Other than the fact that I seem to re-read this manga every few months, I felt the need to address this drama/manga again because of some old reviews I read. They were very short reviews and I only found a few, but one of the frequent comments was that people were uncomfortable seeing MatsuJun “treated like that” ie, treated like a pet. It made me laugh until my obsessive-analyzing switch went off and I started thinking too much about that. Then there was the assumption of so many potential manga readers that the title and cover-art referred to some kind of “trashy” relationship.
The relationship between Sumire and Takeshi, our two main characters in the manga and the drama version of Kimi wa Pet, is hard for an outsider to comprehend. It’s even harder to put across in live-action because it’s easy to write everything off: Sumire is mean, Takeshi is a weakling, etc. One of the J-drama confession pictures about this show objected that love couldn’t begin from a relationship where one person is treated like a pet.
Let me take this opportunity to explain why it does and why you should read the manga (even if you’ve already seen the j-drama).
PS: Thank you, various people on tumblr, for the gifs/pics! None of them are mine. Also – there might be a spoiler or two, but barely.
Continue reading “In Which Isilie Defends: Kimi wa Pet / Tramps Like Us”