Zodiac P.I.

I first discovered Zodiac P.I. sometime around 2008 in a Borders bookstore. I saw that it had the same TOKYOPOP logo on it as Cardcaptor Sakura, which I was also enjoying around this time, and my young brain decided this was enough of a reason to purchase the first volume, despite knowing nothing about Zodiac P.I. aside from what I could ascertain from the front and back covers. I remember enjoying what I read, but Zodiac P.I. was far from a big part of my childhood. In fact, I never even finished reading this short series back then. I didn't finish Zodiac P.I. until over a decade later, when I decided to finish it after being reminded of its existence as I was organizing my bookshelves last year. To my surprise, I ended up finding Zodiac P.I. to be a unique and powerful story, and there are a few factors that I think allowed me to appreciate Zodiac P.I. more as an adult.

The first aspect of Zodiac P.I. that I will touch upon is the art. The art is the one thing about this manga that I actually distinctly remembered all these years later. Zodiac P.I.'s art was incredibly enticing to me both as a child and as an adult. I am particularly impressed by Lili's outfits. First of all, Lili does not wear the same outfit every day, a truly impressive feat for any cartoon character! Zodiac P.I. is certainly not the first manga to implement this extra level of dedication to the detail of different outfits; Sailor Moon and Cardcaptor Sakura both implemented this approach to great success. Zodiac P.I. is a much shorter series than Sailor Moon and Cardcaptor Sakura, though, so the appearance of so many different outfits in such little time creates a slightly different experience. Nevertheless, it is nice to see such attention to detail, as all of the different outfits in Zodiac P.I. are beautifully drawn.

Secondly, while I do not claim to be an expert on any sort of fashion, I think it is safe to say that Lili's outfits are quintessentially late 1990's/early 2000's. Something about that style is especially appealing to me, but even if it isn't as appealing to you, it is impressive that Zodiac P.I. manages to make its art unmistakably a product of the time in which it was created without feeling dated today. The art still holds up 20 years later without intending to be something atemporal or timelessly appealing. There are also some really charming doodles in the margins where the author talks about her day-to-day experiences that indicate that this was written in the early 2000's without much thought for the future. Some of the experiences described are so blatantly 2000's, there is even a physical address for readers to send fan mail to. This was definitely a throwback for me to read, as it reminded me of sending in some of my drawings to Shonen Jump as a kid - a reminder of a time before all of our interactions were digitized. All that being said, if Zodiac P.I. is such a product of the 2000's for the 2000's, why am I dedicating so much time to talking about it in 2022, and why do I think you should dedicate time to reading it in 2022 and beyond?

My ultimate thesis for this review is that Zodiac P.I. is a time capsule, and it's a damn good one. If you have been involved in online anime spaces at all in the past few years, you have probably at least encountered the City Pop/Future Funk/1980's anime aesthetic. In the past few years there has been a resurgence of popularity of music produced in 1980's Japan during the "bubble economy." Likewise, this resurgence has been accompanied by an albeit smaller resurgence of popularity of anime produced during this same era, which often uses music produced by artists of the City Pop genre. Maison Ikkoku is a great example. Everything about it from the aesthetic to the subplots to the music just screams 1980's. One common theme that you will hear among fans of City Pop and/or City Pop-adjacent anime like Maison Ikkoku is the nostalgia that the media evokes. Curiously, many fans of these genres were not even alive in the 1980's, nor have they ever lived in Japan. Nevertheless, these genres elicit something resembling nostalgia for an experience that we never had because they are such effective time capsules for that time and place. Through a combination of immersion of the listener/viewer and an unapologetic presentation that could only have been created in a specific time and place in history, we find ourselves being led into longing for a return to something that we never had.

I believe that Zodiac P.I. is a hidden gem among what I call "time capsules" in anime and manga, much like Maison Ikkoku, but for a vastly different time period. What Maison Ikkoku represents of the 1980's, Zodiac P.I. represents of the 2000's. These two are not as disparate as one may initially believe, though. In fact, part of what makes Zodiac P.I. so effective in this sense is that it is participating in what I would contend is a cultural and artistic dynamic that can be traced back to anime/manga like Maison Ikkoku. One may wonder what makes Zodiac P.I. unique as a time capsule. What separates it from any other manga released in the early 2000's? Zodiac P.I. works so well as a time capsule because it synthesizes two genres that came into their own during the 1980's and organically developed throughout the 1990's leading up to Zodiac P.I. and it is no coincidence that these two genres happen to be the two genres most commonly associated with the City Pop crowd. The first, which we have already alluded to, is the broadly slice-of-life romantic comedy genre. This genre includes works such as Rumiko Takahashi's series (Urusei Yatsura, Maison Ikkoku, Ranma 1/2), Kimagure Orange Road, and Touch. The second is the uniquely 1980's action genre featuring strong female protagonists. Think of stuff like Dirty Pair, Cat's Eye, and Project A-Ko. It may be worth noting that all of the anime I mentioned feature music from City Pop artists in their soundtracks.

Zodiac P.I. is clearly influenced by both of these genres, and the influence is pretty self-evident on the surface. The romance between Lili and Hiromi features all the classic romantic comedy anime tropes you could ask for, sometimes even taken to the extreme, such as Hiromi literally being allergic to girls. Moreover, Zodiac P.I. has the strong female protagonist (Lili) who you can always count on to save the day. Claiming that this aspect of Zodiac P.I. is a result of influence from series like Dirty Pair and Cat's Eye may seem to be a bit more of a stretch, though. There are some marked differences between the two. For example, Lili functions alone as a single heroine, not as a part of a duo or trio of heroines as was typically the case in the aforementioned 1980's action anime. Lili, a junior high school student, is also younger than her protagonist predecessors. This leads to the next aspect of Zodiac P.I. that contributes to its effectiveness as a time capsule: it is part of an organic development of these genres, capturing both the artistic trends in anime/manga as well as the cultural zeitgeist of its time.

The missing link in the evolution of "female protagonist who saves the day" anime/manga between 1980's action anime and Zodiac P.I. is 1990's magical girls, most notably Sailor Moon. While Zodiac P.I. clearly does not have an ensemble cast like Sailor Moon, Sailor Moon still serves as a paradigmatic example of the facets of cultural and artistic development leading up to Zodiac P.I. As we know, the 1990's were a time of radical cultural changes for Japan. Following the popping of the 1980's economic bubble and subsequent recession, cultural identity became much less concrete, as if a lack of confidence in the economy directly resulted in a lack of confidence in identity. In the case of Sailor Moon, this can be seen in each of the Sailor Senshi having two distinct identities that they can alternate between, and the "true" identity is forgotten and needs to be rediscovered or awakened. This trend of malleability of identity can actually be traced back to some of the aforementioned romance anime, such as Ranma 1/2, thus showing that the intersection of the major genres of the 1980's time capsules can be already be found in Zodiac P.I.'s more direct influences from the 1990's.

In Zodiac P.I., there is a clear distinction between Lili and Spica, two identities referring to the same person, but in the end there is a sort of integration of Lili's two identities. She no longer has to strictly compartmentalize herself, which ultimately results in a message of optimism indicative of the turn-of-the-millennium optimism that many people were experiencing at the time of Zodiac P.I.'s release. Whereas the malleability of identity that was prevalent in the decade preceding Zodiac P.I. was often used in stories colored by pessimism, such as Ghost in the Shell, Zodiac P.I. does not restrain itself by being static in its influences. Just as the profile of Lili as a heroine is different from the stereotypical profile found in 1980's action anime, so too is her transformation and separation of identity used in such a way that it is not merely a borrowing of tropes but a transformation of them to create a new artistic identity.

Likewise, the same could be said for the astrological symbolism that pervades Zodiac P.I. In both Japan and America, the 1990's saw an explosion of popularity in astrological and occult themes, which contributed to the cross-cultural appeal of shows like Sailor Moon that used these themes. The use of these themes in 1990's anime on the whole trended toward darker stories, though, such as Neon Genesis Evangelion and Revolutionary Girl Utena. Even in Sailor Moon, which is far from a dark psychological deconstruction, there are existential threats related to occult themes. Zodiac P.I. certainly has its dramatic moments - Lili is a detective after all - but unlike what the medium had been accustomed to seeing in occult/astrological stories, these themes are not used to set up major existential threats. Rather, Lili uses astrology to solve real-world concrete problems. These forces are solutions rather than problems - an inverse of what is seen in Zodiac P.I.'s various influences. In this way, Zodiac P.I. can be seen as a subversion of a decade of subversions.

I know some of this may sound like a recipe for some psychological story that takes itself entirely too seriously, but I assure you Zodiac P.I. does not take itself too seriously at all. Even though Zodiac P.I. does not have the "comedy" tag on anilist, it did not fail to make me laugh several times. Much of the story is simply so absurd that one cannot help but laugh. The playfulness of Zodiac P.I. is intentional and contributes to the effectiveness of Zodiac P.I. as a nostalgia-inducing time capsule. Look at all the 1980's series I listed earlier - they all contain their own form of playfulness, even if they are not explicitly intended to be comedic series. Simply tracking the artistic and cultural zeitgeist is not enough to accomplish what Zodiac P.I. accomplishes. For example, nobody watches Neon Genesis Evangelion (which I love, no disrespect intended) and goes on a nostalgia bender about living in the 1990's, even though NGE arguably tracks the zeitgeist of the 1990's better than any other anime. If they do, it is probably because they are an oldhead who actually watched NGE in the 1990's and they associate it with a particular time in their life that they actually lived through, which is certainly a powerful form of nostalgia, but it is different from what Zodiac P.I. accomplishes. Zodiac P.I. does not rely on you having read it as a child, nor does it rely on you having even lived through the early 2000's, just as Maison Ikkoku does not rely on you having lived through the 1980's to draw you into a nostalgic trance. At the end of the day, Zodiac P.I. is fun. Sure, much of the story relies on the reader suspending disbelief in order for it to be coherent, but the story is constructed in such a way with such entertaining characters that this aspect of Zodiac P.I. simply contributes to the overall charm, rather than detracting from my enjoyment due to plot holes. I was too busy having fun while reading Zodiac P.I. to care about any plot holes.

Despite not taking itself too seriously, Zodiac P.I. does not fail to deliver some hard-hitting lines that convey a sincere message of optimism and living the moment that colors the undertones of the entire story. For example, at the end of volume three, there is a story that shows the beginnings of the relationship between Lili and Hiromi when they were in kindergarten. Reflecting upon the first "case" that he and Lili solve together, Hiromi says "My mom told me that when you learn something new, the moment is like a treasure. I thought I knew everything, but I didn't. There are so many things I don't know. So many things...including this new feeling I've never felt before. You taught me so much..." Zodiac P.I. occasionally takes a break from using insinuations of Hiromi's feelings for Lili as a source of comedic relief and actually provides some depth to the development of their young love, which is nice to see, as it makes Hiromi's involvement in Lili's cases that much more meaningful. Hiromi is no longer just the stereotypical braniac whose only function is utility, which is an impression that one may easily have of him upon his introduction to the story, but instead we see his actions as being motivated by a deep sense of concern for Lili's well-being, which becomes abundantly clear in the second half of the series through moments like this one.

Moreover, I love this particular quote because it shows the value of knowledge. Detective stories like Zodiac P.I. often rely on the suspense and thrill of solving a mystery as a selling point for their story, but this quote from Hiromi demonstrates the truth that the mystery exists for the sake of the story, not the other way around. In other words, Lili's adventures as a superstar detective and astrologist are much more meaningful when viewed as a mechanism through which she develops as a character and develops her relationships with other characters. This also excuses just how insanely unrealistic some of the scenarios in Zodiac P.I. are. The logical consistency of Lili and Hiromi's solutions to various mysteries should not be needlessly scrutinized because Zodiac P.I. is not supposed to be a work of grand strategy and 4D chess moves. Rather, it is a story built around relationships, and the mystery and detective work is merely the context which facilitates the development of these relationships.

Another deeply serious moment from volume three that I love is when Lili is speaking to the man who is tormented by the death of his daughter (not spoiling more than that), and she says "Don't erase the precious memories that live on inside you." If I had to choose one quote to summarize the message of Zodiac P.I. this would be it. Despite all the silliness of this series, this scene alone makes sure that the reader has no misconceptions about the life-affirming message of Zodiac P.I. In a moment of what seems to be self-awareness of Zodiac P.I.'s function as a time capsule for a now yearned for time of the past, Lili firmly acknowledges the importance of memories. Our memories are intrinsically important. They do not have to manifest in the form of anything tangible like the painting that this man was obsessed with. As Lili says, the memories that live on inside of us are precious, and we should hold tight to them. In particular, we see the importance of memories formed through relationships. Whether they be the memories formed in a parent-child relationship or the memories formed in a young friends/lovers relationship like that of Lili and Hiromi, the memories generated out of love are the most important and the most powerful.

This may be a stretch, but I suspect that much of the nostalgia generated for the 1980's by City Pop or for the 2000's by media like Zodiac P.I. is the result of a deterioration of loving relationships. Perhaps if we had more "precious memories that live on inside you" of our own experiences in our own meaningful relationships, the allure of the portrayal of previous time periods would have less of a pull. Or maybe this is totally wrong, and the grass will always seem greener in 1980's Japan no matter how great your life in 2020's America is. Nevertheless, I feel confident in saying that it is no coincidence that the old anime/manga that people cite as generating feelings of nostalgia for a life they never had tend to skew toward the romance genre. We currently live in a profoundly unromantic world, and any portrayal of a world that allows loving relationships to flourish is bound to generate a favorable impression. You could make the argument that all of us nostalgia addicts are really longing for love, and the time period is not relevant. I, however, think that the attributes of the time period in which these stories came to be are essential to the romance that generates longing, not only of secondary importance. I suppose time will tell. Let's see if people in 2050 watch 2020's romance anime and find themselves talking about how they were born in the wrong generation.

I have probably written more about Zodiac P.I. in this one review than everyone else in the world has written about Zodiac P.I. combined. Why? Not only does Zodiac P.I. give me nostalgia for my years as a young weeb finding this manga on a shelf in Border's in 2008, but it gives me nostalgia for being a teenage girl in the early 2000's like Lili. I'm a man who was born in 1997, by the way. Powerful stuff. Maybe I am just longing for something that was never mine and never could be mine, or maybe Zodiac P.I. is a criminally underrated gem of a time capsule from the early 2000's. I will let you be the judge. The goal of this review, after all, is to get you to read the four short volumes of Zodiac P.I. You can easily read the entire thing in a weekend, so if anything said in this review has resonated with you at all, there is no excuse not to check it out for yourself. Who knows, maybe you will make some precious memories by doing so.