Inu X Boku SS ~ final thoughts

Ririchiyo Shirakiin in a scene from the OP.

Inu X Boku SS (The Dog and Me — Secret Service) is an oddity. The core story is great. It has some funny and cute moments scattered throughout. It suffers a bit from genre derangement syndrome (I’ll get back to that in a bit), but I do want to stress that I enjoyed watching it, and I think there are many people who would find that it is surprisingly effective as a love story.

While the post that follows really isn’t spoilery, I focus on my reaction to the series as a whole. Those looking for more of a description of what the series is about would be better served by the taste test I wrote based upon watching the first three episodes.

Inu x Boku SS 8 ~ If necessary, I could speak of my love until the night turns to dawn

Ririchiyo REALLY enjoyed the Steins;Gate OVA. Maybe a little too much.

I hadn’t been planning to write again this quickly about Inu X Boku SS (Me and My Dog – Secret Service). Frankly this show moves slowly, regardless, I think it has a nice story at its core. The story, as I said in my first post on InuBoku, is one of two broken people coming together, and that “by coming together they both are offered healing and an escape from the separate hells they find themselves in”. Up to now, however, the show has focussed on Ririchiyo’s problem, and her efforts to overcome it. Yes. I said, “up to now”.

Inu X Boku SS 6 ~ cooking is about seeing the possibilities clearly

Karuta Roromiya. Maybe she walks around in her own world, but so what?

Inu X Boku SS (The Dog and I) is a slow moving series, but I really like the direction it is headed. The past several episodes have been introducing characters, so there really hasn’t been much progress in the central narrative, but that story (about two broken people who are healed by coming together) is such a nice one that I have been satisfied to watch what happens. This time, episode 6, the series took a different perspective on this central theme. One of the main characters (Soushi Miketsukami) was almost entirely absent, and instead the other (Ririchiyo Shirakiin) was mostly an observer of another pairing that is full of awkwardness, but is essential to the participants.

Inu X Boku SS 1-3 ~ Why did I say those things?

Ririchiyo Shirakiin (me of the title) and Soushi Miketsukami (the dog).

This article is a three episode taste test of Inu X Boku (The Dog and Me), a Winter 2012 anime series. I had been interested in this series since Sapphire Pyro wrote about the manga series. On the other hand I was a little unsure because a series about a tiny tsundere who treats the main male character as a dog just doesn’t seem as fresh as it once did. I am happy to say that, based upon the first three episodes, This series has a couple of very positive things going for it. First, Ririchiyo, the main character, isn’t “just” a tsundere. She is quite compelling and believable as a human being. Second, it is the kind of love story that has gravitas. I’ll describe the show in more detail, including both of these points, in the article below the jump.