お嬢と番犬くん

OJOU TO BANKEN-KUN

ANIME

STATUS
COMPLETE
EPISODES
13
RELEASE
December 22, 2023
LENGTH
24 min

DESCRIPTION

Isaku just wants to live a normal life. But as the granddaughter of a yakuza boss, that’s a pretty tall order. For years, it’s been difficult for Isaku to make friends and find love. So, she decides to enroll in a high school far from her hometown in hopes of a fresh start. But her plans take an unexpected turn when a worried member of the yakuza, Keiya, enrolls in the same school to protect her.

(Source: Crunchyroll)

CAST

Keiya Utou
Yuuichirou Umehara
Isaku Senagaki
Akari Kitou
Mikio Tanuki
Junya Enoki
Kaori Sekiya
Mai Nakahara

EPISODES

Dubbed

| | |

Not available on crunchyroll

RELATED TO OJOU TO BANKEN-KUN

MANGA DramaOjou to Banken-kun

REVIEWS

Elfwifeowner
80/100
A breath of fresh air in the clichéd flood of contemporary romance genre
A Decent Review of A Girl & Her Guard Dog

Obligatory spoilers mark

CHARACTERS

Senagaki Isaku is the story's main heroine, whose parents died when she was just 5 years old and been under her grandfather's care ever since.

Uto Keiya serves as our secondary protagonist and Isaku's overprotective legal guardian working for her grandfather as a professional high-school cosplayer.

STORY

Much to Isaku's dismay, being the granddaughter of a Yakuza boss always resulted in her being unable to achieve what she desired the most, which is forming meaningful human bonds and living an average life. Instead she got people who constantly ditch her once they learn her real situation and an overprotective idiot who's mental capacity is actually around that of a dog's.

Not much into the series we learn that Keiya's overprotectiveness is in fact not without any necessity, as Isaku regularly finds herself in dangerous situations that could easily result in serious mental or physical damage or could even cost her her life.

As the story progresses, it becomes clear that it's not just Isaku who has no idea how to move forward, but Keiya himself as well, because while he is sure in his feelings towards her, because of his tunnel vision regarding his duties and the personality that comes with that, he regularly struggles in finding a way to close the space between them.

THE VISUALS

Probably the show's main weakness, as while the general style gives enough character and agency to the anime, sometimes it feels really stale and low-quality, but that's more like the studio, project No.9's characteristic.

THE AGE GAP

People around Isaku's age regularly showed her coldness, two-facedness or just wanted to use her without any care, that resulted in Isaku being a little naivé and untrusting towards them at the same time. And while there is a pretty big age gap between her and Keiya, it's nothing out of ordinary, and he regularly demonstrates that he's not abusing his position as an older person or steps over the line Isaku sets, and serves as a stable pillar in her life as she goes on to spread her wings and become more independent.

SUMMARY

While some aspect of the story feel rushed and having a longer run could have helped with exploring details in more depth while simultaniously uncovering them in a pace that feels less like a "walk from A to B", Ojou to Banken-kun still delivers a cute love story with some pretty funny elements and deserves a honest 8/10.

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BugsAnimeBites
70/100
It Could Have Gone so Wrong
It Could Have Gone so Wrong

"A Girl & Her Guard Dog" is about our main guy, Keiya Utou, and our main girl, Isaku Senagaki. Isaku's parents died when she is about 6. Her grandpa is a yakuza boss. He appoints Keiya, who is 16 at the time, to watch over her. Keiya says, "I'll be your mom, dad, brother, and friend." Fast forward to the present day, Isaku is 16, and Keiya is 26, still looking after her. Isaku's catching feelings for our Keiya, but she's conflicted bc he raised her, which is reasonable. Isaku begins high school and decides to go to one about an hour away where no one knows she's related to the Yakuza. So, to protect Isaku, Keiya decides to bribe school officials to enroll. Wouldn't other people get suspicious of someone looking so old claiming to be 16? I mean, they do, but these are Japanese people. Some 60-year-olds could pass for 28. Oh boy, what follows is the drama romance of figuring out what to do with all the feels.

Listen, guys, it's alright. This is coming from someone who has seen a lot of anime. I've been confronted with the age gap love story before. I've seen it done based, and I've seen it done cringe. This is somewhere in the middle. The fundamental problem of an age-gap love story is the older person could easily use their adult knowledge to abuse the younger person, and the younger person is so young they could shift into someone completely new. The older person is often socially stunted and head over heels for the younger. Why? If an older person is socially stunted, a young yet socially adept or at least aware person gets the upper hand over the older in some way. It also helps the viewer rationalize, "Well, he's almost mentally at that age." And Keiya is undoubtedly socially stunted. Above all else, when making an age-gap love story, you must ensure the audience doesn't think either party is being abused or manipulated. This show makes it clear the main 2 want nothing but the best for each other; the story is just trying to answer, "Where does that leave these 2?"

Extra Thoughts

Visually, it's pretty good. It uses the classic anime technique of keeping the slow bits looking okay, then turning up the budget for more meaningful moments. Those slow bits can sometimes look garbo, but when they turn that budget up, the shots look so beautiful. When I close my eyes and think about those shots, I'm filled with the same feeling you get from some stills from some of the most beautiful romance anime of all time. Beautiful characters are drawn immaculately over flowery backgrounds. When it wants to look good, this show looks good.

The sound design is fine. I don't have a single issue or piece of praise for any voice acting, music, or sound effects. It's just fine.

I pretty much liked all the characters. Except for that one guy later on who tries to do... things... to Isaku. Everything that happened around that guy is the worst part of this show. I like Isaku, Keiya is aight, and I like Isaku's friends.

Overall, I'll have to give the classic 7/10. I definitely don't prefer age-gap love stories, especially when they can go so wrong, but this one did okay for the most part. I was captivated not by their love but by the show's convincing me that it was okay. Do I recommend this? Uh, maybe if you're an anime veteran looking for a newer aight romance, but I definitely can't recommend this to any newer anime viewers, at least from the West. We've got a stigma around age gap love stories here, and for good reason.
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thePingusDingus
5/100
More like A Victim & Her Guard Dog. Send the male lead to prison! (Content warning: sexual assault)
Introduction

A Girl & Her Guard Dog is a show that opens with a disclaimer:

“This story is a work of fiction. It has no relationship to real-world law.”

My educated guess is that the disclaimer refers to the age of consent in Japan being above 16 as of June 25th 2023. This anime portrays a romantic relationship between a 26 year old and a 15 year old. To any rational person, this would be enough to stop watching. Lock the memory of the show into a box in your brain and never open it again. I watched this anime with my friends, because having other people as backup is the only way to endure the A Girl & Her Guard Dog experience.

Elements of Questionable and Detestable Nature

You thought pedophilia is the only awful part of this anime? Think again! Not only is Keiya almost twice Isaku’s age, but he is also her parent figure. They’re not blood related, so it’s not as bad as it could’ve been, but it’s still a relationship between a girl and a man who was, for the majority of her life, her dad/older brother. He says that himself in one of the later episodes: “I am your mother, father and brother.”

With the authoritative power he has over her, he is extremely controlling. One of the first things Keiya does in the anime is take Isaku’s phone and block a guy she was texting with. He forbids her from talking to guys in her school and outright states that he will not allow any man to take her from him. Later in the show, Keiya’s former lover tells Isaku that he would “not let her go even if she wanted him to.” In the context of Keiya almost raping Isaku (and I say rape because children can’t consent) but Isaku making him stop in the last minute, he says that he won’t be at her beck and call forever, and one day won’t stop. This is all treated as very cute and romantic for some reason, and not as the actions of a psychopath.

The way the story tries to justify Keiya’s actions is insane. Remember that guy whose contact Keiya wanted to block? As it turns out, he’s an alcoholic and a rapist. Keiya had no way of knowing this, of course, it just so happened that every single man in this story except Keiya is absolutely awful and probably drinks human blood. This way, Keiya is the greatest man on Earth by default, because everyone around him is awful. Later on in the anime, Keiya’s rival kidnaps Isaku and attempts to rape her, a situation that the protagonists get out of in five minutes, tops. It’s never brought up again and the attempted rapist is forgiven because he’s part of the school play which the students worked really hard on, and it would be unfair to the students to deal with the, I can’t stress this enough, attempted rapist.

The Audiovisuals Suck Harder than a Leech

The budget of this anime was the price of any item at a dollar store. One dollar. The animation is laughably bad. The background characters are stiff, there is no emotion in anyone’s face, Isaku’s hair looks like spaghetti, and some of the frames look like my drawings from kindergarten:

Look at his arms. Those things are definitely broken.

Goofy ass face. They pause on faces like this multiple times.

There are other issues as well. Sometimes the lighting in some scenes will inexplicably flicker, there are times when the characters are moving their mouths but not saying anything, and at the end of the anime they probably completely ran out of money so the last two-three episodes each had solid 4 minutes of flashbacks to previous scenes.

Conclusion

The anime is bad. You read the review summary. You probably read the introduction as well, it’s not that long. I considered not writing this review at all at first, given how every single aspect of this anime should deter anyone from ever watching it, but I was shocked to see that both pre-existing reviews of the show are positive. Absolutely heartbreaking. This anime isn’t worth your time unless you’re watching it with friends to clown on it.
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