Dogeza: I Tried Asking While Kowtowing is based on the manga, with 12 episodes and an OVA. This is a sex comedy so there’s plenty of fan service and even the author was surprised that it was adapted into anime form due to its content. Each episode is less than four minutes long. Considering that there is an ending theme and a short intro, the content is a tad bit over two minutes long, so there isn’t much time at all.
The anime follows Doge Suwaru, who for some reason, will go around kneeling (i.e. dogeza, or kowtowing) and begging the girl to reveal their breasts or underwear for him to see. Each episode has a different girl, and this is pretty much the whole anime. It tries to do something different for each girl, but every episode defies logic. There are often cringe-worthy scenarios that can be difficult to watch.
No matter what, the girl will eventually relent. What Doge is doing amounts to sexual harassment, so there are mixed feelings when he succeeds. The sad thing is that the humor doesn’t justify the setting because the humor is non-existent most of the time. You might get a chuckle, but the premise can border on crossing the line to be enjoyable. The humor that works is mostly the narrator commenting on Doge and the absurdity of the situation.
The animation is limited, and it has a visual novel feel to it. You never see Doge, and each scene basically has the girl’s character portrait in front of a static background. There’s a lot of dialogue going on between Doge and the girl as he begs. The dialogue is mostly fluff and there’s no particularly special way he uses to convince the girl. So apart from the premise, there isn’t any substance. Perhaps it is because it is much harder to adapt this into anime form compared to the original manga, so it is lost in translation.
Overall, Dogeza: I Tried Asking While Kowtowing is a decidedly average anime, probably even below average. If you’re interested in the premise, then it’ll take only 45 minutes or so to go through all the episodes, so it is not too much time wasted. However, there isn’t much substance to this anime at all and it can be quite boring and bland. Given that there wasn’t much of a plot, there isn’t much of an ending either. If you’re keen for an anime that focuses on sexual content with a good dose of humor, then Interspecies Reviewers is a much better watch.
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