Dogs: Stray Dogs Howling in the Dark

Dogs: Prelude
狗-DOGS- Stray dogs howling in the dark
Dogs: Volume 0

Manga7.88678 votes1 volumes · 6 chaptersFinished

ActionDramaMysterySci-FiSeinen

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About this title

Synopsis

In a post apocalyptic world devoid of seasons, where man's "golden age of technology" ruined earth and caused science to run amok, there live four individuals looking for a door to the hell far below the surface. Through a series of coincidences, the ex-hitman-now-bartender Mihai, the deranged and psychopathic Haine, the vengeful yet kind Naoto, and the freelancer Badou meet one another.

Publication notes

Dogs: Stray Dogs Howling in the Dark was published in English as Dogs: Prelude by VIZ Media under the VIZ Signature imprint on April 14, 2009.

Published

2000 to 2001

Authors

Miwa, Shirow

External links

MyAnimeList page Wikipedia

MAL rank: #1422
Members (MAL): 20,120
Favorites (MAL): 228

Related titles

Sequel

Dogs: Bullets & Carnage

Adaptation

Dogs: Bullets & Carnage (anime)

Main characters

Badou Nails782 fan favorites
External profile
Badou Nails is a chain smoking, freelance journalist and photographer. Badou has long red hair and wears an eye-patch. Seven years ago, he was attacked by Richter Berthein, losing his right eye. His mood directly corresponds to the availability of cigarettes and the level of nicotine in his blood. He can swing from extreme elation to murderous violence. He had an older brother named Dave, whom he believes is dead. Dave was a a freelance journalist and appears to be the reason Badou began smoking at an early age and became a freelance journalist himself. In Dogs, he uses a pair of Ingram MAC-10 machine pistols.
Haine Rammsteiner620 fan favorites
External profile
Haine Rammsteiner is an albino gunman who has undergone genetic manipulation and implants as a child. He has a collar fused into the back of his neck, called a spine, and is able to quickly recover from any degree of injury due to the Kerberos experiments conducted by Angelika Einstürzen. She is referred to as his "mother" and she considers him to be her favorite of all the test subjects. Haine is usually emotionally distant and has no qualms about killing great numbers of people. He also has another personality which enjoys violence and destruction. He was raised in an underground research facility established to create the ultimate human weapon. Eventually, he killed everyone involved with the Kerberos project in a berserker rage. Because he also killed his younger "sister" Lily, Haine has developed gynophobia, an abnormal fear of women, and will suffer a mental breakdown when in close proximity of a woman. He develops a bond with Nill after discovering she is also a genetic experiment and that he can come into physical contact with her. He carries two guns: a white Mauser C96 pistol connected to his belt by a long chain attached to the base of the grip and a black Luger P08 pistol. He often uses the chain for close range combat, choking or restraining opponents with it. In Dogs, the white gun does not have a chain. The author Shirow Miwa named Haine Rammsteiner after the band Rammstein, stated as one of the author's favorite bands on his personal site.
Naoto Fuyumine177 fan favorites
External profile
Orphaned at a young age, Naoto was found suffering from amnesia after the extremely violent murder of her parents, which also resulted in an iconic X-shaped scar across the middle of her chest. She was taken in, raised and trained by a swordsman whom she believed to be her parents' murderer. He named her Naoto after someone else in his own past, but never revealed his own name to her. After his subsequent murder she discovered that her parents were killed by an assassin whom she was named after; the original Naoto. Following his death she has uncovered the name of her mentor, Fuyumine, and adopted it as her family name. It seems that after the years spent with Fuyumine she developed some affection for him and even refers to him as "father" after his murder. Since then Naoto made friends with Nill, and has been following Haine in an attempt to find more about Fuyumine's history, the first Naoto, and to have her revenge. She fights with the katana that she inherited from Fuyumine. Out of the main group of herself, Badō, and Haine, she seems to be the most gentle and least willing to kill. She doesn't seem to get along very well with Haine and most of their time together away from fights is spent glaring at each other maliciously. This is probably due to the fact that Haine employs extemely brutal and cruel tactics during fights. Oftentimes, Badō has to ease the tension between the two. However, during confrontations with enemies her and Haine are shown to be lethally effective when working together.
Mihai Mihaeroff25 fan favorites
External profile
A retired assassin with a comical bad sense of direction. Despite being considerably older than the rest of the cast he retains a muscular build with scruffy facial hair and scars all over his body. Due to his years of experience as a gangster he remains calm under pressure. He has a long-standing friendship with Kiri, the owner of the local restaurant and former prostitute. Although it is unknown if they previously had sexual relations they remain firm friends. Ten years prior to the start of the story he was a hired gun for a mobster and became mentor to the boss' son, a psychologically disturbed young man named Ian. At that time Mihai was romantically involved with a prostitute named Milena, but the relationship ended when Ian grew into his teens and brutally murdered her after intercourse. During the story of Dogs, Mihai has confronted Ian and failed to protect him during an assassination attempt. He has since aided Badō escape from gangsters, and in recent chapters he is protecting the passengers of a derailed train from the advancing army of unknown assassins, while trapped in an underground tunnel.