Review of A Girl & Her Guard Dog

Ojou to Banken-Kun is one of the most disappointing anime I’ve seen in a long time. Not because of its “problematic” subject matter, but because of its execution and horrendous production quality. What I initially listed as one of my top 10 most anticipated shows of the season, ended up as one of the worst. What went wrong? I’ll start by saying I have zero issue with the controversial subject matter of this story. I’m able to separate fiction from reality and enjoy stories for why they are, entertainment. In fact, I love a good taboo love story. The issue with Ojou to Banken-Kun isthat it has that forbidden love story, and never really goes full throttle with it. The consequences of the inappropriate relationship between Isaku and Keiya never really get explored. If you have someone that basically helped raise you from the time you were a little kid until high school, and then makes romantic advances on you, you’d expect family, friends, literally anyone in your life that cares about you to try and intervene and drama would ensue. There’s none of that in here, and because Keiya’s whole gimmick is attending school with Isaku pretending to be a high schooler, her friends don’t know about this either.

I think the author dropped the ball on creating stakes and tension in the story. Instead, you basically have a generic romcom set up where nothing happens for the vast majority of the story. Now, that’s not to say that slice of life romances are bad, but that’s not what I’m in this one for. I wanted something spicy and exciting. Something like Domekano, after the rain, Fruits Basket Prelude, Violet Evergarden etc. A relationship that you wouldn’t support IRL, but in the context of escapist fantasy is fun to consume. I mean the guy’s in the yakuza for crying out loud! So many directions you could take this story in. Sadly, they didn’t.

That’s not the worst part though. While I realised around episode 4-5 that things were kind of mediocre at best in this one, I was able to still enjoy it because it is shoujo, there are cute moments, Isaku is adorable, etc. But there’s a character introduced towards the end of the story that’s involved in a sexual assault, and it’s just completely brushed off. No repercussions or consequences. In fact, the situation is basically made into a joke. In fact, this isn’t the only near SA in the show. There’s one other one that’s also basically turned into a meme, no serious consequences for it. I was extremely shocked to see a Shoujo mangaka and woman depict it this way. These two really were negative marks on the show’s record and it was hard to take anything seriously after that.

Perhaps the most egregious thing though is the production quality of the show. This legitimately gives Gibiate a run for its money as some of the worst animation I’ve ever seen. Project No.9 clearly spread themselves far too thin with shows this season. 3 shows was a bit too much for them and it shows. Many scenes in here look like they were made on clip art by a 15 year old. The art does no justice to the manga’s art, and the character models are so bad that sometimes mouths disappear, characters say things without moving, etc. Oh yea, and we can’t forget those awkward pauses where the camera focuses on a character’s face for like 20 seconds with no purpose. I don’t know who the director was on this one, but it was bad. It would be one thing if the story was subpar and carried by nice art and animation ala Horimiya, but when you have a weak story and awful animation, it makes for a really bad viewing experience in this medium.

So what’re my overall thoughts on Ojou to Banken-Kun? I like the concept of the forbidden love between Keiya and Isaku. Not only is he a Yakuza member, but he’s an older guardian figure to Isaku. It’s taboo and not something I’d root for IRL, but in fiction, I’m cool with it. It’s just a shame the author didn’t do much more with it, at least until the point in the story where the anime ends. The animation is awful, making the story hard to enjoy. There’s not enough consequences for characters’ actions either. That said, I still like the story enough to read the manga and I’ve bought most of them since the show started airing. I think this is one of those stories that will get better past where the anime ended. I definitely see a longer running story with this one and with only 12 episodes, it was always going to struggle. I also think Isaku is absolutely adorable and enjoyed some of her moments with Keiya. But I can’t recommend it simply on the basis of its production being among some of the worst I’ve ever seen. This one of those ones you just read folks. I got it wrong in my top 10 anime of Fall video, sorry folks.

Ojou to Banken-Kun gets a very unfortunate 6 out of 10.