Review of A Girl & Her Guard Dog

A Girl & Her Guard Dog - a case of deja vu from an author who struggles to stand out amongst many similar contemporaries, such that it forces his/her hand to create a derivative that, ironically, becomes so derided from its small community. And don't get me started on the appalling production values just yet. Meet a mangaka who goes by the pseudonym name Hatsuharu. The context in which the author's works since 2013 have been growing from oneshots to small manga series serving the Shoujo market in the romance genre. But as you know, the romance genre is one of the most popular yet oversaturatedgenres to stand out from, much less the works that only cater to the Shoujo market, which have been far and few in between. And the author, having suffered under a rut of creating short stories, 2016 would be the year that he/she come out with a manga series titled "Mainichi Kiss shite Ii desu ka?" a.k.a "Can I Kiss You Every Day?" That manga exploring childhood friends who force themselves upon one another in a rather pushy relationship would serve as the antithesis to grow into the author's latest manga that has been consistently firing shots of unpleasantry: 2018's Ojou to Banken-kun, which, for better or for worse, is twice the force and quadruple the frustrations, thinking that forced relationships will make for a rather spicy story. If that was the intent of the author, he/she succeeded, but the story itself is quite the dumpster fire of a garbage mess that it is.

Do you remember age-gap relationships, like, say, Summer 2022's Kumichou Musume to Sewagakari a.k.a The Yakuza's Guide to Babysitting? That was a show that had a Yakuza family as the setting, between a normal Yakuza right-hand man and the boss's precious child daughter as a means to teach him how to live life the right way (that's not child grooming, by the way). In the context of Ojou no Banken-kun, take that premise and push the age button into high school territory, while incorporating the things that would rile up the Shoujo market: a Yakuza Ikemen with the normal boss's daughter, who just wants to be a typical commoner girl. That's the story of Isaku Senagaki, having been taken care of by her gangster grandfather when her parents died in an accident and, even worse, being shunned by the people around her for being the daughter of a Yakuza boss. Fast forward to high school, and the 15-year-old wants to be free of her Yakuza familial constraints, to live a normal life and bond natural love...except that would have been the case, if not for the Senagakis' young leading subordinate: 26-year-old Keiya Utou, who acts as her overprotective guardian, who sneaks by the way to infiltrate her school to look after her. Talk about forceful melodrama.

Initially, I wanted to cheer on Isaku because she has been pretty shielded for much of her life as the daughter of a Yakuza corporation, barring which her high school life was to be the result of going back to life as per normal, to befriend her classmates, have fun, and find the love of her life outside of the heavy Yazuka doors, even though she doesn't have any friends and is bad at socializing with her serious but shy personality. But Keiya, as the Ikemen guardian, if this kind of Otome Game function (not the Isekai video game kind, but like pure mobage dating games) had existed, say before the turn of the 2020s, it would've garnered the same attention, though not as much of a critical AniManga community like now, especially when the author has developed crude ideas of the relationship, from cheating to pure rape, because Yazuka can do anything within their powers to bend people to their will, women included. Such is the case with Keiya's other Yazuka family rival, Mikio Tanuki, who acts literally like a cunning tanuki a.k.a raccoon, targeting Isaku by playing the bad guy in the rather unkempt relationship between a Yakuza associate and his direct boss's daughter, whom Isaku slowly warms up to but still controls due to Keiya not understanding the fine details of what it means to be in a relationship. It takes two hands to clap, and this is a relationship that will take MORE than two hands to do the same.

Of course, you do not need to tell me the series' Achilles heel, or, should I say, Achilles' HELL. Project No. 9 is a studio that has recently gotten a lot of attention due to its most recent success: this Winter's Otonari no Tenshi-sama a.k.a The Angel Next Door Spoils Me Rotten. But in the process of trying to capitalize on said reputation, the studio has gone and done the near-impossible: produce 3 shows in a season, which is relatively unheard of, the last of which was Liden Films attempting this with Saiyuki Reload: Zeroin, Tribe Nine, and Ryman's Club way back in Winter 2022. Most studios are always limited to a maximum of 2 shows per season, simply due to the fact that production circumstances could break down easily in this day and age, and while I feel that Liden Films is the exception to the rule, Project No. 9 is not the case here. This show, Hikikomari Kyūketsuki no Monmon a.k.a The Vexations of a Shut-In Vampire Princess (which is clearly the studio's best effort this season), and Buta no Liver wa Kanetsu Shiro a.k.a Butareba: The Story of a Man Who Turned into a Pig, suffered from production issues. The sum of the worst production values belongs to this show, as you can tell from the facial figures to the animation, which is objectively worse than subpar garbage. It's so unpleasant to watch because it just looks like ass.

Out of all the complaints I have for this show, the music is the only forgivable outlier to this contraption. Honestly, both Masayoshi Ooishi and Isaku's VA Akari Kitou's OP and ED songs are just TOO good for what the show is worth, and I quite like both songs. If only the same could be said about the rest of the anime...

Objectively, this is undoubtedly one of the worst shows this season; you can throw it into a garbage bin and it doesn't even mind it. From appalling production values to a mangaka's persistence who really wants to push the envelope (and I have no reason to criticize him/her since it's their own work), Ojou to Banken-kun is no mere Shoujo Ikemen romance show; it's just a glorified sum of fantastical ideas made into fiction that does not represent the genre for what it is, even if it does go into uncomfortable nether areas that are boldly addressed.

Just watch some other romance show and wash your eyes off this "Killing Me Softly" gangster-buckling roast fest.