Inukami! Isn’t the Harem Anime You Think

So a few years ago — well almost a decade ago, actually — an anime show called Inukami! hit the anime scene, and while at first it seemed like just another harem it quickly separated itself and became a sleeper hit. Now what is Inukami!? Roughly translated as “Dog Gods,” Inukami! is a romantic comedy, fantasy, and kinda-sorta harem anime because there are a lot of female characters and not many males. The premise of the show is that a boy named Keita Kawahira is a descendant of an Inukami-Tamer clan, and Inukamis are Dog Gods with the ability to transform into a human form (but they keep thier tails and stuff like that, of course). The tamer and the Inukami then work together to vanquish evil in the world and to uphold righteousness. Looks like a normal everyday harem, right? It’s not, just trust me. [divider type=”space_thin”]Keita is basically considered a failure to his family because he doesn’t take his “Inukami-taming” seriously and is actually unable to tame one. That is, until an Inukami named Yoko willingly allows him to tame her, at least for the most part. Yoko doesn’t really respect Keita, and doesn’t work together with him or listen to anything he says. She’s one of the most powerful Inukamis though, so I guess that’s a fair trade off.

The story of the show and the manga center around these two and their lives together. Keita’s cousin Kaoru sends one of his Inukamis to try to help Keita with Yoko, and of course Yoko gets a tiny bit jealous. So here’s where the …