written by Kenji Sonishi

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 that set?