Inukami!

tl;dr: A somewhat weird romance manga that while lacking in substance is still pretty amusing. This manga is a light novel adaptation that is strange in that it’s a generic harem series that isn’t actually harem. The premise is that Inukami trainers exist who can form contracts with dog spirits known as Inukami and then take jobs dealing with various supernatural phenomenon. Inukami trainers can form contracts with multiple Inukami and Inukami seem to mainly be cute girls, so it’s a pretty standard harem set up. However, the protagonist Keita, only forms a single contract with a single girl named Yoko. Keita is a pervert andvery much wants to contract more girls. However, Yoko is super clingy and refuses to let him. At this point it’s just a standard romance story, but what makes it weird is that it feels like it’s very strongly emphasizing that it’s not a harem story. This comes into play with Yoko basically playing the part of jealous girlfriend a lot, but it also kind of plays into broader aspects of the story. Mainly in that the vast majority of reoccurring side characters are pretty much part of Keita’s cousin, Kaoru’s, harem and it serves as a contrast to Keita and Yoko. But at the same time, it’s not like its criticizing harems as it portrays Kaoru and his relationships with his Inukami in a positive light. So really, it feels like the whole point of everything is for it to be funny that Keita can’t get a harem. But at the same time, a lot of Kaoru’s Inukami seem to be really fond of Keita, so in the end I have no clue what it’s trying to do. It’s just a weird dynamic all around. As for the Keita and Yoko themselves, they’re a decent couple, I guess. They do get relationship development and grow closer over the course of the manga, but it’s really not fleshed out well at all. I feel like it’s skipping portions of the light novel dedicated to this, though I haven’t read the LN so I don’t know for sure. Yoko gets character development in that she starts the series just straight up mean but softens up a good amount and though it isn’t handled amazingly well, it’s handled better than the relationship development. There’s an overarching plot thread regarding Yoko’s background, but as far as the manga gets it’s basically just touched on and doesn’t go anywhere. Thus, the plot is pretty much entirely just small episodes of the cast dealing with various supernatural phenomenon. These episodes are generally pretty solid due to good comedy. It wasn’t very good at getting any investment in the cast or plot though. The ending is pretty much what you’d expect from a manga forcing an ending to an adaptation of a story that’s still going. Insignificant and lacking in substance story wise, but still trying to a hit a good emotional beat to end on, which managed to land decently well I guess. The art is cute focused and overall okay. Both in terms of quality and style it’s not particularly great but not particularly bad either. It gets the job done without issue but this definitely isn’t a manga that you’d read for the art.