Is this a Zombie? – review

Director: Takaomi Kanasaki


First aired: 2011


Contains spoilers


Also known as “Kore wa Zombie Desu ka?”, is this a Zombie is the first season (the second being tagged with “of the dead” at the end of the title). It is essentially a harem series, with fan service, but is quite twisted.

Ayumu in the sun

The basic story centres around Ayumu Aikawa (Junji Majima), a young man who was killed by a serial killer. He was brought back to life by Eucliwood Hellscythe (Midori Tsukimiya) a necromancer. Eu, as she is known, wears armour to contain her magical power and does not speak as her words have a tendency to shape reality. Ayumu is now a zombie, he cannot be killed (and severed parts can reattach) but cannot go out in the sun as it will dry him out.

Cross-dressing monster battle

When out in the local graveyard he meets (explosively) Haruna (Iori Nomizu) a Masō-Shōjo. The Masō-Shōjo are mystical warriors, all female, who have frilly outfits that grant them extra powers. As she fights a megalo (a type of magical monster) her magic is absorbed by Ayumu. She can no longer transform (an attempt to do so leaves her naked) and he is now a Masō-Shōjo, which means cross-dressing in the frilly dress when accessing his new powers.

Seraphim, the vampire

A third character thrust into their lives is Seraphim (Yōko Hikasa) a rather well-endowed vampire-ninja who can sprout batwings and has a katana made out of leaves. She must occasionally feed – we see it once – and anaesthetises the victim/donor with a kiss. Because of this she only feeds from girls as kissing a boy symbolises marriage in the vampire ninja clans. Other vampire ninjas we meet are Mael Strom (Hisako Kanemoto) and Sarasvati (Aya Gōda). Mael Strom ends up accidentally married to Ayumu.

bite

All in all there isn’t anything overtly vampiric in the series – though the vampire-ninjas are there throughout the series (from episode 2). The first episodes are light – despite the serial killer story line and even that ends up as an excuse for more fan service. At episode nine the series darkened but the core storyline ended in episode 11. Episode 12 and the subsequent OVA (episode 13) were nothing but fan service fluff. All in all it was not the best anime out there but fun enough in places and some strange ideas. 5.5 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.