Dog Days – 13 (Finale)

I was close.  Just mixed up the timing of some of those events and I would’ve accurately predicted the finale of Dog Days.  That’s good news because I’m feeling lucky and I think I’ll throw out another prediction.  What the next season of Dog Days will be like.

I hope it is as clear to you as it is to me that there will be a second season of Dog Days.  If the importance of returning to Flonyard these past few episodes and discussion about summer vacation being the ideal time to return weren’t enough, the discovery and understanding of how to return Shinku to Flonyard should be more than enough reason to believe a second season will appear sometime in the future.  The finale probably would’ve advertised the airing date of the next season, if it knew when it would be, and probably will be announced sometime after seeing how well the anime sells and where the priorities are of this series.

And like I mentioned earlier, I might as well predict the next season of Dog Days while I’m on a roll, albeit a rocky one.

The next season of Dog Days will begin around the start of summer vacation when Shinku, Becky, and Shinku’s rival-relative, Nanami, all go to Flonyard.  There will be a problem facing both the nations of Biscotti and Galette, either it being demons returning or something related to the lack of spiritual power around their world, and require Shinku to become the hero again and fight whatever needs to be fought.  Becky will likely just be there for romantic tension between her, Millhiore, and Eclair, and is unlikely to see any action but is expected to be captured and need rescuing or something.  Nanami, being Shinku’s rival, will likely be paired up with Leonmichelle and the nation of Galette, therefore allowing Shinku to compete against his rival while still having her be close and in a friendly nation.  And with her cheerful, energetic, and athletic personality, she’s probably a better fit for Galette (especially with Gaul) than Shinku is with Biscotti.

As for the cute-eared characters, I expect maybe some updated costumes but for them to retain similar roles.  We’ll see more of their true strength and personalities, such as Leonmichelle being honest with herself and others more, but nothing major.  Obviously they’ll be busy at war with whatever new forces are menacing the world or trying to resolve the energy issue that may have been caused by their playful wars and overuse of their special swords.  Either way, the second season of Dog Days will continue where this one left off for the characters in Flonyard but feature new adventures for Shinku, Becky, and Nanami.

And yeah, that’s as far as I’ll go.  Sure, I’m playing it safe with that minimally detailed description but doing anything more would likely be impossible to predict.  Why’s that?  Well, that’s because everything in my prediction is directly taken from foreshadowing throughout the end of Dog Days.  Of course, some details may be off in that prediction, but it’s the same way I predicted this finale and was almost correct.  Using the same technique again should yield a similar result, so that’s why I feel I already know the plot to the next season of Dog Days.  Do I know it exactly?  No, of course not.  Would I watch the second season anyways?  Duh, this was a great show (that did have some flaws) that was entertaining and worthwhile.

The finale, itself, was satisfactory: nothing too exciting but it achieved what it set out to do.  The first half of the episode was solemn and a bit sad, with Rico still researching a way to bring Shinku back and Shinku going to the ceremony with Eclair.  Once there, there is a bittersweet conversation between Shinku and Millhiore before Shinku is eventually taken back to Japan.  There, our young hero struggled to draw back the memories of his times in Flonyard.  Yet, he has the strong feeling that he should know something, something both fun and sad.  It is then when Noir brings Rico some books from Galette’s library which conveniently has the instructions on resummoning which was, even more conveniently already performed by Shinku.  On top of that, by sending his ring back to Shinku in Japan, he was able to regain his memories of Flonyard, thus leaving us with a happy ending to Dog Days.

Aside from the brief scene where Millhiore reached out and stopped Shinku from leaving temporarily, nothing exciting happened in the ending.  The whole episode seemed content on wrapping up its story while laying the foundation and plans set up well for the next.  The series ended on a positive note, with everyone optimistic for Shinku’s return to Flonyard and, unknown to most, with his friend, Becky, and rival, Nanami.  There really isn’t a whole lot to say beside that.  I suppose I could talk about the season as a whole but I leave that up to my season review, hopefully up later this week.  Oh, there is one more thing…

Those rules on summoning/returning/resummoning are beyond stupid and definitely my least favorite part of Dog Days.  How exactly do they know everything already?  If they’ve had trouble resummoning people back from other planets, how do they know they lose their memories and can’t take anything back with them?  Why do they have these day limits where it can only happen in a certain time frame?  Do the spirits that authorize summons suddenly stop and say “nope, you needed to follow our guidelines next time” and halt all summons thereafter?  And why do you have to promise three people you’re coming back, leave something with them, and then write in that incomprehensible language both the same of the summoner and hero and say they’ll be back?  Who’s keeping track of all that and why do they need to?  It’s completely stupid is what it is.  There’s no need for these things to be in place, unless this was their plan on creating a bittersweet and heartwarming farewell to send Shinku back.  That’s the only thing I can think of but why did they have all these dumb rules set up in order for such an event?  Couldn’t the writers have done something simpler and believable?  It ruined parts of the ending for me for being so illogical and uncompromising.  I’m wondering how others felt about that.  Am I alone in thinking that those rules were thoughtless or are there others who share similar thoughts on how the series created drama in the final episodes?