Pet Shop Of Horrors

Set in a pet shop in New York’s Chinatown, the frame story concerns the mysterious Count D, a sinister puppet master whose shop offers strange and exotic creatures for every occasion. But beware: those who don’t handle the purchased animals with the right level of care will pay a high price indeed!
Based on the successful Manga series of the same title, this full-screen anime contains four episodes: Daughterr / Delicious / Despair and Duel.

The first episode (Daughter) concerns a couple that lost their beloved daughter in an accident. Purchasing a pet rabbit in the strange shop, they seem convinced the rabbit resembles their deceased daughter, however, their misguided parental love has terrible consquences...

The second episode (Delicious) is also the best (although they are all good), perhaps that’s the reason why an image from it has made it onto the DVD cover. During a trip on a luxury liner, pop singer Evangeline Blue is about to marry her manager Jason, but instead, she goes overboard and drowns. Jason, overcome by grief, purchases a strange and exotic fish in the pet shop, initially intended for Eve. But the peculiar fish is in fact a mermaid and obviously the reincarnation of the drowned bride to be. Meanwhile, a pair of detectives investigates as to what really happened on that fateful night of Evangeline’s death. Slowly but surely, a very different picture emerges…

Despair revolves around washed-up actor Robin Hendrix. Frustrated and currently on another career low, he tries to humour himself by purchasing a strange reptile from the shop that has the upper body and face of a beautiful woman, but the lower half is that of a lizard. Seeking solace in the embrace of his Medusa, he comes to realize that this was a purchase he had better not placed.

The final episode (Duel) is about the loyal assistant of a philandering and independent-minded politician. Utterly devoted to him nonetheless, the assistant wishes for nothing more than her boss should make it to the position of US-president! Hence, she strikes a pact with a legendary creature called Kirin that she comes across in the pet shop. This Kirin is rumoured to make ones wishes come true, but in the assistant’s case, there is a very high price to pay.

Pet Shop Of Horrors is original and visually stunning. The episodes are thoroughly entertaining and with a length of approx. 25 min per episode, things are on a right pace. The English dialogue tends to be a little corny at times, presumably the Japanese original sounds more refined.
Extras contain Trailers and a ‚Clean Closing’ artwork gallery.