Chocotan

Rie Kugimiya has always been suited to voice tsundere loli roles. However this doesn’t stop her in voicing other character types like little boys and animals. In the latter category, I have heard her as a cat in Fairy Tail, a penguin in Kampfer and even a cockroach in Gokicha! There are many more other animal characters she has voiced that I have never heard. This includes a goat in Arashi No Yoru Ni: Himitsu No Tomodachi and that weird creature in Tamagotchi. Now in Chocotan, she voices titular character who is a dog. Yes. Rie Kugimiya is a dog. (Though I won’t want to go far to say she is the female term… It’s a joke). This special episode only lasts 10 minutes and my experience in watching single episodes and never had any more after that like Nagareboshi Lens and Hiyokoi, my expectations for this series aren’t high either. But of course, what am I going to lose if I just spend 10 minutes on this?

We are introduced to Chocotan who is the cute daschund doggie and her owner is Nao. Due to some weird plant she ate, Chocotan is able to converse with humans and has intelligence on par with humans too. Wow. Some plant. Must be drugs. Why the heck was this dog trying to eat flowers anyway? Anyway, the ability for Chocotan to talk is a secret just between them. Chocotan knows that Nao has a big crush on this guy called Arima whom she always bumps into at the park while walking her dog. It is no surprise that she is always happy to see him. So on another such meeting, Nao wants to plan a birthday party for Happy, Arima’s daschund pet. Despite sharing the same name as that cat in Fairy Tail, Happy isn’t your fish-loving comic relief joker and has a slight mean and arrogant attitude. Suddenly a couple of girls hijack their conversation so Arima has no choice but to go with their flow. This doesn’t sit well with Nao and since she’s not the kind to tell those b*tches to get the f*ck off, she leaves with a heavy heart. We know she is frustrated since she tells Chocotan to ‘shut up’ when she asks what is happening.

Back home when she has calmed down, Nao apologizes for taking out on her. She explains Arima doesn’t go to the same class with her and thus she doesn’t get much chance to talk to him. They also did not make any promise to walk together or something. But if he’s always at that park, she has a reason to be with him. And those girls must be from his class. She thinks she can’t fit in. Chocotan tries to cheer her up that she is always by her side. Suddenly they can’t understand each other! Oh no! What happened?! Chocotan is just barking in Nao’s ears. Nao sinks into depression and pessimism. It is because of Chocotan that she is able to have a reason to meet and talk to Arima. What’s the difference? Just bring Chocotan along. She just can’t talk anymore, right? Nao realizes Chocotan is sad to and cheers her up with a scarf she just finished. She knows Chocotan is trying to comfort her so she hugs the doggie. Nao is going to try harder next time.

Next time comes but it starts off with a blooper. Nao trips. Arima picks her up and Nao in tears start talking about how she doesn’t get much chance to talk to him but have lots of fun when she does. However he has her think why even though this park is so big and they haven’t made plans to meet each other, yet he stills meet her every day. Yup. His feelings are the same as hers. Today they will be alone together. Those girls won’t be coming back because Happy scared them away with his fierce growling. Nao and Arima have their happy moment together but Happy doesn’t understand why humans can’t be honest with each other. If they like each other, they should just say it. Maybe it’s because he’s not human that’s why he doesn’t understand. Chocotan is happy for Nao and congratulates her. Eh? Suddenly Chocotan can talk and catches everyone by surprise.

Let Talking Dogs Talk
Well, well… So what else should I say? Just like that lah. Nothing very much spectacular. I’m sure if you love dogs, you would love this but since I am not an animal person, I am not really into all those cute puppy close up shots. Besides, I believe this special is adapted from a shoujo romance manga of the same name. You just add a dog into the mix. So I’m more fixated with the pretty people like Nao and Arima instead. You know, shoujo genre. People with big sparkly eyes… Hah… The cutest part is the ending theme because it has Chocotan singing the chorus in a cute way (Rie Kugimiya at her cutely cute best) especially when she goes “Choco, Choco, Chochochoco Chocotan!”. Other than that the lyrics seem to describe her personality. Dog lovers would love their dog to be able to talk to them and even help them out with their romance life. I don’t know how dogs can be good love consultants. Sounds like a crazy idea or reason but hey! It beats eating up your homework, right?

P/S: I don’t mind if I had a dog that sounds like Mamiko Noto! Oh sh*t! That would be just creepy!