I ordered this as a birthday treat for myself because I recently saw the anime and enjoyed it immensely, but felt sad that it was over and there were still plot points that could use filling in. I saw from the Amazon "Look Inside" feature that the manga series covers some of the backstory more fully than the anime, which is pretty much all I needed to know.

This first volume has rather a different feel from the show, though. The story is, of course, in a slightly different order because of the change in medium, but it's basically the same thing. Where the real difference comes in is the tone: the early episodes of the anime that match the five chapters of volume one rely a lot more on humor and visual gags. The exposition about Yoko and Keita's relationship is also slightly different here: there is a lot more affection on Yoko's part at a much earlier stage in the manga.

The manga does still have its humor, if not in quite the same perverse way as the show, and the artwork is quite lovely. I don't want to understate the fact that it's still very much a book for older teenagers and adults, though - there is nudity depicted (though never explicit), and plenty of the fanservice that parents probably wouldn't find appropriate for middle school students. (It's labeled for 16+ on the cover anyway.)

An inukami is a spirit who can take the form of a human or a dog and who, along with a human trainer, works to defeat evil spirits. Keita is a bit of a blacksheep in his clan, the members of which have traditionally been inukami trainers, because none would make a contract with him when he was old enough. However, one named Yoko has finally come forward to be Keita's inukami, and the story is about how that happened and what comes next.

There is tension in their relationship because Keita is a slacker and a bit of a "greedy letch" (as described at one point in the manga), and Yoko is the tsundere type and completely jealous of anyone Keita even looks at.

This volume includes:
Step 1: When Boy Meets Dog -- the story of how Yoko and Keita met
Step 2 and Step 3: With a Hot Springs, a Cat, and a Buddha Statue, Parts 1 and 2 -- similar to (but not entirely like) episode 7 in the anime
Step 4: A Date with Yoko -- Yoko has been watching television and wants to go on a date, so she does - just not with Keita
Step 5: Enter Nadeshiko -- after the disaster in Step 4, when Keita and his grandmother's inukami Hake realize that Yoko really doesn't know much about how to live amongst humans, Hake decides to have another inukami named Nadeshiko stay with them for a little while, in order to teach Yoko -- this is similar to episode 4

I really liked this volume and am very glad that I decided to buy it. ( )