Inugami-san to Nekoyama-san Episode 2 [Anime Review]

Welcome, one all, to my continuing episodic review series for Inugami-san to Nekoyama-san. I really enjoyed the first episode. Did the second continue that trend? Actually, yes! Let’s discuss.

More Of The Same Names…

So, the gag around animal traits and names continued as we were introduced to two new characters, Nezu Mikine and Ushiwaka Yukiji. Nezu is small, claims to be nocturnal, and eats cheese. Meanwhile, Yukiji is taller and is larger up top. Nezumi means rat in Japanese and Ushi means cow, which is where the names are derived from.

These perhaps don’t work entirely as well as our main leads. Nezu’s is the stronger pun, though rats and mice don’t really tend to eat cheese. Despite the stereotype, they tend to go for whatever is I the cupboard. I think the cheese thing came about because that was around a lot during WWII. These days, they go more for biscuits and chocolate. The cheese link is well established though, so I can let that slide. Meanwhile, the cow pun is obviously a reference to milk production. There’s even a milk logo that flashes up on-screen briefly. That was pretty weak IMO.

Love And Laughter

The jokes here were pretty on point again and actually gave way to a sort of sweetness. You see, it’s Inugami that first meets Nezu. While Nezu is describing her love of cheese, she says that all cheeses ‘seem pervy and taste good’, then follows up with her instincts acting for the sake of romance. It was completely off the cuff and had that ‘did they just say that?’ feel to it, which is usually good to raise a smile. The result though was that Inugami decided that they have lots in common and that they should be friends.

The first flutter of jealousy came shortly after as, with her tail-hair wagging, Inugami talked about Nezu with Aki and Nekoyama, prompting the kitty to tell her that she’d never forgive her if she moves onto someone else.

We then switched back to the attraction humour as Nezu convinced the main pair to join Biology Club with her (it’s called “Alive” by the students apparently). Here we were introduced to Ushiwaka, who immediately fell on top of a happy Nezu. Oh, and Nezu introduced her as her wife, which surprised Ushiwaka too. It looks like the pair is the opposite of our main two, with the smaller person being the more fervent here.

There was a sweet moment then when Nezu suggested that she and Nekoyama form a we-fall-for-tall-people alliance, which Nekoyama was very much in favour of. Certainly more so than when Nezu suggested a small person alliance. Finally, they introduced Nezu to Aki, leading to more jealousy from Nekoyama when she sees Inugami hugging Nezu and then being paired up with her. Aki suggest pairing up by height, as she has the urge to put them into units, and that’s where the episode ends.

The fun for me here comes becomes I own two dogs and a cat and used to have a rat. No cow, mind you, but Ushiwaka wasn’t really a part of much of the humour here. Anyway, my point. Inugami is friendly with Nezu, and that’s generally correct for dogs; they want all the love from all the people, even when they have a specific favourite. Meanwhile, Nekoyama went full on cat. She was jealous of the attention being shifted elsewhere but was also fickle enough to accept attention from her sometimes-enemy too. Cats really do like to be at the centre of things but are happy to flip-flop when they see fit. Meanwhile, Nezu did kinda seem like she was winding Nekoyama up on purpose at times. Because Tom and jerry, I guess? It worked, anyway. Good stuff.

Aesthetics

The VAs continue to do a good here and visually, the series is still just as old school in feel. My only complaint really is that there were some shots where the character’s facial proportions seemed to be a little off. Most notably, when Nezu and Nekoyama agree to their alliance, Nekoyama’s head looked like it had changed shape.

Overall

That was another fun episode. The animal humour is used well, and like Is aid, there’s a sweetness to Inugami and Nekoyama. The shortness of the episodes forces the series to just do what it needs to too, which definitely helps it overall. But what about yourselves? Have you seen this show? What did you make of this episode? Let me know below!

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