User Reviews

I would like to just say that this manga turned anime series was incredible and fundamentally stunning, never allowing me to become bored with its sense of adventure, danger, and sacrifice throughout the story line. It had many morals and themes on forgiveness, kindness, grief, and loyalty. Even with its retro anime style that is recognizable from the early 2000's. I have never lost sight of its original plot line finding it easy to follow. I wouldn't recommend this to children under the age of 12 because of all its gore and grimness, but it's worth to check out when you have the chance to. I promise you that you won't regret it and perhaps you'll find a moral that pertains to you.

This show is certainly a weird mix: the morality is from a children's show, the humor is juvenile, yet the violence isn't exactly kid-friendly, especially when it's mostly dogs fighting ninja-dogs fighting fighter-dogs.

So, it's about a puppy called Weed, who goes out to seek his father, the hero of the Ginga Nagareboshi Gin. It's been 14 years since the ending of that show, and really, some of these old-timers Weed meets in his travels should be long gone by dog-standards. But anyway, they teach him about life a bit, some techniques, and then they set out to gather more dogs to save Weeds father Gin, defeat the evil dog Hogen and ultimately, re-establish the "dog-paradise" of Ōu.

I LOVED the original series, Ginga Nagareboshi Gin, but while watching this I got so bored that I just wanted to watch that again. And I did. I still love it. I like the structure of it, how it moves from a more realistic setting to the fantasy landscape of talking dogs with special moves. The beginning of that show is actually my favorite "whole" of the series, the more fantastical stuff gets a bit too ridiculous to my liking in parts.

There are problems in this show. The growing up - story of Weed is really weak, basically he's just "born with it". Gin had to suffer through a lot to grow strong, but we never really get that struggle with Weed. Second, the villains are bad. Like, "kill your own minions, laugh like a maniac" evil, card-board cut-outs, and there's way too many of them to my liking. The manga apparently has a more to offer, but that's not in the anime sooo.... Third, the human element is barely there. Not that there necessarily has to be a human element to begin with, but the humans in this show either shoot the dogs or do genetic experiments with them.

It's just all so repetitive. The villains, their schemes, Weeds ways to solve his problems... The old guys have lost some of the charisma they had before, but there ARE some interesting characters in here, my favorite being Jerome, who at one point goes against the moral of the show, "don't kill, kindness is the way" BS.

And that brings us to the ending. WHAT A F-ING COP OUT! I won't spoil it, but it is ridiculous. It sucks. I despise the ending.

OVERALL, if you're not a fan of the original, or haven't seen it yet, don't bother. Unless you LOVE poop jokes. There are still moments here and there where the same magic could be found, but then the show just get's so repetitive that I found it a struggle to watch it through.