From the back cover:
Hyoue Inugami is a lot older than he looks—500 years older, to be exact. Long before he became Amane’s loyal guardian, this demon dog served another master. He wasn’t alone in his duties, however. The sorcerer Kaiso kept two guardians—Hyoue and Zakuro. Now, after centuries of separation, Zakuro is back. The sprightly demon child says he’d like nothing more than to serve Amane alongside his old friend. But demons, like dogs, can be quite jealous when it comes to affection. When these two beasts start scrapping, who will emerge as leader of the pack?
Review:
This volume offers a twist on the romantic rival plot when Zakura, Hyoue’s former co-guardian, returns and manages to get Amane to declare that she’ll keep him for her guardian, too. It’s hinted that he’s got a sneaky agenda, so it was one of those, “Nooo, don’t believe him!” moments. Of course, he turns out to be a bad seed with lots of angst, but these chapters were all pretty good. I like that some interesting questions were raised, like what Hyoue would do if Amane were to die, and also a mysterious reference to Amane being “like that” back in their village.
My favorite part, though, is the first chapter in which Takako, Amane’s first and only friend, begins to have dreams about the events in volume one, where Amane protected her from a ghost assisted by Hyoue, who transformed into what Takako believes is a white cow. Hee. Some of the attempts at humor in this series are not funny, but I did have to snerk at super-deformed demon guise Hyoue all affronted at being mistaken for a cow. Anyway, I kind of figured that Takako would be allowed to keep her memories in the end, but I was all for that because every strong heroine needs a civilian who’s in on her secret! I guess I just like that Buffy dynamic.
Her Majesty’s Dog is quite entertaining. The angsty Zakuro plot didn’t thrill me, but there are several elements of its execution that genuinely surprised me, which bodes well for things to come.
I honestly don’t remember a lot of what happened in these early volumes — I don’t know if that is just because I have a really bad memory or the fact the early part of the series is only “okay.” (I’ve sold or traded my early volumes of the title so I really can’t go back and check it out again…) t
From one of Takeuchi-sensei’s comments, I get the idea that it was still kind of touch-and-go regarding its serialization, so maybe that accounts for the “just okay” nature of the early volumes. I’m halfway through v3 now and it’s actually worse.