Guru Guru Pon-Chan (v. 4)

by Satomi Ikezawa | Graphic Novels |
ISBN: 0099504782 Global Overview for this book
Registered by wingGoryDetailswing of Nashua, New Hampshire USA on 3/25/2014
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1 journaler for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by wingGoryDetailswing from Nashua, New Hampshire USA on Monday, March 31, 2014
I found this fair-condition softcover at Savers, and as it's from a manga series I hadn't heard of before - one that apparently features a dog that can turn into a girl.

And, yes, that's just what it's about - with some mood dissonance between the cute puppy-eyed girl and the "mentality of a dog" aspects, which don't play well at all in an actual romance. This volume touches on a lot of that, with love-interest Mirai (who knows that Ponta is a dog-turned-girl and loves her anyway) finding himself increasingly frustrated at the way she's so easily distracted by games, even to the point of darting into harm's way. [The volume ends on an utterly horrifying variation on this; seriously, this could be a prime example of "mood whiplash"!] Mirai's impatience with Ponta finally makes her realize that perhaps she shouldn't be trying to be human at all, and she ditches her magic bone-of-transformation, leaves a farewell note, and returns to the kennel where her mother and siblings live.

I admit I was thinking this was good sense on her part, and things should wrap up there, but noooo. Mirai berates himself for not being more sensitive to her needs (even though this dances dangerously close to him taking advantage of a girl with the mentality of a child - and the social experience of one, as the dog-years/human-years thing means she looks like a teenager but hasn't been alive more than a year), and tries to find her.

There are lots of funny and cute bits here, but they're interspersed with looming tragedies and questionable choices, and overall I found it more disturbing than entertaining. Even some of the more accurate dog-behavior scenes get troubling when translated into human form - for example, a worried and unhappy Pon-chan starts gnawing her own paws in dog-form, which translates to bitten fingers in human form. Self-harm in a cute little fantasy tale? Yep!

OK, I did laugh at the scene where human Pon-chan sticks her head out of the car window in typical dog-like fashion. And many of her other doggie habits were cute too. But the romance - not so much.

[There's a short TV Tropes page on the series.]

Journal Entry 2 by wingGoryDetailswing at Used Book Superstore in Burlington, Massachusetts USA on Saturday, November 7, 2015

Released 8 yrs ago (11/7/2015 UTC) at Used Book Superstore in Burlington, Massachusetts USA

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

I plan to donate this book to the Used Book Superstore, for their manga shelves. Hope the buyer enjoys the book!

*** Released for the 2015 World Diabetes Day release challenge. More information at the site. ***

*** Released as part of the
2015 E-less release challenge. ***

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