At first, it may seem like a regular shojo manga, but after you read Inubaka, by Yukiya Sakuragi, you're thrown into some pretty dramatic stuff.

   At first, you'd think that you've met the dumbest person in the world. Siguri, age 18, has to get a job to help her family, and unhappy that her parents have choosen her job for her has sent Siguri into protest and moves, with her dog, Lupin, to Tokyo. One thing we do not really notice is the dog collar she wears around her neck. Ot seems to giver her a 6th sense to know what dogs need. She takes on the roll of "The Dog Whisperer". After being stupid enough to go into a car with two men she doesn't know, she is luckily unharmed, but stranded at a Japanese park, similar to Disney World. She ends up loosing Lupin in the crowd, but finds him mating with petstore owner, Teppei's dog, Noa. Teppei becomes very angry with Siguri, and explains that she was supposed to mate with a prize-winning purebread the next day, and if Noa get's pregnant with Lupins's puppies, they'll end up in the street.

   Unfortunately, Teppei has his own share of problems, as his brother or friend, Kentarto is a slacker, not working, and was found on the street. Teppei is constantly commenting that he has picked up "another stray dog." We see this theme a lot in the first volume; we're given sad flashbacks of Teppei as a boy, caring for stray dogs, unhappy about how Japan deals with it's pet problems. The flashbacks add a whole new touch to what you'd think was a regular shojo manga. Instead of it being a girl meets boy, boy and girl have problems, both are a couple in the end, manga, it becomes something more of a drama. Anyone who is an animal owner and/or lover will find some of these scenes really get to you.

   One scene that really got me going: A girl looking at a Chihuahua (and yes, that's the correct spelling!) with her old 12-year-old Retriever, Ricky, says that when Ricky dies, she'll buy a Chi. Both Siguri and Teppei feel she's very stuck-up. Later, the dog runs errands to the shop from the girl's home (asking for the most expensive of everything) You then see him look at the Chi the girl had seen previously. The dogs start to pee, and somehow Siguri senses something's wrong with the Chi - later turns out it has a heartworm and needs surgery, and may not make it. We see the Retriever travel home, but we see a flashback of a child (the stuck up girl) playing with Ricky as a younger dog. Slowly the memory fades. The dog collapses. We then come to the scene where the girl is with her friends in a Karaoke bar. Her phone rings, and it's her mother saying there's something wrong with Ricky. We then see how this girls priorities are in order as she drops the song book and runs to the vet. (Actually, I'm almost starting to cry again as this scene was so heart-breaking) It turns out the three of them (Siguri, Teppei, and the girl's mother) meet in the same place, as Ricky is taken in while the two wait on the Chi. When the girl comes into the hospital, she learns that the dog dies on arrival - of natural causes. She cries that she had mentioned the dog's dying like it was no big deal...Instead she decides to raise the Chi that the dog had looked at. The costs would be a lot (and the dog survives - otherwise I'd start going again) so she takes a job a a hostess.

   I really thought I should describe that secene as it was like the 'final battle' of many other manga. I was the first time I'd ever cried while reading a manga.