Pet Shop of Horrors

Publisher
Tokyopop
Writer
Akino Matsuri
Artist
Akino Matsuri
Country of origin
Japan
Length
10+ volumes
Year
2000

Pet Shop of Horrors

By Aki
10th Jan 05

Pet Shop of Horrors is an awesome manga that can be gruesomely morbid but funny at the same time. The main character is an eccentric man who goes by the name Count D, and owns a pet shop in Chinatown. He comes across as a kind of feminine character, though, seeing as he wears kimonos all the time and has a rather quiet, passive personality. The pet shop that Count D runs is exotic and mysterious, full of animals from fables and mythology, and even those that appear to be ordinary are never what they seem.

The purpose of Count D's pet shop is simple enough; he'll find you the perfect pet to meet all your needs and desires. But the animals come with strict rules and a contract that must be signed an obeyed without fail;otherwise Count D cannot guarantee your safety. More often than not, the pet that you have been assigned will teach you a hard lesson that can lead to happiness or disaster.

So as you can infer, a common scenario in the manga episodes is that someone will buy a pet, not obey the rules of taking care of it, and suffer the consequences. But there's more to the series than just watching people make mistakes and die horrible deaths because of them. Usually when the pet owner is a young kid, they'll learn their lesson and the episode will end happily.

The stories are usually self-contained, and don't extend through the rest of the series. However, we do have a continuing plot line involving the main characters, Count D (and a few of his more interesting pets) being the most obvious. There's also a fun character named Leon Orcot, who is a cop/detective and has an interesting relationship with the Count. Needless to say, all the tragedy and deaths that occur due to Count D's pets have attracted the attention of the police department more than once. Leon, who tends to be a bit hotheaded and narrow-minded, is convinced that the Count is hiding illegal animals and drugs, etc, and is determined to put him behind bars one day. But until he can collect enough evidence, Leon is content to visit the pet shop for afternoon tea or recruit the Count as a babysitter for his younger brother. The friend/enemy relationship between the Count and the detective is one of many aspects that give a humorous quality to an otherwise morbid series.

One of the coolest things about this manga is the way the animals are represented. The Count has everything from dogs and cats to dragons, mermaids, basilisks, and man-eating rabbits. The pets themselves are intelligent beings that can appear in animal or human form, and sometimes it's the pet that is the focus of the story rather than a human. So it's not always the owner that's in control!

Pet Shop of Horrors definitely delivers intriguing plots that can be anything from creepy and freaky to happy or funny. It's a great manga and I highly recommend it to anyone.

-- Aki 10th Jan 05