Pet Shop of Horrors: Tokyo Vol 3

[meganbmoore]

This volume seemed to be a lot more about Kabuki-cho than about D and his shop. Actually, this series as a whole has a bit of that going, the earlier volumes just not as much so. Not a complaint as I like stories like that, but I wonder if that has to do with the series being set in Tokyo, instead of an unspecified U.S. series like the first was.

There also seemed to be less of Woo Fei here than other volumes, but we did get an interesting look into his darker side in the second chapter.

But where did the Leon cameo and story about D’s father that we had in the first two volumes go? I anticipate those! They’re my favorite part!

And was Femto in the first series, but I’ve forgotten him, or from another of Matsuri Akino’s series? I wasn’t clear on that bit. And did I also forget that the animals changed shape? I always thought that they were always in their humanoid forms, but looked like animals to most people, not that they changed shape. But then, it’s been a while since I read the original series, and it’s one of several that went missing when I moved, so I don’t have it to go back and check.
 

Comments

[octopedingenue]

Unspecified U.S.? I thought it was set in LA or San Francisco.

I want to kick Not!Leon in the head pretty much all the time. Note I have not bothered to learn his name.

[iamthemurderer.livejournal.com]

I love, love, LOVE Petshop of Horrors.

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

I was wondering if I should check the anime version of it. Do you rec? Is it child-suitable?

[desdenova.livejournal.com]

Like others, I'm sure that Original Petshop was specifically set in Los Angeles. Even so, I think you're right that the prominence of Kabuki-cho as a setting in the new series can be put down to the author's greater familiarity with the setting. I'm fine with that, really--trying to replicate OPSH without the D-Leon relationship wouldn't work for the reasons octopedingenue gives. So, it seems to me that instead, Matsuri Hino is writing something that is less character-focused and more place-focused.

The cat Femto is not from the original Petshop, he's from one of her other series--the title is stated in the PSH-tokyo volume, maybe in the author's notes?

It's never been clear to me whether the animals change shape, or change humans' perceptions of their shape, or even if there's a meaningful difference between the two interpretations.

[chomiji]

The new series is interesting enough to keep reading, but it's just not the original, sadly. I think not!Leon is pretty boring and one-dimensional.