The back of the books calls this ‘one of the hottest, silliest yaoi manga ever written!’ Well me set the record straight right now, this has about as much truth to it as Epstein having killed himself. Not that most people actually take the marketing lines on book covers with anything but a grain of salt, but I’m seriously doubtful that whoever wrote that actually read this because it should, without a doubt, have a little official-looking seal somewhere on the cover that says ‘Certified Crap.’ I mean, that would probably only appeal to people like me who think it’s fun to play on the garbage pile, but least it wouldn’t be false advertising.
Welcome to the Kemonomimi Corporarion, where you can ‘rent’ amazing ‘domesticated human/animal hybrids’ to do tasks for you. They aren’t so much hybrids as just normal people with animal ears and tails and minor animal quirks, but I guess with the kemo thing the ears and tail is all that most people want anyway. I am assuming at least that they don’t have animal genitalia, although the mangaka does openly wonder in the end notes whether the book is technically bestiality. Not entirely sure what she wants us to do with that information.
This is a book of one-shots beginning with three ‘guys with animal ears’ stories, paired with the person who ‘rented’ them – Kameyama the CEO who rents Inada the bunny to work in his design firm, author Soji who rents Mikezaki the cat to replace his deceased pet, and young heir Mikoto who gets aptly-if-not-creatively-named Kuroshiba the dog to tutor and basically nanny him.
The stories seem to be confused on whether the animal hybrid characters are more ‘workers’ or more ‘pets’ and as a result neither is all that convincing. It’s stated they can’t survive on their own even though they seem perfectly capable of doing so, and Kuroshiba clearly states he isn’t a pet…so who knows. They kind of just act like normal humans and simply have animal preferences when it comes to food and attention and whatever else works conveniently in the stories for either comedy or cuteness purposes. They don’t much represent the personality of the animal they’re supposed to be a hybrid of either, and without their ears and tails they could largely be normal human characters in any mediocre yaoi.
The Inada and Kuroshiba stories I didn’t like, I just did not buy the idea of a…super smart office worker bunny or extremely smart tutor dog. I felt like they should have been more pet-like or their animal quirks more obvious and played up for comedy – like maybe instead of Inada being an amazing designer right off the bat despite having zero experience, he could be shoved into the role and tries to learn while being naturally shy and nibbling on paper or hopping up the office stairs five at a time or have some other bunny quirks used for humor.
The only halfway decent story of the three was Mikezaki’s – Soji rented Mikezaki to replace his beloved dead cat Momomo, and becomes the typical Junjo Romantica-esque ‘cute house uke’ that hangs around and doesn’t do much. Usually I dislike this trope but in this case I felt like it was the most realistic thing a human/cat hybrid would be doing, although again they could have played up the humor around his cat traits – like maybe he could have kept climbing on Soji’s lap when he’s trying to work, or unravels a ball of yarn all around the house or something. This couple also have a bonus sex scene at the end, so perhaps it was the author’s favorite couple.
Speaking of the sex…the animal logic was not sound to begin with but becomes even more ridiculous when they bring that into it. I’m sorry but can you really fall for a guy you who literally sleeps on a straw mat and shits in a fucking paper tray in your bedroom, even if he is a star employee at your design firm? (More importantly, does he have little rabbit doots or is this dude literally squatting and laying some fully grown man logs?) Not only that, Inada is a seme which seems ridiculous for a guy who is supposed to be half-bunny (Kuroshiba is the seme too but unlike rabbits, dogs can be pretty big and he is larger and older than his human as well). The sex is also pretty short and boring in general, and hardly anything is shown.
The rest of the book is a two-part story about Enishi Amuba, a young priest who is a ‘koimiko,’ someone with the power to grant true love to anyone who sleeps with him. He is pimped out by his brother and sister at a ‘love temple’ that is basically a brothel, and people come and pay to fuck him to have their true love wishes granted…until he offers his services to a teacher named Mr. Suzumori he likes at his school who is pining for a lost love, and ends up falling for his sensei himself. Their relationship was fairly unconvincing and kind of icky against the backdrop of Enishi’s ‘job.’ Enishi didn’t know that Suzumori’s love, Yuki, was also dead (he was also a student, guess Suzumori has a type), and as a result of the ‘ritual’ Yuki tries to drag Suzumori to the afterlife, resulting in a scene in which Enishi is trying to keep his sensei from falling off the school roof and says, ‘if youre going to fall…fall in love with me!’ *facepalm* Overall I guess it was the best story out of the four, but then again it was really the only one that had an actual story.
Reno Amagi is a prolific yaoi mangaka who was still active up until 2016 or so, although I believe this is the only title of hers we officially have in English – which is unfortunate, because she has better offerings than this. Another of hers I’ve read is ‘Musuko ga Osewa ni Nattemasu!’ from 2009, two years after this work, and it’s better in every way. Her Pixiv account also has some Tiger & Bunny and Free! doujinshi from 2012 with excellent art, so it seems she has just gotten better over the years. It’s really a shame we don’t have some of her more recent work!
TL;DR: I’m not a furry or particularly into kemonomimi, but even if I was, I couldn’t imagine really liking this manga. It’s just…not very good. The art is stiff and awkward, the characters don’t have much depth, the plots are ridiculous and silly, and the sex scenes are boring and short. Also, how on earth can you be attracted to a guy who sleeps on straw and shits in a paper tray in your bedroom, even if he is a star employee at your design firm?