As a young boy, Chiaki Mikado had an encounter with an unusual, three-headed puppy, and as a consequence of a bite from that dog, he lost a piece of his soul. Now a teenager, he finds himself unable to enjoy anything, but the three-headed dog is back in human form -- or more accurately forms -- to fix all that!
Turns out that the three heads of the mythical guardian to the gates of the underworld are actually unique individuals, and each a pretty young girl at that! With his new roommate(s) leading the charge, can Chiaki experience the happiness that has so long eluded him?
Story 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 Eight years ago Chiaki Mikado was in Greece and tried to help a lost dog. But this dog was no normal dog, it was Cerberus. Cerberus, a mythological creature who guards the gates to the Underworld. Cerberus bites Chiaki and takes a piece of his soul. From this day on Chiaki can’t smile with his heart and he can’t enjoy anything in his life. Until he meets Kuro, a young girl who wishes to protect him. Later Chiaki finds out that Kuro is one of the three personalities of the Cerberus. With every day there are new dangers, but also a lot of things that Chiaki starts to enjoy with every day a little bit more...
Today's Cerberus reminds me a little bit of Rosario + Vampire in it unique blend of myth and everyday elements, and in the super-powerful female protagonist whose true strength form is unlocked by a boy she is close to.
The story begins with a boy finding a strange, deformed (seemingly) three-headed dog in some woodsy area. He bends down to help the puppy and is bitten. Fast-forward several years, and a now high school aged boy (named Chiaki, by the by) is struggling with a very unhappy life. He can't smile or feel joy, and is not well-liked by others for this reason.
Through a series of events, he ends up living with a unique girl who claims to be a dog and what's more more, to be the dog Cerberus, the three-headed guardian of Hades in Greek mythology. In human form, Cerberus manifests by assuming one of three guises and names at a time (each reprewenting a head of Cerberus. These are the energetic, but weaker, Kuro (who is the "leader" most of the time, meaning the one who is out and about controlling the body most of the time), the tought and tsudnerish Shirogane, and the intellectual and reserved (out of guilt for harming Chiaki) Roze.
You see, it turns out that Roze is the one who bit Chiaki, and stole a part of his soul. Now, she is earnest to make it up to him. Shirogane knows about this but Kuro doesn't.
Anyways, the fun is added to with some zany situations and a slowly movie plot. In fact, one thing that makes this one superior so far to some other manga is that the plot isn't dedicated to the gags, but exits. I love Hinata though. She is, like Kuro, really cute and adorkable.
The art was not the best I've seen, but really good nonetheless. The full-color pages were really neat and added a special something to the story. Really recommend this one. The author puts some unique spins on some typical shonen-y and harem-y fantasy tropes.
I'm not that critical of manga, I suppose. I'm sure this is like a million other manga, but I enjoyed it. I just read these because they are fun and a "comfort read." Some would classify that as "guilty pleasure" but I don't use that term anymore. (So not guilty for anything I read!)
I found this manga silly and cute. For those who care, yes, there is some fan service, but it felt mild to me. I loved the little pumpkin ghost.
The artwork is Okay and the story is interesting I don’t think I’ve seen a harem done like this. The plan is OK though I thought the fan service was unnecessary and it did drag the story down a little bit I’m kinda curious to see where this goes though I’m not in a giant hurry.
Nice artwork and an appealing premise, this reminded me a little of the "Fruits Basket" anime, with most of the action in this volume centering around a school and social awkwardness caused by badly timed shapeshifting.
Awww, yisss! No better way to snap me out of my reading funk then with a fun harem manga centered around mythology!
This is a reread for me and while this wasn't my first harem manga/anime, this was one of the first I recognized as a harem manga and actively pursued it because of that. I'm not gonna lie, harem manga/anime aren't always my jam, either because a). The main character is boring, b). The ladies are tropey/uninteresting, or c). Just plain boring. This was what got me interested in harem manga because I enjoy the male lead and the three cerberus girls are at least entertaining, if not trope-ish. I'm also an absolute SUCKER for mythology of any kind, and Greek mythology has always been a favorite, so I was down from the start! As far as it being a reread, I definitely enjoyed it just as much the second time around and still like the central conflict. Chiaki is not a super interesting character, but I like the fact that he wasn't cool with this situation from the start and his struggles with feeling empty played into that discomfort. The three cerberus are nice and I love their character designs, plus the tail wagging is just so damn cute.
I'm glad this series brought me out of my funk and I'm stoked to continue rereading the series. I highly recommend this for anyone looking for a fun harem series, especially anyone looking to try out the harem subgenre. It's definitely a good beginner's harem series, but a fun series for anyone else interested.
i really enjoyed reading this and i just have to say Rose is best girl lets get that out of the way now but otherwise its interesting to see this concept and never would have thought to be able to see cerberus as like a dog girl.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
I see a harem manga in my future. A Cerberus is a multi-headed dog -- in this instance 3 heads. As can only happen in manga, the 3-headed dog becomes 3 girls with only one present at any time. There is at least one more girl in the picture -- hence my harem expectation. So far, it's fun.
Did you want a manga that reminded you slightly of Rosario + Vampire but has a Cerberus female main lead? If you know what a Cerberus is, combine that with a male main lead incapable of feeling joy, and you get Today’s Cerberus. This manga mostly manages to find a balance between its comedic and serious moments in its first volume, though some of the fanservice and its fighting sequences, or attempts to do them, can be a turn off.
Chiaki Mikado has an issue: he can’t express who he is. Thanks to a childhood encounter with a three headed dog, he since has not been able to smile properly, be happy, or figure out what to do with his life. Enter Kuro, a Cerberus guard dog sent by Chiaki’s traveling dad. Kuro is determined to get Chiaki to be happy. The problem is with her appearance means more danger in regards to Chiaki’s life.
Today’s Cerberus was a pretty pleasant surprise. The relationship between Kuro and Chiaki is sweet and kind of neat. It helps that Kuro has two forms that she can transform into: one who destroys and is the tsundere (Shirogane), and the one who heals and wears a mask (Roze). Aside from Shirogane, they care about returning Chiaki to a state where he’s happy since they took that away from him.
It even had a story that instantly reminded me of The Morose Mononokean. This is not like that in any respect, but it has some solid moments like that story, and that is fairly impressive. Just deal with the Cerberus being scared by a pup, which is funny. (Reminder: She guards the underworld gates.)
There are things Today’s Cerberus has issues with. The fighting is the least effective part of the manga, and with the art style the way it is, that will probably be a problem the way this story is going. That story involves Kuro getting threats to go back to Hades, and threats that are now going after Chiaki because of her arrival. The fights so far have been mostly jokes, so the humor is there. If it does get serious, it’s not on pace to work out super well as the art ranges from cute and bright — at least in this volume, all the attempts to go from light-hearted to serious were mediocre.
The biggest question mark going forward are the stories. There’s one with an evil spirit eventually turning good that was done well, and one where the actual fighting was weak, which hampered the story. Today’s Cerberus will be a fun read if it takes the funny approach rather than the serious one. I fear it may not keep that approach.
I picked this up as part of a buy 2, get 1 free sale at Books-a-Million awhile back, and finally got around to reading it. And to be honest, if it hadn't been for that sale, I might not have given Today's Cerberus a second look--the synopsis on the back makes it sound like a pretty generic harem series. But the art is nice, and that was enough to get me to bite, considering it was on sale. Now that I've read through volume 1, I'm glad I did.
That's not to say that Today's Cerberus doesn't still hit a lot of tropes right on the nose, because it does. You've got the tsundere girl, the super-energetic girl, the demure girl, the third-party love interest, and even a transfer student cliche. And on the surface, that does sound a bit eye-rolly--but that's just the thing. There's a surprising amount beneath the surface here, if you take the time to look at it.
First off, these girls (Cerberus and otherwise) are not all in love with our protagonist, Chiaki. I did mention a love interest earlier on, but she doesn't know how to express her feelings for him. And yes, that's kind of a trope in and of itself, but here it's very clearly due to her sheltered/traditional upbringing, and something about her internal struggle against what she's been taught and what she feels is actually quite endearing. And yes, one of the Cerberus girls is also in love with Chiaki...sort of. It honestly seems to stem from a major sense of guilt than anything--she wants to make up for something that happened in the past, and she's attempting it the only way she knows how. It'll be interesting to see how this turns out.
I will say I wasn't expecting quite so much of a supernatural element in this, aside from the Cerberus girls, but quite a few other spirits/monsters/etc. show up. And given Chiaki's unique situation of missing part of his soul (not a spoiler--it's stated on the back of the book), he can see these creatures, giving this series an almost early-Bleach feel.
Today's Cerberus is not at all what I expected it to be, and that's a good thing. The expressive faces and nice character designs drew me in, but it's the human element (even in decidedly non-human characters) is what will keep me coming back. Definitely enjoying this one so far.
Today's Cerberus is a lighthearted paranormal comedy manga with well-designed characters and lots of laughs. While it starts out very cliche and predictable - a normal male protagonist ends up with a cute and sexy wolf-girl that starts living with him and causing trouble - it deviates from the norm when the girl turns out to be THREE very different girls in one. Highly recommend if you're a fan of harem manga, or comedy manga with moe girls!
A totally new spin on an ancient mythical beast. The main character having no desire to have fun, or interact with others will truly speak to teens in the height of adolescence. He is offset by 3 female leads all living in the same body, and all three of them help hold the story together as they try to help the main character regain his soul.
This manga is so cute you guys! I love Greek Mythology so you know...how could I resist a manga with the word Cerberus in the title! I have to say, I really love the myth and every day life that's been blended together in this manga, there was a lot more myth elements to this than I originally thought there would be and I was pleasantly surprised. On top of that, it had a good pace, and it's funny! I really, genuinely enjoyed reading this and all the crazy situations the characters got themselves in to.
We have Chiaki who got bitten by baby Cerberus and is now losing a part of his soul so he can't really feel/display emotion, which was funnier than it really should have been with his dodgy smile! Then there's Cerberus who you know...has three heads usually. But in this manga Cerberus has three forms and has come to guard Chiaki. We have Kuro who is in charge most of the time, she's like a little kid and it's totally adorable. Shirogane is the second head, and she's the kick ass one who does all the fighting, and finally there's Roze. Roze is the one who bit Chiaki and so wants to make it up to him, she's voluntarily sealed her power away and she's the thoughtful and quiet one.
There are plenty of cliches/tropes in this book, but I honestly didn't really care. It was just so fun and cute, and it was a light read and it's one of those manga that you can pick up and it'll bring a smile to your face and lift your mood as you read it! Despite outward appearances, not every single girl in this manga is in love with Chiaki, which was nice and refreshing and kind of another shock. I'm not going to lie. Having said that, I'm not even entirely sure that one of the girls actually is but we'll see how it plays out! There is one love interest though for definite and I enjoyed watching the struggle she had with her own little problems!
I enjoyed the art work to this, I enjoyed being surprised by it and it's contents. I enjoyed how authentic and believable the characters where. They where very relatable including the non-human ones! I enjoyed this even more the second time around, and I look forward to what's coming next!
I really only put this on my tbr list because I liked the look of Roze on the covers (pink haired girl on vol. 3 & 7) so I wasn't expecting the series to amount to much, but so far I am enjoying it, though I do find myself skimming some.
I don't think the plot is going to get a whole lot more in-depth than what's presented in vol. 1 but that's ok with me since I'm not reading this for plot. The story is easy and has some cute moments and humor and I like that while the first volume sets the series up to have a bit more going on later we still get some answers right away in vol. 1, like why Roze wears a muzzle (although it's not exactly clear if there's any danger to her taking it off) so I get the impression the series isn't going to try and be more of anything than what it is and I appreciate that.