This review contains spoilers for all 32 episodes of I’m NOT Afraid of Wolves!
Ever since Pocket Comics’ closure, fans have been worried if they’ll ever be able to read the titles that were exclusive to the platform. Thankfully, some works, such as Shimizu Shino’s webcomic series, have made their way onto Manta so fans, old and new, can read this short romance. Andria McKnight translated the series. This is a GEM exclusive story, so readers will need to purchase GEMs to access the chapters.
Mei Inukai wants nothing more than to quit her job and have a fluffy bath filled with dogs. She gets the next best thing: she works at a dog cafe where the owners take in rescued dogs and try to find them forever homes. Unfortunately, a part-time job at a doggy cafe doesn’t pay the bills, and she has to work a corporate job, led by the cold and fearsome workaholic president Subaru Kageyama. One night, as she’s closing up shop, Mei encounters a very fluffy, and not ferocious, wolf who turns out to be her boss!
I’m NOT Afraid of Wolves! could have had a few more chapters. The development in Mei and Subaru’s relationship was much too fast. The L-bombs were already dropping halfway through the story, and I couldn’t understand how or why the two fell in love with each other, especially Subaru. It’s stated that Subaru’s instincts are the strongest during the full moon, but he manages to stifle his urges to breed for the most part… until he meets Mei when he pounces on her in the first chapter. I suppose it was an example of wrong place, wrong time, and Mei just happened to be there when his defenses were their lowest, but for Subaru to use it as a reason to explain his romantic feelings for her doesn’t make sense.
Then there was the antagonist, Rihito, who was once Subaru’s friend and business partner until a disagreement in philosophies led to their falling out. Rihito strongly believes that werewolves and humans are destined to live in separate worlds and is seemingly determined to make Subaru have the same opinion by manipulating him, including spiking his and Mei’s drinks. He changes, obviously, when he realizes that things don’t always have to be this way, but his redemption feels lacking.
While I appreciated the fact that Rihito did apologize, he didn’t do much to earn Mei’s forgiveness. After everything he’s done—sabotaging Subaru’s app launch and most horrendously, nearly getting Mei raped—all he got was a pinch on the cheek. Although Mei, understandably, doesn’t want to uproot Rihito’s little brother’s life should she call the authorities on him, Rihito definitely deserves more than the equivalent of a light slap on the wrist.
I also wasn’t a huge fan of the ending. Subaru proposes (as expected), but we don’t see Mei saying yes, although we have to assume she did. The next second, Subaru is foisting all of these wedding decisions on her, pressuring her to choose as if the wedding has to happen in a week. Even I felt stifled and panicked when reading it. She does eventually put her foot down and tells Subaru she wants to wait a year to, in her words, become a person worthy of him. And I don’t understand that. Her dream has always been to open up her own dog cafe, so why did her goal suddenly center around Subaru rather than her own personal and professional development?
The story doesn’t have much in the way of surprises, with all the cliches that you could see from a mile away. It’s thanks to the fluffy dogs and Mei’s insatiable (and relatable) desire to pet dogs lest she go through floof withdrawal that made I’m NOT Afraid of Wolves! an okay-ish read.
