I can see that it's going to be a long summer. I've watched the first episode of Dog Days 2 about eight times already. It's everything I could have hoped for, and I'm increasingly confident that Becky is going to be an asset to the story, not a swamp of angst.

I wanna watch the next episode!

I think I better put the rest of this below the fold.

I've been assuming all along that Kuberu was a chipmunk-girl. Someone at a different site, I no longer remember where, made a comment that the people of Pastillage were Tanukis.

Kuberu's tail doesn't look like a Tanuki tail, but all the other people from Pastillage we see, in ep 1 and in the OP, have tails that look more like a Tanuki than like a Chipmunk. Chipmunks are really tiny, too; whereas Tanukis are comparable in size to medium size dogs and cats. I wonder if there's word-of-god about that?

Jaune's accent is Kansai-ben and probably more specifically it's Osaka-ben, but I can't prove that.

From the OP we know that Becky is going to become hero to Pastillage, but it's going to be really interesting to see how she comes around to doing that, considering that she doesn't have any kind of fighting skill.

One thing I really like this time is that Leo isn't driven. She seems very relaxed, and she's enjoying this battle without needing it to be a victory -- though winning is nice, of course. Based on the events of the first series, that's completely explicable in character and plot terms, but it's nice to see. Leo is being a very good hostess to Nanami. She knows that Nanami is going to be disoriented, and Leo is being very patient. Of course, when watching the battle together, Leo hears Nanami saying, "I'm jealous; that looks so fun!" it's music to Leo's ears. Just what she wanted to hear from Nanami.

And I don't think Leo will be disappointed in Nanami's performance. As we know, pretty much anything that Shinku can do, Nanami can probably do at least as well. (According to the OP, that even includes magic.)

I like the cat that Leo sent to fetch Nanami. That cat has style, what with the starched collar and the blade on its back. And seeing that cat do the "come here" gesture after bringing up the magical circle was awesome.

I make a couple of predictions: We will never see Shinku and Gaul finish a fight. And we will never see Shinku and Nanami fight at all.

But we may see either or both of them fight against Becky. There's a scene in the OP showing Shinku and Nanami next to one another, firing a combined monshouhou (紋章砲) at Pastillage troops, which suggests that there will eventually be a battle between Pastillage and an alliance of Galette and Biscotti. (Or maybe not. Maybe it's just the two of them trying to rescue Becky before they find out that she's agreed to be hero for Pastillage.) Nanami should pick that up fast; Shinku did his first monshouhou within his first half hour in Biscotti.

Another interesting thing: Biscotti is fundamentally Italian, in terms of names. Galette is French. Seems that Pastillage is German. I don't associate sweet foods with German cooking the way I do with French and Italian, so if we ever meet any women or girls from there, I wonder what kinds of names they'll have?

As to Kuberu, "pastillage" is a sugar paste which is used in candy sculpting. So she fits the rule that all girls and women will have at least one name that's a sweet food.

As to Kuberu's relationship with Leo and Millefiore, I bet it starts as something akin to "bratty younger sister". But equally I bet that it won't end that way. The last show had a serious aspect to it, and a final confrontation with a terrifying danger, and I'm sure there will be something like that this time.

And I predict it will be Pastillage which is threatened. And Nanami and Shinku will join Becky in defeating it, though it will be Becky who ultimately does the most critical thing involved in the victory.

UPDATE: Another thing that's different is the way the battle is being presented compared to the ones in the previous series. And that's explicable, too. This one is the norm. It's being held by agreement with both nations, and was scheduled long ahead of time. So there was time to set up and rehearse great entrances by star players, and to set up a stage and a grandstand for an audience, and to make the broadcast a lot nicer.

The battles in the first series were being pushed at breakneck speed, for spoiler reasons I won't go into. That reason is no longer applicable, which is why this one is so much different.

UPDATE: Also, as to breast inflation, Yukki may be getting drawn with bigger boobs, but if so not by much. I think maybe Leo looks a bit bigger, too. And I think Jaune may have gained a bit.

But it's Becky who may be the biggest beneficiary of this. She sure seems to have bloomed a lot in the intervening three months. She certainly isn't up to Leo territory, but she's no longer DFC either.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in General Anime at 05:22 PM | Comments (18) | Add Comment
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