Tramps Like Us

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For other uses, see Tramps Like Us (album).

Tramps Like Us

きみはペット (Kimi wa Pet)
Genre	josei
Manga
Authored by	Yayoi Ogawa
Publisher	Kodansha Tokyopop
Serialized in	Kiss
Original run	–
No. of volumes	14
TV drama
Directed by
Studio
Network	TBS
Original run	April 9, 2003 – June 18, 2003
No. of episodes	10

Tramps Like Us, known as Kimi wa Pet (きみはペット Kimi wa Petto, a.k.a. You're My Pet) in Japan, is a josei manga series by Yayoi Ogawa, which was adapted to a TV drama series that aired in Japan on TBS in 2003. The manga also won the 2003 Kodansha Manga Award for shōjo.

The story concerns Sumire Iwaya (巌谷澄麗 Iwaya Sumire), a journalist at a major newspaper. A career woman in a society that doesn't handle successful women well, Sumire suffers from depression.

After her fiancé leaves her for his mistress and Sumire is demoted at work, she stumbles across a young injured homeless man in a box outside her condominium. She takes him in and becomes attached to him. As a joke, she says she wants to keep him as a pet, and names him Momo (モモ), after her beloved dog from childhood. To her surprise, the young man agrees. Sumire provides room and board, and Momo provides unconditional love and loyalty. Sumire says there is no sex in their relationship, and she will only sleep with men who have the "three highs": higher pay, higher education and higher height (i.e. taller than her 170 cm.) Despite this, there is a definite sexual subtext to their relationship.

Sumire later learns that Momo's real name is Takeshi Gouda (合田武志 Gōda Takeshi), and that he is a dance prodigy who studied classical ballet but was too short to take the lead roles. He switched to modern dance.

Complications arise when Sumire is reunited with the man that she was infatuated with at Tokyo University, Shigehito Hasumi (蓮實　滋人 Hasumi Shigehito). Hasumi-senpai meets all of Sumire's requirements. However, Sumire can't quite open up to Hasumi-senpai, or give up her attachment to Momo. Momo passes himself off as Sumire's distant relative.

Other recurring characters:

Yuri Shirotae: Sumire's childhood friend, a housewife and mother of Ran
Rumi Shibusawa: Momo's ex-girlfriend, a dancer
Shiori Fukushima: a dental assistant determined to seduce and marry Hasumi-senpai

The English translation of the manga is published by TOKYOPOP, which retitled Kimi wa Pet as Tramps Like Us.