#kimi wa petto

Kimi wa Petto always seemed a little off, but thanks to the fact that the manga somehow was able to walk a very fine emotional line the premise which sounds very creepy comes off as mostly normal.  Essentially, an older emotionally unavailable woman allows a younger seemingly homeless man to live in her home as her pet.  It’s a supposedly entirely platonic situation but feelings get involved, naturally.  The manga is ok, but I think in this case the live action series that I saw (one in 2003andone in 2017) both tell the story more dynamically.

Sumire and Takeshi compliment one another.  This is one of those series where what seems to build over time overwhelms both parties despite themselves.  They aren’t that similar and neither are their lives, but they both have pieces of themselves that are incomplete and it’s nice to see how they patch the other’s weak points.  The running joke about Takeshi being renamed “Momo” and how everyone thinks he is literally a dog because of the way Sumire talks about him stays funny far longer than it should considering how demeaning the whole situation shouldbe.

This is another one of those series that keeps coming back around because the characters are strong and very much themselves.  Beware the beginning, however (this is mainly for the manga).  It has a questionable starting section about how “Momo” got hurt and homeless in the first place.  It’s honestly weird and off putting and if I hadn’t read this long before I got a little more woke about that shiz I probably wouldn’t have continued reading it.  Given common prevailing ideas in Japan, it isn’t surprising, but it’s always deeply disappointing to see.  You’ll know what I mean when you get there.