In the Chinatown of some undistinguished metropolitan city, where the law means nothing, there is a mysterious pet shop. It’s exterior is nothing to differentiate it from the other various businesses on the street, but one step inside and it’s like you are in another dimension. The shop’s enigmatic owner, Count D, greets you, and then proceeds to show you his collection of exotic pets, which range from the strange to the unimaginable. For they aren’t just pets, but instead they are the answers to your dreams and prayers; they are the last bit of hope at the end of a dark tunnel. However, before you get to take your chosen creature home, the Count makes you sign an agreement of three specific rules. He promises that you will live in perfect bliss if you just follow these regulations, but if you do dare to break them, he will not take responsibility for the penalty. You, without hesitation, agree.

For a while, all goes perfect. Your new pet is fitting in nicely at home, and your life is nothing short of paradise. All the promises that came with the creature are being fulfilled, and you, at last, are happy. However, after a while, you start to slip on the rules. After all, what could one minor infraction do? Well, a lot. Suddenly, something goes wrong, and you may not survive it. But then again, you may have deserved it. You aren’t exactly innocent yourself. No, it’s not so much a victimization, but instead a just chastisement.

The above paragraphs sum up the basic idea of the four episode OVA series, Petshop of Horrors. In each episode, some seemingly innocent person enters Count D’s (yes, the D does stand for Dracula) mysterious pet store, buys a “pet” that appears to magically answer all of their problems, signs an agreement of three rules, promptly breaks those rules, and the pet reacts wrathfully. However, in an inspired twist, in each story it always turns out the “victim” was not innocent, and instead had a dark secret that only the pet could have punished them for. Essentially, the series is a blend of the American movie “Gremlins” and the “Friday the 13th” TV series, just with a decidedly Eastern flair. But that’s not a bad thing.

The series, only four episodes long, is based more on story than character development, but nonetheless has one of the most interesting characters I’ve seen in a while in the owner Count D. He is icy-cold to his customers, almost as if he knows every one of their dirtiest secrets before even meeting them. And yet, his effeminate and overly polite nature belies any malice he may hold for the patrons. As with most “odd” characters in anime, he has his idiosyncrasies, mostly notably in his penchant for gourmet desserts and Chinese female clothing, but they come off more so as humanizing mechanisms than just forced quirkiness. However, I must admit, I had read the manga prior to watching the OVA, so some of my affection for the Count does come from that, but still I felt the character was masterfully executed in the anime by itself. The other main character, tough cop Leon, does not shine too well, and instead comes off more as a boorish, ignorant policeman-without-a-clue character that would be more fitting in a murder mystery.

The stories themselves are on the most part well done, and do their mightiest not to become repetitive. The first two are solid Sin-of-the-week™ stories, both well told and effectively creepy. However, the writers seemed to want to depart from the format in the last two episodes, and instead try two more varied forms of the plot outline. Though this works well for episode 3, I can’t help but feel that in the last episode they almost betrayed their roots, not because it’s just so drastically different from the other three, but because they tried to make it so unique it actually suffered a bit in quality. That’s not to say it’s too bad, but it seriously left a bitter taste in my mouth for the series since it was the last episode.

The visuals in the series are nothing short of stunning. Lots of moody pans, and blacks, grays, and purples fill the screen. The character designs are an eclectic mix of styles of Gothic, Chinese, and even 80s America (the 80s stuff is only with the police characters, because they’re supposed to be “normal”). Count D himself is perfectly drawn, even though they do tend to hit us over the head with the “He’s Mysterious” anvil too often. However, probably the most well designed in the series are the pets. Each pet is richly drawn with just the right amount of Gothic intensity, and the artists even dip their hands into established mythology with the designs. The animation is not too smooth however, and sometimes it’s downright rigid. But seriously, this series was meant to be more of a pretty-pictures show than a fluid motion picture.

The sounds are really nothing special, with one noticeable flaw being that OP is not played along with the show (more on this later). The song itself has a harder beat to it than the bubbly J-Pop that is used in most anime, but this change is welcome. The background music is moody, and uses the Eastern vibe the show has already established with its visuals to full effect, even if at times it can be a bit too heavy-handed. The seiyuu all do a nice job, but the only notable performance is from Seki Toshihiko, who thoroughly hams it up as the Count.

Overall, Urban Vision has put together a decent disk, with a few extras out of the ordinary. The cover is a bit busy, focusing in on three different episodes at once, and the idea that a list of three staff members’ previous works was absolutely necessary seemed a bit off to me (I don’t think I’d exactly be shouting from mountaintops if I worked on the Final Fantasy OVA series anyway…). And then there’s also the odd choice of calling it the “Special Edition,” simply because it combined what was previously two VHS tapes onto one DVD. Seriously, with all the hyping on this cover, I really get the feel they were worried about how well the disk would sell.

The extras are both simultaneously interesting and disappointing. The first, touted as “Never-Before-Seen Deleted Footage!” is actually just the music video OP that Urban Vision themselves deleted from the original footage. The song’s cool and all, but just the way they advertised it made me really feel cheated. The other extra, an audio commentary from the English voice director and some of the cast, is, for lack of a better phrase, just plain stupid. None of the guys on the commentary seem to care at all for the anime, and any comments on the actual show itself felt forced (Being a die-hard subtitle fan, the comments on the dub were equally annoying). These particular gentlemen should NEVER be allowed to do such a thing again, but on the other hand I still can’t condemn them for actually including a commentary, which is something I haven’t seen too often in anime.

My final thoughts on the Pet Shop of Horrors OVA series are simple. It’s a cool, creepy anime that chills you for a while, but is rather forgettable afterwards. It’s definitely not Halloween Party fare, because of its somewhat lacking of gore and slow pacing (Though in my opinion that’s a good thing), but if you ever find yourself alone on a dark and stormy night, why not give it a try? Who knows, Count D’s tales of the horrors of humanity just may strike a chord with you (a dark, dark chord).

Distributor: Urban Vision
Creator:Mari Akino/TBS/Mad House
Released: 1998

Plot: B+
Character Design: A+
Animation Quality: B-
Music: B
Overall: B+