Man's Best Friend

Kazusa Takashima's Man's Best Friend (Inu Mo Arukeba) is a fantastical collection of three short stories about various young men and their sexual encounters. Takashima's stories are gentle and sweet, and in the world of BL manga where pretty much all hard core stories include some kind of rape or forcing, it's a breath of fresh air. The sex is always consensual and angst is kept to minimum, yet the characters and stories are not sickly sweet because they are original and touching. How many other authors do you think can draw sex with a dog and a goldfish and still leave you wanting for more?

First story, after which the book takes it name, is about a boy called Ukyo who finds a stray dog from the street and brings him home. He names the dog Kuro, but Kuro is not an ordinary dog: when he gets excited he turns into a human (plus ears and tail) and wants to show his love to his master by having sex with him. First Ukyo can't believe what's happened, but when he does he can't help but to fall in love with the loyal and innocent creature that is Kuro. This is a really funny and sexy story, yet at the same time it's got a serious side as can be seen as an allegory to homosexuality: Ukyo falls in love with someone who society will never accept as his partner. I just love Kuro, he's a very atypical seme character: despite being in human form he's still got a mind of a dog so he's not very bright, but he is extremely loving and caring towards Ukyo (and insistent, oh yes). Takashima has also managed to draw him very well, at the same time he's very handsome and dog-like but not with animalistic features (ignoring the ears and the tail which are admittedly very cute) but with facial expressions and body language.

Second story is the only realistic one in the collection, and also the least original. It's a story about old childhood friends Kasumi and Kentaro who meet each other again after a long time... and one thing leads to another and they end up as lovers. There is also a little bit of angst here when Kentaro wonders if he can fall in love with a man, and little bit of a misunderstanding between lovers when he thinks Kasumi is having an affair with a boy he's tutoring. Original it isn't, but it's very pretty and intelligently written. Last story is again fantasy, it's a very short story about a boy called Keisuke who saves a goldfish in a fair and takes it home. In the night goldfish comes to him in human form and expresses his gratitude, with sex of course. This is a cute story too, again Takashima's art is fabulous and the big-eyed goldfish boy really looks like a fish - it may sound very strange but it works.

Lastly the book has about ten pages of Takashima's drawings and interviews where she talks about the stories in this book, but also about her other work, namely Wild Rock (which is pre-historical Boys Love story) - and if you've read that you will probably get more out of this section.

I was originally slightly disappointed with Wild Rock, but I slowly warmed up to Takashima's style. And I have to say that after reading Man's Best Friend - which I also prefer over Wild Rock - I'm really starting to like her work and hope they will soon translate more of it. So many things come together here: her gorgeous and sensitive artwork where men are manly and boys are pretty, and her humorous and sexy writing where characters are really likable and emotions feel real. The only reason I'm not giving it a full A is that I have to be honest and admit and I prefer my smut a bit more smutty - most of the little we see of the action are invisible penises making it more sensual than erotic. But with stories like these, it's only a minor complaint. Go and buy this, it's really good.