Little Fluffy Gigolo Pelu
Encyclopedia
is a three tankōbon
Tankobon
, with a literal meaning close to "independently appearing book", is the Japanese term for a book that is complete in itself and is not part of a series , though the manga industry uses it for volumes which may be in a series...

manga
Manga
Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...

 series written and illustrated by Junko Mizuno
Junko Mizuno
is a Japanese manga artist.Mizuno's drawing style, which mixes childish sweetness and cuteness with blood and terror has been termed a Gothic kawaii or kawaii noir style. In addition to her comics, she designs T-shirts, calendars, postcards, and other collectibles...

 and published by Enterbrain
Enterbrain
is a Japanese magazine publisher established on April 1, 2000. Enterbrain magazines are generally focused on video games and computer entertainment as well as video game and strategy guides. In addition, the company publishes a small selection of anime artbooks. Enterbrain is based in Tokyo, Japan...

. The series has been licensed in North America and France where the first volume received mostly positive reviews.

Story

A candid and naive cotton-ball like alien Pelu leaves his home world, the all female planet Kotobuki, and travels to Earth to find love and to have a child. However, Earth women view him as an entertaining pet. He drifts in and out of their lives, solving their problems in an attempt to woo the women of Earth.

Development

Junko Mizuno
Junko Mizuno
is a Japanese manga artist.Mizuno's drawing style, which mixes childish sweetness and cuteness with blood and terror has been termed a Gothic kawaii or kawaii noir style. In addition to her comics, she designs T-shirts, calendars, postcards, and other collectibles...

 initially had a general outline of the story but did not know how long it would take. She wrote down the storyboard
Storyboard
Storyboards are graphic organizers in the form of illustrations or images displayed in sequence for the purpose of pre-visualizing a motion picture, animation, motion graphic or interactive media sequence....

s for the first three to four chapters and had precise views on sequences and characters. She usually produced 16 pages per month and thought that while all her previous main characters were females it would be interesting to have a non-female character.

In a 2010 interview, she revealed that the character of "Pelu" is based on "Moja-ko
Mojacko
is a manga series created by Fujiko F. Fujio about an ordinary student who befriends two aliens. It was adapted into an anime series directed by Tetsuya Endo and produced by Oriental Light and Magic.-Plot:...

", a character created by Fujiko Fujio
Fujiko Fujio
was a nom de plume of a manga writing duo formed by two Japanese manga artists. Their real names are and . They formed their partnership in 1951, and used the Fujiko Fujio name from 1954 until dissolution of the partnership in 1987....

, author of Doraemon
Doraemon
is a Japanese manga series created by Fujiko F. Fujio which later became an anime series and an Asian franchise...

. Another influence for Little Fluffy Gigolo Pelu was the film series Tora-san, about a lovelorn wanderer. Some of the stories were inspired by melodramas for housewives.

Patrick Macias
Patrick Macias
Patrick Macias is an author and co-author of several titles on pop culture fandom, specifically relating to Japanese culture and otaku culture in America...

 translated the manga into English.

Manga

The series serialized is written and illustrated by Junko Mizuno
Junko Mizuno
is a Japanese manga artist.Mizuno's drawing style, which mixes childish sweetness and cuteness with blood and terror has been termed a Gothic kawaii or kawaii noir style. In addition to her comics, she designs T-shirts, calendars, postcards, and other collectibles...

. It was serialized in Enterbrain
Enterbrain
is a Japanese magazine publisher established on April 1, 2000. Enterbrain magazines are generally focused on video games and computer entertainment as well as video game and strategy guides. In addition, the company publishes a small selection of anime artbooks. Enterbrain is based in Tokyo, Japan...

's monthly seinen magazine Comic Beam
Comic Beam
is a Japanese seinen manga magazine published by Enterbrain on a monthly basis since November 1995. In 2006, it had a circulation of 25,000. Popular manga serialized in Comic Beam include Kaoru Mori's Emma about the love story between a maid and an aristocratic man in Victorian England. Emma was...

and the serial chapters collected into three tankōbon
Tankobon
, with a literal meaning close to "independently appearing book", is the Japanese term for a book that is complete in itself and is not part of a series , though the manga industry uses it for volumes which may be in a series...

with the first one released on March 24, 2010, and the third on January 31, 2005.

Outside Japan, the manga has been licensed in North America by Last Gasp
Last Gasp
Last Gasp is a book and underground comix publisher and distributor based in San Francisco, California.- History :Founded in 1970 by Ron Turner to publish the ecologically-themed comics magazine Slow Death Funnies, followed by the all-female anthology It Ain't Me Babe, Last Gasp soon became a major...

, and in France by IMHO.

Reception

Noah Berlatsky for The Comics Journal
The Comics Journal
The Comics Journal, often abbreviated TCJ, is an American magazine of news and criticism pertaining to comic books, comic strips and graphic novels...

 asserts that Little Fluffy Gigolo Pelu story summarizes Mizuno’s interests: "sex, death, romance, kawaii, and the way they merge into a single melting rainbow of uncanniness" and describes it as "it feels queasily overripe, laden with too much meaning and emotion for comfort".

Jason Thompson
Jason Thompson (writer)
Jason Thompson is a manga critic, journalist, writer and comics artist.-Life and career:...

 feels that Pelu is the "most extreme form of Mizuno’s cute but dumpy men" and a secondary character in the manga while the stories are some of Mizuno’s best.

David Welsh in The Comics Reporter states that Pelu's quest is "just a framing device that allows Mizuno to examine the resourcefulness and resilience of women, even kind of awful women. It also allows her to play with different tropes of different styles of manga storytelling." and describes the work as creepy, cute, and, he suspects, completely sincere. He asserts that you get your money's worth with the illustrations of Little Fluffy Gigolo Pelu, but there is a passion "beyond craft and imagination" within the pages.

Scott Green for Ain't It Cool News
Ain't It Cool News
Ain't It Cool News is a website founded and run by Harry Knowles, dedicated to news, rumors and reviews of upcoming and currently playing films and television projects, with an emphasis on science fiction, fantasy, horror, comic-book and action genres...

 asserts that Little Fluffy Gigolo Pelu "sets up an infinity effect of laughing at something terribly bleak, then feeling bad about finding mirth in sorrow, then laughing at the absurdity of it all, and so on" and concludes that while Junko Mizuno is a divisive creator, readers needing to "get" her work to appreciate it, the manga features enough dire absurdity that it will force readers to laugh.

Joseph Luster feels that the combination of Mizuno's "sexy/nasty/classy artwork" and "otherworldly storytelling" is a potent combination. Luster recommended Little Fluffy Gigolo Pelu as being a good place to start with Mizuno's works, as it is accessible but with "something more" giving a frame to the work.

Erin Finnegan describes the story as "trippy, disturbing, and funny", and felt it could continue forever. Finnegan was disappointed that the science fiction themes of the story were muted after Pelu came to Earth, until the space hippo made another appearance.

Katherine Dacey describes the story as being surprisingly poignant, noting that although Mizuno's works aim for shock value by having "cute characters engaged in degenerate behavior", that the shock value here supports dramatic and thematic functions, as a reflection of how childlessness is portrayed in popular culture, "as if being childless were worse than being afflicted with a terminal disease".

The French cultural magazine Les Inrockuptibles
Les Inrockuptibles
Les Inrockuptibles is a French cultural magazine. Started as a monthly magazine in 1986, it became weekly in 1995. The name is a play on "Les Incorruptibles", the French title of the American television series The Untouchables...

describes the art as both psychedelic and naive, the roundness recalling 70's girls comics and finding the universe to be completely "kawaii". However the sugar-coated style and gentle text hide a rude and ruthless world. The reviewer asserts that behind its pop aspect Little Fluffy Gigolo Pelu is an acerbic social criticism with Junko Mizuno presenting a dark vision of the current world and the layers of cuteness make human vileness even more apparent.

Benjamin Roure in Bodoï describes the first volume as "original and uplifting" with childish and rounded drawings hiding the violent background and a impish tone that will reserve the work to adults.

A. Perroud for BD Gest' criticizes the work for being "Pikachu
Pikachu
is one of the species of Pokémon creatures from the Pokémon media franchise—a collection of video games, anime, manga, books, trading cards, and other media created by Satoshi Tajiri. As do all Pokémon, Pikachu fight other Pokémon in battles central to the anime, manga, and games of the series...

 meeting the Shadoks
Les Shadoks
Les Shadoks is an animated television series created by French cartoonist Jacques Rouxel which caused a sensation in France when it was first broadcast in 1968-1974;...

 told à la Arthur de Pins" with plenty of cuteness that would please Hello Kitty
Hello Kitty
is a fictional character produced by the Japanese company Sanrio, first designed by Yuko Shimizu. She is portrayed as a female white Japanese bobtail cat with a red bow. The character's first appearance on an item, a vinyl coin purse, was introduced in Japan in 1974 and brought to the United States...

devotees, and absurd scenes and unfathomable dialogs which succeed without logic.
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