Age Rating: 16+
Genre: Horror
Price: $10.95

The mysterious Shadow and his assistant Maria run a small pawnshop.  Every customer of their shop experiences unforeseen consequences because of his or her dark side.  What they pawn there may be something that they are not supposed to let go.  Nightmares for Sale Volume 1 contains five Nightmarish tales of horror, plus the bonus nightmare "Jealousy in a Bottle."  Afraid of nightmares?  Be afraid.  Be VERY afraid!

When I first read this title, I didn't like it.  I had finished reading Petshop of Horrors not long before this came out, and I think I was expecting this title to be more like PSoH.  A re-reading a year later has made me re-evaluate my opinion.

Nightmares For Sale is a horror anthology with the only consistent characters being the pawnshop proprietors Shadow and Maria.  This isn't much of an explanation given as what will be happening in the volume.  Each story gets a Rod Serling kind of intro about what is to follow.  Each story is about the different dark sides that lurk in everyone.  This is what Shadow seems to deal in; not valuable items, but the darkness that dwells in people's souls.  No one comes out happy in this series, but that is the true essence of J-horror.  There is no resolution, and no happy endings.

It wasn't easy to find what connected all the stories at first, especially since in the second story Shadow and Maria aren't even at their pawnshop, but playing therapists.  It took a second read to realize that this title has more in common with Twilight Zone than Petshop of Horrors.  This title is more about the human condition than saving the environment from humanity, and viewed in that light, it works very well.  A few things do still bother me.  Shadow and Maria both have very superior attitudes toward their human clientele, which gets old very fast.  We don't know what they are, though it is implied that they are demons of some sort.  And Maria herself is just plain annoying.  There is also some use of swear words that I wasn't expecting in a shojo.  It was all the more shocking since they came from Maria, who is a young girl in appearance.

The art for this title is clean, with characters that are easy to tell apart.  They are a bit on the generic side, but the stories more than make up for any lacking in the art.  As part of Aurora's introductory titles, Nightmares For Sale is printed on crisp, white paper, making the volume substantially heavier than other publisher's titles.  It also gives a greater contrast to the art helping with the clearness of it.

Nightmares For Sale is a decent title that any J-horror fan will enjoy.  Even though all the lead characters are females or bishonen boys, there is little about this title that says shojo.  Guys can relate to many of the situations it touches on, and could even learn from them.  As a line in one of the stories goes, "Girls can be scary."



 

7.5