OUR PACK
A series about the Armored Anthros, ordinary animals granted the ability to transform into magical warriors and defend the natural order. Our main characters are six beloved pets who have been granted that power by chance and must learn the ways of the Armored Anthros.
The Style
2D animation, with the animals rendered very realistically. Anime motifs, with bright colors and thick outlines.
The First Episode
We open in media res, captioned "a short time from now". A woman walks through an empty courtyard in the middle of a city. A spaniel follows her at a distance. She assures the dog that he has no reason to hide from her. The dog agrees, and transforms into a bipedal, armored warrior. "And why not?" he says. "You're not even a real human." She grins at him, her eyes glowing red, congratulating him for noticing.
The next scene is captioned "two months ago". The spaniel, Sawyer, watches through a window as a car full of unseen people leaves their large estate in the middle of the woods. Grumbling to himself, as apparently the human family he loves leaves him alone with the other pets on a regular basis, he heads out into the backyard where his fellow pets are playing a game with each other; the two large dogs, Rufus and Boo Boo, attempting to take treats from the cats, Billy and Sacha, hindered by the cats dropping buckets full of snakes on them. Sawyer sits down beside the last pet, fellow small dog Sebastian, watching the game as it goes on. Sawyer resists all attempts from Sebastian to bond over their shared lack of enthusiasm for their fellows' roughhousing.
Later that evening, the six pets eat their food out on a second-floor balcony, watching the sunset. The moment the sun dips below the horizon, there is an explosion of light that knocks them all out, and a big deep voice explains to them in their dreams the origins of the Armored Anthros thousands of years ago, and that the power is now theirs. Sawyer is the first to awaken, and finds himself clothed, and his physiology much more human-like. "Dear God, I'm a furry," he blurts. "We're all furries!" As the others come to, they find they are able to shift back into their normal animal form, and all are left very confused.
The next time card reads "around now". Sawyer once again watches the unseen family drive away and curls up in front of the fire - which he lights himself with the pyrokinetic powers he now possesses. His rest is once again interrupted by the sound of the other five pets having a noisy game with each other in the backyard - this time, dueling each other using their powers. We learn that each of them has a different elemental energy: fire, shadow, plant, wind, ice, and lightning. Sawyer is roped into participating in the final duel, his fire against Sebastian's lightning. Though Sawyer has not practiced with the others over the past two months, he easily defeats the meek and cautious Sebastian.
A cat appears over the backyard fence; Jessie, an ordinary cat, a stray from the neighborhood. She congratulates them on having progressed as Armored Anthros without any formal training - and states that she just might have caught wind of a mission for them. And there the episode ends.
The Setting
A big house in the woods outside of a village called Edgewood. In this setting, animals of all sorts can speak to each other and we never actually see any humans, though they're mentioned often and pets hold them in high esteem.
While the animals are more intelligent and capable than they are in real life, they're still very much animals, somewhat realistic in their limitations; but what's quickly discovered is that this world is home to an order older than humanity called the Armored Anthros, animals who transform into a clothed, humanoid figure armed with a weapon and a specific magical power that suits their personality. Building amazing structures out of the "diamond dust" that exists in all earth, unseen by humans, these Anthros defend the natural order from all manner of threats.
The Characters
The story centers around a group soon to be known as the Edgewood Pack, the six beloved pets of a wealthy family. With no connection to or knowledge of the Armored Anthros, the six are randomly given the power, and a small smattering of the lore, from a big voice coming from the direction of the setting sun.
Sawyer: The leader of the pack by virtue of seniority and the main character. A fluffy cocker spaniel, when transformed Sawyer wields a staff and has the power of fire. Very abrasive and irritable, Sawyer initially resents most of his packmates for having ever been adopted and has no interest in the Armored Anthro powers, before coming to appreciate the others as a team and their interest in pursuing the mysterious responsibilities they now have. He's still not the best at diplomacy and very contrary when dealing with anyone outside the pack.
Sacha: A very thin and sleek gray-furred cat, a Siamese/Russian blue mix. When transformed he wields a flail and has powers of darkness and shadows. Sacha and Sawyer were both born and adopted on the same day and are as close as brothers despite the massive contrast in their personalities, Sacha being very boisterous and friendly.
Rufus: A massive Doberman Pinscher. When transformed, Rufus wields a huge axe and has power over plants. Rufus is simple-minded and has no agenda, generally agreeing with what anyone tells him. When pressed to show it, he is very affectionate but also extremely dangerous in combat.
Billy: A plain black cat. He wields a katana and has wind powers. More cat-like in his mindset than Sacha, Billy is inscrutable, with a suspicious mind and a peculiar sense of morality, while also being warm, friendly, and funny.
Boo Boo: A large mixed-breed dog, appearing to be mostly black Labrador with elements of pit bull, boxer, and Dalmatian. The only female in the pack, Boo Boo wields a broadsword and has ice powers. Having been abandoned and rescued in the woods rather than formally adopted like the others, Boo Boo often feels isolated and is loud and vehement, though fiercely loyal.
Sebastian: The youngest of the pack, a fluffy Lhasa Apso/Bichon Frise mix. When transformed, Sebastian wields a tiny hammer and shield and has lightning powers as well as healing abilities. Sebastian is quiet and introverted and has few close relationships even among his packmates.
Wasp: A yellowjacket whom the pack find injured in the street during the first story arc, Sebastian takes pity on him and heals him. Now enjoying an extended lifespan, Wasp decides to follow the pack around, providing a snarky running commentary and occasionally an eye in the sky, eventually being accepted as an honorary seventh member. In Season 2 he is granted the Armored Anthro powers, gaining a rapier and power over earth and stone.
Clover: The most recurring character outside of the pack, a hermit crab who runs a weapon shop in a secret Armored Anthro village in the backwoods of Edgewood. He wields a mace and has power over water, and knows many of the secrets of the diamond dust. He helps the pack with figuring out their place in the world and the ways of the Armored Anthros, while having a very antagonistic relationship with Sawyer in particular.
The Further Story
I initially envisioned each season as a video game encompassing six boss battles each. While I intend to re-structure the series to be a bit less action-oriented, it still more or less follows this formula of a lot of travel connected by these six confrontations.
Season 1: Our Pack: The story of the first season is told mostly through flashbacks, first to the night that all the pets were given the Anthro powers. In the present day, some ordinary animals in the neighborhood approach the pack with a mystery for them to solve, involving the kidnapping of some rare turtles by the pack's very own pet-sitter. Over the course of the story, Sawyer flashes back to the days when every individual member of the pack first joined the family, seeing them all in a positive light for the first time as they battle other Anthros who are in on the conspiracy. The final boss is the Sitter herself, the only human in the series who is ever seen clearly, and even she is revealed fairly early on not to be human at all, but some sort of demon.
Season 2: Era of Rodents: Having adjusted to the Anthro life and taking regular missions, the pack discover a plot by an army of Anthro rodents to conquer the world. Teaming up with a more experienced, more ruthless group causes friction among the pack. The final boss is John, the heavily-armored, scythe-wielding rat who leads the army.
Season 3: Dark Plants from Another World: An invasion force of alien plant creatures appears on Earth, knowing what all invaders seem to know: to target the Armored Anthros in secret before making their way to conquering the human world. Joining the efforts to repel the invasion, the pack realize for the first time just how large-scale the Anthro order is, as they join a fleet of technologically-advanced airships from all corners of the world, as they eventually are the ones to make their way to the inside of the massive alien mothership and battle the plants on their own turf. The final boss is the Mother Root, the giant queen of the plants.
Season 4: Endangered Species: A mission takes the pack out into the wilderness of the Americas, allying with a pack of non-Anthro wolves and numerous sea creatures against an assortment of animals, some Anthro and some not, who are sabotaging some land developers and are against humanity as a whole. The pack have to grapple with their own protective love for humans and the reality of the way humans harm nature. The final boss is Fumiko, a great white shark who is not an Armored Anthro but still manages to be the most dangerous individual the pack have ever faced.
Beyond: I have no plans for a fifth season, only that there will certainly be one. The mystery of just what makes the Edgewood Pack so special needs to be addressed. The Sitter and her demonic nature also need to be explored further. And the nature of dragons, who are often spoken of but not yet been seen, also has to be delved into. And from there, well, there needs to be some sort of conclusion.
Way Beyond: The six members of the pack are based on the real pets my family owned somewhere in the vicinity of 2008. Of those six, Sebastian is the only one still a part of the family, and as he's currently a very old dog and has acted like an old dog since before he was fully grown, it's hard to think of the fictional Sebastian the way I conceived of the character, as the youngest of the group instead of the oldest. As such, I sometimes envision a spin-off set ten years after the main series, starring an elderly Sebastian, the only member of the original Edgewood Pack still living and serving as a mentor figure to a cast which includes the family's other current dogs, Clovis the American Eskimo, a handsome and experienced Anthro who might debut in Season 5 or even 4, and Poppy the Pomeranian/American Eskimo mix, a very young newcomer to the order.
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