Each volume collects four stories of terror and wonder centering around Count D's Pet Shop, where the mysterious count sells magical creatures who come with a contract whose terms must not be broken.
Matsuri Akino (秋乃 茉莉 Akino Matsuri), is a Japanese manga artist from Mitaka, Tokyo, now a resident of Yokohama. Her work is a mix of the fantasy, mystery, and horror genres. Her self portrait is usually a kappa, sometimes with braids or an odango hairstyle.
When I first started reading this manga, I didn't know what to expect. But I immediately fell in love with the art style, and it took me less than one volume to fall in love with the story too. Or, should I say, stories; since almost every volume collects four stories about humans and weird pets/monsters they buy from the shop. I say almost every volume because some of them don't follow this structure and instead choose to develop various side plots with the characters. Even though I'm aware that the manga has to have a cohesive plot to develop the main story, those turned out to be my least favourite. However, I really loved how the story wrapped up in the end and the count is my new book crush. Overall, my rating of this series is as follows:
Art: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Story: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 1/2
With some full five stars volumes. Absolutely recommended to all vintage manga and horror lovers!
Firstly let me just say, i am obsessed with late 90s/early 00s shoujo manga art, those big eyes, graceful body features, funky hair-style, the fashion! I love it all.
This series was a perfect blend of grimdark fantasy, folklore, horror and comedy. The setting of the premise is very retro-like supernatural which completely won me over in the early volumes itself. The story revolves around Count D, a petshop owner, he provides someone with a pet, along with a list of few rules for the new owner to follow. The owners somehow end up breaking one or more rules due to human tendencies - curiosity, indulgence, ego, etc. Others fall victim to more innocent emotions such as love, devotion or admiration. Sometimes the end result is just a bit of sadness and hard-earned wisdom for the owner; other times the results are outright deadly and threatening. The biggest twist is, the owner often perceives their new pet as some sort of beautiful man or woman where others(prob a family member/people they are around ) can only see a rabbit, bird, cat, dog, etc. It's trippy and fascinating how each story provides a different and fresh point of view to a problem humans face in real life. A masterful blend of wisdom, mystery and humor.
Few of my fav quotes :
1] "How very easily love turns to hate. Does love for one human being cause a person to hate all others? Why does the murder of one man by another inspire hatred for all of humanity?"
2] "Humans don't know what it means to be a monster. To them a monster is anything that they don't understand. They give this horrific label and treat it as a threat, rejecting, exterminating, slaughtering it into oblivion. Monsters are simply your way of hiding your own ignorance. You do it even to your own species, stigmatizing and resenting those born with an undesirable colour of skin."
3] "It isn't a question of race or time. White or black, rich or poor, regardless of the era, Mankind remains fundamentally the same. Violent, selfish, despotic.... the human race has no right to be at the top of this planet's food chain."
If you couldn’t tell by me binging ten volumes, I really really liked this series. So weird and captivating. I liked the episodic stories and central cast a lot. Obsessed with Count D’s vibe.
Terminado ya este manga, puedo decir algo de lo que ya estaba casi segura cuando lo empecé: es un manga que vale la pena leer. No solo es que el dibujo es impresionante en TODOS los tomos, si no que la trama y la historia son muy originales en mi opinión y los protagonistas me encantan. Todo gira siempre entorno a la naturaleza y a través de ello se tejen las historias que afectan tanto a animales como a personas, haciéndote reflexionas en cada una de ellas. Algunas son mejores que otras, por supuesto, pero es general no tienen desperdicio. Sin duda se va a quedar como uno de mis mangas favoritos, siento que esta hecho para mí ❤️
Todavía me acuerdo cuando empezaba a ver anime y me topé con el de este, el pobre solo tenia cuatro capítulos contados (si no recuerdo mal) de algunos capítulos aleatorios seleccionados... Ya de ahí me quedé impresionada y con muchas ganas de ver la historia entera. Recuerdo haber buscado el manga online pero nunca lo encontré entero en ese momento. Ahora, gracias a la maravillosa edición recopilatoria de dos tomos que le hizo MangaLines a este manga, he podido leerlo completamente y estará siempre conmigo en esos dos preciosos volúmenes.
This entire series is tragic and beautiful. Mostly a story of loss, of things just barely slipping away, but ultimately a story of hope as well, and the valor to make that hope useful, this is a tale about a man whose entire nonhuman line is devoted to destroying humanity in return for their crimes against every other species on the planet. Always called Count D, always a purveyor of interesting pets(pets that always come with careful instructions, and gods help anyone who flouts them), they set up shop in out-of-the-way places and do what harm they may to the human population before moving on. But the latest Count D, a young man with a serious weakness for pastries, meets his match in an LA homicide detective--to both their sorrow, and for both their growth.
As the manga ends, the family of Count D is finally revealed. I did not expect the revelations about his father and grandfather. The existence of the FBI character is also interesting. Maybe someday, I will read the prequel and sequel to the manga.
Pet Shop of Horrors is a manga by Matsuri Akino. It is set in the heart of Chinatown. Enter Count D's pet shop, a place where you can find a multitude of pets. These pets can range from cats and dogs to the most exotic, but they often will take a form to match a person's deepest desires. The mysterious man running the shop will be willing to sell you these animals, but under contract. These contracts often have three terms, varying with each individual pet. If any of these circumstances are broken, the pet shop is in no way, shape, or form, responsible for the consequences that would result.
This series is certainly a unique read. Each chapter often focuses on a different customer, so the series has an episode like feel to it. In each of these chapters, however, there is a sub plot that always occurs. This subplot is actually part of the main story, so it's suggested that you pay attention to it. Most of these stories can turn out somewhat messy, but are they happy or sad endings? No one can even tell. This story is about human nature itself, with a good amount of environmentalism hidden in there too.
The last book in the series, which was incredibly sad...The ending was amazing, yet tragic. This volume contains its usual four chapters:
Departure: Two girls, Samantha and Josie, come to Count D's shop. They're not looking for a pet, but their little brother, Chris! Samantha was the one who caused Chris to stop speaking by claiming that he killed his own mother...Will Chris go back with his cousins, or stay at the shop forever with T-chan and Pon-chan?
Disappearance - Count D has disappeared, and the hunt to find him is on, with a federal agent on his tail. A new serial killer has emerged, who attacks others with animals...
Duplication - When Detective Orcot meets Count D's father, it becomes clear that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. Why do they look so alike? How come they even have identical fingerprints?
D - In the climatic final chapter of Pet Shop of Horrors, the truth about Count D and his family is revealed...Who is Count D's grandfather? What is in the large case that D always walks around with?
I loved these series! Who would ever think Count D was......... Matsuri Akino is a great mangaka. She mixed comic with horror and inagination, and this is the result. Great stories that bind you until the very last page.
trad.: Adorei estas séries! Quem iria pensar que o Conde D era........... Matsuri Akino é uma mangaka fantástica. Juntou o cómico e a imaginação ao terror, e este é o resultado. Histórias fantásticas capazes de nos prender até à última página.
Some questions remained unanswered, but all in all, I found this to be a satisfying end. The Count may have left this particular life behind, Chris may have left the store, and Leon? I got the impression the Count got to change this one person, get him to stop and think about the consequences of his actions, the consequences of humanity’s actions, the cycles of behavior, and how the pet store may have restored a much needed balance in the lessons it taught. Chris has his whole life ahead of him and it looks like a new generation of D is part of it. Things are not finished between Count D and Leon Orcot, not yet, even though this part of their story has come to an end. Some of the science was sudden in the abrupt crisis, but the morality tales, the grudge against humanity D and his family possessed was not. Hints played out in every story. In the end the Count learned more about himself and his family, plus there was a delightful twist with a character who was at D’s side’s from the beginning. Overall this was a fascinating series which changed the way I tell stories myself, broadening my mind as to what could be accomplished in speculative fiction. The Navel and its shifting curiosities might not have sprung to my imagination if Count D and his pet store hadn’t shown me how reality bending a small business can be. Thank you, Matsuri Akino-sensei, for this marvelous trip with Count D. It was well worth the ride.
In the final volume of the first series, we get some answers and more questions. We learn what, exactly, D and his family are, what their motives were (although... it's sort of murky? After all, it wasn't motivated by humanity's infractions against animals, but by the fact that a man rejected by a woman of D's tribe rejected him had a hissy fit and slaughtered all but one of them), and we get as definitive of proof as we're going to get that Leon has, at the very least, changed the way D thinks about humans.
All in all, it's a solid conclusion which is left open ended for continuation (which... it does get continued).
Ah, I am done with Pet Shop of Horrors! I picked this up because this was one of the most memorable anime that I watched when I was a kid. Although I only watched two out of four episodes of it, it has been so mystifying for me that I've brought its memory to me from my childhood until the present. You could only imagine how I was like when I found out that Pet Shop of Horrors is a manga! Horror-wise, it's not that gory nor disturbing, but every chapter left me valuable insights, but the general idea of each chapter is that human knowledge is very limited.
Count D is as enchanting as his pet shop. If you're into animals and mysterious things, then this manga is suitable for you.
This will be a spoiler free review. Onto the review!
I'm so glad that the library I work at started ordering the new collector’s editions of this series. This is a new favorite manga for me. I had so much fun with it.
This is sort of a supernatural mystery series following two characters. The first is the detective Leon. He's from LA. He’s your typical American cop. And then there’s this gay Chinese pet shop owner who may or may not be involved with the mysteries.
The pet shop owner sells both regular pets as well as exotic pets, and sometimes the owners of the exotic pets don't follow their specific instructions and end up hurt by the pets. The exotic pets are all mythical beings from various parts of the world.
Leon thinks this guy might be involved or responsible for things that keep happening, so he follows this guy around and keeps hanging out at his pet shop.
The best way I can explain this series is that it's basically one of those series where it explores a different theme each chapter. These themes are sometimes a bit heavy, so watch out for some heavier themes at times. For example, there’s one chapter where a trans woman is killed and Leon has to figure out why, and surprisingly literally no one, it has something to do with her being trans. The blatant transphobia that led to the murder is handled with so much respect and love to her and her identity, which I really appreciated seeing, since so few stories take the time to do that.
And this is just one example of how a mystery might go. There are a lot of sensitive topics in this, none of which I felt were trivialized or glossed over. What I really liked about this series is the way it handled talking about all these nuanced themes, and how it balanced that against the character work the mangaka did with Leon and the pet shop owner. There is actually a reason I mentioned that he’s gay earlier besides just being a random fact about him. Leon has to unlearn a lot of unconscious bias in this series, and I really enjoyed seeing that journey. It's not explicitly stated to us what's happening with his character development, which I think is brilliant. It does a lot of showing vs telling, and wow was it done so well.
Partway through the series, Leon ends up having to raise his kid brother due to something that happens in his brother’s life that makes it hard for his parents to take care of him. The pet shop owner immediately steps up to help him raise his brother when he's busy with his work as a detective. I thought Leon and the pet shop owner just had a funny quirky dynamic together before this, but as soon as they were raising a kid together, I immediately knew I think we’re supposed to ship them. And ship them I did. I just wish Leon was less of an oblivious idiot lol
I can’t say anything else cause spoilers. But I want to. I wish I knew someone else who has read this. I have so much I need to word vomit about this series. I'm trying to get one of my friends into it. Help. I am obsessed with these two idiots.
So this series is actually a couple different series. The main series is just called Pet Shop of Horrors. Then there are two other series connected to it as well. I recommend reading the Tokyo series second, and then the Ark Adrift series last. That’s how they were written chronologically, and I think that works best. The Tokyo series is still following the same pet shop owner, after the events of the main series. And then Ark Adrift is about someone related to him, set before the main series. I'm unsure if Ark Adrift is still ongoing. The last volume I could find came out in June of 2025, so maybe there will be more? I hope so. It kind of ended weird after volume 3, so I hope there’s more on the way and that’s not the official end of the series.
Once again, I want to reiterate how much I have to say about this that I can't cause spoilers. I need someone else who has read this to word vomit at. I need someone to talk about this with. Someone, anyone, please.
If you haven't read this, do it. I need more people to talk to about this. I literally can't talk about it without spoiling whoever I'm talking to. People please go read this then talk to me. Help. I am obsessed.
I wish they would make a proper anime for this. There was a four episode OVA that got made, but honestly it sucks. The first episode opens with a scene not in the manga at all, in which this random guy we never meet again calls the pet shop owner to complain about something that never comes up again, and proceeds to call him the f slur for seemingly no reason. Why was that necessary to include? It’s rude, it’s not in the manga, and it’s literally a slur. Just no. I sat through the four episodes just to see what an anime might have looked like for this if they’d continued making it, and honestly, I wouldn’t want whoever made the OVA to make the anime. Absolutely the heck not. Slur aside, it kind of sucked.
If in 20 years there is no anime, I will get a bunch of my art friends together to make our own homemade show of it, because I will not stand 20 years of this series not being adapted. Also, I want Keston John to play the pet shop owner. His voice read every line in my head when I read the manga, because I think he would just be perfect to play him. YOU SEE NOW WHY I NEED SOMEONE TO WORD VOMIT ABOUT THIS SERIES AT? help me
The conclusion of the series... I'm not sure how I feel about it. I am unsatisfied with the ending and the "explanation" between Count D and his relatives, especially the whole thing about revenge. Maybe it's just me, but it didn't feel important enough for the whole series to lead up to.
I forgot how good the last two volumes of this series is. I wish that Akino would return to the D and Leon dynamics in a sequel. I know Akino has made both sequels and prequels, but she never returns to what I personally see as the half of the core to this story, namely the dynamic between D and Leon. The other half would obviously be the environmentalism and animals.