Ranked #1164

Zombie-Loan

Zombie-Loan has an interesting premise: when you die, if you're chosen, you have a chance to live on, literally, 'loaned time'. You are given life once again, but you have to pay for it. And like any loan, there are stipulations that go along with it.

I will admit, I thought it was great idea for a storyline. However, after watching the anime itself, I realise that it was potential wasted. Which is why the story gets only 8 from me. It has interesting concepts which would have easily merited it a much higher grading, but the execution was flawed.

The art of Zombie-Loan looks good as still-art. Colourful, interesting style with a lot of bishounen and bishoujo prettiness to go around. However, I was seriously disappointed with the animation. A lot of times, it looked as though the animators just used cut-outs of the characters and pasted them over a moving, coloured background--you know, the type of thing that was popular with fighting anime back in the nineties.

If you want a clearer view of what I'm talking about, remember how in Pokemon, Pikachu would launch into the air, yet its limbs didn't move at all, and a bright pink background would flash behind giving the illusion that Pikachu was indeed moving? That's what the animation of Zombie-Loan is like. A lot of poses with only the seiyuus' battlecries and a flashing background to indicate that they weren't frozen in some time space continuum and were actually running/jumping/attacking/alive.

The sound was instantly forgettable. I don't remember anything about it, but I suppose that's better than me remembering it and wincing in pain. The OP theme was all right, though. Unless you're not into J-Rock or death metal-ish music.

We have the regular character set-up: loud-mouthed brash hot-headed boy has to work with the cool, competent, aloof guy while an unexceptional girl with some exterior value tags along. This isn't new. It seemed like they were given the traits of better anime characters; it looked to me that they took Kyo, Tohru and Yuki of Fruits Basket and smashed them together with Zero, Yuki and Kaname of Vampire Knight.

However, they managed to strip away all the charm and intrigue of those character concepts leaving behind shells, which then became the main cast of Zombie-Loan. The only salvation is that we can at least not mind these characters, or some may even like them. (Personally, they were of little consequence.) It may be argued that for such a short series, it is expected that character development be little or none, but I argue that there are anime that were equally short and had amazing character development.

Even with all its shortcomings, I still managed to get through all the episodes of this show. Did I enjoy it? I was amused at times, interested at some points, but there was nothing in the show that made me go 'Ugh' and stop watching it, so that must account for something.

I would recommend Zombie-Loan for those who just want an anime to pass the time with. It is by no means revolutionary, but it is decent enough and it IS the only anime I've seen so far where the zombies are protagonists and they don't actually want to kill/eat people (although there are some major plot holes, such as they mentioned that zombies eat human flesh to live, but how come we don't ever see the zombies in the main cast munching away at people's fingers?? In fact, I've seen them eat potato chips and curry. They don't even address the issue.)

Zombie-Loan is like the fast-food of anime; it's quick, maybe not so good for you, but you'll eat it anyway and maybe even like it. If you come in wanting a full course, you're eating at the wrong restaurant, mate. read more

Story
Quite a unique storyline, much different than most out there. Although the story could have probably developed even more and a lot better if there were more than 11 episodes. That just cut the story too short, which was kinda disappointing.

Art
Personally, I don't like this type of art style that was used in Z-Loan too much. Usually I'd prefer artwork more like that of Death Note. However, I think the art fit this particular series well, however it isn't the best art out there.

Sound
Usually I like loud songs and metal songs, but the opening song was just horrendous. I couldn't stand listening to it. The ending theme was fine though. The background music fit the scenes it was used in well, so they did that good. Nothing else really so say about the music work. It was overall good.

Character
Very good characters. The tension between Chika and Shito was great for the story, especially because no matter what, they were stuck together because of their hands. All of the characters were pretty interesting themselves. Michiru had a good background story. Koyomi was my probably favorite, with her energetic normal self, and then becoming the lesbian Yomi, her alter-ego. Then there's all the others like Yuuta, with her "talking" hands, Bekkou (or ferryman), who's the leader of Z-loan, even though he appears like somebody you wouldn't really expect to be in charge, Chika's father, who looks like a girl, Chika's sister, who does nothing but text message on her phone, Shimotsuki, who's a younger girl, yet a chairsperson, Shiba, who at first appears to be a good guy, and the Shinigami, who becomes a like a small creature after losing his core.
The cast is all very interesting, however, since the series is too short, it didn't allow for too much development, so that's why I give a 8, and not 9.

Enjoyment
Definitely a great series if you're bored one day and just wanna watch a whole series, packed with parts of action, comedy, and horror. I watched it all in one day, since it's only 11 episodes, and I think it's best viewed like that. Very enjoyable series overall, even if it is very short.

Overall
Overall, as you can see, I give it a 7. For reasons I've already explained above. I'm pretty sure an OVA will be coming out, so at least maybe we'll get to see a better ending in that. read more