Little Fluffy Gigolo Pelu Vol. 1

Little Fluffy Gigolo Pelu #1

by Junko Mizuno

Pelu, the Little Fluffy Playboy, is comic tale of a cute extraterrestrial creature that comes to Earth determined to find himself true happiness in the form of a human bride. Our hero's search takes him from the surface of his fantastic alien planet to an off-kilter modern Japan where Pelu meets aspiring singers, sassy girls, paint-sniffing bad boys, and the body-switching students of a mysterious high school. Artist Junko Mizuno unleashes her unique graphic storytelling sensibilities on a tale that's frequently adorable, sometimes grotesque, and surprisingly moving.

Genres: Manga, Comics, Graphic Novels, Japan, Art, Fantasy, Seinen

172 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Junko Mizuno (水野純子 Mizuno Junko) is a Japanese manga artist.

Mizuno's drawing style, which mixes childish sweetness and cuteness with terror and erotica, has often been termed a Gothic kawaii or kawaii noir style. However, Mizuno has stated that she does not feel comfortable about those terms, as she doesn't want to label her work with words because it keeps changing and is influenced by many different genres.

Mizuno has stated that her work is influenced by shōjo manga works; this influence is exhibited through her use of bright colorization and the large eyes she provides for her characters. Her art has a decidedly pop-art and psychedelic flair, and a sizable proportion of her published work is colored, rather than the black and white format typical of most Japanese comics.

A part of Mizuno's oeuvre revolves around fairy tales, showing titles such as Cinderalla, Princess Mermaid and Hansel&Gretel. The story behind this is that after the release of Pure Trance, Mizuno was approached by a publisher who was interested in working with her because of her unique style. However, this publisher did not like the story of Pure Trance as it differed a lot from mainstream comics at the time. Because of this, he suggested she'd make comics about fairy tales, which were commercially more viable. Mizuno has stated that as she was just starting out her career as a professional artist, she decided to take the opportunity, and that while in hindsight she was not very comfortable with the situation, it was a good experience for her.

Mizuno has participated in the Angoulême International Comics Festival and the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. In 2007 Mizuno's work was on display at the Merry Karnowsky Gallery in Los Angeles, in an exhibit titled Heart Throb and at Gallery Nucleus in Alhambra, California in an exhibit titled Tender Succubus. In 2014, Mizuno held an exhibition of her work titled Belle: the Art of Junko Mizuno at the Atomica Gallery in London.

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Marc · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cheeky, playful art characteristic of Mizuno.
Very random, choppy feel to the story. Pelu is like an extraterrestrial puffball who visits Earth in search of a wife. He temporarily trades his alien world of buxom naked females for a Tokyo filled by teen pop culture. Will he always be treated like a cute pet? Maybe vol. 2 will lead to happiness. I'll be happy if the space hippo makes another appearance!

[Dave Schaafsma · Rating 2 out of 5]

Kinda disturbing mashup of a My Little Ponies-type manga with a kind of trippy, fluffy ball of an extraterrestrial named Pelu as main character. Pelu is described as a gigolo and a playboy who only has ambitions to "make a baby" with an earth woman. So he comes to a modern Japan that is twisted for.. I guess comic purposes, where the women are mostly naked and otherwise highly sexualized in the way of much manga. The manga-ka is a woman… who I understand has done other twisted manga.

This story has a theme song and other music, booze, clubbing, a kind of psychedelic hippo.. I know, I'm starting to interest you in this trippy world, yes? The appearance, beyond the nakedness of all the women she draws, is a simple, very cartoony and almost deliberately uninterestingly drawn manga world for children. But it's not for children, trust me, though it's mainly nudity and sex doesn't really happen, thankfully. Still, it's this mashup of psychedelic and creepy. . . which is meant to be funny and some of you found it to be so.

I thought it was interesting in its confluence of elements and its transgressive purposes, especially as a woman wrote and drew it. Maybe that makes it art; if a male artist did it you would just roll your eyes and say "typical" and chalk it up to silly adolescent fantasy. I wouldn't even know where to start to analyze this . .. Freud? Marx?

[Tatiana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Extremely weird, even for Junko Mizuno's usual sexy weird kawaii style. I enjoyed it, but the jumps between storylines were sometimes too abrupt. Curious to find out how the story ends in part 2...

[#ReadAllTheBooks]

Just in case the word "gigolo" didn't tip you off, this isn't a book for kids. The main character, the cute fluffy ball on the front cover, might make it seem otherwise but trust me: this isn't something you'd like to hand to a young child.

Before I get into the story, I'd like to first discuss the artwork because that's what initially pushed me to purchase this volume. The company that released this doesn't seem to have any intentions of releasing the final two volumes of the series, which is a shame. The artwork in this is really wonderful. It's a shame that it's not entirely in color, as Junko Mizuno has a wonderful way of playing around with color that emphasizes the surrealness of her work. The large size of the volume doesn't hurt, as it gives us a nice view of all of this artwork.

I think the artwork is what keeps the story from being as depressing as it actually is. There aren't a lot of spots of happiness in this book, as everything is tinted with this feeling of despair throughout it all. Pelu is surprisingly plucky given how futile his attempts to find a wife might appear to the reader. You kind of can't help but root for him even when you cringe at how low his life occasionally gets. And it does get low, as you see him stumbling into what are some pretty grim situations. They're given a lighthearted spin ala Junko Mizuno, but it'll still depress some to see Pelu try and ultimately fail each time in this volume.

However at times I have to say that if I wasn't such a fan of Mizuno's work, this might not appeal to me as much. The idea of a non-Earth persona (not sure if he qualifies as an alien) looking for love in all of the most wrong places is a good story idea and for the most point this volume succeeds. I just feel that at times this was a little too "let's see how many bad situations we can put Pelu through" every once in a while. This is to be expected from Mizuno's work, but I do kind of hope that the next two volumes moves into something more than a "failed romance of the day" format.

Overall this really is a decent manga and hopefully one day either jaPress/Last Gasp or some other publisher will complete the series in English. It's a must have for Mizuno fans.

[Kacper · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a cute book -- but cute in a kind of perverse way, which shows you just how many types of cute there are ;)))

[StrictlySequential · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoy her brand of weirdness and the way she renders it. It's so silly and frequently sexy- especially the way she draws female hair and "complicated" clothing.

This has some unique and well-executed tragedy drama with emotional depth that comes across all the more profound when surrounded with the goofy ridiculousness of the characters and backgrounds.

I'm upping her books a notch to my $$ price range and looking forward to more

[i o r i · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve been a huge fan of Junko Mizuno’s work of art and this was just as beautiful as the one ( Pure Trance) I use to have when I was a teenager. The story was actually kinda funny and sweet even I thought It might be a bit kinky and messy but it really wasn’t that bad!

I loved it. 💖

[Sae-chan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is no avant garde like some reviews are saying. Story-wise, pretty tame stuff, in my opinion. Drawing-wise, psychedelic style, quite interesting. Probably reading while listening to house music would get you high.

I don't think Pelu is a gigolo. Oops, is this a spoiler? Sorriiiie.....

[Lacrimosa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Love the weirdness love the art but the story was a little choppy and incoherent at times. My favorite by far was the last story but that was the only one that I was really engaged with. I think the 2nd book in the series does a better job.

[honeybean · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Junko Mizuno's artwork. It's essentially topless Rainbow Brite characters with a little fluffball Pelu who came to Earth

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Considering my 80s childhood with Rainbow Brite and Popples it's not surprising I love Junko Mizuno's style. It was my first time reading a Japanese comic with the first page on the "last page" and took me a while to get used to which order I was supposed to read. Pelu is about a cute and fluffy alien from a planet full of beautiful women. After finding out where he comes from he decides to visit Earth to find a bride. Through his adventures he meets different women and girls, all of them dealing with their own problems and none of them taking Pelu seriously. Either the pretty girls are mean or don't see him as anything other than a cute pet. Mizuno draws lots of naked women in non-sexual scenes. The girls from Pelu's planet just run around and go to class in the nude. The earthlings are just cooking, washing up or diving for oysters in the nude. It's super cute and psychedelic but the storylines are also pretty dark. It would've been pretty amazing in color like the first couple pages.

[Wayne · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is an adult g.n. done by the Japanese artist Junko. Her art is very trippy and if the whole thing was in color it would be quite amazing. There's no sex to speak of, just topless girls running around. The title character Pelu looks like a sponge and came to our earth from another world. He just wants to make a baby. I was really hoping not to see a human have intercourse with a talking sponge. Phew ! The art looks like the Beatles Magical Mystery Tour.The story is so bizarre, it was a huge challenge to finish it. In the end there was no payday for me.

[Alexis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. Wait, should I review adult-content manga on my public facebook page? Screw it. This was great. I have a weakness for rushing through manga and graphic novels to read the story, looking at the pictures only long enough to understand what's going on. With this one I really slowed down to appreciate each panel. Even though the style is ridiculously cartoonish the composition and details are really well done and worth noticing. And it's not really that sexually explicit, there are just nekkid people.

[Molly · Rating 2 out of 5]

Um.... what? I just don't know about this. It's not the nudity- that's fine. I guess it's just the idea that the women have two little creatures inside of them, and when the creatures have sex, they create a baby; but if one of the creatures is rescued from a dying woman's body, it becomes a talking, laughing fluff of a creature named Pelu... who them desperately wants to make a baby with the women of Earth. :-| Just kinda... weird, I guess...

[Sian Lile-Pastore · Rating 4 out of 5]

i love mizuno's style - kind of cute and sexy and pretty weird. pelu is a strange little fluff ball alien who wants to make a baby with a pretty lady from earth. there's paint sniffing, body swapping, sassy girls and a poodle farm. the story doesn't seem to go anywhere really (which is fine) and am wondering if all the action is in volume two.

[Rui Carlos · Rating 4 out of 5]

Waiting for Volume 2 to appear before I make any real judgment calls on the storyline. The graphics are wonderful, though only a few pages are in color. I think it will be a collector's item in about 10 years.

[Ryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This should not appeal to anybody. Seems to be aimed at 12 year old girls, but with some very adult nasty themes. I really enjoy the art style: some very stylized line work, little nude cherub women and some very psychedelic layouts. I think this is what would keep me reading volume 2.

[Melissa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mizuno's cute-overload-hyper-sexualized style is great, but I felt like the story was a little lacking in this one. Some parts of it were pretty amusing, though - I still liked Pure Trance better.

[yengyeng · Rating 3 out of 5]

Little Fluffy Gigolo Pelu is like Leisure Suit Larry looking for love in all the wrong places. But drawn much cuter and with more hair (fur).

[Jasmiina F · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was weird... I gace two stars because in a way Pelu is so cute (but in a way he's pretty creepy...). I might be tempted to read the next volume too.

[Jordan Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Poor little guy.

[Babs]

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