Petshop of Horrors

Besides the budget of the show with the visuals of the show looking fine, the animation being fine but the writing, my goodness I love the writing. I love the twist and turns it took with it's characters and characterizations of them. Mind you the show is a lot less horror (for the most part) and much more depressing is the best way of putting it, more sad than horror.

When I was watching this I wasn't expecting things to be so depressing. The dynamic with the detective and the person selling the pets was fun, the fact you slowly got to see more involvement from ... both characters but more meh on the detective part with the fact he didn't really do his job. Not much of a spoiler but bringing the pet shop owner sweets.

Characters who are both passionate about what they do with their interactions. The fact there are logical reasons why the pet shop owner has little to no scrutiny being put on him as such that contrast against the more mystical elements.

Not many things will catch you by surprise. I can't say much without spoiling it.

The reason I rated this a 6 because for the most part there isn't anything strong outside of the theming and writing for the main characters, voice acting (unless you're listening to the dub) but even then it's not a must watch but wouldn't hurt to go out of your way to watch it.

Keep in mind the bias on my end towards things that are depressing to watch which could be clouding my judgement in this review.

This has to be quite a unique anime that's for certain.

This anime is very similar to the Junji Itou Collection that's on Netflix now. If you haven't read the manga, it'll be a way better experience. Though if you have, it'll be fairly lackluster. Mostly because the manga is so brilliant and it's complete. It's a masterpiece that develops the characters and has interesting art and arcs. This anime does not match up to the manga at all. Unfortunately, that's due to the limited budget and episodes. It's only 4 episodes, and each are only 20 minutes. This anime only adapts a few chapters from the manga. ... That's really such a shame because the manga is rich with stories and characters. I personally want another adaptation with a full budget and to adapt the entire manga. Madhouse can tackle this project again, or perhaps Studio Wit? Madhouse did a good job on a limited budget. The art looks good and the vibes are good. It feels very ominous and creepy. The way Count D talks is a bit unsettling (I watched the English dub btw), so that was a good cast. Unfortunately, it's also dated and some of the voice actresses weren't very good. Like, they unironically said something in the English dub that took me out. If you know, you know. Even some of the insults like the F word or "Kimono boy!", and stuff like that. It didn't ruin the anime, it was just a bit jarring. Like I said, I really think another studio needs to adapt this. Especially since they're putting out a collector's edition of this manga, so an actual anime would be great advertisement. Please, just pull a Fruits Basket or something.

A shop dealing in exotic animals finds itself as the common denominator in a series of mysterious deaths. A homicide detective is determined to make the correlation between these deaths and the enigmatic owner of the shop.

The illustration quality is high and there are a few moments of superb technical animation; however, the animation is generally stiff for the majority of the short runtime. Each episode is theme-specific and the pacing is ruinous to the representation of these themes - the overall storyline compositions are poor. The atmosphere of the series is noir and decadent; the 3-D videogame-like opening is dated and telling of this ... anime's age. The soundtrack is also telling - it is classic jazz that would not be out of place in vintage low-budget porn.

The idea behind the series is great: a mystical shop that sells the equivalency of Monkey's Paw's' for each special customer that comes in. The premise of the city police department moving to investigate the shop and its owner is also interesting, but this series explores it in both a very dated and dull way that does not hold up under modern scrutiny. The art is good and rich throughout the show, which is perhaps the high point for this short series.

Petshop of Horrors is a dated experience that does little to excite or stimulate and lacks the capacity to frighten a modern audience. While the art is of a high quality, I cannot recommend this anime for anyone seeking a fulfilling narrative experience - there simply is not much mystery to offer here.