Hiromi Arakawa was born and grew up on a dairy farm in Hokkaido, Japan. Wanting to be a shōnen manga artist, she adopted the extra masculine “Hiromu” as a pen identify. Her dream got here true in 1999 when the journal Month-to-month Shōnen Gangan (a Sq. Enix imprint) printed her 50-page one-shot “Stray Canine.”

The story is unquestionably an early work, the kind the place an creator hasn’t completely discovered their very own id but, and so depends on acquainted tropes to set their stage. Set in a obscure fantasy world, “Stray Canine” is a riff on “Berserk.” The lead, Fultac, is a dead-ringer for Guts — a wandering warrior with one eye and an enormous sword.

Arakawa’s spin on this acquainted story comes when Fultac examines a crate carried by some thieves he killed. Inside is a “Army Canine,” a creature, we’re advised, was created as a residing weapon by way of “combining magic and chemistry” (aka alchemy). Named Kilka, this navy canine’s design is inverse of Nina’s; Kilka is slightly woman with golden eyes and canine ears, relatively than a canine with human hair and soulless eyes.

Kilka begins to comply with Fultac round like, effectively, a canine. That’s till they’re attacked by a bounty hunter named Bartley and his personal fully-grown navy canine named Brakshia. Fultac defeats Bartley however loses his left arm to Brakshia; Kilka offers her life to avoid wasting her grasp.

A grieving Fultac tracks down the fort lab the place navy canines are created and lays waste to it, releasing a younger dog-child who replaces the misplaced Kilka. The ultimate twist? When Fultac removes his eye patch earlier than the lab’s mad scientist, it seems he is not hiding a wound, however a golden eye. The “Stray Canine” was the human warrior we would been following all alongside.