GuruGuru Pon-chan Vol. #01A

By Megan Lavey     June 14, 2005
Release Date: July 15, 2005



Creative Talent
Writer/Artist:Satomi Ikezawa
Translated by:
Adapted by:

What They Say


The Review
Guru Guru Pon-Chan is from Satomi Ikezawa, also the author of Othello that Del Rey is also publishing. The 9-volume series won the 24th Kodansha Manga Prize in 2000, an honor that Nodame Catabile also won a few years later.

But for all of its critical success in the manga world, Guru Guru Pon-Chan is a hard series to get into initially. Ponta is a young puppy that has managed to get ahold of a bone called a "Guru Guru Bone" that the grandfather of her family has created. The bone was originally conceived as a means for a dog to talk. Instead, by eating or licking the bone, Ponta turns human.

This suits Ponta just fine. Even as a dog, she has a crush on the next door neighbor, Mirai. And when Ojii-chama, who is also the chancellor of the high school that Mirai attends, coerces the young man into taking care of Ponta while at school, Ponta is thrilled.

The opening chapters set up the series in pretty intricate detail - from Ponta first turning human to learning how to speak (you'll have to read for yourself what her first word is) and starting to attend school. These chapters, while interesting, just aren't that entertaining. Ikezawa immediately sticks the reader with a large cast, so it's hard to figure out who's who at first. Ponta herself is very irritating. It's not until the end of chapter 3 that she starts to level off in her excitement. Chapter 4 is my favorite out of the book, mainly because Ponta is relatively calm throughout it and introduces a new angle into the story in the form of a rival of sorts for Mirai.

The rival aspect and the emotions it entails is a welcome addition to the series. At first, everyone discovers Ponta's secret, including Mirai, and it simply did not add to the tale. Granted, while the normal device would be to hide her change from Mirai, it's like he almost found too quickly. It's just, "yeah, I know her secret."

There is some potential for this series to grow, and I will pick up the second volume to see if it continues to get better. And I am expecting good things from this series due to the acclaim that it's received, but so far, it appears that the series should had just kept itself to one or two volumes - not nine. A mostly weak first volume isn't winning me over and I hope it's better in the second.