Her Majesty's Dog, Volume 1

About six months ago I came across a display of manga books. Although I've never been a big comic book fan, I fell in love with the beautiful cover illustrations and began to browse through them. One manga in particular caught my attention, not just for the cover art but also for the book description. The story of a teen psychic and her guardian demon is a tale that sounds right up my alley. However, I just wasn't sure. After all I am a bit older than your usual manga fan. For months every time I would into a book store I headed to the manga section, pick it up and put it down again. Last weekend I finally decided to buy the first of the series. I'm so glad I did! Despite my confusion over the format (read back to front and, I think, in the opposite direction of American books) and the very short actual reading time spent on the book, I found it facinating. I loved the storylines about malevolent spirits, the innocent girl and her overprotective guardian. In fact, I not only read it once, I've re-read it four times already. I totally recommend it to anyone who enjoys horror/romance and the supernatural.

How can you not like this manga? I admit, the cover was the first thing that had attracted me-bondages maybe? After glancing at the artwork, I soon fell in love. Ayume and Hyoue are two very likeable characters, each filling in what the other person lacked. I always find myself looking for the next volume when I go to a bookstore. Amazing storyline, I would recommend it to everyone.

I didn't want to like Her Majesty's Dog....I realy, really didn't. But I can't help it. I like--no, I REALLY like it. At first I didn't want to read it because at the time of it's release I was SO into InuYasha, and one day I was casually flipping through shojo beat magazine and I saw an ad for Her Majesty's Dog. When I saw the cover , I was like "it's a shojo version of InuYasha! What a rip-off!". Then, when I was at Borders one day, I saw the book and, just to see what it was like, I took a look at it. I decided, when I read the back cover and had read the first few pages, that it was a total copy of InuYasha! The fact that Hyoue protects Amane like InuYasha protects Kagome was especially hard to enjoy, and Hyoue's personality was almost exactly like InuYahsa's (almost always angry, over-protective, easily jealous, etc.). Amane even looks like Kagome to some extent. But about a year after Her Majesty's Dog was first released, I had grown tired of InuYasha (it's just so long and the story never gets anywhere). I was once again at Borders and I decided to give this another try. And I am so glad that I did. Her Majesty's Dog may sound a bit weak form the outside, but once you've read it, you see that it is deep and very entertaining. Mick Takeuchi has beautiful artwork and her story is very good, actually. Now, when I look back, I hardly see any similairities at all between Her Majesty's Dog and InuYasha. So far, my favorite thing about the books are the relationships between the characters and the little omakes at the beginning of each volume (the ones where Amane is treating Hyoue like a dog: for example, in this volume she is in chibi form and telling him to stay in his dog house and Hyoue is glaring up at the sky. It is very very funny and cute). So, for anyone who is suspicious about trying Her Majesty's Dog, I ask you to give it a shot. It is much better than it appears.

Ok, I love these newer mangas now making it to the USA that have female leads with submissive but strong male partners. Reminds me of the knight-lady dynamic in romances. Yet these aren't overtly romantic and the lady in question is quite strong and capable if somewhat naive to begin with. Amane is a wonderful character trying to fit into a new school and a new life and Hyoue is her faithful everything until she starts making new friends. But I think these friends are going to make her stronger and that will only make her possession of Hyoue even better. I plan to keep reading to find out.

Her Majesty's Dog is a very good series. I picked this up (I admit) cos the cover looked good. Well, I made a excellent choice there! The manga is dark and kinda gory in book one. We meet Amane, *her majesty* and Hyone *her dog*. She controls him by her lifeforce and he is her guardian. He's also in love with her which is apparent to everyone but her! This is a great horror/romance high school drama. I advise anyone whos interested to buy it. It's definetly worth it. :)