Man's Best Friend (manga)

Man's Best Friend part of the Inu Mo Arukeba series is an explicit yaoi manga from the creator of Wild Rock, Kazusa Takashima and is published in English by Blu Manga, the boys' love publishing division of Tokyopop.

Description
When Ukyou rescues a stray dog and names it Kuro, he soon learns that he may have found a rare breed - his new dog can talk and magically transform into a hunky human! With his dog now taking the form of a hot man and licking him in various places, what is Ukyou to do?!

Plot summary
the manga is split into three stories
 * The first three chapters are about a dog named Kuro, who is magically able to transform into a human with a dog tail whenever he gets excited, and his "owner" Ukyo.


 * The two next chapters (Mata, Natsu ga Kita [Summer Has Come Again] and Pinpoint Lovers) are about Kentaro and Kasumi, which meet each other after a decade, Kentaro making a promise of waiting for Kasumi to return ten years before, which at the time he thought that Kasumi was a girl.


 * The last chapter (Kingyo Hime [Goldfish Princess]) involves a guy, Keisuke, rescuing a goldfish from some kids, and finds out that the fish transforms into a man to thank him for rescuing him.

Trivia

 * Kuro makes a cameo appearance in Kentaro and Kasumi's storyline

Publication
For the English release of Man's Best Friend, Blu Manga decided to replace the original cover art, which depicted Kuro reclining shirtless in a cowboy hat, a strategically-placed gun holster at his crotch, with the Japanese inside cover colour art, which depicts Kuro tearing off Ukyou's shirt with his teeth. The former being the book's second print cover in Japan and the latter being the first print's cover in Japan.

Reception
The manga has been described as "reminiscent of Guru Guru Pon-chan", and Kuro's dog-like characterisation was praised by Sequential Tart. Library Journal described the stories as contrived and said that the characters "exist to have sex". Christopher Butcher regarded Man's Best Friend as being the "most unique" of Blu's releases, and as a "very creative" fetish.