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Title: Pet Shop of Horros
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| CONSUMER ADVICE |
Parents, I say you keep this out of your children’s hands. There is violence, humanoids, namely female, in suggestive costumes, cursing, and plenty of sexual references to make you flip. Comedy fans, this is a mixed bag because while there is good, if sometimes silly humor, the story’s main focus tends to be on horror. Horror fans, I guarantee that you will like this series unless you don’t like supernatural horror and prefer realistic thrillers. This is essentially Stephen King when he wrote Carrie, Salem’s Lot, and The Shining. |
I have always been a fantasy fan, especially when it came to fantasy horror. I devoured the Goosebumps books when I was in fourth grade, and until XXXholic came along, I couldn’t find a perfect fantasy horror. One day at the library, I met a fellow anime fan who was getting XXXholic, and he basically said, “If you like that series, then you’ll like this series,” and pulled out Pet Shop of Horrors. I wasn’t that impressed with the title or the cover, which showed a feminine-looking man hugging a girl wearing a green semi-transparent dress. Nor was I that impressed with the summaries on the back of the four stories included. However, I decided to give it a chance because if someone who read XXXholic liked it, then it would be good. The first volume also didn’t impress me that much with its first three stories.
While they were intelligent stories, they all followed the same formula: Person buys pet from Count D. D gives them a set of clauses to not break. Person breaks them. Consequences follow. Though this formula is done in three different ways to avoid repetitiveness, you can tell that they all follow it. Then I read the fourth story, about an orphaned heiress being protected by a bodyguard named Dreizehn. That one blew me away. There really is no ongoing plot, but rather a set of stories linked by the fact that the same characters reappear in each of them, and all are set in Chinatown, California. These characters are Count D, a mysterious owner of a pet shop in Chinatown, and Detective Leon Orcot, a police officer determined to prove that Count D’s pets are dangerous and to shut down the pet shop. Later on Leon’s brother appears and becomes a regular, which is a big plus in my book since the series improved with him.
After that, the stories in “PSH” fall into three categories: when Count D sells a pet that harms someone, it is to teach them a lesson; when Count D offers help to someone, it is usually help; and there are the unpredictable stories that occur just as often. “Unpredictable” could be a story involving vampires, Leon and flowers, and three people setting out to lose weight (this was partly horror, by the way). What occur in all of these stories are an animal, Leon and D butting heads with each other, and usually a bit of violence. These stories are usually good, but there will also be so-called “pets” in human form wearing revealing costumes. This sexiness actually brings down the story, in my opinion, because it distracts from the point. Count D and Orcot are perfect foil for each other, and even though Count D doesn’t show much change of expression in the first volume, the detective really does annoy him. Orcot may seem like a stereotypical Lupin III cop when he first appears, but he’s like every guy; he cares about people, he wants to date a beautiful woman, and he has a strong set of ethics (well okay, a mixed set of ethics when it involves porn). He’s like Hideki from Chobits, actually, but more reckless and older.
And Chris, Leon’s brother is innocent enough to be a real kid and yet at the same time sharp enough to see things that others can’t. My main pet peeve with this series (this was one I’ve always had) was the artwork involving female character designs. All the males look different, I can assure you, but the women have sameness, especially involving their hairstyles. Matsuri Akino can’t seem to draw more than three or four hairstyles for women. I never want to see odangos in a manga again after seeing them used so much. The rest of the artwork is fine. The facial expressions can be hilarious, backgrounds know when to be normal or spooky, and everyone’s outfits seem to fit. That’s as much as I can say. There’s another point: American slang. I didn’t excuse it in “Magic Knight Rayearth,” but here I do since technically this story occurs in America, and I don’t think that Tokyopop would mess up the translation on purpose here to make it more American. (I could be wrong, though.) There are also “-sans” and “–chans” to make up for it, so I wouldn’t complain too much. However, there is no such thing as a beer vending machine in the US as far as I know, despite what one story shows; in Japan they exist because teenagers are allowed to drink, but if there was a vending machine for beer, it would ruin the point of the “no drinking under 21” law. Matsuri Akino just got her culture mixed up, which is an honest mistake.
The last thing I want to mention is the “Pet Catalog” at the end, where Matsuri Akino explains what influenced her stories and gave her the ideas. Sometimes they are very short, which is annoying, and sometimes they are long and informative, which is satisfying. These aren’t longer than two to four pages, but they do enhance the stories just enough. Since Tokyopop doesn’t do translation notes like Del Rey, I’m glad that they kept these. Tokyopop’s preparation is good, keeping it right-to-left and translating the Pet Catalogs, but they could’ve asked the author for better covers for the first, second, and seventh volumes. Count D with a girl in a semi-transparent outfit and Leon Orcot pointing a gun at the audience while surrounded by babes in suggestive costumes do not convey the supernatural and enigmatic tone of the series. While Eiichiro Oda’s female character designs had a sense of sameness, he had wacky covers conveying One Piece’s tone accurately. Someone needs to improve in both areas. Overall, if you like supernatural horror with a touch of humor, pick this series up and hope that Tokyopop will survive the manga business. If they are slumping, then series like this should help pick up their sales.
- -Review By Jaya Lakshmi- -