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

I totally called the devil and he totally came, but he ditched right away

[cerusee.livejournal.com]

I am pretty sure the first series was set in LA, but I do not remember why I am so sure. It's been a while.

PSOH: Tokyo doesn't tickle my funny bone nearly as effectively as the original, but I love D like I love salt, and dig Akino's stringy art and lanky character designs so much that I'm perfectly content to hang around indefinitely, waiting for her to eventually get around to more Leon-related plot stuff.

I do have a bit of a soft spot for tales o' the [insert weird scenario] format to begin with, though, so even when my beloved D is back to being more of a framing device than a story in his own right, I get something out of the books, even though, like most people, what really made PSOH leap out at me was D and Leon's evolving relationship. I find Woofei mildly entertaining on the strength of how much D annoys him--D needling people is a major part of his charm--there was one nifty scene, probably back in volume one of Tokyo, in which D needled Woofei in ways that indicated Woofei had some kind of parent-related Secret or Trauma, which might make him more interesting. I wish Akino would follow up on that already.