Kashikoi Ken Rilienthal

A manga about a brother and sister who’s new family member is the talking super dog Rilienthal!

This was Daisuke Ashihara‘s series before he did World Trigger. While World Trigger has far better wide appeal, I was a big fan of this wacky sci-fi/slice-of-life story.

The biggest appeal of Kashikoi Ken Rilienthal is the how wholesome everything is. When Rilienthal and his friends get lost on a ghost ship they fix the problem while befriending a lonely ghost. When a friend’s jealous feelings manifest itself as a huge monster they resolve the problem by talking it out. Even many agents of the secret organization that want to kidnap Rilienthal show lots of heart and compassion. This really is an iyashikei shonen series. Unfortunately it never found enough popularity in Weekly Shonen Jump and was ultimately canceled but I still look back fondly at this cute manga. It was nice to reread it on Jump+.

~dakazu