Pet Shop of Horrors 10

Matsuri Akino – Tokyopop – 2005 – 10 volumes

I read this about a month ago, in a long marathon, but I wanted to wait a bit to talk about it in order to let the ending sink in a little. The final was great, but I had a lot of mixed feelings about D and everything leading up to that finale, so I wanted to give myself time to process rather than going with the knee-jerk reaction to just finishing it. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. 90% of my content here is just that. But I thought Pet Shop of Horrors deserved a little more.

I’m going to do a spoiler-free section, then do a cut and mark for spoilers on the ending to talk about it a little more in-depth.

The entire volume is the conclusion to the series. It was satisfying that so much time was devoted to a proper ending, because too frequently in series like this we simply get a one-chapter conflict and explanation that wraps up “loose ends.” The entire thing is very upsetting, fairly dark even for this series, and both Leon and D are very much personally affected by the ending. Chris is dealt with in terms of the “fantasy world” he lives in within D’s shop, which I had wondered about since… well, the series seemed very pro-fantasy, but D mentioned several times Chris would have to grow up at some point. The ending involves Leon trying to figure out D’s stance on human beings, the Feds getting called in to dig up the dirty past of D, and a lot of running around and explanations of D’s true nature.

Without giving too much away, it was the “true nature” thing that I really disliked. The series has gotten pretty far out there, and D has used some “magic” in some of the stories, but the explanation here seems a little… random, and suffered from being too complex a topic crammed in two few pages, and an idea that probably should have been introduced gradually rather than dropped on the reader at the very end.

That was my only issue, that and the fact D acts strangely under pressure here, though to say it’s out of character would be wrong since… well, we’ve never seen him deal with anything quite like this. There is a very satisfying chase, and some very satisfying dialogue by way of explanations between Leon and D. And there is a little bit of an open end, but I can’t complain too much in this case. I adore the idea.

The mystery of D was what spoiled it partially for me, and I think that’s still a problem, but with lots of action, upheaval, chase scenes, explosions, comings-of-age, partings, meetings, and a ton of weird animals, this last volume has everything I wanted. And most importantly, I loved seeing both Leon and D’s resolutions and how they finally reacted as characters. There never really are any romantic vibes between the two, ultimately, but there’s definitely a deep friendship, and I can really appreciate that.

I loved the characters, I loved the “be careful what you wish for” formula with the animals, I loved both the one-shot chapters and the character-oriented longer stories, I did like the end, I like shoujo horror in general, and I loved the art. I wouldn’t call this absolutely essential, but it’s definitely a must read for a pretty sizable chunk of the shoujo fanbase, if you can get ahold of it. It’s pretty unique, a good mild horror title, and the fantastic art and mild, vaguely slashy relationship between Leon and D should sell it immediately for a lot of people. It does have a pretty 90s flavor to it, but it’s easy to overlook in this instance.

Now, for a little more, I’m going to cut.

No idea how that comes across on an RSS feed, so here’s more marking for spoilers…

Spoilers…

Spoilers…

Spoilers…

So yeah, D’s line being the last surviving line from a Chinese tribe, meant to take vengeance on humans on behalf of animals? Way too weird. And D doesn’t really have a vengeful bone in his body, not really, though his feelings on humans are always mild at best, and slanted slightly hatefully here after being hunted by the Feds. And quite hateful, I guess, after that last scene. I don’t know. It still didn’t feel quite right.

His chase scene is… something I will remember for a long time. The fact he killed so many people along his path is interesting to me. Not only is it shockingly violent for the main character in a shoujo series, but it begs the question… what did he feed his maneaters in Chinatown? There were several stories that resulted in people disappearing mysteriously disappearing after entering D’s shop, but the topic of T-chan’s diet, for instance, never really came up after he sheltered him. He also does get surprisingly violent-minded towards humans during this flight, though I like that he turns the tables on the FBI agent to take him back to his father.

Leon’s confusion about the whole matter of D, after he’s asked to seriously investigate him, is also sad and unfortunate. He’s got the facts of what the FBI is showing him, and his memories that contradict him. How is the shop so big when there were, in fact, no hypnotic agents in anything Leon ingested? Is D really a criminal? How does he feel about their friendship? How does Leon feel? Leon has always sort of been a grump when it comes to D, but it becomes increasingly obvious he considers him a friend, even while carping at him for being a potential criminal and talking a big game about busting him someday. He wouldn’t come by for the tea if he didn’t like him.

Their parting, in the end, was most heartbreaking. D was more vengeful than he let on, I suppose, and I like the implication that Leon was along for the ride only because he was dead, or close to it. But still. What an interesting thing to do, pushing him out of the pet shop. That’s why I liked the open ending. I hope that Leon found D, in the end.

I’m pretty sure Pet Shop of Horrors: Tokyo doesn’t have either Chris or Leon in it, but I think I assumed it was about D’s “son.” I’m sure Chris is dealt with in some way, offhand, but it makes me wonder if it’s more of the same. Is there a second character that new D befriends? Is the structure once again one-shots about the pets? Or is there more structure?