1 Wow, the director of - get this - Ranma (!), Simoun (!), and True Tears! And storyboards for Full Moon o Sagashite, too. Not having anything against Mr. Kusakawa, and of course he's done a great job at original Dog Days, but this is like expecting next Tatsuo Sato masterpiece... Well, I dropped Mouretsu Pirates, so... Still, very good vibe here.

2 Just finished watching Dog Days.

I was actually pretty impressed.  It's not shooting for being a masterpiece, but of the entire genre it sits in, it was quite good.  The tone was consistent, the world made sense, it was enjoyable, the characters weren't really a bunch of idiots, it wasn't really setup as a harem series, there were other competent males in the cast and the fan service scenes weren't super distracting.

And, much credit to the writing staff for having a reason for "clothing damage".  That alone makes the series a solid watch.

Though, I could have done without the super detailed list that Cinque had to follow to be able to come back.  I would have preferred an unintentional comedy scene with more "fine print".  Something like "they can return after 2 months if you didn't hate them when you sent them back, but you have 1 year or their memories are permanently gone", then point out most of the false information was due to the fact previous Heroes either didn't want to leave or previous summoners hated the people they summoned.  But, that's being nitpicky.

It was a lot better than most of its genre.  Or at least a lot more consistently enjoyable.

So, looking forward to this.  The new director is competent, and if it was mostly the writer's world then it should come out decent.  Director has a lot of experience with comedy, which won't hurt matters.

3

I do wonder what the story setup will be. Presumably, there's some huge danger elsewhere, and chipmunk-girl shows up and asked for help from Biscotti and Galette. That's my guess, but I wonder what the details will be. Who will eventually respond? What we want is for everyone to respond, but that makes for a pretty crowded story.

Galette: Leo, Gaul, Vert, Jaune, and Noir
Biscotti: Millefiore, Ricotta, Eclair, Brioche, Yukikaze (and likely the fox kit)
Earth: Shinku, Becky, Manami

Plus, presumably, Kuberu as a guide. That's a pretty big group.

4 Oops. Nanami, not Manami.

5 Well, they showed 2 countries and Yukikaze + Brioche encounter roughly 4 demonic swords per year.  Also, weren't they looking for some "Longsword"? (Depending on who translated it)

There's an entire world to flesh out and they can just put in a random demon antagonist.  There's probably also a true capital city they could spend an episode or two in.

Oh, and one thing I really loved from the series.  Shinku just accepted that they're Dog-humans and ran with it.  Right down to playing frisbee with Millefoire.  I like protagonists that end up in strange worlds and just go "eh, I can have some fun with this".  And I couldn't stop laughing at the Leo + Millefoire petting scene.  That was just too funny.

One interesting thing about the show, heavy spoilers:

Spoiler for Relationships: I found it interesting that this really wasn't a harem series.  The only two actual romantic pairings they put forward were Shinku X Millefoire and Shinku X Eclair.  Even for such a large cast, that's all they ever actually put forward.  Which had a really nice effect of preventing the random "make sure to give Haremette Y an episode to appease the fans" problems.  So the pacing wasn't hurt by that needing to be there.

Oh, and I loved the fact even Roland was shipping Shinku X Eclair, haha.  It's not like everyone didn't notice Eclair liked Shinku.  Though, in also one of the "good writing touches", Shinku really only ever saw the Tsun-side of the Tsundere archetype, yet Eclair's friends saw a lot of the dere-side, leading them to attempt to help the relationship along.

One other interesting side bit.  A middle school aged boy would actually make a lot of sense for the type of movements they wanted him to do.  Yes, his jumping ability isn't really doable, but if you've seen boys in gymnastics around that age, they're actually capable of something fairly interesting.  They're actually at, generally, the peak of Strength over Bodyweight.  They're about to put on a lot of height and weight and to reach the same Strength to Bodyweight level, they have to massively increase the amount of strength they have.  (This is why male gymnasts you see compete are all college aged, as the male-focused equipment requires insane amounts of strength)  

Yet, at the same time, these boys don't have specific types of strength available to them yet.  You don't see many Iron Crosses at that age.  They're more like overly strong female gymnasts.  It's one of those things that you don't see often, and I'm pretty sure it wasn't intentional, but it's one of the few times in anime that the young-age-protagonist actually makes a ton of sense.   Plus, seeing Sasuke (Ninja Warrior) in an anime was fun.  That stuff is brutal and awesome.

6

Gravity doesn't work the same in that world as it does in ours, as evidenced by all the floating islands and the odd floating castle, not to mention Shinku's flying flame-sled. So I wasn't too concerned about how Shinku seemed able to jump 50 or more feet in the air -- especially after he started using magic. And likewise, considering his strength, balance and coordination, I wasn't really offended by his ability to jump like that without crashing.

Besides, it's a fantasy. You have to cut some slack for the Rule of Cool.

The director of the first series knows how to do shows that don't get sidetracked by harem aspects, even if there is romance going on. He directed Nanoha A's and Nanoha StrikerS, and Dog Days is quite evidently related, in terms of story telling skill and series construction.

One of the reasons why there isn't any serious harem complication is that everyone can see that Millefiore has a huge crush on Shinku. And, well, she has priority. No one else is going to try to steal him from her as long as she wants him. I think that may have been part of Eclair's circumstances. She is intensely loyal to Millefiore, and would never, never do anything that would inconvenience the princess of the realm. Eclair's sense of duty is the foundation of her entire life. It's her reason for living, the pattern of her existence, the entirety of her self-esteem. Trying to steal the princess's boyfriend isn't acceptable.

I think that absent any other circumstances Rico might have made a play for him. But as it was, because Millefiore is Rico's best friend and princess of the realm, Rico kept him in the friends zone. But a good friend, a close friend, for such a short time.

There were a couple of things that suggested that the city-state ruled by Millefiore is part of a larger empire. Millefiore rules that particular principality, but there's a king or emperor or something elsewhere to whom she owes fealty. (Some of that I get from that wonderful letter at the end, which seems to have been sent to Biscotti from the capital.)