Title: Pet Shop of Horrors [Volumes 1&2]
Author: Matsuri Akino
Genre: Manga, Horror, Supernatural
Length: 200
Rating: 2 Star
Description/Synopsis:
Count D has moved his petshop from New Yorks Chinatown to Japan, in this follow-up to the popular Pet Shop of Horrors series. The Count prides himself on selling love in the form of magical creatures. But buyers beware–if the contract is broken, the Count cannot be held responsible.
Review – MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS
I have read the first two volumes of this series and I think that may be enough for me. Since nothing much happens within the first two volumes of mangas generally, which is why I normally review them in lots of five, this review will only be a partial review.
I read the first volume and I found it weird. It was different from things I would normally read, but I had not yet decided if this was a bad thing. I found the idea of it kind of interesting. A random mysteries guy that has a pet shop with the most strange and mystical creatures on earth which seemingly only silly people who cannot follow the rules on how to care for them come to get. I held off judgment until I picked up the next volume.
The second volume settled it for me. It was just too strange and no actual storyline seemed to be coming so I stopped for a number of reasons.
All the pets that get purchased from this pet shop all appear human to the people that take them in for whatever reason. While I kind of liked this, I think I would have preferred if they were actually really awesome animals, rather than a human with rabbit/lizard/bird resemblances. Granted, if they were animals to the people they wouldn’t be able to develop the love connection they all seemed to get before they stuffed everything up and one or both of them die. But still.
Because there are four stories per volume I also found it really hard to grow attached to any of the characters before they were gone. They came and went too quickly. There were only really two characters that were in the story more than once. Count D and this police officer. However, the officer was pretty boring and I didn’t really have much interest in knowing anymore of his story, then Count D was supposed to be mysterious so pretty much nothing of his story was given.
The fact that these two start spending a bit of time together kind of gave away the feel that a plot may be coming at some point in the future, but I wasn’t really willing to sit around and read three or more volumes to find out what the plot was supposed to be. The small ones I got were really predictable. He gives them a special pet with a set of instructions, they don’t follow them, then something gruesome happens. The end.
All that being said though I can see why someone might like it. I have watched anime that are just a predictable like Hell Girl. You could skip the first four or five episodes of that series and not feel lost at all at the following episode where the plot finally starts to come in. However, this one just didn’t seem draw me in like the other one did and I don’t have much of an idea why. Perhaps I didn’t like the characters as much?
Either way, other people seem to have really enjoyed this series. If you are one of them, please let me know. When does the plot start to come into the story? Would you suggest that I push through to see if I like it better? Please and thank you.
Till Next Time…
