I find your review to be well-done. You did not hide your own view, that you did not like it, - good! There is no point pretending in being overly "objective". In addition of expressing your opinion, you put effort into explaining the comic to someone who haven't read it. I also liked how you gave the comic chance to "pick it up", assuming things may change a lot as it updates. The story is certainly not finished, you decided not to ignore possible things to come, and only judge the currently available material.
My angry rant blog!
^We live in an age where everyone needs to write a paragraph praising someone whenever they make a good review?
^Yes. Feedback is always welcome. You must've seen how hard it can be to have any real grasp of one's writing skills, and every bit of outside perspective helps!
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An ambitious, failed experiment
Raine Dog is a slow-paced, melodramatic webcomic that I can't like for the life of me.
The comic explores the true horror of a Garfield- or Scooby Doo-style world where sentient Talking Animals are kept as pets. I respect that. Some marvellous stories have been made by taking well-established tropes, inducing reality and toasting marshmallows above the burning ruins. The titular Raine's idyllic puppyhood is established well enough. The comic slowly reveals logical but unpleasant features of the setting, trying to get its audience on Raine's side and used to thinking of her as a person who happens to be a dog: the fate of Raine's idol, Laika; her boy owner finding it strange that he sees her as someone; Raine being kept in the yard in a storm; the great tragedy that kids are not supposed to sex up the family pet.
Crash and burn.
Yes, yes, it was just a kiss slathered with enough innuendo to fog up windowpanes. This is my experience I'm relating, and I recoiled. In fact, I only now realize that her subsequent tragedies (scavenging from garbage cans, being hunted by animal control) were presented as depravities. I had shrugged them off as perfectly ordinary: after all, she'd been thoroughly established as a dog. Things could always improve later, but given that I was completely unphased by the recent revelation that Meat Is Murder, it's hard to imagine that the comic could get me to go along with it again.
Interspaced with the tragic are scenes of present-day Raine, a self-confident, emancipated canine who has yet to do much except sermonize. Given how her views line up with her author's, I get the impression that we're receiving Important Messages about Oppressed Minorites through the plight of enslaved cartoon animals whose closest real-world equivalent isn't even in the real world but in the remake of The Planet of the Apes.
The differences between wronged!Raine and free!Raine show that Raine Dog will eventually pick up. She'll get a character arc and rock the status quo. Still, waiting for it would take years due to the comic's unpredictable and glacial update schedule, so I think we can make a judgement on what we've seen so far: A pity party where The Woobie isn't very good at her role.