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SYNOPSIS
As the
name suggests, Pet Shop of Horrors is about an
exotic
pet shop located in the midst of Chinatown in
an unnamed
United States city. This pet shop deals in
extremely
rare and unusual pets. You may purchase any
pet
your heart desires... as long as you sign a
contract
agreeing to the terms that spell out exactly how
your
special new pet must be cared for. If any of the
terms
in the contract are broken, the proprietor of the
pet
shop cannot be held responsible for any
consequences
related to the breech of contract.
The pet
shop's proprietor is a very effeminate man
named
Count D. He is soft-spoken, he is very calm (except
when
presented with his favorite sweets), and he has a
surprising
air of kindness and sensitivity throughout
the
four-episode series, though one might say that
that
is merely a front he uses to mask sinister
intentions.
Either way, Count D is an enigma to a detective
named
Leon who begins investigating the deaths of several
people,
all of whom had been customers at Count D's
pet
shop.
COMMENTS
Episode 1: Daughter
My favorite
episode of the four begins with a bereaved
couple
who have recently lost their precious daughter
Alice.
They enter the pet shop hoping to purchase a
pet
that can help console them in their time of sorrow,
but
a very special pet that Count D shows them is
beyond
anything they could have ever imagined. Even though
it seems
much like a Gremlins movie at first, this
episode
is much more than that. It has a shocking ending
that
gripped me and pulled at my emotions in a way
that
very few endings ever have.
Episode 2: Delicious
This
episode, which to me is the creepiest of the
four,
begins with a young woman dressed in a bridal gown
falling
off an upper deck of a cruise ship to her
watery
death, or so it seems. A short time later, the
widower
she left behind enters the pet shop to pick up a
pet
that his wife ordered before her death. Count D
leads
him to the back of his shop where an extremely large
urn-shaped
water tank containing his special new pet
awaits
him. If I had to choose just one of the four
episodes
to watch with my friends on Halloween night, I'd
choose
this one. It's very, very creepy.
Episode 3: Despair
After
making one movie that was a huge hit, actor
Robin
Hendrix finds himself chronically out of work
because
of typecasting. His only consolation is his vast
collection
of rare and exotic reptiles. He enters the pet
shop
looking for another reptile to add to his
collection,
and the unique and very rare reptile that Count D
shows
him will change his life. I can't say much about
this
episode without spoiling something in it, but I
will
say that I thought it had a very moving story. I
didn’t
like it as much as episodes 1 and 2, but I liked
it a
lot.
Episode 4: Dual
Roger
is a congressman whose dream is to become the
President
of the United States. His loyal friend and
assistant
Kelly will do anything to make sure that
happens,
even if it means acquiring a magical being known as
the
Kirin from Count D's pet shop to give supernatural
aid
to Roger in his quest for the Presidency. But what
price
will Roger and Kelly have to pay for trying to
use
the power of such a being? This episode is my least
favorite
of the four, but I still think it's a good
one
even though I don't think it's quite up to par with
the
other three. We finally get a little more insight
into
Count D in this episode, though the insight we do
get
is very vague.
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What
made Pet Shop of Horrors stand out to me more
than
anything else was its extraordinarily eerie
character
designs. A few characters actually made me feel
uneasy
just from the way they looked. Pet Shop of Horrors
has
the most effective character designs I’ve ever
seen
- Major props to the artists behind them.
The music
in Pet Shop of Horrors constantly helps to
set
the mood for what’s happening onscreen. It blends
with
what’s happening onscreen so well that after I
finished
watching all four episodes I initially forgot
what
the music sounded like. The fact that it doesn’t
stand
out from what’s happening onscreen makes it that
much
more effective.
If you’re
going to watch Pet Shop of Horrors, I highly
recommend
watching it dubbed in English. For one
thing,
I think the English dub fits the series better since
it takes
place in the United States, but more
importantly,
this is one English dub that I feel is worth your
while.
Both the voice acting and the scripting are
above
average. I haven’t even watched Pet Shop of Horrors
in the
original Japanese yet and I really have little
desire
to do so because I was more than satisfied with
the
English dub.
PRESENTATION
The DVD
case cover is pretty awful. The front of the
cover
is nothing more than three poor quality
screencaps
thrown together and the back merely shows another
screencap
of another of the series’ characters. Whatever
you
do, don’t read the back of the DVD case before you
see
the series. It has a couple of pretty bad spoilers
for
the third and fourth episodes.
The menus
consist of some rather boring still shots,
but
the mood-setting sounds and music playing in the
background
of the main menu almost makes up for what the
menu
screens lack.
There’s
not really much to say about the video and
audio
quality other than it’s very good. I didn’t notice
any
problems with it.
EXTRAS
There
are few extras, but the commentary with the
English
voice director and the voice actors who voiced
Count
D and Leon in the English dub is a rare gem. The
commentary
offers plenty of laughs as well as some
insight
into the world of English dubbing. One interesting
tidbit
I found out from listening to the commentary is
that
Pet Shop of Horrors originally aired on the
Japanese
equivalent of MTV in one approximately two and a
half
minute segment each day it was shown.. Why don’t
more
anime DVDs have this sort of commentary included?
Other
extras include trailers for various anime
(including
the one for Pet Shop of Horrors) and the original
music
video opening for the series that was thankfully
not
included in the series proper for its home video
and
DVD releases.
CONCLUSION
Pet Shop
of Horrors is only four episodes long not
because
its story concludes at the end of four episodes
but
because only four episodes were ever made. I for
one
hope that many more episodes of this great series
are
made in the near future. In my opinion, Pet Shop of
Horrors
is destined to become a cult classic among
anime
fans if it isn’t already. Its compelling stories,
masterful
character designs and moody music make it the
best
piece of horror I’ve seen in a long time. Think
of it
as sort of a mix of Tales from the Crypt, Friday
the
13th (the TV series), Gremlins, and The Twilight
Zone,
only with a creepier atmosphere. If you’re
looking
for a good anime to watch on Halloween or if you’re
just
looking for a worthwhile anime that’s very
different
from any other anime you’ve ever seen, I highly
recommend
Pet Shop of Horrors.
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