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Title: Zodiac P.I.
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| CONSUMER ADVICE |
Parents should be warned that this series is about a girl who solves murder mysteries. Despite the fact that Tokyopop has given this a Youth (7+) rating "Zodiac P.I." is better suited for an older audience. In the first volume you see a girl hanging from a tree by her neck with a rope around her throat, you see a man with a knife in his back and bleeding while lying on a piano keyboard, and other violent images. There is however no sex, no foul language, and no crude humor. Fans who are into mystery will most likely love this series, as the mysteries are plausible, they do make sense, and this is probably the best mystery series out there at the moment. |
I picked up “Zodiac P.I.” the same day I picked up “CLAMP School Detectives,” and I had zero expectations for this title when I opened it up. I walked away from “CLAMP School Detectives” very unimpressed with what I read, and I wondered though if the ladies of CLAMP couldn’t make a mystery series work, then what could this person do? Well I must eat those words now, as “Zodiac P.I.” is actually a well thought out mystery series that doesn’t take our intelligence for granted, and actually is quite a bit of fun. “Zodiac P.I.” revolves around a girl named Lili. Her father is the chief of police, her friend Hiromi is allergic to girls (This story twist is probably there only to assure people that there would be no romance in this title), and Lili can see the future. See Lili is big on horoscopes and astrology, and she has a ring called the Zodiac P.I, which has little miniature spirits of the vertigo in it, and she calls upon them to come on out and help her solve the mystery of the day. Sounds strange I know, but it makes more sense when you read this book. Anyway once she solves the case, she transforms into Spica, the private investigator.
She does this when she wants to catch the criminal at the end of each mystery and doesn’t want her identity to be revealed...although why she bothers with this “transformation” I have no idea, seeing that the only difference is that she wears a coat as Spica, and she doesn’t wear a coat when she’s Lili. Yeah, a coat, that’s it. No mask, no different shoes, heck I’m not even sure her physical abilities even change, all I know is that she wears a coat when she “transforms” into Spica. Talk about pointless, but I guess it’s some unwritten rule that all manga that’s written for 10 year old girls has to have one female that transforms into someone else. Sadly that would be the end of our summery, but I would be neglecting to tell you some VERY important information about this series if I neglected to tell you what these cases are all about! All the cases in this book are about murder. Seriously. This book is literally about a ultra cute 10 year old girl who goes around solving mysteries of who murdered her friends, teachers, and who’s committed suicide. This is normally not a problem, but this book is classified as a children’s series, and Tokyopop even gave this a Youth (7+) rating, which I find rather strange.
And its not like these are even mild murder cases, these are full blown adult murders. The first story is about the school discovering a girls body hanging by the neck from a tree. Everyone suspects that the girl committed suicide, but Lili does some poking to discover that the gym teacher choked her with a wire because she discovered that he was stealing money from the school, and then he made it look like suicide to cover his tracks. Now maybe its just me, but this seems like rather touchy material for something that’s supposed to be a children’s series. It doesn’t help that this series is also about 10 year old kids looking into these very frightening mysteries. And that right there opens up another whole conversation right there. Like why is it that these kids actually help solve these cases? Their 10 years old, maybe a couple of them are 11, but at that age seeing things like your friend hanging from a tree, a piano teacher stabbed in the back and lying on the keyboard bleeding among other things would be very shocking to say the least, and you’d think these kids would be more disturbed by the situations..
Another little flaw in logic is that Lili’s dad is the chief of police, and as such he is at the school every time someone dies. Well my question is after the second death why doesn’t he become more suspicious of the school? Heck, with more then one MURDER at the school you’d think he’d do everything he could to get Lili transferred to another school! But no, he seems content to just pat her on the head whenever she solves a case instead. Really strange. However despite these logical problems “Zodiac P.I.” is definitely a very interesting series. The mysteries in this book actually make sense, it is fun to try and solve the mystery with Lili, and the characters are charming. Despite what Tokyopop says though I wouldn’t let a child read this the subject material is far too mature for most kids, but for everyone over the age of 12 it might be okay. If you’re looking for a real mystery series that is fun to read then “Zodiac P.I.” is as good as it gets. And that’s all I have to say.
- -Review By Kevin T. Rodriguez- -