Pet Shop of Horrors – Full Series Review

Homicide investigator Leon Orcot has made it his personal duty to investigate Count D and peg him responsible for the gruesome murders, but he has an uphill climb ahead of him.  Even though the victims die at the hands of the pets they've purchased from Count D, more often than not the deaths are due to their own inability to control the desires that brought them to the point of seeking pet companionship in the first place.

Thoughts: In much the same way that series like Hell Girl and Mononoke do, Pet Shop of Horrors uses a supernatural setup in order to examine something which would normally be a bit more mundane - the emotional failings of human beings.  Each of the four episodes in this compilation paints the picture of a person who has dealt with some sort of tragedy, loss or emotional deterrent, and then puts them at a crossroads.  Count D seems to offer them a solution to their problem, but only if they are able to resist indulging in the type of thinking or actions which will lead them even further down the road to self-destruction - and most of the time their willpower turns out to be lacking.

The first two stories on the disc seemed to unfold more successfully than the last two, mostly because the torment of the main characters was made more obvious, and the resolution to their stories more dramatic.  In the first, the parents of a recently-deceased child come to Count D searching for solace, and the Count provides them with a "rabbit" who, to them, has the appearance of a human child not unlike their own.  They're told to feed her only water and fresh vegetables, even if she begs, and they enthusiastically agree to the terms, though it's not long before the creature's longing for a cookie causes them to break down and indulge her. Investigator Orcot learns in the meantime that their child died of drug addiction, and even though her parents had the opportunity to save her, her mother's weakness to her please for one more hit caused her to perish. In the second, a famous singer dies under mysterious circumstances on her wedding night, and her husband arrives at Count D's shop only to find that he has in his possession a mermaid that distinctly resembles her.  He's told to feed her fish and never to let her go hungry, but just as he's consumed by his guilt, he's also consumed by her.

The second two stories revolve around a washed-up actor who obtains a very rare lizard, and a political assistant who is chosen by a Kirin to become the next leader of the country. The actor's story is told mostly in flashback because the episode opens with his death, and the resolution is more bittersweet than morbid (he, like many other actors gone "before their time," achieves a kind of fame in death that beats any kind of popularity he would have had while still alive). The last story is probably the happiest, though in a twist one of the characters ends up in the body of another, his wish to the kirin granted in an unexpected way.

While all four stories are interesting in their own way and touch on the darker parts of life like guilt, ambition and despair, the short length of the series feels like more of a taste rather than a complete meal.  Considering the type of series it is I would never have committed the folly of expecting some sort of grand resolution or even a major contiguous story arc, but all the same I feel like there wasn't nearly enough time for the interplay between Orcot and Count D to go anywhere beyond bickering and mutual distrust. With even just a few more episodes I feel like their rivalry, if it can be called that, could have become more of the main focus, rather than the very episodic stories that are wrapped up pretty quickly.  In short, there's a lack of character development that a show of this type so desperately needs to rise to the next level.

While the characterization might suffer from lack of depth, the artwork is a great example of what can be done on an OVA budget.  The character designs are greatly detailed, full of sharp features and, in the case of some of the pets, elaborate costumes.  There's great attention paid to different textures, especially the scaly and hairy aspects of the creatures.  At various times the backgrounds are brought alive due to the attention to detail.  One can almost smell the incense filling Count D's shop, or the stench of decay in the "mermaid's" pool.

While it does lack in some areas, the question the series poses does offer a lot of food for thought; are we truly doomed to repeat our mistakes or is there a way out?  For some of the characters, bad habits and dark emotions become their undoing.  For others, such as the political assistant in the final story, they're inspired to change and reap a sort of twisted reward. The short length of the series is too bad, but it's certainly worth watching.

DVD: The DVD release that I picked up is extremely bare-bones with some poorly-reproduced box art and no liner notes.  It was, however, also very inexpensive (I paid about 15 dollars) so I don't feel like there's much reason to complain.  There are no extras on the disc other than some Sentai previews. The video transfer seems a bit grainy, but I can't be certain whether that's the result of poor source video or bad encoding.

The show includes an English dub, but from the episode-and-a-half I watched of it, it seems pretty terrible.  The acting is wooden and many of Count D's lines sound like they were spoken too close to the microphone.  Count D has an accent that I assume is supposed to hail from Hong Kong since it's kind of a blend of British and Chinese intonation, but it sometimes sounds exaggerated enough to become a caricature.  On the other hand, the person they picked to play him does have the correct tone of voice, portraying his androgyny very well.

Pros:

• The overall theme suggested by the series is sound, even if its exploration is inconsistent.
• The detail in the artwork and character designs is unusually high.
• The background design is very atmospheric.

Cons:

• The series is too short to tackle the adversarial relationship between Orcot and Count D.
• The final story feels a bit too "happy" in comparison to the rest of the series.
• The DVD product is made pretty cheaply, but then again, it can be purchased inexpensively.

Recommended? Yes.  It's a good introduction to the type of storytelling found in similar horror series, takes up very little time to watch, and even though it leaves something to be desired in the character development department, it's still more enjoyable to watch than many series I've seen.