I bet you’ve seen them—yaoi or shonen-ai titles featuring characters with feline or canine attributes. Loveless (Tokyopop) and Man’s Best Friend (BLU Manga) both came out in 2006, but while I was aware of their existence, expectations of ickiness kept me from checking them out. Now, however, I have cast aside my trepidation and read two recent entries into this category in order to answer the essential question—are they really as creepy as they seem?
The 9 Lives, Vol. 1
By Bayou and Rachel Manija Brown
Tokyopop, 176 pp.
Rating: Teen (13+)
The 9-Lives are cat-like aliens, banished to Earth by their planet’s elders and barred from returning home until they have sacrificed eight of their lives for a human. 9-Lives are required by law to have a human owner, but Conri is determined not to relinquish his freedom. After getting caught stealing a bit of leftover food from a restaurant, he is rescued from his pursuers by Adrian, a human who claims he doesn’t want a pet and allows Conri to stay in his apartment.
The first chapter is simple set-up and is enjoyable enough, in an utterly fluffy way. After that, though, the story becomes a real mess and seems incapable of settling on any one tone. For example, in the beginning of the second chapter, Conri spots a mouse and engages in a “comedic” chase, causing lots of “hilarious” damage to Adrian’s possessions in the process. By the end of that same chapter, he’s slitting his wrists. As if this weren’t enough, in chapter three, he’s fallen into the clutches of the mafia.
The art is competent though quite generic, and panels of humans walking down the street with their 9-Lives remind me of similar panels from Chobits, since the 9-Lives’ ears look very similar to a persocom’s. Also, I’m annoyed that Conri is described and depicted as “a calico male.” Okay, I suppose such a thing could be commonplace on the alien planet, but it really just seems to me that the creators didn’t bother to research calicos at all. If they had, they’d know that 99.9% of them are female.
The teen rating is entirely appropriate for The 9 Lives, meaning nothing truly creepy happens. Adrian does, however, have a perverted neighbor who’s obsessed with the possibility that Conri might have eight nipples.
Verdict: A tiny bit creepy. Mostly just bad.
Volume one of The 9 Lives is available now.
Ruff Love
By Tamaki Kirishima
Published by Aurora Publishing, 160 pp.
Rating: Mature (18+)
Taketora is a struggling writer of historical fiction who makes his living working at his uncle’s bar. One day, as he’s coming home from work, feeling down in the dumps about his career, he discovers a young man (with requisite ears and tail) in his backyard who claims to be Shiba, his grandfather’s beloved dog, returned to life as a human in order to repay his former owner’s kindness. Shiba initially mistakes Taketora for his grandfather, but after the misunderstanding is sorted out, vows to serve Taketora instead. Taketora soon grows used to Shiba’s cheerful presence, and before too long realizes he’s fallen in love with the erstwhile pooch.
Ruff Love makes with the creepy almost immediately. With a mature rating and an explicit content label on the cover, one knows what will eventually transpire between the two leads. But with what is the table of contents page decorated? Cute widdle paw prints. A photo of Shiba in his original form only reinforces the idea that THIS IS A DOG. During every explicit scene thereafter, the recollection that THIS IS A DOG is inescapable.
However, if one can get past all of that, the story is actually pretty amusing. The focus is more on Taketora’s suddenly busy life than it is on the sex, and there are a few genuinely funny panels, like those in which Akatsuki (another dog-person who moves in with Taketora and Shiba) entertains himself by playing with a frog. There’s a small amount of angst—Shiba becomes convinced that his presence is causing Taketora’s health to decline—but for the most part, it’s light-hearted fun.
Verdict: Definitely creepy, and yet still better than The 9 Lives.
Ruff Love is available now.
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