Reading Report: 19 April 2026

K9 by 海明寺裕

マブラブ Unlimited

Because of the Kaimeiji focus this week I barely got any VNing done. I made a bit of progress with Muv-Luv Unlimited, finally reaching a part in the game where I had some choices, though I'm unsure if any of them have meant anything. I really liked the conversation about whether a soldier ought to die if their commanding officer gave them the order. I'm sort of roleplaying as Takeru in a way that I feel is most realistic for this situation, so I told the girls that I would refuse such an order. I hope that it actually comes into play later.

トモちゃんは女の子！

I started watching this sort of on a whim. It's not exactly what I expected, though it's not far from it either. Tomo is a tomboy with a crush on her childhood friend, Jun. The story is basically about her attempts to have him see her as the girl she is so that he'll fall in love with her, though it's obvious that he's already in love with her. Episode 6 had two of my favourite moments. The first part of the episode is Tomo's birthday. She dresses up very cutely and goes out, meeting Jun by chance, but he doesn't recognise her and instead treats her like a cute, strange woman. It sort of felt like a crossdressing episode, except Tomo is just a girl. The second half of the episode was about Jun feeling like his whole life has been trying to catch up to Tomo (mostly in terms of fitness and other physical abilities). It's obvious that they're both at a point in their development where Jun will be able to do that if he doesn't stop trying, and it highlighted the (perhaps unfair) way men and women part ways over the course of puberty. I think if the anime was more serious it could have some really interesting things to say about that. Sort of reminded me of Akisora's Nami story arc.

School Days

I watched the second half of School Days. When I first started my re-watch I wasn't sure the series could justify its own ending, but having seen it twice now, I think it all works in context. In particular, I like the way Makoto's mistakes consistently hurt Sekai and Kotonoha. It's a great tragic play about love and hurt. Maybe the boat scene is just excessive though.

ダンダダン

While visiting my folks I read the last few chapters of Dandadan volume 18. After such a long time I had forgotten a handful of characters, but thankfully this section mostly caught me back up without much trouble. Okarun defeats the empowered-Zuma (Umbrellaboy) and we see that the policeman Bega has a very personal relationship with him. I never really connected with Demon Slayer but I know a big part of the appeal of that series is the "redemption/explanation flashback" technique. Dandadan also does it a lot and it's always really great. This was no exception. I had to hold back tears as I was reading it in company. Really fantastic addition to Zuma and Bega's stories.

Various 海明寺裕 works

At the beginning of this week I wrote an article, Kaimeiji Yu Addendum, which expanded on my initial article in RRRRRR by discussing repeating elements that I think enhanced the erotic efficacy of his works. However, even after writing that article I felt like I was lacking critical context, so I spent the entire week reading as much of his writing as I could. Hopefully next week I'll read even more and I'll get closer to understanding Kaimeiji's captivating K9 universe.

volunteer Breeding

This was probably the single biggest catalyst for my interest in Kaimeiji's work, but I didn't read it from start to finish until this week. The plot follows a single mother taking care of two children who is thrown into a nightmare scenario when she's revealed to be a K9 - a species functionally similar to, but legally distinct from, humans. Having read a lot more in this universe now I'd put this story squarely in the middle of the imaginary chart I've made up. It balances the story between the K9 and master's perspectives, it's relatively low on public humiliation, and the training sequence is a little bit longer than average. Notably, it lacks a lot of dialogue from the K9 (she's often gagged, so the story relies on her thoughts and expressions). It shows other K9 in a number of roles such as police, cafes, and teachers. I really enjoyed the use of community in this manga. At the beginning the teacher chastises the mother for not engaging in her community, questioning if she's really happy or just retreating from the discomfort (of being known?). That same line of questioning comes back at the end right before the mother breaks and takes her place as a K9. Was she happy before this story? Was she fulfilled? Or was she just a broken woman awkwardly fitting into society's expectations without questioning them? How different is that from a K9?

eXpose

I didn't know it at the time, but this manga represents one side of a "mood" Kaimeiji writes for. This story does not take place in the K9 universe. In eXpose, a teacher is blackmailed by her student into a scenario where she is increasingly humiliated and stripped of her freedoms. It's the boiling crab genre which is often used in modern (at least modern as of the mid-2010s) NTR and mind-break stories. Each escalation is small compared to the last, but after she falls into the trap of following his first set of directives, it's already over. It's a satisfying writing style, though it relies on a few contrivances, like how the teacher has no support networks from any of her fellow teachers, students, or community. Naturally as these stories go, she succumbs to the lifestyle and ends up sold at an auction for a ridiculously low price.

girl Hunt

A bit of a hybrid between eXpose and volunteer Breeding, girl Hunt follows a strong-willed ace student who, through the coercion of her teachers and mother, is rapidly degraded and made to be obedient. It was interesting to see a mother play the role of an authority. This manga also introduced the connection between a woman's first period and her preparation for "adulthood" (as a K9). Unlike volunteer Breeding, the K9 in this story is not gagged and that fact is used to reinforce her position. Characters expect her to respond courteously and humbly to commands, not unlike the relationship in eXpose. The story ends with a K9 dog show, which helps to demonstrate the scale of the operation, but I didn't find it particularly interesting as a finisher.

body Shop

This is another one which I skimmed during my first article write-up. It follows a mother who is separated from her family (a son and daughter) and trained as obedient goods. Its biggest distinguishing point is that the K9 is paired with an anonymous master who forces her to do humiliating things in front of her son, who she believes is innocent in the ordeal. Later the story reveals that the master is the son, and by that point she's happy to be able to remain with the master she's grown to love and the son she wants to care for. Also when I first used this manga for a point in RRRRRR I misidentified a certain character as the K9's daughter, but it was actually an unrelated girl. The main character's daughter bookends the manga with appearances but is not involved in the bulk of the K9 training. The affection displayed between K9 and master in this one is pretty good.

パピー・ラヴ

This manga has a number of unique features. For one thing, the main character is not a woman, the focus is entirely put on a young man discovering the K9 world for the first time. His family, his aunt and two cousins, all turn out to be K9 who have concealed their true identities because of a law passed ten years prior. Changes to the legal framework mean reintroducing K9 to society in their true forms, which puts the main character in the de facto master position for these three people. The aunt and older female K9 are about what you'd expect given Kaimeiji's track record, but this manga also has the first (for me) explored male K9 with the young man's male cousin. Unlike a lot of other stories, these K9 don't really need training and they accept their place with little resistance, so the story really just felt like a way to realise some of the elements of a K9 world where other stories haven't. Like girl Hunt, this story also uses the "first period" date to mark the beginning of a K9 girl's journey.

In a complete surprise to me, it actually explores a handful of different K9 body types, from miniature teacup K9 (smaller than any human could ever be) to towering giantess K9 (taller than any human), plus one character's father even imports a dark-skinned K9, illustrating that K9 is not just a localised phenomenon. We also see fat K9 performing a specialised Sumo, wrestling K9, marathon-running K9, and more. This manga really felt like an answer to a lot of my burning questions, and also a celebration of the K9 universe as a whole.

K9

Despite the name, this manga does not feel like the core of what I'd expect in a K9 story. It's more like a hybrid of eXpose and girl Hunt, leveraging blackmail, escalation, and a few contrivances to take a strong-willed woman from her position of authority down to the bottom of society. That's not an indictment; just an explanation. The most unique element of this story is its use of computers. The teacher's blackmail starts through a computer and she meets her "master" through a computer chat service. She never meets her "master" face-to-face, yet they have seemingly limitless control over all aspects of her life. Eventually the story leads to an auction where, you guessed it, she is sold for an extremely cheap price (roughly the cost of one cigarette as one bidder states).

Because of the computer-element, the story has a bunch of fun gimmicks, like showing usernames, incorporating emoji, showing misspellings, the K9 being forced to type in hiragana only, and more. It's very cute, though it doesn't beat having a real person there in my opinion.