Leave It to Pet!, Vol. 1, 1

Nine year old Noburu Yamada is a pretty typical kid. He likes to play video games, knock a ball around, ride his bicycle, and has a soft spot for cats and dogs. His life becomes far from typical one day when he encounters a strange little robot who introduces himself as PET, which he explains stands for the mouthful PolyEthylene Terephythalate, which is a type of plastic. PET has decided his mission in life is to be Noburu's hero, as he is a self proclaimed Super Robot programmed to protect Noburu at all costs. Whenever he thinks Noburu is in trouble, he transforms, plugs in, and rushes in to the rescue. Unfortunately, he frequently has not got a clue as to what is actually going on, and causes much more of a ruckus than any potential trouble would have. In fact, he frequently inconveniences Noburu greatly, but this is no deterrent to the friendship building between this unlikely pair. For as Noburu himself has discovered, he himself is somewhat responsible for the creation of this pint sized wannabe superhero robot. For one day, Noburu saw a boy kicking along an empty bottle of orange juice, picked it up, and put it in the recycling bin where it belonged. It was recycled and made into PET, who wanted to repay his friend for being an eco hero. Will PET ever learn what being a hero really is about, and will Noburu ever find his life peaceful again? One thing is for certain, no recyclables will be left on the streets as litter or languish in the bins and landfills, for the true mission of these two has just begun! This is a cute children's manga that is suitable for readers aged 5 and up. As you can guess from the premise, it is a comedy with a message. Several messages actually, as Noburu learns more about true friendship as well as recycling and teaching our children along the way. Packed inside chapter style are linked short stories interspersed with recycling tips for children as well as games and activities related to recycling. And for children interested in how a mangaka's workplace looks, at the end there is even a little drawing of his office space at home, complete with a view of the author drawing. Kenji Sonishi takes what could be a very dry subject and creates a set of stories that are warm, funny, and visually appealing. While perhaps better known for his grown up four koma (four panel) comic Neko Ramen (about an ill-tempered cat who is a terrible cook trying to run a noodle café), he nonetheless succeeds at using his preferred four koma page layout and style of humour into something children will not only enjoy but look forward to reading more of. Just why he decided to move into kodomo (children's) manga is quite clear, for his author information states "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". With the fairly recent emphasis on community recycling and an ever increasing number of communities rolling out expanded kerbside re

Nine year old Noboru Yamada is an ordinary boy who loves videogames, manga, and playing outdoors. He is also a very good boy who cares about the health of the planet and dutifully recycles all of his used bottles and cans. For his good deed, Noboru is rewarded with PET, short for "polyethylene terephthalate," a super robot reincarnated from a humble plastic bottle that he had once recycled whom he may now summon at will to assist him in with his troubles. Unfortunately, PET, despite his ostensibly high-tech specs, proves capable only of creating more trouble than he solves--and "leaving it to PET" turns out again and again to be both a dangerous and hilarious proposition. Kenji Sonishi's Leave It to PET! is published under Viz Media's "VizKids" imprint and is guaranteed appropriate for all ages. And indeed, it is hard to find fault with the silly series of vignettes featured in volume one that trade in embarrassing absurdity while cultivating a primitive social conscience. Although there is a vague overarching narrative, each chapter stands relatively well on its own, compact enough even for young children with short attention spans. The antics of the robots are multifarious and deliberately unsubtle, and the boldly drawn artwork is the perfect vehicle for this recycling bin cum loony bin barrel of laughs. Pet robots such as Doraemon that can accomplish wondrous things for their child masters have long been a staple of Japanese manga and cartoons, but the combination of absurd robotic failure and recurring message of environmental conservation is definitely a novel one. Still, as this is a story for young children, you should never ask why Noboru never seems to learn that asking for PET's help always makes things worse. Otherwise, there would be no Leave It to PET! at all, and there would not be such divine delights as watching PET beat Noboru's videogame by making the final boss an offer (of filthy lucre) that it simply can't refuse. Its everyday magic means that PET can have a conversation with Noboru's mother, and she does not treat him like a monster, and the children interact with the robots--as it turns out, PET isn't the only one of his kind, and his fellow robot compatriots each have different quirks of their own to keep new installments from getting too stale--like they would each other. Sonishi's illustrations do well to add pleasure to this series. The characters' simple, almost Sunday funnies-type look is perfect for a gag manga like this one, and plenty of full-color pages in bold, primary shades are sure to add to the pleasure. He also draws a number of do-it-yourself projects that involve innovative ways of repurposing waste products such as empty bottles, and many children are certain to enjoy interacting with the text in these ways. This manga series is especially recommended for young boys, ages five through seven, who may see a slightly older version of themselves in Noboru. Gadgets and gag humor? What could be better for

Noboru Yamada is a good kid. When he finds a plastic bottle carelessly tossed aside, he picks it up and disposes of it properly into a recycling bin. Little does he know, that in return for his good deed, he is assigned a robot made from that very plastic bottle he recycled. Unfortunately, while his robot is supposed to serve and protect him, PET has a mind of his own, and rather than helping poor Noboru, he usually makes his problems worse. If you're looking for a good book to teach kids about recycling, you'll probably want to look elsewhere. While that theme does comes up often in this first volume--many of PET's friends are also made from recycled items, like tin cans and other plastic bottles--it never really struck me as being written to encouraging recycling. In fact, with all the things that happens to Noboru, I'd think kids wouldn't want to recycle, lest they find themselves stuck with a terror like PET! No, rather than being an educational book, "Leave It to PET" is full of gags and laughs aimed at kids and the kid in all of us. The art is reminiscent of "Crayon Shinchan" (or "Shin-chan" here in the US), but the humor is generally good, clean fun. My main problem with "Leave It to PET" is that eventually, the gags start to seem "recycled," pun intended. Really, how many times will Noboru fall for PET's attempts to "help" him? But still, this book is great for kids, who will undoubtedly find the simple, zany drawings entertaining and the stories hilarious, but adults, too, will appreciate the good, clean laughs "bottled up" in this first volume.