After a one season delay (rarely a good sign, but let’s not pre-judge), Oomori Takahiro’s adaptation of Miyake Ranjou’s 2003 manga Pet finally hits our screens.  Takahiro’s resume is certainly ironclad – he was the lynchpin of Brain’s Base during their glory days (and they were glorious), best known for the Natsume Yuujinchou franchise but also in charge of the wonderful Baccano!.  Writer Sadayuki Murai is also a well-established name, though he’s likewise linked most closely with his work adapting Natsume Yuujinchou.

I’m normally of mixed mind about adaptations of old seinen manga, but that’s because they tend to be way too short.  At only 5 volumes Pet should theoretically be a good fit for a single cour anime.  Geno Studio hasn’t produced much but their track record is very clear so far – very good for content, decidedly mixed in terms of production values.  This premiere is indeed pretty indifferent in terms of visuals – we’re obviously not talking about a huge budget here, though there are no CGI bears to be found.  As for content, I’m still on the fence.

To be clear – I haven’t read the manga and don’t know how faithfully this first episode sticks to it.  Based strictly on the latter, my assumption is that we’re supposed to be somewhat in the dark about what’s really going on here.  At the very least we’re given a lot more dots than we are lines connecting them.  We start with a prologue involving a young boy named Satoru who never speaks – merely sits silently watching the same anime over and over, sometimes banging his head on the furniture (must be Nisio Isin).  It’s clear he’s picking up on the negative vibes from his mother, and negative they are – she resents both her son and the husband who’s abandoned his care to her, throwing in some cheating on her for good measure.

Into this situation steps Hayashi (Kase Yasayuki), who sees something he recognizes in the boy.  He tells the guy he works for, Katsuragi (Sakuya Shunsuke) that Satoru is “one of them” – and proceeds to get inside the boy’s head.  This is the best scene in the episode, as Hayashi instructs Satoru on how to engage with the world by creating “peaks” for his good thoughts and “valleys” for his bad ones.  Jump forward ten years or so, and Satoru (Ono Yuuki) is now working for Katsuragi too – and Katsuragi is clearly some sort of yakuza type plying psychic powers for financial benefit.

The whole bit with the reggae bar owner, his ex-partner and the two young guys who live with him was rather odd and – I’m assuming intentionally – confusing.  The broad gist of it is clear enough – the bar owner is doing grunt work for Katsuragi’s outfit, his partner used to but stepped across the line and “went to Bali”.  Exactly at what point the espers fried his brain – and why they bothered to do that instead of just killing him in the first place – is not remotely clear at all.  As for the two bishies, Hiroki (Ueda Keisuke) and Tsukasa (Tanjyama Kishou), they’re apparently psychic hitmen called “crushers” (and possibly lovers).

I’m decidedly undecided about how all this works for me.  It’s an interesting premiere no doubt, and I find myself genuinely curious to learn the details of the mythology, but the execution for most of the episode felt a bit stilted.  There’s also the matter of the characters, none of whom really made much of an impression apart from Katsuragi convincingly being a major DB.  Given the talent behind the project and the relatively high regard the source material seems to be held in, I’m certainly giving Pet every opportunity to win me over.  It hasn’t happened yet, but I got enough here to keep me hooked for the time being.