Review: Ane Inu

I’m revisiting the earlier ero works that got me into the wonderful world that is hentai and one of these I have been looking forward to re-reading for the umpteenth time is Ane Inu. The cover caught my attention back then and was all it took to grab me. Murasaki Syus unique tale of debauchery and salacious activity is something I feel that deserves another read.

Set in world where evolution has given us Dependents, identical looking humans that in effect are no different than dogs and thus are treated as pets, with no thoughts outside animalistic ones we take a look at two stories. The first of Junichi and his landlady who puts on a collar to become a Dependent, the second Miho, classmate of Junichi and her little brother Takashi who do not have a pet but she wants to do anything to make him happy. The stories unravel into something much seedier.

Junichis story is weakest of the two but still maintains a good level of perverseness with the landlady purposefully putting on the collar to just be inhibited in her desires to be controlled. Mihos story is the real highlight and the one I will focus on most as it makes up a larger amount of the volume. With bizarre twists and the ability to induce a truly sordid scenario it is a joy. You learn about these pets, how they are controlled, what the special collars do and how to everyone they are completely normal as having a dog. Its delightfully delirious.

This manga contains a bevy of kinks, there is large focus on exhibitionism and public humiliation, mind control, rape, bondage and even some more extreme content later on. As such if any of this sounds off putting to you then steer clear of this.

Junichi is a student and a new landlady is due, he sees her coming out of the shower and runs off leaving behind a used Dependent collar from a friend. The landlady is curious and puts it on leading to all sorts of erotic action. I liked the idea of a girl willingly putting on the collar to feed her masochistic desires but the woman’s design and content held it back for me, her body was fine, nicely sized but she wore glasses which adding to the somewhat dated look was a big turn off. The sex scenes only briefly touched upon true masochist elements with hair pulling, degrading language and very rough sex. There was a nice rape scene but other than the strong exhibitionist elements it felt rather tame and flat.

The second story and the one that takes up the majority of the book is where the real depravity comes into play. Miho wants to do anything to help her little brother and becomes a Dependent in name only with fake collar to help him stave of bullies but this takes the unexpected turn as the bullies notice the fake collar and force the boy into a swap. Miho is now trapped and subjected to innumerable sexual torment. I love this I really did, that Miho would go so far for her little brother, even losing her virginity to him is sweet and her feelings get her punished.

The actual torment is wonderful, the bullies take her to a location and begin fucking her relentlessly eventually forcing the truth out of her. Tied up with the act gone they begin training her to break her like all their other pets that brings out a masochist in her. She escapes, enraptured in bondage but is immediately captured and given a proper collar which means she cannot speak up and lead to even more sexual torture. You can see the daunting look on her face as continues to be fucked mercilessly along with other Dependents who help pleasure her. Giving oral, rope digging into her skin the despair sets in as she realises the hole she dug herself into.

What happens to Miho is twisted but of her own doing. The collar part I thought was a clever way of trapping a girls body against her mind, she desperately wants to get out of this but cannot, her arms being bound means she has to wander about as the plaything of those she despises. This mental torture I do like and it is played here so effectively, seeing her suffer, tears from her eyes as her body is forcing her to pleasure others is dark and demented, I love it.

The sex scenes here are really rough with bondage, brutal rape, choking, gang bangs adding to her humiliation. Pretending to be a Dependent brings some lovely extended exhibitionist scenes that ramps up the degradation. The humiliation angle has a large focus (something of a trait of the mangaka) as she is taken to a school and forced to pleasure the bullies in class with mind broken, being degraded by everyone who looks down on her making her excited as her little brother watches on. The ending, which I will not spoil was a unique take I did not expect, it upped the salacious nature and depravity is well worth the wait.

There are some after chapters that spread the focus onto other girls including the teacher as well as a new student but were very lacking. Compared to what had come before it felt very tame and too basic, it does match the theme but just falls flat completely. I have no idea why it was there and felt like a side story placed in to pad out.

Visually this manga is beautiful with a somewhat dated art style that will put some off. The girls here do offer differing body types with the more voluptuous Landlady to lighter proportioned Miho but there are some features to the art such as Mihos rib cages being visible through their skin that may be a turn off. It brings a sense of raggedness, that they are pets but mistreated or given rough punishment. They are still attractive to me, very much so.

In regards to dated looks, it’s in clothing or facial expressions but that is neither here nor there for me as the little details emphasises the salaciousness. The tears coming from Miho, her angered look as she is forced to cum and humiliated or the sweat running down her body as she becomes an outlet for others it really heightens the depravity. The girls are always front and centre, the exhibitionist elements shine through as well with plenty of background use to display their ordeal. My only complaint is that sometimes the character toning can be a bit off leaving an almost unfinished look in places, it was minute but noticeable.

Re-reading this again I still have the same thoughts I had back then, the first part whilst still enjoyable did not grab me as much but the overall degrading nature, the uniquely perverse world and delicious sexual action was a joy to read. It is a great entry point if you want something a bit harder or degrading and would go on to help shape my ero views for years to come and that I cannot be thankful enough for.

Mangaka: Murasaki Syu

Release: 2006

Length: 2 volume, 12 chapters

Availability: Mandarake, Amazon Japan

8/10