Inubaka


Inubaka: Crazy for Dogs is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by. It started in Shueisha's manga magazine Weekly Young Jump in September 2004, and was later transferred to in August 2009, where it ended in April 2010. Its chapters were collected in 22 volumes. The series was licensed in North America by Viz Media, who published 17 volumes from 2007 to 2010, before ceasing its publication. A live-action film adaptation premiered in November 2009.

Plot

Sheltered and controlled by her parents for most of her life, and owner of a loyal mutt named Lupin, 18-year-old Suguri wants to move from the country-side to the big city, Tokyo, to find a career and a new life. After being kidnapped and stranded at a rest area, Lupin mates with another dog while her owner, Teppei, is not looking, shattering the latter's dream of a litter of purebred puppies. To make up for her mongrel's wayward wooing, Suguri accepts Teppei's offer to work at the pet store he manages - leading her to numerous adventures and canine antics.

Characters

Main characters

;Suguri Miyauchi
;Teppei Iida
;Kentaro Osada
;Momoko Takeuchi

Recurring characters

;Chizuru Sawamura
;Kanako Mori
;Hiroshi Akiba
;Show Kaneko
;Mari Yamashita
;Kim Hyung-Joong

Dogs

;Lupin
;Noa
;Czerny
;Ricky
;Melon
;Zidane
;Rosetta
;Lucky
;Chanta
;Alfred

Media

Manga

Written and illustrated by, Inubaka: Crazy for Dogs was first published in Shueisha's manga magazine Weekly Young Jump on September 22, 2004. It was later transferred to on August 18, 2009, where it ran until April 28, 2010. Shueisha collected its chapters into 22 volumes, released from February 18, 2005, to May 19, 2010.
In North America, the manga was licensed for English release by Viz Media. 17 volumes were released from February 20, 2007, to November 9, 2010. In March 2011, Viz Media confirmed that they had put the manga on hiatus, finally canceling it.

Volumes

Live-action film

A live-action film adaptation premiered on November 21, 2009.

Reception

Carlo Santos praised the realistically drawn and very cute dogs, but was disappointed by the fanservice in the early chapters, and felt that the story relied on sentimentalism. AE Sparrow for IGN endorsed the first volume, but compared it to Old Yeller in its themes.