I have to admit that I was rooting for Inu to Hasami wa Tsukaiyou for the sole reason that the main character had such a great love for books. Never mind that he would eventually be resurrected in the body of a dachshund.
Yep, that sentence just happened.
Inu to Hasami wa Tsukaiyou is the story of Harumi Kazuhito, who lives and breathes books, taking his obsession to the point of living alone in a different town away from his family. As much as he loves to read any book that he comes across, one of his top goals is to read Lust, the final installment in the anthology written by his favorite author Akiyama Shinobu. One day, despite his general apathy, he tries to prevent a shooting and ends up getting himself shot. The next thing he knows, he wakes up and finds himself in a cage. The bigger mystery, though, is how he ended up in the body of a dachshund. As he laments that no one would understand him and that he would never read books again, a woman named Natsuno Kirihime arrives to adopt him because she can hear his thoughts. Though leery of the idea of living with an obviously sadistic and rather flat-chested woman, Kazuhito finds out that Kirihime is actually his favorite author Akiyama Shinobu.
For the most part, Inu to Hasami wa Tsukaiyou is a comedy. Aside from the obviously comical human-in-a-dachshund and sadistic scissor-wielding best-selling writer characters, the series features plenty of supporting characters that border on the ridiculous. The inclusion of masochist editor Hiiragi Suzuna, curry-loving and brother-obsessed Haruki Osawa, mysterious singing maid Moribe Sachi and the always (and literally) shining pop idol/writer Ohsawa Maxi make for a melting pot of eccentric characters.
There's an undercurrent of madness in all of the characters in the anime series. I don't mean the angry type of madness. I meant that everyone ranged from the kooky to the disturbing, with everyone's madness borne from their individual obsessions. I'm used to watching madness and extreme character traits in anime, and I normally enjoy it. Unfortunately, I didn't quite enjoy the eccentricity of the characters in Inu to Hasami wa Tsukaiyou as much as I would have wanted to. It didn't quite successfully convey the playful spirit of representing the different anime character stereotypes.
Neither were they able to achieve a narrative I could get on board with. While mostly sticking to its comedic elements, the series featured plot lines that are meant to be taken as mysteries. Unfortunately, the individual mysteries the two main protagonists come across don't quite mesh well in the overall series of Inu to Hasami wa Tsukaiyou. The storytelling comes across as disjointed and it doesn't help that the series doesn't have a strong over-arching series plot line to anchor the various characters and sub-stories that make it up. This on top of never delving into the number one supernatural mystery of how Kazuhito ended up in the body of a dachshund and how Kirihime came to hear his thoughts.
I really wanted to root for Inu to Hasami wa Tsukaiyou, but I couldn't quite find enough positive points to add it to my must-watch list.
Disappointed viewing with this one.Labels: Adaptation, Anime, Comedy, Dog & Scissors, Supernatural, TV
