Hello and welcome and Project Nitsuj. We’ve had a lot of fun these last 6 years haven’t we guys? Reviewing anime, sharing laughs, causing public destruction, and even saving the anime industry from certain destruction at the hands of weeaboos. One of things I’ve noticed after all of these years of reviewing is that there are a lot of animes out there that have had a second season or two come out and I haven’t reviewed them. Well I’m going to fix that, welcome my friends to a new arc I like to call the Sequel arc. Starting this week and going all the way until the end of July, I’m going be taking a look at the second or third season of animes I’ve reviewed in the past including movies. Let’s start the Sequel arc by taking a look at one of the first animes I’ve reviewed, Dog Days S3. Coming out in 2015 and done once again by Seven Arcs Pictures (Trinity 7), Dog Days made a shocking return to the surprise of everyone that year. Like I said before, Dog Days is one of those animes you don’t watch for action or suspense, it’s a relaxing anime just following three friends who journey to another world, make new friends, going on adventures, and having fun. Nothing world threatening or end of the world prophecy that needs to be stopped, it’s just a safe adventure filled with fun and wonderment. The first 2 seasons were good so when I found about the third season I was excited and looking forward to seeing what was next for Shinku and the others. Let’s return to the animal ear kingdom. This is Dog Days S3.
Opening and Ending Theme
The opening for this season is “No Limit” by Nana Mizuki. It’s alright, didn’t really care for this opening as much as the others. It feels very tamed and forgettable. Nana really doesn’t seem like she’s in to the song either. She doesn’t sound energetic or passionate about this song as she did in the previous songs.
The ending is “Stay With Me” by Yui Horie. Meh, it didn’t really find it all that special or great. Yui sounds good. That’s about all I can say for it.
Episodes 1-4
We begin the anime much like last season. It’s the day that Shinku, Nanami, and Becky return and everyone is excited and happy (as am I). We than return to our world where we see that Becky is getting ready to leave from Japan while Shinku and Nanami are participating in the kid version of Ninja Warrior (which is still pretty hard and impossible) in London. They both come in first place and after their tournament they go to a roof and prepare to get summoned to their respected kingdoms however lightning strikes the building they’re on and the two get knocked off course and arrive in a forest filled with man-eating plants (no doubt the cousins of the piranha plants from the Mario games) and strange creatures that look like dinosaurs (welcome to Jurassic Days) but we find out later they are actually dragons (no offense but I think you’re getting your dragons and your dinosaurs mixed up). They lose their bags which had their hero rings (you think they would keep them in their pockets) and journey through the forest that time forgot getting into all sorts of shenanigans. Back at the kingdoms they send out search parties to find the two hoping to find any leads on their whereabouts. Back in the forest, Shinku and Nanami run into a jungle girl named Sharu who is a dragon priestess, guardian of the forest and doesn’t believe the two are heroes (yeah well I don’t believe supernatural beings are my next door neighbors but I’ve learned to live with it. (Baron): Hey Nitsuj, do you have any limes I can barrow? (Nitsuj): Check the counter by the fridge). Sharu explains to them that this forest is the Dragon’s Forest and not a place for humans since it’s so dangerous especially with the demons known as the dragon-eaters on the loose (there are creatures who actually eat dragons? Aren’t dragons like the top of the food chain in these fantasy-like worlds?). As she’s explaining this her companion a flying pig named Pega comes in holding Nanami’s keyholder. The pig leads them back to their stuff and the Sharu begins to look for a way out of the forest for them, but as she’s looking the dragon-eaters surround her out of nowhere (man they were quieter than Microsoft at last year’s E3) and she gets saved by Shinku and Nanami all decked out in their hero outfits to end the episode (scene here: https://youtu.be/RJ7imJK25l4).
In episode 2 Sharu is at a loss for words at seeing the heroes in front of her in fact she might even be Shinku’s new harem member as she doesn’t mind sticking close to him or get angry when he “accidently” gropes her breast (she’s surprisingly well-developed). After finding all their stuff they manage to contact the others and tell them where they are. Sharu than gives Shinku and Nanami a tour of the place where she explains that this forest is where the dragons of the land live. They’re job is to give life and energy to the land (and strangely enough they remind me of the Four Saint Beast. In fact one of them looks like Genbu). She tells them that a demon has been infecting the land and harming the dragons. If it keeps up the land will soon start to experience serious and dangerous effects from the demon. As they discuss this more demons attack the dinosaurs (you can call them dragons all you what but in my eyes they’re dinosaurs) within the forest and Sharu goes to face them alone where we see she’s pretty strong herself as she can use mystic arts just like the heroes (a possible fourth hero) and she’s good with a bow and arrow (a student of Legolas. Scene here: https://youtu.be/IP8KNiu9vi0). Shinku and Nanami come in to help and as they’re helping the forces of Pastilage, Gillete, and Biscotti come in to help out as well eliminating all the demons and returning them back into spirits. After doing a bit of research, Valero figures out that the demon is a plant type and tells all the troops to hurry to the forest because a war is coming (oh~ plot, that’s new).
Episode 3 opens up with all the armies coming together and finding that the demon is called the Dragon Eater a parasite demon that can control animals and plants while hiding the main body from afar. The demon is slowly taking over the forest and if it isn’t stopped soon it’ll take control of the dragons in the forest and cause damage throughout the land (this is quite exciting). The army splits into 4 teams. Each army will guard and watch one of the three dragons while Shinku, Nanami, Becky, and Sharu look for the Dragon Eater. As the armies are slowly becoming outnumbered and the dragons slowly becoming possessed by the demon (as well as all the female soldiers being tentacle raped by the demon) the heroes finally find the Dragon Eater where even they have a hard time fighting the beast and its never-ending array of tentacles (beginning to think you have a fetish Mr. Dragon Eater). Yukikaze shows up with the hero crystals for everyone including Nanami (scene here: https://youtu.be/twcJtNN5ON0, wow Nanami you look hot! She’s gonna turn a lot of heads when puberty hits). With this power upgrade the heroes and Sharu manage to defeat the demon and save the dragons. Once the dragon is defeated it begins to rain dragon tears which restore the land and destroys the clothes of everyone both male and female (scene here: https://youtu.be/KfFHsn6YAAk, man this episode is just full of fanservice). After the demon is defeated everyone leaves with Sharu promising to come and visit once things have settled in the forest (good. I like her. She’s cute).
Not much to say about episode 4. Shinku spends the day playing Frisbee with Milhi and treating her like a dog (stop treating royalty like- oh forget it at this point I be better off yelling at a wall). The main focus of the episode is in Pastilage where slimes has been unleashed upon the palace dissolving the clothes of women (what a wonderful comrade *AI girls come in and begin pounding Nitsuj*. I die with no regrets). Nanami and Geniose are at the palace for a visit and help Cou and Rebecca fight the slime army but there’s too many of them and they keep on multiplying (like rabbits). With no options left they combine Adel’s hero crystal with Nanami’s spirit crystal, and Rebecca’s demon crystal to create a barrier which traps all the slime and seal them all restoring them to one tiny harmless spirit (farewell my brother).
Episodes 5-8
In episode 5 Shinku, Milhi, Rico, Rebecca, and Yukikaze all go crystal mining in the forest. These crystals help them with everyday life but they show respect to the forest by not taking all the crystals and only taking what they need (that’s pretty respectful and thoughtful). This in turns doesn’t upset the balance of nature, keeps the spirits in check, and everybody wins. We also get some good shots of nature since it’s the fall and get introduced to the main antagonist of this episode. Shinku comes across the forest people who are these cute and tiny spirits (they remind me of kappas only cuter and less threatening) that maintain the forest and help animals and humans. They’re princess has been kidnapped and eaten by a spirit frog who has become possessed by a cursed sword and the group has to save the princess before she’s digested (well on the bright side you’ll get her back but I don’t think anybody will want to be near her). They all fight the frog (feed it vegetables. That’s what killed King Wart in the Mario games) where we get a lot of fanservice during this fight from the girls (man this season is giving us a lot of fanservice) and Shinku eventually gets swallowed by the frog where he finds the princess and gives the frog indigestion to save himself and the princess. Shinku then defeats the frog and Yukikaze seals the demon sword returning the frog back to his original form. The episode ends in the hotsprings with Shinku passed out drunk and surround by girls (I call that the end to a good day).
Episode 6 focuses entirely on Leo. Marriage proposals have come in for Leo from different men all over the world who want to marry her (not surprised. She’s beautiful, strong, smart and benevolent. Any man would be lucky to have her as his wife) and it turns out this is a yearly thing, so they turn it into a festival where all the marriage candidates have to do is beat Leo in a one on one match and she’ll seriously start to think about marrying them (where do I sign up?). The fights begin with Leo beating everyone who challenges her whether they be nobles, princes, knights, or samurais from distant lands (that’s why all the guys want her). Eventually someone finally steps up and gives Leo a run for her money and that person is a shota prince named Leaf a rabbit boy who just happens to be a relative of Vert (and who’s seriously giving Len Kagamine a run for best shota). In the past Leo used to train Leaf in the ways of the sword and crossbow so he developed a bit of a crush on her (whether this was a form of admiration or actual love I cannot say). They have their fight which ends in Leo winning but Leaf manages to destroy all of Leo’s clothes (scene here: https://youtu.be/V_fYs3La5UA, woah Leaf save it for the bedroom). At the end nobody managed to beat Leo but she gives a sigh of relief in knowing that there’s one guy out there who just might have what it takes to be with her (he’s got my support).
Not much happens in episode 7. Nanami and Genoise give Leaf a tour of the three kingdoms, Nanami and Leaf have an exhibition match which ends in a draw, they go a Milhi concert being held in Pastilage, and the episode ends with Adel about to tell everyone a story about Fi the last ruler of Pastilage.
Episode 8 is a very touching episode. We finally get some backstory into the world as well as Adel, Valerie, Hina, and Isuka. In the past the world was overrun with demons and the three kingdoms remain separated from each other never interacting with one another. Couvert’s ancestor Fi the last ruler of Pastilage saw this and wanted to change the world and usher in an age of peace. In order to do this she summoned a hero who turned out to be Adel and together they set out to fight demons (this is sounding so much like an RPG). Their first outing doesn’t go as well as they hope but as time went on they got stronger and learned through experience (it is an RPG). Eventually they met Isuka and a chibi Hina who were traveling the world to find cursed swords and seal them away. We also learn that the two were bathed in demon blood so they never age (except for Hina, thanks to Valerie). Isuka, Hina, and Valerie join Fi’s cause and together travel the world destroying demons and bringing the three kingdoms together, establishing peace, and setting up rules for the war games (now that’s what I call establishing peace in the world). Speaking of Valerie we find out that he’s not really a demon king. In truth he’s actualy Fi’s little brother who studied demons and took the title name of demon king to study and research demons as well as attack people should they forget the importance of keeping the demons in check. With peace ushering in we find out that Fi is slowly dying from demon poison and eventually dies from it. After Fi’s death Pastilage switched to dukedom in order to honor Fi (yeah nobody’s gonna beat her in terms of ruling) and time went on where eventually new heroes came to exist and continue the path of peace that Fi and the others laid out for them.
Episodes 9-12
Episode 9 opens up at Sharu’s place (hey long time no see how you been? I’ve missed you). Sharu senses the sky sea has fallen into chaos. Sharu explains that the sky sea is home to the Star Whale which basically is a huge spirit that protects the whole continent above the clouds. Sharu wants to meet up with the sky priestess and see what’s going on up there. She implores the help of Shinku and the others and they use the fire dragon to fly up to the sky sea (which is quite beautiful). They find the sky whale (who makes the fire dragon look like an ant) and get sucked into its mouth (I shall name him Kirby) where they all get separated from Gaul. Gaul wakes up in the belly of the whale where he’s greeted by a mysterious yet beautiful girl named Aria who can speak telepathically. We don’t learn that much about her but she seems friendly and caring. While everyone is looking for Gaul they see that the Star Whale is infected with demons (take three heroes and call me in the morning). They fight the demons with Nanami’s team meeting back up with Gaul and Aria and Shinku’s team reaching the throne room of the Sky Priestess Farine who is very busty (man this season is just chalk full of hot girls).
In episode 10 the group meets Farine (who is a giant! Man the titans are invading the sky too). She tells them that the only way to stop the demons from further infecting the Star Whale is to seek help from the star people because only through their songs can the Sky Whale be healed (this sounds very Zelda-like. That or Okami where you had to fight those two owl creatures and stop them from covering an entire village in snow). They all meet back up in the star people’s village where we see that they’re all mermaids and are all sick because of the demons (I’m starting to think this arc was supposed to be in the ocean but at the last minute they decided to put it in the sky to make it more fantasy-like). It gets revealed that Aria is one of them and has lost her memories as well as her ability to sing which is bad because she’s the songstress of the village (this village only has one songstress? Well they’re all sick so I’ll let it go). The group now needs to find a new singer to sing the song of healing and after letting the star people hear a recording of Milhi they say that she be the perfect candidate to replace Aria (her or Rico. She’s voiced by Nana Mizuki who is an actual singer in real life. Use her). Shinku and Rebecca decide to return to the surface and get Milhi while Gaul, Leaf, Genoise, and Nanami clear out some of the demons in the whale. While they’re off hunting the girls have a talk about Gaul and wonder if he likes Aria (and when I say like I mean like like)? Nanami proposes that one of the members of Genoise might marry Gaul but they say no, they only think of him as a childhood friend who they like, respect, and want to protect (that is so rare in animes today). Back in the village Rico, Yukikaze, and Sharu get attacked by a mysterious person called Verde who might be responsible for the demons inside the whale (so you’re the one who gave this anime a plot? God bless you). He takes down Sharu, Yukikaze as well as Rico and the star people and captures Aria saying that her song is only for him and him alone.
Episode 11 starts off with explaining why Verde is doing what he’s doing. In the past Verde was a small sprite creature who Aria befriended and Verde seems to have a crush on her. Aria always dreamed of going to the surface unfortunately she couldn’t because the star people can’t be out of water for too long. Verde wanting to make Aria’s dream come true turns himself in a disciple of the demons and begins harming the whale and the star people believing that they’re holding Aria back. When Aria sees all of this she’s shocked and the whale uses his powers to separate Aria from Verde which led to the events in episode 9. Now that the group know that Verde is the culprit Gaul, Genoise, Leaf, and Nanami go to confront him and Verde is more than happy to face Gaul himself as he sees Gaul as a threat to him and Aria (well they do make a cute couple). Shinku and Rebecca retrieve Milhi and the other princesses join them in saving the whale. Gaul and Verde have a pretty intense fight with each and Shinku comes in to help Gaul defeat Verde. Milhi sings a song which involves only one word being repeated over and over again, la la la (scene here: https://youtu.be/KH-OYY8klZc, I am not joking that’s the whole song right there. What the hell? You couldn’t give Yui an actual song to sing so you just told her to do voice practice and turned it into a song? Was the composer sick that day or did you decide to be lazy?). This heals all the star people as well as the whale putting everything back to normal.
Not much happens in the final episode. The star people and the whale are safe and healed. Aria gets her voice back from Verde and the curse blade inside him shatters and returns him back to his original form (well he’s cuter now). They all say their goodbyes and return to the surface with the Fire Dragon (Fire Dragon: This is the last time I go on an adventure with you guys) and it begins to rain stardust across the land (and I have to admit it’s quite pretty like snow). It stops after a few days and our three heroes return to our world where they begin to train for next year.
Final Thoughts
And that was the third season of Dog Days. Out of all the seasons this is probably the weakest of the bunch in my opinion. We don’t get to explore the world all that much, there’s no war game, and nothing new gets added into the story. Probably the biggest letdown is that they rarely use Sharu who seemed like a cool character and one I would have liked to have seen more of in the anime. The other letdown and is that they don’t explore Shinku’s relationship with the girls. At the end of the last season it was clear that Becky had feelings for Shinku as did Éclair but it never comes up. It pretty much gets pushed under the rug and never gets bought up which I was upset with there.
Now that doesn’t mean this season is all negatives as there are some things in this season. For starters, we actually got a few plots which were good and exciting. Sharu was cool and I did like the handling of Leaf’s character. I like how he’s not entirely sure if his feelings for Leo are love or admiration, but he knows that he does care a great deal for her and Leo doesn’t seem all that opposed to Leaf being a possible marriage candidate. The fights that we did get to see were good and I liked how we got to see a lot of other characters fight outside of Shinku. It was also nice to see that both fighters were evenly matched for the most part and the story about Fi was touching, sad, and gave us a better appreciation and understanding of the titles Shinku, Nanami, and Becky hold in this world.
The animation is very pretty and fanservice was great and welcomed. The sky sea was very nicely done, and the color choices really stand out. The soundtrack for the most part is good but I didn’t hear anything new and I didn’t like how lazy they got with Milhi’s song in episode 11.
Is it better than last season
Personally, I like the first two seasons more than this one. The first two seasons were interested in exploring the fantasy world while also exploring the characters in this fantasy world. While this season did give us a few interesting things such as the sky sea, Dragon’s Forest, and the Fi story, it drops the ball in exploring our characters and their relationships with each other.
Final Score
Dog Days S3 earns a 5.5/10. Slightly lower than the first two seasons but still a relaxing and enjoyable anime to unwind to. Is this the last Dog Days anime? I don’t know, but I’m always open to another season of this anime. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj as the Sequel arc continues.
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