101st G-View: Kore wa Zombie Desuka?

Hello and welcome to the G-Views, where creativity is respected and Dokuro-chan is rejected. After a week long break, I’m back and ready to roll. So this time let’s take a look at a show that I’ve been eagerly awaiting to review since its 6th episode. This is the Zombie show. I’m too lazy to write “Kore wa Zombie Desuka?” over and over so Zombie Show it is.

Genres: comedy, romance
Themes: harem, magic, necromancer, vampire, zombies
Number of episodes: 12 + 1 bonus OVA
G-Rating: 6/10, OVA; 4/10

Plot Summary: Aikawa Ayumu is a normal high school boy. One day he is killed by a serial killer and revived as a zombie by a necromancer named Eucliwood Hellscythe. He starts to serve Eu as her guard but he happens to deprive the mahou shoujo Haruna of her magic power. Haruna orders Ayumu to fight against the anti-mahou shoujo system “Megalo” in her place.

If I were to describe this show in one sentence it’s this: Interesting plot, HORRIBLE COMEDY! That’s how I feel. The show has an interesting premise if you wait long enough for it to be revealed. As for the humor itself…let me tell you all something. I’ve been watching harem anime for a very long time and over the years my tolerance of them has dwindled. To put it simply, I’ve become extremely critical of harem anime recently.

Before I get to the good points of the show let me get the bad ones out of the way as quick as possible.
First and foremost, Ayumu Aikawa is not a zombie. no matter how many times he repeats the words “I’m a zombie” on the show (which he does A LOT) I refuse to accept it. He is and will always be a necromancer’s vassal. That’s what he is. Done and done.
Next, aside from Yuu the other girls are annoying.

Haruna is a pain in the butt tsundere who gets on my nerves quite often. the dork is such a cliche tsundere that I can’t stop wanting to choke her with a leather strap. Other than that she’s good at making eggs taste super sweet no matter how over cooked or rotten they end up.
As to who Haruna is, she’s a masou shoujo (a magically ornamented girl) who comes equipped with a chainsaw. I’m sorry but if they were trying to make her look as badass as Rena Ryugu, they failed miserably.  She’s more of a pest than an admirable warrior and genius. She’s intelligent, yes, but not in the common sense dept. Otakus who are well versed in the tsundere personality can pretty much guess what happens to her based on this show’s genre.

Fuck you Dai-sensei.

-Dai-sensei: When she makes her official debut via telephone makes me want to punch her lights out every time she’s on screen. I cannot stand her sarcastic, over the top, cheerful personality. It makes me sick to my stomach. Either that or her seiyuu is nauseating. I dunno I just don’t like her either.

Next up are the greatest offenders in the history of all that is awesome. The two vampire ninjas. I repeat, vampire ninjas. WHOSE BRIGHT IDEA WAS THIS!? These people could not have been serious. Good grief both off them make me want to kill somebody.

Let’s begin with Mael Strom (Yuki Yoshida aka Tomonori), a vampire ninja who fights using ramen and later on some sort of high level summon creature. Leaving out the utter ridiculous concept of beating enemies using ramen (probably inspired by Naruto) she’s a tomboy who in cliche harem fashion accidentally kisses Ayumu and due to some stupid law of her ninja clan, she becomes Ayumu’s wife because of said event. I’m sorry but she’s too lame for me to give a damn about her dilemma and struggles to force herself into liking Ayumu. this is a harem so there’s no need to keep hidden what happens to her. you can figure it out just like Haruna.

And finally, the bane of my existence on this show, the one woman who should be mutilated, beheaded and burned alive, Seraphim (Sera for short)

FUCK THIS BITCH! FUCK HER TO HELL! Screw her sword technique, screw her obligatory sexiness, screw her ninja code, (same clan as Tomonori) and most of all SCREW HER LACK OF CREATIVITY! what do I mean by this? the bitch can’t create proper insults to save her own life. she constantly spends her days calling Ayumu a “piece of shit”. I’m not kidding, that’s all she does when she’s not on the battlefield. It’s not funny. Te art of making professional insults is a skill that must be mastered. It takes years of dedication and anger towards humanity to master this advanced technique. Take Hitagu Senjougahara for example. a professional in this art. The woman has a unholy gift of insulting you in so many ways that it never fails to amuse the viewer. She’s a pro and is loved for this very fact. Sera on the other hand, her insults sound like middle school bullcrap. Only people who haven’t hit puberty yet could find the shit that comes out of her mouth funny. Heck only they can find 95% of this show’s humor funny.

For those who defend her, let me explain something. there’s a reason why the combination of ninja and vampire doesn’t work. Vampires have many skills and abilities similar to ninjas that either equal or surpass a ninja’s. It makes no sense for them to be combined into one class.
Also for those who point at a certain moment involving Sera and Haruna, I reply to you by saying that it doesn’t count because of how pointless that scene was.

Oh and there’s a 3rd one but I’m not going to waste my time mentioning her because I’m far too upset to care.

Ayumu himself is guilty of the following things:
-Repeating the phrase “I’m a zombie” way too many times.
-Having visions of Yuu acting like an imouto that get old pretty fast.
-False advertisement. Yes I know zombie basically means living dead but I’m so used to the classic decayed, rotting and mindless zombie type that I refuse to label Ayumu as such. If you want real anime zombies, check out High School of the Dead.
-Not putting Sera out of my misery.
-Wearing a mahou shoujo uniform and pretending that he’s Ash from the Evil Dead trilogy. HE IS NO ASH! Yes, I admit that if executed correctly, cosplaying males can be funny. This is not one of those times.

To sum up the negative parts: most of the female cast sucks and this show’s comedy is terrible.

I’ve ranted long enough about this show’s negative parts so let’s talk about the good parts.
-The plot. When this show gets serious, it gets serious. Believe me. the 1st half of the show involves a mass killing spree with a mysterious culprit. Much blood is shed and many lives are lost. At the end of the 1st half where the gang finally face off against the killer, expect a really intense and climactic battle with emotions spinning round and round from left to right. Needless to say, it’s worth the wait and having to endure the crappy comedy. The 2nd half also has an interesting premise involving a past mistake/haunting and is resolved acceptably, even though the villain’s an emo turd. I can kind of understand his reasoning, but Zasalamel from the Soul Calibur series, he is not.

-The action scenes range from silly to intense. It all depends on who the gang’s fighting against. There is one thing that pissed me off. this show’s blatant insult of the great Mr. Ed. how could they?! Other than that disgraceful megalo, the other megalo fights were silly but enjoyable. The fight against the killer however, should not be missed. There’s also another battle to look forward to in the 2nd half, which wasn’t as good as the 1st fight, but acceptable nevertheless.

-Eucliwood Hellscythe, aka Yuu: Now this girl’s awesome. She speaks little but is directly to the point. She writes what she wants to say on her notepad and most of the time it’s glorious. also she’s adorable in her armor.  Another cool thing about her is her character development. There’s a very important reason as to why she doesn’t speak, express emotions and wears armor. The show does a great job of building the suspense as to both what kind of necromancer she is, what secrets she holds and what her relationship is with Ayumu and the gang. Kudos to Yuu for being the best character on the show.

Ayumu’s good points: Yes I did say Ayumu was a pain. On the other hand, when Ayumu gets serious he should not be ignored. So he does have his good points, especially when it concerns Yuu. He’s a good kid with positive morals and a sense of justice that’s not over the top and to the point. he’s also pretty good in combat with his percentage based physical strength, thus increasing my statement of Ayumu being a vassal rather than a zombie.

The animation is pretty good for the show’s theme. The characters look acceptable and the blood and gore is quite the eye candy for fans of that level of violence. The amount of blood can get over the top during comedy bits but is just right during serious moments.

The music isn’t anything memorable aside from the cool OP.

Update: This show is a complete and utter insult to Ninjas and Vampires alike. Watch this show only out of sheer curiosity and nothing more. Seriously, episode 12 left a horrible taste in my mouth that will take A HECK OF A LOT OF THERAPY to cure.

FINALLY watched the 2 last episodes of the Zombie Show. episode 11 was an acceptable conclusion, but episode 12…no…just…no.
This episode makes me want to curse uncontrollably and go on a hardcore otaku killing spree.

Yes, episode 12 was so bad that if any of you on this site support it, I’ll inflict unspeakable pain on all of you. I’m serious. That episode was a complete and utter disgrace to two great legends.
Episode 12 should never be spoken of in public for as long as I live.

Oh, I’m not done. Watching this show more closely, I realized that there is one more thing about it that annoys me to no end, its inconsistency. What I’m saying is that this show has no clue whether it wants to be taken seriously or not. Is it so difficult to establish a constant pace? Expect pointless interruptions during dramatic moments where the interruption itself is so not funny at all…by Haruna. She’s not as hateful as Sera but she’s such a pest that I really could not care less about her feelings.

New conclusion: It was a tolerable show at first, but it has so many flaws in it that led to its inevitable downfall. Watch it ONLY if you can stomach the Twilight level of insult to vampires, ninjas and drama. Yes I still like Yuu, but even she’s not enough to save this show from mediocrity.

P.S.: My thoughts on the Bonus OVA, it sucked too.