This show is quite honestly one of a kind, and I suggest everyone should at least try it.
Let's start with the premise: "A girl comes from a yakuza family and falls in love with her guardian." Okay, so there's many ways to make this work. It could be a heavy drama about grooming and a girl who puts end to the abuse, or it could a self-aware satire where the male romantic interest has just the worst traits of a typical Shoujo male, or they could make the guardian have a modicum of decency so that the focus of the story is the coming-of-age aspect
...
of it, you know, the guy rejects her properly and she grows as a person and so and so.
Instead, the story takes the worst direction possile by making it a "standard" romcom about the girl and the guardian falling in love with each other. I can't understate how perfectly awful this is. Every person I have told this to has reacted with either incredulity or some level of disgust. Take, let's say, Spy x Family, Buddy Daddies, or The Yakuza’s Guide to Babysitting. Now imagine one of those girls growing up and pursuing a relationship with the adoptive father. That's what happening here. Meanwhile, the original work is being published in a Shoujo magazine -- aimed at teenage girls. On the other hand, the show was wisely chosen to air at 0:30 in the morning, which is at least a deterrent for the youngest watchers.
The writing itself: It is bad. The absolute worst arcs come late into the story, so I won't give too much away. Let's just say some content warnings were missing from the version I watched.
The female main is your run of the mill Shoujo MC whose personality traits are being a bit too sheltered, wanting to be normal in spite of her background, and being in love with someone. The male main is an amalgam of the worst possible aspects of the Shoujo Male. Abusive? Check. Obsessive? Check. Immature? Oh yeah. Being an actual criminal? Well duh. Ah, but maybe he is just a tough guy who doesn't commit an actual represensible crime on screen? Think again. The developments are as dumb as they can possibly be. Starting with the male main trying to pass off as 10 younger than he is while enrolled in the same class as the FMC, as inconspicuous as Mechazawa was in Cromartie High School. There is a plot point that involves underage drinking, which sounds interesting. Problem is, things are solved by the male MC being violent. Womp womp. The opportunities of using Yakuza politics and intrigue are fully wasted. The romance is as toxic (on the guardian's part, at least) as you could imagine. You could pass the plot verbatim as solid parody, but here it is played in full earnestness.
The production quality: Look, Project No.9 is a pretty decent mid-sized studio with distinct visuals. However, this season they decided to put out three full shows at the same time. A Girl and Her Guard Dog was definitely the one they sacrificed whenever they needed time for the other two. There's plain bad art, choppy animation, faulty frames, continuity errors, mismatch with audio, style dissonance within a scene, lazy backgrounds, weirdly paced scenes, recycled animation, extended flashbacks (from previous episodes) and probably more. The direction itself and the pacing of the season as a whole were rather good, if you do care about the story. The voice acting and BGM were of standard quality, some pieces even stand out for being particularly effective.
This is purely speculation, but seeing how the vast majority of the recent works from the studio have a male demo, this was a change of pace that was forced into them, and they didn't spend any extra bit of effort in the show besides what was needed so the episode aired.
The OST: I live for Masayoshi Ooishi and the OP didn't disappoint. The ED is good too. They don't count towards the rating so moving on.
Before going on to the conclusions, I want to say that the ickiness of the plot goes way beyond the age gap. The aspect that makes the story completely reprehensible is that he's her _guardian_. He's been her only family and parental figure since she was six. It's the fact that any romance that could develop between them will be a fundamentally assymetric relationship. This is fetish-tier material.
In conclusion, you should watch this show. This is not an ironic review. The show is horrible and you should watch it. Is it entertaining? absolutely. Just mostly not for the right reasons. My own experience of the show wasn't even mostly hate-watching. The most awful plot beats pass by quickly, so there's not much to feel truly angry at. The enjoyment came from being aware that the plot was so ridiculous, and yet the story moved on, undeterred, seemingly unaware of everything it was doing wrong.
I presume that the main demographic of the show is young girls who already read and watch dozens of bad romcoms concurrently, and older girls who _are_ aware of how depraved the premise itself is, of how awful a human being the male romantic interest is, and enjoy every second of it. If you find yourself in one of these two categories, chances are you already watched the show, and perhaps are considering watching it again. Go ahead. No one's judging.
For the rest, take the show as an educational experience, as a presentation of the most sordid aspects of the Shoujo genre. Or perhaps, as an introspective experience: find yourself interested in the story, wanting to know what happens next, all while knowing you are watching one of the biggest train wrecks in recent anime history.
Dec 24, 2023
Ojou to Banken-kun
(Anime)
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Recommended Funny 
This show is quite honestly one of a kind, and I suggest everyone should at least try it.
Let's start with the premise: "A girl comes from a yakuza family and falls in love with her guardian." Okay, so there's many ways to make this work. It could be a heavy drama about grooming and a girl who puts end to the abuse, or it could a self-aware satire where the male romantic interest has just the worst traits of a typical Shoujo male, or they could make the guardian have a modicum of decency so that the focus of the story is the coming-of-age aspect ... 
Sep 11, 2023
Okashi na Tensei
(Anime)
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This show takes the standard Isekai tropes and plays them with a level of honesty and groundedness that is hard to come by (and by this I mean any groundedness at all).
There are some concerns about this not being a cooking show, and that there are politics and war instead. I see this as a strength; I appreciated the sort of bait-and-switch of expecting to see a MC living in leisure and doing what they love, but instead seeing them being confronted by the responsibility of being born noble. Desserts are left mostly in the background but they are used as a plot device here ... 
Dec 31, 2014
Chibi ad-libbed goodness. It's a quick watch, and it was intended to be watched after its respective episode, so it may have some spoilers of the original show. Expect some major cuteness in it.
The fact that it's ad-libbed is rather commendable, you can hear Ono's experience in this. That said, it's still a special, and it doesn't stand on its own. |
