Ginga Densetsu Weed

TLDR: If you like animes which revolve around animals(especially dogs), where they fight for a just cause in a cruel world, and you can see friendship, humanity, betrayal, lots of character development, and other similar themes, then I recommend this action filled anime to you. But let's dig a bit deeper.

Story:
The storyline is continuous, each episode builds on the previous ones. And because this is a sequel it even builds a lot onto the prequel anime, Ginga Nagareboshi Gin. However, it's not a problem if you haven't seen that one first, because this anime will tell the basic things which you need to know ... in order to understand who is who in the story.
It could be said that the plot is pretty simple, there is the Big Bad, and the protagonists have to defeat him to bring peace. At first it might look this simple, but when we see the backstory of the villains, and different problems arises between the protagonists, then the story suddenly doesn't feel very simple at all. Sometimes it even presents situations where one cannot make a right moral decision, but the main character still have to do something. Apart from this we get a deep-dive in the feelings of a few of the protagonists, which results in very touching moments, and makes us understand them even better.
Now as I write all of this, the story might seem dramatic. It is, but of course as in most story even here there is a comic relief, who can always put a smile on the viewers' faces.
There are many fighting scenes in series, and they're all exciting and well made. Sometimes the characters need to use strategy and bluffing to keep their lives, and at other times they die like heroes while giving speeches which are heart-gripping.
The end of the story is unarguably beautiful and satisfying, we get a nice happy ending, even if not everything is happy. The final battle was a bit rushed, and was altered in a weird way, but it's kind of understandable, and not that bad.

Art:
This aspect is the one which is the most controversial among fans. It's undeniable, there are badly animated scenes, where the faces and shapes really look weird. But this is not that common. Many people have strong opinion about Deen's animation quality, but here they were able to achieve a decent animation, with some scenes being a bit derpier, but also some episodes were animated outstandingly good. For example in many scenes the lighting is astonishing, and they paid great attention to the details. So if you heard at some places that this anime has "crappy animation", then I would advise you to still give it a chance, it's not as bad as they say.
The backgrounds were always drawn very beautifully, and those combined with the beautiful lighting could create a very memorable and touching moment.

Sounds:
The sounds are great, and seiyuus are awesome! Everyone's voice fits well, and they could always give the feeling what they needed to give.
The music were amazing, some of them rose the given scene so high... It really enhanced the experience. Especially when suddenly in a dramatic scene a fitting music starts playing, and from that point on not only the characters talk, but it's something lot more. My personal favorite is the opening and ending, "Verge of Death", "Spirit of Succession", but all of them great.

Characters:
This is also an aspect of the anime in which it really shines. The main protagonists starts out as a puppy, who know very little, so obviously he will make mistakes. Sometimes his decisions might even seem wrong, but he is still learning, and developing. And I think this is a great thing in this anime. If we look back from the end to the beginning of the story, then we can see how much each character have developed. It's hard to tell specifics without spoilers, but many characters will change their minds entirely about specific things, and this is also very satisfying to watch.
It's a good feature in the series that at the end the team of protagonists is not a randomly assembled group of strays, but all the characters are well known, and we know what to expect from them.
The villains were also interesting in this series, especially the first one, but generally all of them had an interesting backstory, which makes the viewers understand why they became so ruthless.

Enjoyment:
If you like action animes with animals, then I'm pretty sure you'll have a good time watching this series. The drama, emotions, and epic action hooked me a lot.
In my opinion this series is one of those which cannot be forgotten easily, it has many memorable scenes and likeable characters. So I would recommend everyone to give it a try. Maybe you will enjoy it even more if you already seen the prequel, but as I said at the beginning it's not necessary.

The series was good, no doubt and it does make a fair watch for all those watchers who are into animal-related anime series. The plot is a strong one, owing to the sequence followed in the manga; unlike the anime version where focus has been laid on only a part of the actual story.

The series carries a number of criticisms, a few of which are:
- The characters from the prequel have been showed to have deteriorated a lot.
- The present characters aren't of that strong framework.
- The reason why Hougen waged the war against the Ohu still remains unclear.
- The emergence ... of Genba is abrupt and absurd.
- The leader, Gin - who defeated a BEAR gets beaten down by a BUNCH OF DOGS, miserably.
- The death of Hogen has been shown in the anime while in the manga, Hogen is shot by a police officer.
- The anime features Jerome's death but in the manga Jerome has been shown to have been captured by Victor, which makes the plot a bit controversial.
- The behaviour of Ben, who was Gin's mentor in the prequel deteriorates down to that of a stupid fellow which gives him more of a clown-like appearance.
- Ben and Cross' other pups haven't been given any feature or a background story.
- The death of Chuutora hasn't been given any importance although he played a significant role in the prequel.
- The series consists of a lot of unnecessary dialogues.

and many more.

In short, the series couldn't live up to its reputation in terms of enjoyment and plot compared to it's prequel.

Moreover, the entire plot of the manga hasn't been pictured which makes it an incomplete series in a way.

Ginga Densetsu Weed starts off strong with action-heavy animation sequences that rival modern shounens, however it seems like the whole budget was spent at the very beggining and the very end of the series, with how the rest of the show goes. Forget about consistency, you will never truly know how big those dogs are and if they actually can howl or if they just scream like men.

The author really wanted to stuff this series with something deeper, but he had no clue how to actually make it make sense. We keep getting all these crumbs about the relationship between humans and dogs, but at ... the end of the day, nothing comes out of it. The only thing that the dogs get out of this story is the idea of forgiving the other dogs, not humans. And that would be alright, if not for the fact that humans are kept being brought up to the equasion.

The main character, Weed, is very badly written. He is extremly hypocritical with how he handles fights with other dogs, to the point where he seems to be excusing parental abuse. In Kyoushiro's introduction, the show wants you to hate on him, while he is the most logical out of the whole situation. Making Weed so young doesn't actually work here the way it did in Gin's situation. Gin was trained. His strenght was understandable. Weed being powerful and wise makes zero fucking sense. He should have been at least 2 yo. Give him some nice backstory, don't kill his mom in the first ep, fucking, incorporate the whole human subplot nonsense, whatever.

The show is structered so bizarrely. For the most part you're expecting Kaibutsu to be the main villain, all the while he is very much not.

Perhaps one of my biggest grievances is how we get to see characters from Silver Fang come back, but their personalities are so warped, they're barely themselves. The biggest offender being Smith, who lost all of this whimsy in order to become a wise mentor figure. Like. Why?

What did I like about the show? Jerome. Almost exclusively Jerome. He had a nicely developed, sad backstory, he had good character development and he was just fun to watch. The rest it was mostly such bullshit, I don't know how to even explain it fully. Of course I liked some other characters, hell, I was so happy when I got to see Akame again! And I actually don't hate Weed, he was pretty alright, even if his writing was wonky. It just feels like the author was writing the story on his knee during his daily commutes. And I am aware that the anime diverges from the manga quite a bit, but from what I've heard, it does not necessarily make the manga better.