Published in the U.S. by Del Rey
Slugline: Ponta, a golden Lab, has the ability to turn into a girl. She and Mirai are "in love."
So what does it say about the motivations of a guy whose girlfriend is a) actually a dog -- and he knows it -- b) so naive that she can't even use a telephone, c) hasn't got the common sense to come in out of the rain and d) has been a human for four volumes now and has only just figured out that being a dog might be a better deal?
Yeah, I don't know either.
Thing is, the scenes when Ponta is a dog are actually rather cute. The writer knows a thing or two about dogs. And the story got a smile out of me when Mirai-kun dreams he's turned into an English sheepdog. But otherwise it's one of those stories where the girl's ignorance and helplessness is supposed to be cute or, maybe, to some control freaks, sexy.
The two opposing forces balance each other out, and this one lands right in the middle of the scale. In the standard progression of manga romances, this one is at the "Crisis of faith, so one of them runs away and gets in trouble" stage. I haven't read the first three volumes, so I don't know if we've gone through the "Someone's ex tries to break them up" phase and I assume we're well past the "Awkward admission of infatuation". Next volume will be, I would expect, "Rescue and massive guilt trips."
I invite the author to prove me wrong, though.
- Miranda
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