The Spring 2022 Manga Guide

Puppy Love

What's It About? 

Worked to the bone by his exploitative company, Inukai is at the end of his rope when he happens to pass by a pet shop and befriends Hoshi, a welcoming staff member. Inspired by the adorable puppies and Hoshi's support, Inukai is determined to change jobs and work toward a life where he can have his own dog. But change is hard, and Inukai's dreams are nearly at a standstill when Hoshi approaches him and declares that he'll help, because "I'm the dog you saved all those years ago!"

Puppy Love has story and art by Haru Tsuchida and English translation by Christine Dashiell. Tokyopop will release the single-volume manga both digitally and physically for $8.99 and $12.99 respectively.

---

Is It Worth Reading?

Rebecca Silverman

Rating:

I admit that I can be a pretty easy mark – throw a puppy into a story and there's a good chance that I'll be happy. Fortunately Puppy Love brings a little bit more than just an adorable little fluffball named Cotton Candy to the table; along with being a tale of the joys of having a dog, it's also a very sweet romance about second chances that persist even into a new life.

The plot follows Hoshi and Inukai, two young men who meet up when Inukai, exhausted from being the only employee at his workplace who gets treated like a worker at a black company, stops outside a pet store to gaze a puppies. He's approached by Hoshi, who works there, and the next thing he knows, Hoshi appears to be sniffing him. Eventually Hoshi admits to Inukai that he was a dog in his previous life and that Inukai smells just like the boy who saved him before. Inukai isn't quite sure what to think, but as readers we can already see a few things wrong with what Hoshi's saying – not that he was a dog before, because quite frankly the book does a decent job of selling that plot point, but rather in that Inukai in no way looks old enough to have been the eight-or-nine-year-old who saved Hoshi as a puppy, while Hoshi looks too old to make up for that age discrepancy.

Of course, by the time this even comes up Hoshi and Inukai are already well on their way to forging a very nice relationship. Hoshi's eventual concern that maybe he got the wrong guy, which would mean that he just inserted himself into some random man's life for no reason, doesn't have a very stable leg to stand on from our outside perspective as readers, because it's very plain to see that it's Hoshi's support that has allowed Inukai to turn his life from something draining into one that's much more fulfilling – he quits his old job, finds a new one, and buys Cotton Candy from Hoshi's pet shop, and it's Hoshi who facilitates all of this just by showing Inukai that he cares. The reincarnation angle may initially be what brings them together, but then both men have to figure out that it's their own feelings that makes them want to stay that way. It's a sweet story with plain but attractive art, and being complete in one volume doesn't hurt. We may get more cat-themed manga in English translation, but even if dog titles were a dime a dozen, this would still be a nice love story worth picking up.

---

Mercedez Clewis

Rating:

Puppy Love is one of the cutest BL manga I've read this year, largely because Tsuchida's art style is so adorable, but also because the story centers on a connection between Hoshi, a pet shop worker and human puppy, and Inukai, a man with a name so fitting (his name means “Dog Raiser”) for a story about puppers that it honestly makes me want to scream.

I have always loved fate as a mechanic in romance series, even if in reality it's something of a joke to me. In Puppy Love, fate comes in the form of Hoshi being the human version of a dog he rescues in the prologue to the story. It's a cute twist, and while it might feel predictable, Puppy Love delivers it with the perfect vehicle: a very low-stakes slice of life with a touch of magical realism that only becomes sweeter the further you read into the volume.

I definitely will give credit to translator Christine Dashiell for all that charm. Dashiell sculpts a cute 'n cuddly localization, barring a few clunky lines here and there. There are also a few instances of unbalanced bubbles (that is, the text isn't centered or is too small), but overall, this is a solid story that will please anyone looking for a one-shot with lots of doggos and a romance that feels natural in its progression. Puppy Love is no bark, no bite, all nuzzles and fluffy feels, and honestly, that's just what I need in a Happily Ever After kind of tale, pun definitely intended.