Pet Shop of Horrors: Tokyo Review

Disclaimer: I own neither Pet shop of Horrors nor Pet shop of Horrors: Tokyo.

Pet shop of Horrors: Tokyo Review

Hello. I'm Morey and I'll be your Nostalgic Bookworm this evening. It's common knowledge that if something is successful, people will make a sequel to rake in more money. Sometimes, it's successful. Many times the sequel will suck. What I will review today will be in the latter category. The original manga was simply amazing with its dark stories and its mystery. It was beautifully drawn and well written. Many times, I didn't want to read a story because the summary was truly frightening. On the other hand, its sequel just went down the shitter with poor artwork and terrible story lines. That manga is Pet shop of Horrors: Tokyo by Matsuri Akino.

To understand the sequel, we'll talk about the first series call Pet Shop of Horrors. It wasn't as big a manga like Naruto or Fruits Basket, but that didn't make it bad. It was full of mystery and terror.

The story line was a Chinese man named D was managing his grandfather's pet shop while his grandfather was traveling. D would sell people rare –and sometimes dangerous– pets in which the owners either learned a lesson or died by their stupidity. The pets can turn human-like whenever they want. We meet Leon Orcot, a third-rate detective in the second story. Going further into the mangas, we learn more about D, yet still have the mystery around him and the pet shop. The mystery is solved by the tenth and final volume.

The books are drawn very well, especially when half the time, Akino's drawing humans and the other half, she's drawing animals. She also has a great imagination. When the animals are in human form, they still have parts that are still animal-like. For instance; a bird would still have its wings and a snake would have its tail.

I think the best part about the manga was that many of the stories were dark and horrifying, yet taught us a lesson. Sure, there were several humorous moments with D and Leon always bickering. Add to that, D's huge sweet tooth. Just about all of the stories have the owners learn a lesson or die. It's rarely ever a happily ever after story. To add to that, the lessons aren't 'don't litter'. They're more about growing up and learning from your mistakes. Yeah, it tends to be one of those economy 'man is evil' stories, but by the end, you could tell that D has learned that not all humans are evil. With everything D does, it's hard to tell if D's good or evil, but that's what makes him more likeable. He's not all good or all evil. He just does what he believes is right.

Now about the sequel. The art is pretty bad. It's sometimes decent, but you could tell Akino wasn't trying as hard as with her first series. You can really tell with the animals how her art is lacking. In the first series, the animals were realistic looking with well done proportions. In the sequel, the animals looked half-ass and like someone who has never drawn an animal in their life.

As I said before, the human form of the animals had animal traits. In the sequel, They don't have the animal-like traits. Hell, many of the animals don't even have the long nails and pointed ears like almost all of the animals in the original do. For instance, one of stories was a shitty Romeo and Juliet remake. Apparently the opposing gangs were really birds. Really? You're saying they're birds. They don't fucking look like bird! Even then, why the hell do they have homes and work buildings?! It would look fucking weird if someone goes into the building and see two humans talking to a buttload of birds.

The one thing that pisses many people off is the owner of the China Town building; Taizuu. He's supposed to be the Leon Orcot knock off. They both hate D and want to get rid of him. The thing is Leon has a reason for wanting to get rid of D and Taizuu doesn't. Leon wants D in jail because he sell animals that can be dangerous. He wants to protect people from danger. He actually has feelings and cares for people. Hell, he gradually starts liking and caring for D when he learns more about D. Taizuu, on the other hand, wants to get rid of D because he wants to look good. He doesn't care about his clients' safety. All he cares about is himself. Even then, D doesn't give Taizuu any reason to hate him. It's more or less him trying to prove he has a big cock.

The story lacks a lot. The first series was closed with the mysteries solved. It did leave a bit open with the last few pages. In it was the future where Leon's little brother; Chris, goes to the pet shop and asks the next generation D if Leon has found the previous D. So we're thinking 'cool, Leon will show up and we can have fun with D and Leon'. Six volumes in, we want to kill Taizuu with his lack of personality and praying that Leon with show up.

There's no mystery or horror in this series. We already know about D. We know about the pets. There isn't any horror to it. Most stories end in a happily ever after or with the characters not learning anything. Many of the stories have no moral lesson. They either die for no reason, live happily with no work, or continue with life without learning anything. In the first story, a girl is a writer who isn't globalized. She gets a bug who makes her a star. She shags another no name person who becomes a star. It ends up that the men die the next day. What's the moral of the story? Ummm... Well... The only useful thing about men is them knocking you up? Where the hell are the dark, moral stories. What's wrong with you D? Does Leon have to come and knock some sense into you?

Speaking of morals, The sequel is, honestly, insulting to gays. In this series, every single gay guy is a crossdresser or transgender. If you try looking for a gay guy that looks like a guy, then your out of luck. Seriously. What the fuck? The reason a guy is gay is because he likes dick and no tits. If you want to hook up with a guy, then dressing up like Tim Curry from Rocky Horror Picture Show is going to keep all the guys away. I doubt many gay guys want you to look like a woman and any straight guy will be running far away when they find your dick. Now I'm not saying that that no guys cross dress or get a sex change. Some people do and that's fine. Hell, I wouldn't mind so much in this series if it was a club fetish thing, but reading one chapter just end it with its insults. In the chapter, the crossdressing guys are squawking over some hot chick (oh yes, very gay) and some dude leaves. Taizuu says he doesn't look gay. The bartender could say that not all gays are crossdressers, but he says that not everyone at the bar is gay. *glares* Not everyone is gay? Taizuu was acting like an asshole thinking that all gay men crossdress and all you say is not everyone there is gay? I woulda hit him on the head saying not all gay men crossdress then say not everyone there is gay.

After that, they give some half-ass excuse saying everyone is different. It sounded more like the editor thought that the previous scene was prejudice and told Akino to add something more to not make it prejudice. Even then, the whole gay bar thing feels more like what a straight homophobe, who's trying not to be homophobic, would see as a gay bar. Even with that, a couple of the crossdressing men start flirting with Taizuu. *glares some more* I don't know many gay people. I do know quite a few bi people adding that I'm bi myself, but I know that many of these people respect your orientation. They don't flaunt it around or try to make everyone gay or bi. Hell, they won't flirt with you if they know you're straight. So why the hell are these people acting like that?! It's just completely insulting.

To add to the story line, the stories are boring. Oh someone's in trouble. They get a pet. Something happens. They live happily ever after. Then there are the stories that are completely stupid. There's the Romeo and Juliet bollocks. Then there's the first story in the sixth volume. It's where some old guy has a bird he uses for viral videos. He doesn't update and people worry. Some guy comes up and wants a closer look at the bird because he thinks it's a rare bird. Then the other people go searching for the bird in an organized search party. It ends up that the bird dies and the old person finally updates. The entire time I was reading the story, I was thinking how impossible that would be. Yeah, people post videos of their pets (especially if they're unusual pets) and people do enjoy them, but if a pet goes missing, no one's gonna go and create an organized search party to look for a bloody bird. If a pet dies, people will say 'I'm sorry', not get mopey and lament the loss of some bird.

There's not much else to say. The characters got worse. The art got worse. The stories got worse. Would I suggest it to anyone? No. It's honestly not worth reading. I would suggest the first series to anyone. If you want to buy the first series, you'd have to buy it online from Amazon or Ebay as it's currently out of print.

Well, That's all for now. If there's an awful book, manga, or movie you want me to review, let me know and I'll look into it. I'm Morey Bibliophage; reviewing it for your entertainment.