Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #58970 in DVD
• Released on: 2001-02-27
• Rating: Unrated
• Formats: Animated, Color, Dolby, DVD, Special Edition, NTSC
• Original language: English, Japanese
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 120 minutes

Amazon.com
The four adventures in this collection originally aired as very brief installments in a serial on a Japanese channel similar to MTV. Although there's a fair amount of gore, these tales are not so much horrifying as creepy, with unhappy characters seeking emotional solace from the bizarre creatures found in a mysterious Chinatown store. Presiding over the shop is the transvestite Count D; his cool, unruffled manner frustrates detective Joel, who keeps finding victims of unusual crimes among the shop's recent customers. A grief-stricken couple purchases a rabbit that looks like their late child, with terrible results in "Daughter." Like the hilariously inept American feature Night of the Lepus, "Daughter" attempts to turn rabbits into deadly monsters--and fails. "Delicious," in which the spirit of a wronged bride returns in the guise of a mermaid, recalls the folk tales that have inspired Japanese artists and writers for centuries. The Hollywood rags-to-riches-to-rags saga "Despair" and the less-effective political thriller "Dual" combine elements from Eastern and Western myths. "Recommended for mature audiences" for violence, profanity, brief nudity, sexual situations, and ethnic stereotypes. --Charles Solomon

Customer Reviews

Welcome...Tonight you will find something you desire.
Chinatown's most unique pet shop offers everything from dogs, cats, birds, and reptiles to the most rare and unusual mythological beasts. Choose anything you would like, but remember, there is a price to be paid and rules to be followed. If the rules are broken in any way, the pet shop cannot be held responsible for what happens..... The Pet shop is run by the enigmatic, effeminate Count (yes--it's a man, not a woman as you would assume from seeing the character) who sells each customer the pet that will not only grant their wishes, but teach them a terrible lesson as well.

Pet Shop of Horrors was originally presented on Japanese television in small 1-2 scene segments on a music video channel. Urban Vision's video and DVD releases do a wonderful job of blending them together. All four self contained episodes are on the DVD release, along with deleted material (a music video style opening that was thankfully not used) the usual assortment of trailers, and extremely informative audio commentary by the English language director and several of the voice actors. These offbeat tales may not be for everyone, but I found them to be very entertaining. It owes a lot to "Friday the 13th: The Series" and even "Gremlins", but it does manage to create a palpable sense of mystery, and I found myself wondering just how the pets would reveal their true colors and what horrible thing would happen to the owners.

A handful of anime's best and brightest worked on the project including Rintaro (Final Fantasy), Yoshiaki Kawajiri (Wicked City, Ninja Scroll) and Hishashi Abe (Vampire Hunter D). While this series does not break a lot of new ground, if you can appreciate the supernatural with a great sense of intrigue and characterization, then this is a series for you.

Horrific indeed...
I always loved this anime, from the moment I rented it. Q-chan [the name of the twinkie-bat thingie that Cound D has] is so sweet, especially when he tries to pull the strawberry [his favorite food] off of the cake, and Count D is always adorable, especially when he's fawning over his sweets. ^_^

Leon is a detective from New York, who happens to find a lead on one ofo his cases one day that sends him to Chinatown. Particularly, a tiny pet shop. He goes into the depth of the shop and finds the owner, who he mistakes for a woman at first. The owner is D, who takes Leon's accusation of secretly being a dealer of drugs and slaves without batting an eye. All he sells are love and dreams, he explains to the annoyed blonde detective. Love and dreams. After all, it's just a pet shop.

Or is it?

The series is four episodes long, translating four stories from the manga [Despair, Daughter, Dual, and Delicious] into an animated format. I think the manga, which has ten volumes, goes into more character depth and is a bit better, but then again, that's because it has the time to do so. D and Leon's relationship grows, and Q-chan is shown to be... Well, something else entirely. And the manga also has Papa D, the utter freak who is the Magneto to Count D's Xavier, in a way. Bottom line, the manga's better, but this is good.

Something you desire...
I have watched a fair share of anime series in my time and I can honestly say Pet shop is definetly one of the most unique, interesting and fascinating ever. Not only are the stories creepy and full of nice little mean twists and wonderfully screwed up characters it's impossible not to love, but aside from LAIN this is the best dub work I have ever heard in an anime series.

CONTENT: Even though all the stories are based on the same premise ("don't brake these 3 rules or your pet will kill you") the stories all have different morales and ideas behind them making each show different from the last. DAUGHTER is about how too much love is not a good thing. DESIRE is about not confusing guilt with true love. DESPAIR is about living a short but happy life and be remembered for the good things. DUAL is about sacrificing everything for someone else and thus gaining one's own happiness. I like them all, and I LOVE the first one.

DVD: has great features. True, the dleted material is really just a weird video opening that I thank God they didn't use on the show, but there are also a number of interesting trailers, and best of all a commentary with the director and the voice actors for Count D and Leon the cop. Now THAT is really hillarious and quite enlightening at the same time. That's worth the price in itself.

I highly recommend this to anyone.