47 Todoufuken

Synopsis

"47 Prefecture Dogs" is a short flash animation from a voice over variety TV program in Japan called "SAY! YOU! SAY! ME!" The animation takes Japan's 47 prefectures—or more specifically, the local delicacies or famous landmarks from each of the regions—and gives them a canine makeover. For example, the "Fukuoka-ken" (Fukuoka dog),—Fukuoka of course being home to asianbeat HQ—uses the delicacy "mentaiko" (spicy pollack roe) as the motif for its canine characterization. Each of the characters are played by voice actors that hail from each of the individual prefectures, "Fukuoka-ken" being voiced by Fukuoka's Kana Asumi. Another feature of this anime is the use of regional dialect. All the dogs speak in the dialect of their individual prefectures. So for the Fukuoka dog you hear a lot of "~to" and "~to yo" at the end of sentences; for the Aichi dog it's "~dagane," and for Ehime, "~zonamoshi," etc.