Man's Best Friend (manga)


Man's Best Friend is an explicit yaoi manga from the creator of Wild Rock, Kazusa Takashima and is published in English by Blu Manga, the now defunct 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:
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 characterization 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. Dru Pagliassotti, comparing romance novels with Boys Love manga, mentions Man's Best Friend as an example of a kemonomimi "society", or setting.