Pet Shop of Horrors: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		0.5
Audio		2.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		1.5

Pet Shop of Horrors: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie Review

An experiment in gothic anime horror

Pet Shop of Horrors is a short-lived 1999 anime television series which only had four half-hour episodes produced during its television run. The series was made by acclaimed animation studio Madhouse (Trigun, Cardcaptor Sakura). With a dark gothic horror genre setting, the show explores a strange pet-shop which offers its customers far more than they originally bargained for upon entering the shop's eerie doors. For the North America release of the series, the anime was produced by John Ledford (Dark Water, Grave of the Fireflies).

Count D is the mysterious and creepy owner running the strange pet shop of nightmares. Located in Chinatown, the shop is host to a variety of strange creatures which are available for consumers: evil beady eyed rabbits and even pets which can transfigure and take on the form of deceased loved ones (one couple decides to purchase from the shop specifically to help bring back their son). The horror permeating beneath the surface of the shop creeps into the lives of all of the many customers who explore the eerie labyrinth.

In an attempt to take down the wicked Count D and his psychopathic shop of animals a sharp-talking LAPD officer, Detective Orcot, decides to embark on research of this so-called “pet shop of horrors” and find out what has been causing so much chaos around Chinatown. Determined to bring down the evil-doer, Orcot invests his energy into solving the mysteries linked to the shop. Will the vile Count D be able to be stopped by Detective Orcot or will the sinister manifestations of the pet shop of horrors continue?

"Hello? Do you have better source materials for the Blu-ray release? I'll pay double. Okay... triple!"

The series features art direction by Hiroshi Kato (Neon Genesis Evangelion: The End of Evangelion). Despite having an effective stylistic tone to the production, the animation quality feels sub-par and lacks the quality of other horror anime series produced around the same time-period (such as the excellent Hellsing or Serial Experiments Lain). The character designs developed by Hisashi Abe (animation director of Cardcaptor Sakura: The Sealed Card and Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust) are more effective at injecting the series with some horror than the overall aesthetic quality of the series.

The tone of the series is helped by the eerie music by Kazuhisa Yamaguchi. The screenplay was written by Yasuhiro Imagawa (Berserk, Giant Robo). The series was directed by Toshio Hirata (The Fantastic Adventures of Unico, Kimba the White Lion). One gets the feeling that the series was short lived for a reason. The storytelling is average at best and doesn't have truly memorable characters or plot-lines.

Each episode is simply a standalone story without a true over-arching storyline to go along with it. The series explores the characters approaching the pet shop for a variety of reasons only to end up dying from its terrors while the hot-shot detective Orcot looks into the deaths amassing with connections to the shop. For one reason or another, most of the people going to the pet-shop aren't that smart and don't seem intimated by the evil glare of killer bunnies.

Fans of gothic-horror are the primary audience for Pet Shop of Horrors and yet the series lacks anything genuinely scary or surreal to leave audiences with a long lasting impression. In my view, Pet Shop of Horrors doesn't muster up enough scares or thrills to make it worthwhile. The show stumbles along with its kooky concept for four episodes before it putters out of steam and simply ends without warning.

Pet Shop of Horrors: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The series arrives on Blu-ray from Sentai Filmworks with a 480p standard definition presentation. No, you didn't misread that part. The series is presented on Blu-ray in standard definition. As part of a growing trend with certain anime labels, select series which are determined to lack "good-enough" elements to produce a high definition Blu-ray are now being presented with standard definition presentations. The biggest reason for this decision seems to be the ability to include a significantly higher episode count on fewer discs (although Pet Shop of Horrors only contains four episodes). Keep in mind this is not even an upscaled-to-HD presentation with the picture-quality benefits such a release can offer. This release is a SD port with minor tweaks.

This release feels like an insult to the Blu-ray format. I wish anime studios would not release standard definition content on Blu-ray this way (especially when the source is in poor quality). This is honestly one of the worst looking releases I have ever seen in my years or reviewing. I knew it would look disappointing given it contains standard-definition source content. Yet I was not prepared for the "horrors" of the transfer.

Presented in mindbogglingly awful standard definition with plenty of interlacing, artifacts, compression artifacts, and edge-enhancement (along with a window-boxed opening credits card) this is a terrible looking presentation. The picture quality is outstandingly bad with weak colors and poor clarity. It's a botch job in every sense of the word.

Pet Shop of Horrors: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The audio is presented in English and Japanese 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio. The release only offers a modest sound quality boost and its clear the source material which was utilized for the release is only adequate in quality. The audio fidelity is average at best and sounds tiny throughout the presentation. This release lacks greater clarity or depth. This sounds like a small boost over a standard lossy audio presentation and ultimately isn't that impressive. English subtitles are provided.

Pet Shop of Horrors: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

There are no supplemental features included on this release.

Pet Shop of Horrors: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Aimed squarely at gothic-anime horror fans, Pet Shop of Horrors has an interesting concept but it's a series which is poorly executed. Even worse than the series is the quality of the release. Featuring awful video, mundane audio, and no extras to speak of, it's impossible to recommend this release.