Ginga: Nagareboshi Gin

Title:Ginga: Nagareboshi Gin
Ging: The Falling Star
Silver Fang
銀牙 流れ星銀
Overall:Buy
Keywords: , , , , , , , ,
Notables:
Ginga: Nagareboshi Gin is a tale about a little puppy dog who was born in the wilderness. He is silver striped and is destined to become the defender of people from the perilous cave bears. Gin decides to help the people at his home town at any cost, even though he might have to leave precious friends to pursue his cause.

Animation by Toei Animation.
21 TV episodes (~23min each).

3:40min Music Trailer - YouTube Video
OverallArtAnimationCharacter Design MusicSeries StoryEpisode StoryReviewer
Buy 8 6 9 7 10 Kaali [series:758#1285]
This is propably the first anime series i have ever seen, and when i saw it i was about 5-7 years old. Well, it's kind of awkward to say that i saw IT because the Finnish version was very censored. They cut something like 168 minutes so that it could be advertised as a "Children's favorite" cartoon. This really isn't a children's anime as there are a lot of fighting between animals with gore. Well, as a child i still loved "Hopeanuoli" (as it is called in finland) and watched it over and over again following the adventures of the brave little dog. Somehow it seems that this anime isn't known anywhere else but in Finland and Sweden, odd.
In Finland they re-released this series un-cut & un-dubbed on DVD, i bought it, watched it, and still love it.
As usual, it is very hard to tell anything about the story without spoiling it. All i can say that the story is very moving as the people and the dogs experience loss, joy and many hardships. There are many powerful scenes that might make you cry. And all of it seems to have some deeper meanings to it, about friendship, duty etc. I also love they way they separated the dogs world, and the human world; for a while the dogs won't speak at all, just bark, but after a while they slowly phase out the humans talking, and instead of barking dogs begin to have conversations themselves.
I recommend this piece, as a classic and it still worked for me even 15 years later.
- Art: The art is quite nice for it's time. The dogs are very well drawn at times.
- Animation: The animation is lacking, seemingly because of low production values. Sometimes all you see is a still images panning and zooming, but it doesn't hamper the overall experience.
- Character design: There is a lot of dogs in this series, and all of the main characters has unique and interesting personalities with even histories of somekind.
- Music: Music guided the mood in some touching scenes quite well, even if the recording quality is quite low.
- Series Story: I loved the story, very touching.
PS: I might have added some nostalgy points to it. Can't help it, the series is in my blood.

Last updated Sunday, March 21 2004. Created Sunday, March 21 2004.

Other Sites
NameURL
Toei Animation http://www.toei-anim.co.jp/oldies/tv/079_gin/
Official website?

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