Inukami! The Best Comedy You’ve Never Seen November 14
Inukami! is an action anime which is based on Japanese history; being based on history, the battles of the show are based on famous battles which actually took place in ancient Japan. So here’s this naked magical stalker…And you kill it with fire for mass distraction.
The best alternative to the “A Boy and His Dog” archetype. Keita Kawahira is a member of a clan of Inukami Tsukai (trainer, tamer, etc.) who use Inukami: spirits who can take the form of a dog or human, to obliterate evil and proliferate righteousness, thus carrying out justice. As pet and master, Youko and Keita have the best of relationships, of course. Youko gets groomed and fed and is allowed to buy all her clothing with Keita’s expenses…And…Keita reaps many benefits too…But that really remains to be seen.
Seriously! He’s been arrested too many times to count because whenever Youko finds out he’s been out flirting with women again, she teleports all his clothes away while he’s in public! This is when he’s lucky, when Youko isn’t throwing spirals of fire at the poor guy.
Ah, but such is the wonderful bond of friendship between man and mutt…
Essentially, the series kicks off with an interesting opening. Very shounen-action style. Right into the start of the first episode, Keita’s already fighting some sort of malicious spirit. At the same time, you’re introduced to one of the series’ eccentricities. Keita fights using magically charged erasers, carved into the shapes of frogs. Yeah.
As the episode chugs along, you get to see Keita: Finish the initial fight in badass fashion with Youko’s help, blow off Youko to go hit on random women in the street, get chased down by Youko while dodging her (literally) fiery rage, be teleported naked into the middle of the street, get arrested by the police for public indecency, make friends with a women’s underwear thief, a salaryman with a penchant for S&M and a voyeur so skilled at his “trade” that he can physically turn invisible. Right after, Karina Shirou hires Keita to put a stop to a stalker’s dark magic assault upon the city.
It turns out that a lonely man hated couples so much that he gained the powers to publicly humiliate them by casting a spell that eliminates all clothing a person is wearing. On the scene, Keita makes a discovery that simply changes the nature of the anime to a comedy of such an eccentric nature that it’s nigh impossible to compare to others.
The second episode features muscular men training in the mountains who are possessed by the spirits of dogs and promptly raid the town, and Keita uses the powers of pet care and…Skinship to exorcise them and let them rest in peace.
Later on in the series, the cast expands immensely. Most of the cast consists of Keita’s extended family (such as his grandmother and her Inukami, his brother Kaoru and his 10 Inukami) and various inane enemies to battle (you can bet it gets stranger than the pervert in the first episode.) The rest is all filled in with parody; various kinds of perverts from all walks of life and some super hero or magical girl aesthetics to mock another genre with.
The overall series theme is a perverted comedy with a lot of ecchi that isn’t really ecchi. At the same time, it’s full-on action, but then there’s a bit of romance in there too. With a diverse cast, the series is easy to fall in love with.
Needless to say, Inukami! can easily change anyone’s opinion on comedy anime. The rest of the series is delightfully weird and the action mixed in with the humour keeps everything fresh. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll cover your eyes and hopefully stop yourself from screaming once or twice, but you’ll assuredly have a good time.
The cast is again, lovable, the vocal talent is talented at what they do and the series is simply memorable. If you ever think you should watch something off-key and original, Inukami! will more than fit the bill, and have you laughing long into the night. The series consists of 26 episodes with an episode-length movie in the mix; the length is quite nice, and the changes they make to the ending theme across the series keep things fresh in the visual department, too. If there was one more wacky series that would be perfect for Geneon to throw money at, it would be this.
