to be supportive of homosexuals came across as offensive instead because they chose to cast a woman for an important role and so what the audience saw was a woman being oppressed by other women for developing an interest in a man.
        So here the audience is seeing a girl threaten with a dog and it’s played for laughs. To be honest the only other one involving that for humor that I can remember would be Excel Saga, and there it was supposed to be so horrific that it was indicative of Excel’s mentality. In other words, the humor is supposed to come from the audience seeing how strange and audacious Excel is.

        But, for the sake of argument, if you’re going to argue that it somehow shouldn’t count because he has a human mind, then I’d say that you should actually see this as far worse. Considering that punishment for animal cruelty is generally far weaker than the punishment for cruelty to other humans, clearly society usually says “we put human life and comfort vastly over even pet animals when we decide how to set punishments”. So if we’re just seeing him as an unusual human, then she is even more guilty because she is committing doing this to a human and a human who is entirely dependent on her to survive at that.

        To me at least, there’s a difference between something that’s slapstick (some of Ouran High for example) and something that gets disturbing either way you view it (some of Love Hina for example).

        And on her focus, later in the episode she didn’t seem to have much trouble interacting with him. I’m not going to dismiss the possibility that the writers will explain this somehow, but as I said on another forum right now it might take Jaime Lannister levels of character development for me to want to watch her.

        Grant
      2. But the thing I’m trying to get is the distinction you made. You’re against animal cruelty, does that mean you’re fine with human cruelty? If you have a problem with both, why not just say you’re against slapstick as a tool for humor?

        And again, the usual reason for the distinction between animal cruelty and say, self-defense is that in the first case, the animal is innocent and ignorant. If the animal was trying to chew your arm off (for example), no one is going to accuse you of cruelty.

        Likewise, if someone keeps insulting you and you hit them, is it called cruelty? It may be excessive, but it’s considered provoked.

        And from my perspective, it doesn’t matter if you’re a human or animal. If you keep insulting people, you should expect payback. And he does it repeatedly, on a known sore point. He’s just a jerk, and the worst he got was a shave.

        Rasen
      3. Also, like you said, the distinction you draw between human and animal cruelty is that the animal can’t do anything. Why can’t an animal do anything? Because of the lack of intelligence. Otherwise, who generally wins in an unarmed or hand-to-hand fight between a human and a pitbull? Or a human and a bear? Heck, even a terrier could do serious injuries.

        And this dog has the intelligence to fight back. He’s just too stupid to know when to shut up.

        Rasen
      4. You just completely missed (or ignored) me demonstrating what I think is the difference between slapstick and cruelty and you’re trying to compare punching someone to actively trying to stab them with a pair of scissors.

        And, to date, you’re STILL the only one who will actually try to come up with a reason why they think my posts are bad. What does that say about the people who frequent here?

        Grant
  24. The episode was pretty good. I thought it was pretty sad when the protagonist is killed there and finds himself seeing all his life suddenly. He saves the girl’s life but when he is trying to stop the guy with the shotgun he gets shot in the head with nobody to help him (the girl does not care, the old bartender is in panic, the scene after the police arrived must have been quite heavy when asking what has happened). Quite a strong scene actually.

    The thought of “I don’t intend to die before watching or reading the end of a series” has passed through my ahead several times and it was impressive that kind of dying wish could make him come back to life, even in a dog’s body.
    Besides I wonder how she can cope with listening every and each one of his thoughts, that must be quite distracting.

    About those scissors, they remember me the Genoscissors Show Spoiler ▼

    but I don’t think their purpose is killing. Pretty sharp they are!

    Ebisu
  25. maybe im realy old for watch anime but for me this was not funny… more retarded and just stupid … but again that realy hard for me enjoy anime , my taste are hard , im not watching all the shit they release each season :

    last few anime : psycho pass , shin sekai yori , and the titan anime are the only one who are okay for me so far … this season : ZERO …..

    whywhywhy

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