Zodiac P.I.

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Zodiac P.I.

十二宮でつかまえて (Jūnikyū de Tsukamaete)
Genre	Action, Mystery, Fantasy, Shoujo
Manga: Zodiac P.I.
Authored by	Natsumi Ando
Publisher	Kodansha
Serialized in	Nakayoshi
Original run	November 6, 2001 – ?
No. of volumes	4

Zodiac P.I. is a Japanese manga created by Natsumi Ando, originally published in Japan as Jūnikyū de Tsukamaete (十二宮でつかまえて, literally Zodiac Detective) starting in late 2001. The series is published in Japan by Kodansha, and it is published in English by TOKYOPOP.

1 Plot
2 Format
- 2.1 The Graphic Novels
3 External links

[edit] Plot

The main character of the manga, the "Zodiac P.I." of the title, is a 13-year-old girl named Lili Hoshizawa (星沢リリ Hoshizawa Riri), who uses horoscopes and astrology to solve crimes, accompanied and assisted by her male childhood friend Hiromi after he returns from ten years spent in America. Lili uses the Star Ring to tell fortunes and, at times, to transform into the disguise of "Detective Spica", in which no one recognizes her (such transformations are a common staple of Magical Girl manga.) The ring was left to Lili by her mother, who used it previously to transform into Detective Spica; one of Lili's long-term goals is to discover what happened to her missing mother.

[edit] Format

The manga was serialized in the magazine Nakayoshi in Japan, and has been published in America in the format of four graphic novels (which are unflipped, meaning they are meant to be read in the original Japanese right-left format instead of the usual English left-right pattern), each of which has several chapters. The chapters themselves are printed in the usual (for manga) black and white.

There were color art pages (common in manga serials) featured in the manga's original release in Japan; these pages are also featured in the American graphic novel release of the series, but not in the original color.

Most of the chapters, while sequential and technically continuing several main plots and subplots (or to be more accurate, character development arcs and the central sometimes-background plots involving the mysterious character Sirius and the disappearance of Lili's mother), are what are also known as "stand alones", meaning the main plot (or mystery, in this case) of each episode is not specifically connected with any of the other episodes, and can be read and understood without having previously read the series. A couple of the mysteries are two-part episodes, but the rest are mostly self-contained.

[edit] The Graphic Novels

All of the graphic novels (also referred to as TPB or trade paperback collections, and called "tankōbon" in Japan) for the series feature several chapters of the serial and notes from the creator in the side-bars, including information on astrology and character profiles. They also include brief manga-format side stories based on the Star Ring's zodiac spirits, and one of the books also includes a brief semi-stand alone story about how Lili and Hiromi met and solved their first case together as children in kindergarten.

Volumes 2-4 in the U.S. also include a brief plot synopsis and even briefer character bios, to avoid confusing first-time readers who have picked up the later volumes before reading the earlier ones. This practice is becoming especially common in the U.S. manga publishing industry, also featuring in such titles as Viz's Ranma 1/2 and Tokyopop's Fruits Basket collections.

The first (out of four) volume of the series was first published in Japan by Kodansha on November 6, 2001, and in English translation (using the dialect of American English) by Tokyopop on July 8, 2003. The English translations of volumes 2-4 were released by Tokyopop on September 9, 2003, November 4, 2003, and December 9, 2003, respectively. Each of the American volumes was priced at an MSRP of $9.99 USD. The page count for each English-language volume, save for volume 3 (which has 208 pages), is the same, at 184.