Count D

Count D
Anime Debut	Episode 1
Manga Debut	Chapter 1
Gender	Male (Though physical appearance is androgynous)
Nationality	Chinese
Height	No information
Weight	No information
Age	Unknown
Occupation	Owner of "Count D's Pet Shop"
Seiyu	Toshihiko Seki
English Voice Actor	John DeMita

The protagonist of Pet Shop of Horrors and its sequel Shin Pet Shop of Horrors (English: Pet Shop of Horrors: Tokyo).

Appearance

Count D always appears wearing Chinese robes. His robe changes from chapter to chapter. He has short black hair and claw like fingernails. His feminine features often led him to be mistaken for a woman. As shown in colored covers is his eyes two different colors, one yellow and one purple.

Personality

Count D is very relaxed. He appears often to be quite cool and collected. He is often depicted with a calm, almost slightly sinister smile on his lips. However this composed state becomes disrupted when detective Leon comes over. The Count are visibly annoyed at Leon and he becomes more openly emotional. Often when he has a guest or customer he will invite them to join him for tea. He is vegetarian, and obsessed with sweets.

Plot

Count D is first seen when he sells a man a lizard/Medusa and the man dies with no evidence other then the fact that he is a customer of Count D's and that he was found next to a white lizard. Detective Leon Orcot is convinced that Count D is a criminal and uses the petshop as a front for, drugs,slavery and other offenses and vows to arrest him but over the course of the story Leon gets into a strange friendship with Count D.

Though he denies the name is "Count D" – claiming that this title belongs only to his grandfather, the shop's true owner – most humans refer to him by this name, often shortened to "The Count", "Count", or simply "D". He runs a pet shop in Chinatown while the shop's alleged true owner is travelling abroad. His motto suggests he doesn't actually sell pets but rather "love, dreams, and hope" with a three-term contract.

He appears more fond of animals than humans and displays a love of the natural world. He usually appears calm and soft-spoken (except when he is fighting with Leon), though towards the end of the manga series, his attitude changes. He enjoys drinking tea and has a special fondness for confectionery. In fact, Leon often bribes him with sweets and pastries in return for information. Although he often expresses disdain for humans and claims to hate human children, he eventually becomes very attached to Chris, and he also seems to hold his brother Leon in affection.

In Volume 4, Leon suspects that D may be a vampire, but D's father later refutes this (and D is actually a vegetarian). He shares a striking resemblance to his father, and to his grandfather, the real Count D. This is because they are imperfect clones or, more correctly, duplicates of one another. They are almost identical except for the colour of their eyes; D has one purple eye, like his father, and one golden eye, inherited from his grandfather. Though it is hinted earlier in the series, it is revealed in Volume 10 that he is not human, though what he and his family are exactly is left open to interpretation. According to D's father, they are the last of an ancient Chinese civilization that was very close to animals. Because of their wisdom, the people were kept at the imperial palace as wise men, priests, giving them all superior treatment. When the prince asked one of the priestesses for her hand in marriage and she refused him, however, he grew angry and ordered a massive genocide of the people. Only one man from the civilization survived, vowing to take revenge on the humans for what they did to his family.

As well as being the main character in Pet Shop of Horrors, D makes a cameo appearance in volume 4 and volume 8 of Genju no Seiza, another manga series by Matsuri Akino.