Cat lovers will enjoy the continuation of our spooky season read along, as James and Will experience multiple stories from the Petshop of Horror. There's one about a dangerous mermaid that resembles someone's dead wife, another about jumping into someone else's dream and a white cat that grants its owner good luck! Skip synopsis @ 7:40
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127: Petshop of Horrors vol. 2
By Akino Matsuri
Translation by Tomoharu Iwo and James Lucas Jones
Lettering by Nunu Ngien
Continuing from the previous volume, we have four episodic chapters revolving around D's Petshop and the detective Leon Orcot, who suspect the store manager of criminal activity.
The first story, "Dragon" involves D accidentally giving a customer a dragon's egg. With the help of detective Orcot they race before christmas day to retreive it before it hatches.
In the second story, we have William Foster, a man down on his luck, he takes a cat that gives him good luck! To him it appears as a young girl who calls him daddy, her name is Lady. When the man breaks his contract and makes her cry, D force his hand and challenges him for Lady through a game of dice. Can William win back Lady's love without her luck on his side?
The third story "Delicious", revolves around the death of the pop star Evangeline Blue and D finding another exotic cryptid creature in the same ocean that Blue died in. Blue's widow, Jason, finds out that she bought a pet at the shop before her death, the pet itself, a mermaid who looks just like the dead Evangeline Blue. An assiistant manager from Blue's record label, Louise, confesses to the police and Orcot. Explaining how the marriage was a sham and a PR stunt, when Blue found out she became suicidal on the day of the wedding. Unfortunately, Jason has mistook guilt for love and has fallen for the mermaid that resembles Blue. By the time police investigate, he is eaten by the fish monster and they find the remains of Blue inside the monster's stomach. Was it guilt that made him think the fish looked like the dead Evangeline Blue? Or was somehow the fish monster a mystical agent, avenging the scorned Blue?
The Final story revolves around D whom after trouble sleeping spends the night at the natural history musuem. Detective Leon Orcot spies on him after seeing him buy off the security, expecting D of making narcotics trade he instead finds him asleep surrounded by a cloud of incense. Soon Leon finds himself breathing in the substance and ends up un a magical trance where he finds he has fallen into D's dream. In the dream spell, both D and Leon experience a pre historical time where animals that are extinct walk the land once more. Leon is willing to kill the animals to survive mucch to the annoyance of D. But D leaves the dream world before Leon does and Leon is left alone to fend for himself. Eventually the two come back to the real world, and D invites him round his home for tea, knowing that Leon has changed a bit and that Leon may know a little bit more about D than he did before.
· During the "Delicious" chapter we see a noticeable plot hole. How could Evangeline Blue purchase a pet if the pet itself was the one that killed her? One theory James and Will did not discuss is the possibility that D deliberately gave a different pet to Jason, knowing that Blue died. Another is that D is lying and is merely avenging Blue's death.
· The Destruction chapter which shows one character in another's dream is an interesting twist on the type of episodic plot that is made where two antagonising characters develop intimacy.Usually there is body swapping, but in a non-fantasy setting you have characters survive a plane crash or ship wreck and get stranded, an urban setting would involve characters getting stuck in an elevator or trapped because of a cave-in from an earthquake, upon where we learn the hard man character may have a fear of confined spaces or darkness, or one confesses their feelings of love or attraction. Sitcoms tend to involve one character nursing a sick one when doing this story, although sommetimes characters will just be in a confined space so that they become cannon fodder for jokes. Whatever the case, the goal is that the characters know more about eachother then they did before the episode. The destruction chapter is notable for its use of liminal space in telling such a story, without resorting to something like a "spirit walk".
References throughout the manga
· 5 octave range, is a very large range of pitch. The most famous example of such a singer with this vocal range is Mariah Carey. Some vocalists can do a 6-octave range, but this is rare with only a handful in the world being able to so.
· Evangeline Blue has won a Grammy. Where as in reality, Beyonce is the artist with the most grammys won, having 32, with 88 nomiations and earning 6 in one night, the name "grammy" is given because the trophy is shaped like a gramophone and they are given from the Recording Academy. They are basically to music what oscars are to film.
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