Chapter 1 – Every Dog has His Day

Well…that was weird.  Alright, so this week marks the beginning of the next anime season, and we’re kicking-off with a very peculiar one.  Inu to Hasami wa Tsukaiyou, or Dog and Scissors, is a new comedy anime that focuses on the new life of former high school boy, Kazuhito Harumi (voiced by Takahiro Sakurai, who also voiced Suzaku from Code Geass).  The reason I say “former” is because he’s no longer human.  Through his efforts to protect a random girl at a café from a robber, Kazuhito is tragically shot in the head.  Before I continue from this point, I forgot to mention a strange characteristic of our protagonist, which is his unhealthy obsession with books and reading.  Up until his fateful moment of death, Kazuhito pursued a life dedicated to reading novels, especially those of a certain author named Akiyama Shinobu.  His brief moment in the afterlife begins with him reflecting on all of the people he can no longer see, before suddenly focusing on how he can no longer read his beloved books.  Kazuhito continually mutters about how he refuses to die before reading the final novel in one of Shinobu’s popular series.  Before he knows it, Kazuhito wakes up in a pet store…as a dog.

Hmmm, I’m pretty sure a shotgun is capable of more than that. Still, ouch.

While Kazuhito is initially perturbed by the fact that he has been reborn as a dog, he soon shrugs the issue, since it clearly isn’t as significant as his inability to read books.  Before long, the girl from the café appears at the pet store and uses her unnatural skills with scissors to force the owner into handing over Kazuhito.  After taking poor Kazuhito home, the girl shows off a fairly sadistic and weird personality before introducing herself as Kirihime Natsuno (voiced by Marina Inoue).  Kirihime demonstrates a strange ability to read Kazuhito’s mind and explains how his cries at the pet store had been annoying her for a while.  While Kirihime continues to toy with Kazuhito, he accidentally mentions the events at the café and is forced by Kirihime to explain his entire situation.  After hearing about how Kazuhito was the boy who tried to save her, Kirihime leaves to shower and appears to be distraught over the matter.  Upon returning, she continues to toy with Kazuhito a bit more, but decides to give him something he really wants, which happens to be a library stocked with many books.  After Kazuhito spends some time obsessing over the library, Kirihime reveals that she is the novelist with whom he’s infatuated with, Akiyama Shinobu.  After overcoming his schock, Kazuhito follows Kirihime through her daily routine and gets to know her.  The episode then ends with Kirihime digging up some news on Kazuhito’s human life and brings him to his previous apartment complex.

“This dog looks high as hell” -BW

This first episode has left me very confused and mildly perturbed. While some describe this series as a strange comedy, I am mostly seeing the strange and not so much of the comedy (although this is likely just a personal thing).  I suppose some of the character reactions could be considered funny, but I was fairly underwhelmed for the most part.   One of my major problems so far is the main character.  While there are some series that include an MC with some kind of obsession, Kazuhito and his obsession with books is a little overbearing at times.  The other major character, Kirihime, is certainly more interesting that Kazuhito, but I am not a fan of the sadist-type of character.  The plot, although unique, is simply very weird and isn’t exactly pulling me in just yet.  I should also mention that the art, animation, and music are all decent in this first episode, but aren’t outstanding per se.  Overall, this series isn’t really standing out to me in any particular way.  I guess I’ll try to give it another chance next week, since it isn’t at the levels of unwatchable.  I hope this anime gets better, but if not, there are other series that I am certainly looking forward to.  That’s about it and I guess you’ll hear from me next week!

Man, that dog is screwed.