Inugami-hime no Shimobe

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Being unique is hard nowadays in general, but it's even harder in manga/anime medium, which is infamous for utilizing stereotypes, cliches and genre-typical approaches for safely taking a specified audience’s money. For Inugamihime, a story about one young man and his dog-goddess master, readers will see just how damaging being ‘safe’ can be when set in a high-speed environment.

Story: Inugamihime’s immediate premise is an example of “everyday-man” turned “MC”, with an arrow going straight through Inuzuka Taroumaru’s head. He’s then forced to be a sacrifice for the village deity, but it turns out he’ll just be her ... servant instead.
From this platform, the story turns into a slice-of-life adventure as the reader is slowly introduced to the rest of the cast, which is decently sized for such a small series. The events of the story document the progression the princess as she begins to intermingle with society, causing confusion as she misunderstands words, discovers new technologies and even makes a friend or two. At the same time however, the princess also attempts to balance her powers and gain the trust of the villagers.
With this small background in mind, it is apparent that the story does not take any significant deviations from its competitors. However, what ruins what could have been at least a mediocre series is the pacing, which, due to short length of the story, prevents events from being fully explained and/or experienced. Over the span of 15 chapters, character relationships form, strengthen, break and then reemerge in almost a loop of sorts. People get hurt and people grow. Despite these developments, the effects of such developments are short lived. Even the true crisis in the story is resolved relatively quickly and the readers are barely even allowed to see the aftermath. The situations keep changing, leaving this series with a puddle of muddled events.

Art: From an art perspective, the artwork present attempts to blend together modern character design tropes with Japanese mythology, resulting in limited success. The main characters themselves don’t look much different from the multitude of black-haired girly or harsh but kind MCs. The action scenes, ranging from saving a girl from drowning in a pool to fending off a bunch of kamaitachi’s , were okay. Nothing really remarkable about this series visually other the neatly drawn dog mask, dog spirits and kimonos.

Characters: The characters of the series are, as I keep saying, “safe”, in that they assume their roles and tend not to stray too far from their first impressions. Inuzuka is the tough and caring servant who, while having a tendency to complain, continues to serve his master dutifully. Sazen is the extremely dedicated father-like servant who keeps a close eye on his mistress and the newbie. Aya, the Dog goddess, is the too-refined-that-she’s-clueless character with the pinch of tsundere that all master-and-servant relationships have in modern manga. Other characters also make appearances but they too are swept away by the lighting-fast-current of this series. Over the course of the chapters, we see these characters progress as they get closer, then drift apart before closing the gap yet again. Everything, from the banter to the faces they make, all scream “cliche”, but that in itself isn’t what holds the series back.
The true problem lies in how quickly these characters change, which is almost completely due to the pacing. Because of that, not even devoted fans to this kind of manga can appreciate the tropes when they see them because most situations usually last only a chapter or two. Even if the approach intended was quantity over quality, the brevity of the series doesn’t do it any favors.

Enjoyment: Due to its extremely quick pace, unremarkable premise and bland characters, I cannot say I enjoyed this series nor can I even recommend it to others. While it was a short read, each chapter felt too long, mostly because I wanted the predictable, rushed dialogue and rehashed scenarios to end. I felt nothing for the characters because they are simply replaceable.

Overall: Mediocrity is a dangerous position to be in in a business where it is so common. For Inugamihime, a series with terrible pacing that proceeds to ruin a setting that already seemed to an unremarkable, fame might reach it eventually, but for the wrong reasons. For those who came looking for a story about shrine priestesses, dog-girls, or just plain old-romance, this series offers a quick fix, but in the end, speed doesn’t mean everything.