Massugu ni Ikou is a manga about dogs from the POV of dogs. It stars a 3 year old cross-breed named Mametarou who lives with his teenage owner, Ikuko. Massugu ni Ikou was later adapted into a 9-episode anime in 2003.
Massugu ni Ikou provides examples of:
- Abandoned Pet in a Box: In episode 4, Mametarou and Hanako come across a puppy in a box. They end up acting as Parental Substitutes until it is taken home by a girl. They deliberately keep a woman from taking the puppy because she seems like she'd end up a neglectful owner and they only let a girl who seems genuinely into the puppy adopt it.
- Affectionate Nickname:
- Ikuko calls Mametarou "Mame" while Mametarou calls her "Iku-chan".
- The dogs all call Sebastian "Onamomi", except for Sora (who takes offense to it). Sebastian's nickname comes from the fact he was covered in a weed called "onamomi" when Mametarou rescued him as a puppy.
- All Dogs Are Purebred: Averted. Most of the dogs are indeed pedigrees, but the main character is a mongrel.
- And Knowing Is Half the Battle: "Mame's Tips For Dogs" teaches viewers about dog care.
- Artistic License – History: It's mentioned that Jack is from an "old breed". Rough Collies as we know them are assumed to have been around since the 1800s. It's a technically a long time ago, but it's not long by dog breed standards (with many other modern breeds also dating back to the 1800s).
- Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: Hanako is scattered-brained and gets distracted easily. She is a dog, after all, and Kishu have a high prey drive.
- Bland-Name Product: Instead of Pocky, there's "Poncky".
- A Boy and His X: Inverted. The anime is about a dog and his girl, taking place from the dog's point of view. Mame is very protective of Aki, and when she shows up, Mame tends to fret over her, such as when it comes to her boyfriend.
- Chastity Couple: Iku and Junichi are both terribly shy and avoid displays of affection.
- Face of a Thug: Due to his large size, piercing blue eyes, and wolf-like appearance, Gen is considered a scary looking dog by Mametaro and Hanako. He's actually kind and reserved.
- Festival Episode: The end of episode 4 has the characters at a festival in order to mark the end of summer.
- Free-Range Pets: Played with. The dogs have to escape their yards to wander, yet at the same time no one seems to mind dogs wandering about.
- Hair Color Dissonance: Mametarou has orange fur that his owner calls "light brown".
- Hiding Your Heritage: Mametarou is embarrassed of being a cross-breed and tries to hide it from his sweetheart Hanako.
- Jealous Pet: Mametaro, being very protective of owner Aki, detests her boyfriend and considers him to be his enemy.
- Married Animals: A variant. Mametarou and Hanako refer to one another as boyfriend and girlfriend.
- Not What It Looks Like: In episode 1, Mametarou believes Iki and her boyfriend are going to have Their First Time. As it turns out, they were having their first... date.
- Pale Females, Dark Males: Mametarou is an orange male while his girlfriend Hanako is white.
- Pet Fad Starter: Discussed. A shelter is shown to be full of abandoned fad pets. Of the 36 dogs it received that year, 28 of them were put to sleep. It even serves as the page quote for the Trope itself."Dogs appear in TV shows and commercials as main characters. That starts a fad, and people get those kinds of dogs. Then for various reasons, they can't keep the dogs anymore, and they abandon them. This kind of case still happens every day."
- Slice of Life: There's not much drama to the series. It's about the everyday life of dogs.
- Super-Deformed: It's very common for the dogs to Art Shift into a simplistic art-style.
- Surprise Incest: Discussed. Cloudcuckoolander Hanako mentions that she has dozens of half-siblings throughout Japan and worries that Mametarou is one of them. This is despite the fact Mametarou is obviously not a Kishu.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Gen is a Husky. As a large and active breed, he requires a lot of time and effort. He was a handful even as a puppy. Eventually his owner has to give him up because his stress-related barking and howling upset the neighbors, an outcome not commonly seen or discussed in fiction featuring pets.
- Token Minority: The protagonist, Mametarou, is a token mix-breed in a cast of purebred dogs. It causes him no small amount of insecurity.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Hanako loves melons and melon pan (which is bread shaped like a melon, though Hanako believes they're made with melon).
- Ventriloquist Animal: The dogs almost never move their mouths to talk.
- Xenofiction: The anime is a down-to-earth series about dogs. The dogs have more human emotions and behaviors than real dogs, however they're still more-or-less dogs.
