Inuyashiki Animated is Unexpectedly Better Than the Manga
Imagine going for a walk in the park when suddenly an alien ship crash lands on your face. They scramble to cover their tracks but all they had to fix you with was spare weapon parts. Welcome to the life of Inuyashiki Ichiro and Shishigami Hiro. The series covers how these two characters cope with their lives after the incident and how differently the two have adapted to their new abilities.
Heavy spoiler alert for the first 3 episodes! I suggest going in blind for at least the first two.
Inuyashiki is an old man who is not appreciated by his family as much anymore. When he found out about his transformation into a cyborg he felt even less human. But as soon as he saved the life of a homeless man who just turned his life around, Inuyashiki feels more alive than he has in the past. Hiro on the other hand, an ordinary high schooler that doesn’t stand out much felt alive only after he uses his new abilities to kill. It’s very obvious early on who stands on which side of good and evil.
The animation is incredibly well done. It does have some CG but the few scenes of CG are quite impressive with framing and visuals. The scene where Inuyashiki disrupts the hooligans beating the homeless man has a great visual direction with the slow motion through all the motion going on in the scene. Episode 2 is where the animation really kicks it into gear. Hiro invades a home. A 3-minute scene of Hiro brutally murdering the entire family feels like it lasts hours because of the pacing of the scene and the excellent work of the voice actors and sound design. The impact of this show is greatly magnified in the anime.
Sound in this show is definitely top tier. The OP is very catchy. Catchy enough to get it stuck in your head. It’s a contender for my favorite OP this year. Soundtrack-wise, the music can just give you chills. Music is well timed and fits the themes and aesthetic the show is running with. The home invasion scene was also 3 whole minutes of zero background music. The silence really raised the tension in the scene.
Overall this show is an amazing adaptation. So far it’s as close as possible to the source material and it’s definitely worth the watch. Honestly, I feel it’s more targeted toward people who read the source, but the others in BAOYG watching this show haven’t read the source like I have and they are enjoying it just as much. It airs on Anime Strike on Wednesdays. Let me know in the comments what you think! Who’s your favorite One Piece character?