THE LUNEFABLE REVIEW
Beast Taming: I Can Add Points
Beast Taming: A Puppy Who Would Rather Draw than Follow the Syllabus
Yu Bao is bottom of the school rankings, but his enthusiasm is real. Su Zhi’s new talent helps him ask whether the problem is the puppy or the curriculum.
THE SHORT TAKE
A warm school-and-pet progression opening with a mischievous dog at its center.
The puppy is listening, apparently
Su Zhi’s teacher is listing his pet’s failures: missed training, sleeping in class and a position near the bottom of the school rankings. Su looks at the small dog beside him and reports that Yu Bao says he is listening. Beast Taming: I Can Add Points establishes its comic partnership immediately. The boy is calm, the puppy appears terribly well behaved, and neither is particularly persuaded that the prescribed training deserves their enthusiasm.
The teacher’s frustration has a recognizable basis. Examinations are approaching, competition is growing, and Yu Bao has not learned the supposedly elementary skill expected of his species. Su’s answer is equally specific: the dog is trying hard, just at something else. That distinction gives the opening a better conflict than a simple demand to prove that an underestimated pet is secretly exceptional.
The first improvement is catching his own tail
The point-allocation system does not begin with an endless supply of rewards. Su has to discover which activities generate progress, and Yu Bao’s interest in an unconventional earth skill provides the first useful lead. The ability directs the results of work rather than eliminating the need for it. Their investigation remains playful because the dog wants to know what the improvement feels like, not merely what number will appear.
His first successful experiment in agility is delightfully canine. Chasing his own tail becomes easier; stopping gracefully remains another matter. The joke translates an abstract increase into a movement the reader can picture. It also keeps Yu Bao from becoming a stat sheet with fur. He is proud, distractible and impatient for more, with ambitions that can be both grandiose and very small.
A family that will cook dinner either way
The home scenes give the competition a reassuring emotional frame. Su’s father walks past his son to greet the puppy, while his mother finds a way to defend even an unpromising ranking. A promised meal does not depend on winning. Their support makes the household pleasant to return to and prevents every training decision from feeling like a desperate bid to earn affection.
The father’s web-novel career supplies a running joke about inspiration, productivity and finding excuses to avoid writing. Beneath the teasing, the parents are also willing to spend money on lessons if those become necessary. Su’s independence is therefore not born of having nobody to help him. He is allowed to experiment partly because home provides somewhere safe to report a failure and eat afterward.
A familiar skill in an unfamiliar body
The first school battle rewards the unusual combination rather than a simple declaration of superior power. An opponent recognizes the earth skill but responds according to assumptions about the larger creatures that normally use it. Yu Bao’s movement does not fit those assumptions. The contest becomes a demonstration that knowing a standard answer is different from observing the animal actually in front of you.
The teacher’s reaction afterward is funny because success does not end the disagreement. He recognizes talent and wants it directed back toward the established program. Su wants the freedom the teacher previously offered in exasperation. Yet the man also remains available for extra help. That continuing concern makes him more useful than an authority figure whose only function is to be embarrassed by the protagonist’s cleverness.
An apology made out of dirt
The best pet scene has little to do with school rankings. Yu Bao plays with Shao Ya’s cat, Xiaoyue, turns a game into a contest and then needs to repair the resulting bad feeling. His earth manipulation becomes a way to draw his offended friend. Xiaoyue tries to maintain his dignity while becoming increasingly interested in the portrait. The comedy comes from recognizable friendship, expressed through abilities specific to this world.
It also shows why Su pays attention to what the puppy enjoys. Creativity reveals a depth of control that routine drills might not expose. Shao Ya, meanwhile, offers a valuable complication: the standard syllabus prepares skills for later evolution, so abandoning it creates a planning problem. She can admire Su’s initiative while pointing out something he has not solved. Their conversation makes experimentation feel thoughtful rather than automatically correct.
Room to learn without a guaranteed answer
The explanation of points, attributes and training efficiency sometimes repeats conclusions already apparent from the scenes. Several jokes also rely on familiar internet phrasing, including occasional coarse innuendo, which can interrupt the warmer observational humor. The class challenge arriving later offers momentum, but its conspicuously wealthy opponents are less distinctive than the ordinary conversations about how a particular puppy learns.
The stronger promise is the partnership itself. Su asks Yu Bao what he wants, notices when enthusiasm fades and spends an afternoon rejecting unsuitable possibilities instead of selecting a flashy move immediately. The dog contributes ideas of his own. Begin with the disappointing school report and stay for that shared curiosity: a boy and a puppy discovering that becoming stronger may start with taking an apparently silly preference seriously, then doing the difficult work of finding where it can lead.
Based on chapters 1–8 of the English edition. This is an opening impression, not a full-series verdict. No later plot developments are discussed.
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