Her Pet was a strange manga that kept me engaged from beginning to end. That is not to say that it was a perfect manga, in fact, i have many issues with Her Pet. However, i can say that anyone who is interested in a ‘different’ yuri manga experience, this one is worth a read(despite its flaws).
Before talking about what makes this manga such a good read, i think its important to talk about its rather strange premise. To put it simply, Gayoon is into Soha, and ends up agreeing to act like her long lost dog to help Soha feel better. There are ‘reasons’ behind this(that i will touch on later when i talk about characters), but this is the part of the manga that is most likely to turn people away. Being someone who is into various weird kinky hentai, i thought the manga was going in a ….different direction than it actually was when Gayoon started acting like Soha’s pet. I thought it was going to be a weird fetish thing and nothing more, but it actually ends up being one of the things i disliked about the manga. Without going into too much detail right now(i want to touch on this when i talk about Soha as a character), this aspect of the manga really added very little to the overall experience. I will admit it did make two scenes slightly better than they otherwise would have been. I understand if this aspect of the manga turns people away, it even made me skeptical of its content, but i assure you that it is a pretty minor element by the midpoint of the manga.
For the most part, i loved the characters, most of them are fleshed out and make the overall experience really enjoyable. On their own, none of them are terribly deep or original(except maybe Gayoon), but what gives the characters depth is their relationships with one another. Gayoon is a girl whose in love with Soha, but has a really weird way of expressing it. She wants to be close to Soha both emotionally and physically but Soha only gives her the time of day when she is acting like her dog. Gayoon deludes herself into thinking this is a healthy thing, but slowly realizes that this isnt a good relationship to have. She is also good friends with Sol and Soo, and even helps Soo go out with Sol. Whats interesting about this part of the story is that its clear to the reader that Gayoon is good at reading people, and understanding relationships, just not her own. We also get an understanding of her friendships and how they differ. For example, she is more open about herself with Soo than she is with Sol, and she even sides with Soo when Soo and Sol have a fight. Soo is so afraid that Sol will reject her that she invents a false version of herself just to please Sol, but in the end what Sol falls in love with is Soos sincere confession. Sol always looked at relationships as a pain in the ass because everyone who confessed to her always just wanted her love without really giving it themselves. Even the bully character, Yurim, is given reasons behind her actions. Heck, by the end of her arc, i was kind of rooting for her. The reason im talking about these characters rather than just praising them is to demonstrate that by the end of the story, i had a decent idea of who these characters are as people. This is important in any story because it gives extra weight to the characters choices. It also kept me engaged in everything they did.
Before i get into the next part, talking about my main issues with this manga, i recommend that you read it yourself. What i have said up to this point are not major spoilers. Next will be major spoilers though, so go and read it, its short so it shouldnt take long. Its not a perfect manga or anything(as i will highlight below) but it was a fun read(if for nothing else than just wanting to know what happens next). You have been warned.
I know what your thinking, ‘what about Soha?’, i mentioned everyone but her. Shes one of the main characters, and Gayoon was fleshed out. Surely Soha is at least on par with the other characters, even if not on par with Gayoon. To put it simply, Soha was the worst part of the entire manga. She is the one character i hated throughout the entire experience, and i think the writers failed to make me root for Gayoon to end up with her. Remember the concept i mentioned earlier, about Gayoon acting like her dog. Well, you see, Sohas dog ran away, so now she feels lonely, so she uses Gayoon to act as her dog to make her feel better. It honestly wouldnt have been as bad if it were some weird fetish she had, that she wanted this chick to roleplay as a dog to turn her on. But instead, she only cared about Gayoon when she was acting as her dog. Hell, the only reason she saved her from bullies in middle school(the whole reason why Gayoon fell in love with Soha in the first place btw) was because she thought she looked like her dog. She doesnt care about Gayoon at all, never considers how she feels, just cares about her so far as whether she can continue acting as her dog. It really doesnt help that out of all the characters(aside from Soha’s one black haired friend whose name i cannot recall) she easily has the least page time. This is an issue because the reader really has no reason to like Soha, aside from the fact that Gayoon loves her. Its not unheard of for an audience to attach themselves to a character just because another character loves them. This tends to only work with deceased characters though, knowing that the main character loved another character that we never really got to know as the audience, we can care about that character because we care about the main character(and his/her feelings). But in this case, where we actually see and get to know Soha, its hard to like her. Unlike most of the characters, we dont get any ‘justifications’ for her actions until near the end of the manga. It doesnt matter what her emo backstory is, the fact that she used Gayoon so much, and the fact that we like and care about Gayoon, makes us hate Soha even more. By the time they explained her emo backstory, i just didnt care.
We see Gayoon and Sohas fucked up relationship and its honestly hard to root for them. I will admit that for a while, i thought that was going to be the point of the story. That their relationship was fucked up and it needed to end. Instead, we get a weak explaination for why Soha is such a horrible person, and they give Gayoon the wrong reasons to stop acting as Sohas dog. At first it seemed like they acknowledged the fact that Soha didnt care about Gayoon, but then they kept focusing on the fact that it was Sohas fault that Gayoon was bullied to begin with. Focusing on that point instead of the important one(that Soha never really cared about Gayoon) made the pairing seem forced. It was clear at that point that the writers were just wanting to get Gayoon and Soha together rather than doing what made sense for the story. This is not to say that it was impossible for Soha to win me over, it would have just taken time. Instead, her half baked revelation felt forced, and instead of feeling happy that Gayoon finally got to be with the person she loved, i just felt upset that the issues with the relationship didn’t feel resolved(at least the way they resolved it wasn’t satisfying). There were other minor things to, like the fact that Sohas whole problem wasn’t really resolved at all. By the end of the story, i didn’t really feel any differently about her than i did near the start. Maybe others will find this more satisfying, but i just couldn’t get passed how rushed it all felt(at least to me).
This obviously begs the question, ‘why the fuck should i read this?’ again, its interesting(and pretty short). Its honestly worth it for all the other good characters, and who knows, maybe you will disagree with me on my problems with the manga. Give it a read, then tell me how wrong i am.
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