Togainu no Chi

Title: Togainu no Chi Genre: Action Rating: 5.5/10

Summary: After being devastated in the third World War (known as The Third Division), Japan was divided in two. Several years after the end of the war, a crime organization called Vischio has taken control of the destroyed city of Toshima (formerly Tokyo, Japan’s capital city), where they are holding a battle game known as "Igura". The is main character, a young man named Akira, is falsely accused of a crime. Once arrested, a mysterious woman appears before him, offering him freedom if he agrees to participate in Igura and defeat Igura’s strongest man: the king, or "Il-re". The story follows Akira’s life in the harsh, lawless Toshima as he fights both to survive and to unravel the mysteries developing around him.

Review: Oh Togainu no Chi what happened? You were doing so… decent and then you finally just dropped the ball. I was debating on whether or not this anime should be a low priority or complete avoidance from the last episode. It was doing rather well for what I expected up until the final episode.Sad to say that it just didn’t deliver.

The art style wasn’t bad, I know complained about it a little in my first look, but that changed after I got used to it. The bright red blood was toned down a little and in other areas it was pretty well done. I admit that the outfit of Akira was pretty badass, wish I could say the same for the others. I have no real complaints about the art style, until the final episode. It honestly seems like they had a sudden  budget cut. It started to look like a quickly drawn manga. There were times I felt like the anime was actually skipping scenes or the audio wasn’t synced up properly. I checked various sources and it seemed to be how it was done. The voice actors seemed like they were rushed. I noticed on multiple occasions that the mouths didn’t matched the noise. On top of that, details of facial expression were completely skipped in some scenes. I was looking forward to a final battle, but you miss half of it with random shows of scenery and confusing frame changes. While it started off standard the art definitely deteriorated in the end.

The soundtrack was probably the best part of the anime (not saying much). The hard rock opening and different ending songs were really well done. I particularly liked the rock ending to the final episode. Probably the only think I liked the final episode. The background music was rather fitting as well. I don’t know if I will be looking into the OST though. It wasn’t bad but the Engrish in Togainu no Chi’s soundtrack didn’t really make it sound better. I would say that a full Japanese version would be more enjoyable.

The story was where Togainu no Chi did very poorly. I would say that it had a minor story that was loosely tied together by a string of random events and poor characters, but even that is giving it too much credit. It seemed as though they crammed together the story in the final two episodes by giving the background a mysterious character who still wasn’t really that emphasized. I understand that this anime was based off a manga; a manga that was basically for the bromance. All I have to say is signs of bro-love was definitely there (laid it on a bit thick) but probably not as much as the manga. It seemed as though they wanted to use the story but leave out all the touching moments between Akira and his faithful companion.. I saw signs of making the passion of friendship seem manly, but it really didn’t work. I say either go big or go home. Either have them showing their deep lust for each other openly or leave it out completely. Akira, who I had very high hopes for, turned out to be completely useless. He lost just about every bought, cried multiple times an episode, and showed no signs of improvement. They made it seem like he was going to be the next top fighter, but he seemed average at best. On top of having a nearly non-existent storyline, they also didn’t end it well. I have no idea what the last episode was even about or why Il-re was even participating in the events in Toshima.

Final statements: The way I see it Togainu no Chi had a great concept going with the story… and that was it. The characters, were horrible, story was no where to be seen, art just suddenly dropped off, and soundtrack wasn’t very memorable. Thanks to the last episode I can’t even give this a low priority, it is an avoid watch.