Fortune Dogs is a manga series by Shuji Kishihara and Yasuharu Tomono serialized in Nakayoshi, about the lives of 48 puppies. An animetelevision series was produced based on the manga. The main character's story presents the journey of the archetypal hero found in world mythologies and religions, a theory developed by Joseph Campbell in his book The Hero with a Thousand Faces.
Plot
A French Bulldog is adopted from the Happy Kennel by a girl named Ai and is given the name Alex. She tells him stories and reads to him from a book titled The Adventures of Freddy about dog who leaves home to find the Fortune Tree. However, he is separated from Ai when he mistakenly follows a girl wearing the same clothes as Ai on a bus. Adopting the name Freddy, after the hero in Ai's storybook, Alex begins his quest to return to Ai. But before he can return to his owner, Freddy and his new friends must find the Fortune Tree and save it from dying, otherwise all the humans in the world will lose their good will and no longer care about their pets.
Characters
Dogs
Alex/Freddy - A male French Bulldog. He embarked on a quest to return to Ai when he mistakenly followed a girl wearing the same clothes as Ai into a bus in episode 2. In episode 3, Alex took on the name Freddy, after the hero in Ai's story book titled The Adventures of Freddy, about a dog leaving home to find the Fortune Tree.
Cammy - A female Cavalier King Charles Spaniel show dog Freddy met in episode 4. She was raised by humans who rarely let her to go outside. Dach showed affection over her, but left her in the end.
Dach - A male field Dachshund Alex met in episode 3. He was an expert digger, once owned by the human Jack. Dach taught Alex about interacting with humans. Freddy joined Dach's travel quest at the end of episode 3.
Max - A male Boxer who had come from Happy Kennel, and had met Alex while both were still in the kennel. Although inexperienced as a guard dog, it has a strong sense of food. Its favourite food is milk. It was evicted by its owner in episode 8 after a male robber had broken into the same house twice, and the owner discovered Freddy, Dach, Max were inside the damaged house.
Ryoma - An old male Tosa who had grown up in mountains. Ryoma started to live in the wild when delivery truck that carries Ryoma to its customer crashed. He taught Freddy about being a wild dog, identifying and marking dog scents, circular patrolling. After losing a fight against Freezer, Ryoma told Freddy to leave, but Freddy found Ryoma in episode 6. At the end of episode 6, an old woman was identified to be Ryoma's owner. However, Ryoma felt betrayed by its owner when the owner was sick and could not take care of Ryoma while in hospital. When Ryoma's owner collapsed again in episode 6, Ryoma defeated Freezer on its way to the owner, and reunited with the owner at the end.
Kitchen - A male Rough Collie/Shetland Sheepdog from episode 6 with a male owner. In episode 7, Kitchen altered its owner for the collapsed Ryoma's owner after hearing Ryoma's call.
