Customer Reviews

Nightmares For Sale Volume 1

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Okay, while I know most people are thinking, "What a Petshop of Horrors ripoff!" that's just not true. Petshop of Horrors is exactly that... a petshop! This is based on a similar theme of a 'horror' story based on owners of a shop misleading their customers into a horrific scene, but it is not the same thing. Nightmares for Sale deals with Shadow and Maria, two demons who own a pawnshop and deal with more than the money exchanged. Through the stories, you see the development and deterioration of the person who had the misfortune of stumbling upon the pawnshop. I really enjoyed this manga, and cannot wait to read the second volume!

{may contain some spoilers}

Shadow and his assistant, Maria, run a small pawnshop. What sets their shop apart from the rest? They're demons, and their customers don't always get what they hoped for.

Starting off with 'Friendship Rings,' Keiko has got herself caught up with a rough bunch of girls. Originally the victim of their bullying, she discovers that if she buys things for them, they won't physically abuse her. Instead, they verbally batter her, while pretending to be her friends. Desperate for money to keep them happy, Shadow offers to purchase her friendship ring, intrigued by the dark aura emanating from it. Unwilling the sell her precious symbol of friendship with Akane and her friends, Keiko's life quickly begins to unravel before the other girls' demands. Oops, something tells me you should have sold that ring!

The best was `The Mobius Darkness,' which was broken into two chapters. In `My Dark Half,' spoiled and wealthy Kaya sees a photo of a young boy in the window of the pawnshop. She's curiously drawn to the picture, and it gives her an inner warmth. When she tries to purchase it, she's told that she must surrender her spoiled life in return. Fleeing from the shop and it's obviously whacko proprietor, her purse is stolen by the boy from the photograph. Finding him and making him happy soon becomes an obsession for Kaya, with devastating results. I liked this one a lot, especially all of the twists at the end.

In the 'Children of Darkness,' young Hitoshi appears in the pawnshop and wants to sell his baby sister, Yukiko. Accusing her of stealing his mother, he hates her and wants to kill her! Yikes! Sounds like he's come to the right place. This one was sad, as it becomes apparent that Hitoshi's mother is short a few marbles and she's suffering from regret from a decision that she made earlier in life. Not so creepy, but it showcased Shadow's delight at causing misery for others.

Despite my disappointment with the first chapter, the rest provided some creepy twists or utter misery for Shadow's customers. Some additional background on both Shadow and Maria would have been nice, to give them more context in the story. Shadow wasn't scary, he just seemed like a cold-hearted [...]. Both he and Maria only had fleeting roles in most of the stories, and it seemed like they were present solely to delight in the misery of their clients.

The art was uncluttered and easy to follow, with lots of dark backgrounds to give the book an foreboding air. The character designs were typical wide-eyed beauties so prevalent in girls' comics, and they weren't very scary, even when they were on bloody biting rampages or fiercely wielding knives. Still, the page layouts had some interesting compositions and kept the illustrations fresh and accessible to the reader.

The premise of this series is that you have a gorgeous young man & an adorable little girl running a pawn shop that specializes in dark & demented items. Each chapter is an individual story of it's own, but in each story a little bit more is known about the personalities & history of the characters. I do have a problem with the owners being too excited by the horrible experiences of the customers & some of the characters of the customers seem a little too stereotypical. There just isn't a lot of depth to anyone so far in the series. It's not an unfamiliar premise, as the whole haunted shop with cute owners idea has been done before (and done better), but it's still an entertaining read. I wouldn't necessarily recommend this for the younger readers (9 years & below) due to some of the graphic storylines, but it should be no problem for the older readers.

The artwork is really lovely to look at, but at times it suffers from being a little too cookie-cutter. The storylines are honestly the best part of the book, as the individual stories are all pretty unique in their own ways. However the bottom line is that in the end it just seems like it is another knockoff of 'Petshop of Horrors', which may deter some readers from taking the series seriously. I do recommend that you give it a chance, as you may be as pleasantly surprised as I was. I'm looking forward to the next volume (there are only two volumes).

I bought Nightmares For Sale because I love the author from previous works. As far as works so this isn't her best work. To start, if you have read other works by the author is involved in (Diabolo or Sengoku Nights) you will quickly see that the artwork is highly repetitive. Next, this is the first work the author has done by herself (at least a work that is released in the US). Perhaps she should pair up once again.

The plot is similar to Pet Shop of Horrors, but lacks its flare. The stories are well written and compact as their own individual one-shot story. The art is as pretty as the cover and makes great eye candy. However, this is where it stops. For a series that focuses on a pawn shop from hell there is little to show for the pawn shop. Nearly 90% of the series takes place away from the shop. The supposed main characters are not even fleshed out and feel more like supporting characters.

Vol 2 Note:
It is true that the main character appears more in the second vol as does the pawn shop. In fact, I found the second vol to far surpass the first. The stories are better and the horror aspect goes up. Sadly, this appears to be the end of the series (?). There is no Nightmares 3 that is on any release schedule and [...] shows that Nightmares is a 2 vol series.

Also what happened to the paper? The first vol has thick, pristine white paper with black ink. The second vol is on already yellowed paper. The publisher must have gotten cheap.

Overall, if you are looking for a light horror read and are a fan of Pet Shop this would be good. However, do not expect much from it.