 | | ▪ | RELEASED BY: | | VIZ MEDIA | | | ▪ | AUTHOR / ART: | | KENJI SONISHI | | | ▪ | FORMAT: | | JAPANESE / B&W | | | ▪ | PAGES: | | 196 | | | ▪ | RATING: | | A | | | ▪ | RELEASE DATE: | | 07/07/2009 | | | ▪ | REVIEW DATE: | | 06/28/2009 | | | ▪ | REVIEWED BY: | | SCOTT CAMPBELL |
Meet PET! PET stands for Polyethylene terephthalate, a type of plastic that bottles can be made from. When Noboru recycled a plastic bottle, he never thought he'd get a devoted PET in return! Little does he know that the bottle is about to come back to life as PET, a robot with a mission: to pay Noboru back for recycling him! He was a simple plastic bottle until nine-year-old Noboru Yamada recycled him - now PET’s a Super Robot programmed to protect Noboru at all costs! Whenever Noboru’s in trouble, PET transforms, plugs in, and jets to the rescue! Unfortunately, PET’s “help” usually does more harm than good, proving time and again that just because you call yourself “super” doesn’t mean you have a clue. Combining the visual appeal of manga with the episodic comedy of web comics, Leave it to PET!'s adorable characters deliver wacky humour in bite-sized instalments! Leave it to PET! (The Misadventures of a recycled Super Robot) is another cute series from Kenji Sonoshi. This artist/author is quite capable of creating kid’s manga with a lot of fun and flare – it’s a much needed product in the manga world as there just aren’t enough good manga that is rated all age appropriate in North America. Leave it to PET! is the perfect answer to the issue as it is a lot of fun and totally appropriate for a reader of any age to enjoy. It’s actually not even that bad (for those in the older crowd) as it provides some light entertainment on the more wholesome side. In volume two, PET becomes a Super Robot with lots of new robot friends. There’s L’il Bagz, created from a plastic bag, the amazing transforming Five Cups, and the wise Papa-PET. Who are these robots and why are they here? All will be revealed in this second instalment of Leave it to PET! PET continues to be oddly entertaining and goofy in this continuing chapter of the madcap series. It’s a bit slapstick and simple at times as per usual, but kids will find it easy to read and follow along with, likely laughing the whole time as PET screws up anything he attempts to do to be helpful to poor Noboru. Besides the laughs, there’s a strong message of the appropriateness of recycling and how important it is to our earth, so you really can’t go wrong with teaching kids a lesson as relevant as that. The visuals are quite funny, and very juvenile in their presentation, but it is all a good thing when it comes to a book designed for children (for the most part). There are even some great color sections in the book with manga art done in full-color. The whole book is really a lot of fun, form the comical adventures, to the humorous visuals – you can’t go wrong with PET! This is a really great kid’s book, and honestly has a lot of potential to be a positive reinforcement for kids to both read, and recycle. What parent could dispute the awesomeness of that?! As ever, it is good to know a thing or two about the creator, so here it is: Kenji Sonishi was born in 1969 in Sapporo, Japan. He has liked crafts since he was a child and now enjoys making things out of plastic bottles. He also has a fierce little cat… hopefully it doesn’t bite his drawing hand! Let’s hope to see more from him in the future.
IN SUMMARY:
Leave it to PET! is both educational, and grossly entertaining. It is full of laughs and fun, and will encourage kids to read and recycle. It is a saint among manga, with a message that should be well received by the next generation. |
