Guruguru Pon-chan

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So... this manga to date, is the weirdest shoujo manga I've personally read. The romance, situations, and plot are so bizarre, it's amazing that I'm able to walk away from reading this acting like a normal human being. Does this mean this manga is bad and should be avoided? Heck no, I never regretted picking this up.

For context, I first picked up this series at an age (I probably shouldn't have) when I was just getting into shoujo manga, just learning how to read from right to left instead of left to right, so it was an awkward time. Picked the first volume from my ... local library, expecting it to be a normal boy meets girl plot, same old, same old. Little did I know that this manga would literally shape my sense of humor and blow out my basic expectations of romance in shoujo manga for me.

Now to actually talk about the manga itself. As I said before, it's weird. From my first time reading this to now, whenever I read this story I always have moments where I'm weirded out or have to guiltily look over my shoulder to make sure no one is seeing me read this at some parts. I'm just going to tell you now, there will be moments like this. However, this all just added to the hilarity of this series, which had (and still does) me rolling with laughter.

At first glance, the story is heavily comedy and romance based. Absurd situations with romantic fluff, fair, fair. But while very silly, the story isn't afraid to touch on dramatic and somewhat serious situations, that strangely fit well. It's ironic, but Ponta and Mirai have one of the more healthier relationships I've seen in shoujo manga, which again, is ironic.

The story, art, and characters aren't out of this world, but still manage to make my overall enjoyment of this series hold true, even years later. This is a very fun and unusual read and I highly recommend this for those looking for something different out of this genre. Again, still a weird story so may not be for everyone, but if you're chill with that and enjoy your romance with a side of ridiculousness then, by all means, give this story a shot.

Story: 6
Guru Guru Pon-chan is a story about a female dog who falls in love with a human male and she is given a "guru guru bone" that lets her transform into a human. If you can accept that this is a strange love story between an animal and human i can recommend you to read this.
Some of the chapters are quite fun when they are dealing with the fact that she is indeed, a dog but in many cases they are just playing with the humour factor of how a dog would act in human situations.. Many of the romantic scenes fall flat very ... fast once you remember her being a dog.

Characters: 7
I think that this story with these characters would have been alot better if it was done without the whole "transforming dog" affair. This really had a potential for being a good love story between three persons but the writer soon dropped all of that for more dog jokes. I feel that this really cheapens the story by alot.

The main characters Ponta and Mirai are both alright characters i guess. Ponta who is the dog is this very cute, very energetic young girl which i think is very normal in mangas but these types are often only a side character, only thing that raises Ponta to become a main character is the dog gimmic. There were some nice scenes where she was torn apart between the fact that she is a dog and that she is in love with a human and how it could never work.
Mirai on the other hand is your very generic love interest guy. He has some funny moments but those are often triggered by Ponta's foolery. He is strong and protective and nothing we havent seen before in millions of love stories before.

Later on more and more characters are introduced but soon forgotten by the writer. Theres a girl in the very beginning who likes the main guy Mirai but she just gives up on him after few chapters. Later they introduce another guy called Go who is trying to go after the Main character Ponta. Go is my favorite character in this manga because he is this very serious looking guy who on the inside just wants some friends. Theres a scene on early end on how he wants to make "100 friends by becoming a transfer student" but the only friend we see him getting is Ponta.

Enjoyment: 8
I might have given out the tone that i didnt like this manga but i really think that in places the comedy works very well and when i was reading this at night time i found myself biting my own fist so i wouldnt laugh so hard to wake up the whole house. This story might have been alot better off with being just a comedy where a dog is transformed into a human girl instead of the girl also falling in love. The character of Go is a really good comedy relief and i hoped there would have been more of him in this manga.

Overall: 5
In the long run i dont think i would have missed anything special if i had not read this but for only having 37 chapters this is a fast read and if you have nothing else to read i might aswell recommend you reading this. I was really disapointed in the ending of this story but i wont spoil it.

(((Warning, spoilers but I'm not marking as spoilers because you need to hear the problems))

Ok, gonna try and fill out the necessary word count, but the most important thing to note is that - this manga borderlines of noncery and bestiality .

I mean c'mon, the golden retreiver PUPPY can turn into a girl? The ML is meant to be a teenager but this MFer drawn like he's 30 and trying to be in a boy band aimed at children. But I mean really, a puppy, a creature that should be manifesting as a toddler and not a 17 year old girl - and yet here ... we are having her literally having a ((spoilers a little bit )) whole marriage arc and fake pregnancy arc and a accidentally becoming an escort arc?!?!?!? TF????

Sucks even more because the art is bloody gorgeous, but definitely very dated and can sometimes just adds to the sexualisation of the girl. Ponta is constantly, despite meaning to be a teenager, shown time and time again to have the mindset of a young child and it's really weird honestly.