Dogsred vol. 5

It’s time for the members of Oinokami’s hockey team to face their first real match!  Coach Nihei has set them up to play against Sekka High in what you’d think would be a relatively normal game to ease these kids onto the ice.  Except that Sekka is filled with hardcore delinquents and they make it clear from the start that they’re planning on playing as dirty as possible to win this.  While the Oinokami crew is a little freaked out by this, Rou is determined to show his opponents what beautiful ice hockey looks like and make them regret their ways.  Even if that works, it’s not going to matter much when his team is facing a three-on-five matchup.  And why does their coach keep muttering, “Little doggy pees itself?”

Satoru Noda may have taken a bit to get to this point, but we get a generally satisfying first match in Oinokami’s road to redemption.  As is the case for most of the action in this series, it’s as predictable as you’d expect, but filled with enough personality to get by nonetheless.  A lot of that comes from Rou and his desire to show off beautiful ice hockey, yet there’s also Keiichi and his multiple ejections, some astounding goalkeeping, a threat to paint a goal line in blood that’s actually made good on, and “GUIDANCE!”  I even learned a few things about hockey that I didn’t know before.  Yes, nothing here truly surprised me and the series still has a larger cast than it knows what to do with, and it’s still managing to entertain anyway.  Which is enough for now.