Creative Staff:
Writer/Artist: Satomi Ikezawa
Translated by: Doug Varenas
What They Say
Thanks to the miraculous Guru Guru Bone, Ponta the Labrador retriever can turn into a human girl – and she has found true love with Mirai Ikawa, who knows her secret but loves her just the same. But lately, the Guru Guru Bone hasn’t been working very well, and dating has become ruff-ruff.
Gang, an aggressive Labrador, is drooling over Ponta, unaware that she’s human half the time. And Gang’s owner, Aoka, is attracted to Mirai, and will stop at nothing to have him for herself. When Aoka hatches a plan to “marry” Gang and Ponta, she sets in motion a chain of events that may leave Ponta expecting puppies and Mirai all alone!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Ponta being in heat has attracted the unwanted attention of Gang, which suits Aoka just fine: not understanding the metaphysical implications that it would raise, Aoka just sees the chance to breed Ponta and Gang as an excuse to butt in on Mirai’s personal life. Mirai settles on a makeshift solution to both problems, locking Ponta inside during the daytime; unfortunately, this measure isn’t at all effective against Aoka, who’s perfectly content to wait until nighttime to kidnap Ponta and forcibly “marry” her to Gang. Aoka’s behavior turns completely cuckoo-bananas at this point, with her officially declaring Mirai to be her husband (much to his surprise) and reveling in the fact that she’s apparently arranged for Ponta to get pregnant. Mirai’s understandably torn over this whole pregnancy angle, in part because he’s hesitant to take in someone else’s child as his own — and in even bigger part because he’s not even sure what species he should expect Ponta to give birth to.
I can’t honestly say that I was really drawn in by the dramatic parts of the storyline — the whole volume’s plot is basically an elaborate set-up for the world’s most convoluted toilet gag — but I got a kick out of a lot of the jokes thrown in along the way. Ikezawa milks the whole question of Ponta’s offspring for all it’s worth, and Aoka’s restraint-order-worthy behavior towards Mirai is a very funny riff on obsessive shojou manga types. It may be crude and low-brow at times; but any manga that forces a character to choose between a baby book and a book on breeding puppies is OK as far as I’m concerned.
In Summary:
I was dropped into Guru Guru Pon-Chon here with this volume and what I’ve read so far makes me want to go back and catch up on the material I’ve missed. Even if I can’t speak for the rest of the series yet, I can definitely recommend this volume at the very least.
Content Grade: A-
Art Grade: B
Packaging Grade: B
Text/Translation Grade: B+
Age Rating: 16+
Released By: Del Rey Manga
Release Date: January 31st, 2007
MSRP: $10.95
