You’re My Pet Vol. 1

Title: You're My Pet Vol. 1
Author: Yayoi Ogawa
Series: You're My Pet #1
First Published: December 13, 2000
Publisher: Kodansha
Pages: 177
Genre: Drama, Josei, Romance
Format: Ebook
Source: comiXology Unlimited
Rating:


Synopsis:

Life was good for Sumire Iwaya... until the day she discovers her boyfriend is cheating on her, she gets demoted at work, and her life spirals toward the dumps. Things take a turn for the better when she crosses paths with Momo, a homeless guy with a colorful past who puts a bounce in her step and a shake in her hips. It takes two to tango, but when Sumire's first love reappears in her life, will this be the last waltz?

Get the Book: Amazon

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Review

You’re My Pet, previously published as Tramps Like Us in the United States, is one of those series that has been on my TBR for literally decades. I finally dove in and I’m glad I did, I had a lot of fun with volume one.

Sumire is a career woman, she is beautiful, highly educated, tall, and serious to a fault. It’s no surprise she finds herself the target of misogyny and petty gossip blaming her for being too ambitious, too intimidating to find and keep a man. Serves her right for not knowing her place, a tale as old as time. Sumire is angry, and that’s precisely what I love about her character. I found her frustrations with romance and her career to be relatable.

During the 2000s when this series was written women were only just starting to surpass men in educational and career achievement, it was still far from the norm. Even though it’s more common today, it hasn’t made dating any less difficult. I’ve been in Sumire’s shoes, and as someone with a graduate degree I have more education under my belt than every man I’ve ever dated. Women are now being blamed worldwide for the male loneliness epidemic, a development I didn’t see coming as a fresh young adult in the 2000s.

Sumire’s life changes when she meets Momo, a beautiful homeless boy several years younger than her who she promptly takes in. The age gap is clear between these two, but Sumire and Momo are a pair of opposites that balance each other out. Momo is the one person that has no problem with letting Sumire take command and listens to her frustrations without judgement. His neediness breaks Sumire’s cool detachment and distracts her, at least temporarily, from her woes.

Unfortunately, using another person to fill a role is not a healthy way to build a relationship, especially when one of those parties is still actively chasing a partner of equal net worth. I was surprised that the relationship between the two central characters wasn’t more salacious as the title and premise would imply, with the two beginning a fun (and funny) friendship of codependency. Still, the amount of lies and manipulation needed to maintain their cohabitation while Sumire continues to date is more than a little toxic for all parties involved.

I enjoyed this first volume, and am keen to see how the characters and their relationships evolve overtime. It’s refreshing reading a more lighthearted josei manga that still tackles themes important to adult women without the extreme toxicity of many other manga in this demographic. The fashion and art style of a bygone era has also been really nostalgic for me.

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