History Manga / StrayDog

Overall a good TearJerker and heartwarming story, which is pretty much ''Fullmetal'''s prototype considering the number of terms and plot devices used in the story that would later be recycled in ''Fullmetal'''s plot.

Overall a good TearJerker and heartwarming story, which is pretty much ''Fullmetal''s prototype considering the number of terms and plot devices used in the story that would later be recycled in ''Fullmetal''s plot.

It focuses on the story of a bandit, Fultac, and his "military dog" Kilka. A "military dog" is a creature derived from the fusion of a human being and a dog (duh!), which is very loyal to his/her owner; originally used as soldiers, they are now pretty much pets, and the laboratory where they were created serves now as a factory. After finding Kilka, Fultac and her eventually face a bounty hunter mage and his own military dog; while said mage and military dog are killed, Fultac pretty much loses an arm, [[spoiler:and Kilka dies]]. Filled with anger he goes to the laboratory where he was created, facing the scientist/mage who is responsible for everything. [[spoiler:In the process we learn he was among his very first experiment, thrown away as a child to the sewers along with the carcasses of the other victims of the scientist/mage's experiments]]. After burning the place down Fultac kills the other military dogs to free them from their miserable lives, and ends up adopting a little military dog child himself,[[spoiler: who may or may not be free since he didn't performed the ritual of "bonding"]].

Written by Creator/HiromuArakawa in 1999, this one-chapter manga (published in a magazine at the time) was her very first serious work. It would eventually influence her later works, especially ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'', particularly in her own concept of alchemy itself ("chemistry and magic") as well as that of [[PettingZooPeople chimaeras]].

* CrowningMomentOfHeartWarming: Fultac, and basically any interactions with [[spoiler:his second military dog. Perhaps even more admirable is the fact we don't see him doing the apparently necessary ritual to bond military dogs to their owners as he did to Kilka, so there's a chance that the child grew up to be a normal boy(?) or at least free to make his own choices.]]

It focuses on the story of a bandit, Fultac, and his "military dog" Kilka. A "military dog" is a creature derived from the fusion of a human being and a dog (duh!), which is very loyal to his/her owner; originally used as soldiers, they are now pretty much pets, and the laboratory where they were created serves now as a factory. After finding Kilka, Fultac and her eventually face a bounty hunter mage and his own military dog; while said mage is killed, Fultac pretty much loses an arm, [[spoiler:and Kilka dies]]. Filled with anger he goes to the laboratory where he was created, facing the scientist/mage who is responsible for everything. [[spoiler:In the process we learn he was among his very first experiment, thrown away as a child to the sewers along with the carcasses of the other victims of the scientist/mage's experiments]]. After burning the place down Fultac kills the other military dogs to free them from their miserable lives, and ends up adopting a little military dog child himself,[[spoiler: who may or may not be free since he didn't performed the ritual of "bonding"]].

* CrapsackWorld: The setting is a bleak world where technological advances in science and magic are used to create sentient military dogs of war, an economic depression is present, and the aforementioned dogs of war are now sold into slavery in droves at a high price by the mage that created them. So many are produced the birthing place of these slaves has become a factory and it's implied that orphan children are being abducted and used as guinea pigs to make more military dogs.

* HandicappedBadass:[[spoiler: Fultac becomes this after he loses his arm trying to protect Kilka from the bounty hunter.]]

* LittleBitBeastly: Young dogs look like this, while older ones are more UsefulNotes/{{furry|Fandom}}.

* MagicKnight: Fultac is a partial example: in addition to swordsmanship he knows exactly ''one'' spell, which is fairly powerful, due to how difficult it is for him to learn magic.
* LightIsNotGood: The bounty hunter mage uses light-based powers. Fultac later uses them, though...and it's still not good for the military dogs and for the mage/scientist.

* TheLoad: Kilka was this to Fultac for three years after he found her due to being her incredibly clumsy, causing him to mock her as useless.

* SlaveRace: The Military Dogs are bred to be this, being specifically made to be subservient and completely loyal as dogs to the masters they make a pact with until death and are basically treated as ornaments or guard dogs. When their master dies, a military dog is left without a purpose and is left to die due to being unable to take care of themselves.

[[quoteright:246:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/stray_dog_1_1213.jpg]]

* HandicappedBadass:[[Fultac becomes this after he loses his arm trying to protect Kilka from the bounty hunter.]]

Overall a good TearJerker and heartwarming story, which is pretty much ''Fullmetal'''s prototype considering the number of terms and plot devices used in the story that would later be recycled in ''Fullmetal'''s plot.

* AntiHero: Fultac is one due to being a murderous criminal that's accumulated a massive bounty by the beginning of the story. He's also a jerk to Kilka despite it being clear he cares about her.

* CrowningMomentOfHeartWarming: Fultac, and basically any interactions with [[spoiler:his second military dog. Perhaps even more admirable is the fact we don't see him doing the apparently necessary ritual to bond military dogs to their owners as he did to Kilka, so there's a chance that the child grew up to be a normal boy(?)]]

* LittleBitBeastly: young dogs look like this, while older ones are more UsefulNotes/{{furry|Fandom}}.

* ShoutOut: Fultac kinda looks like [[{{Manga/Berserk}} Guts/Gatts]].

Overall a good TearJerker and heartwarming story, which is pretty much ''Fullmetal'''s prototype.

* MagicKnight: Fultac is a partial example: in addition to swordsmanship he knows exactly ''one'' spell, which is fairly powerful.

Written by HiromuArakawa in 1999, this one-chapter manga (published in a magazine at the time) was her very first serious work. It would eventually influence her later works, especially ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'', particularly in her own concept of alchemy itself ("chemistry and magic") as well as that of [[PettingZooPeople chimaeras]].

Overall a good TearJerker and heartwarming story, which is pretty much Fullmetal's prototype.

Overall a good TearJerker and heartwarming story, which is pretty much Fullmetal's prototype. Can be found [[http://www.mangafox.com/manga/stray_dog/ here, of course]].

* ShoutOut: Fultac kinda looks like [[{{Berserk}} Guts/Gatts]].

* LittleBitBeastly: young dogs look like this, while older ones are more {{furry|Fandom}}.

Written by Creator/HiromuArakawa in 1999, this one-chapter manga (published in a magazine at the time) was her very first serious work. It would eventually influence her later works, especially ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'', particularly in her own concept of alchemy itself ("chemistry and magic") as well as that of [[PettingZooPeople chimaeras]].

Written by [[FullmetalAlchemist Hiromu Arakawa]] in 1999, this one-chapter manga (published in a magazine at the time) was her very first serious work. It would eventually influence her later works, especially ''FullmetalAlchemist'', particularly in her own concept of alchemy itself ("chemistry and magic") as well as that of [[PettingZooPeople chimaeras]].

!!Has examples of:

* BiologicalMashUp / PettingZooPeople: The full-sized/mature dogs are the fist, while the young ones are the second.

* EyesOfGold: That's how you distinguish a particularly human-like military dog from a normal person. [[spoiler:Fultac has one golden eye, indicating his status as one of the oldest military dogs.]]

* CompleteMonster: The scientists who made the military dogs.

* HighOctaneNightmareFuel / NauseaFuel: This being made by Hiromu Arakawa, there's scenes in labs involving images of flesh, organs, mutilations and whatever other horrible stuff that there are on experimentation on humans.