Ranked #739

Kore wa Zombie Desu ka?

Maybe it’s because I’m getting old and senile, but it seems that the more anime I watch, the less sense they seem to make. You could imagine my confusion when I started watching Kore wa Zombie Desu ka? "Why is the zombie weak to sunlight but not the vampire? Why the hell is he in a pink frilly dress? Why is that monster a giant lobster?" In exasperation, I put these questions to a good friend, and I found that his reply turn out to be a very apt one-sentence summary for my review.

He said to me: "I dunno lol, who cares? It's fucking hilarious!"

Everything in Kore wa Zombie Desu ka, from story to character to humor, is based on complete outrageousness. I hesitate to call Kore wa Zombie~ an original anime, because it's seems that Kore wa Zombie~'s idea of originality is to take as many ideas as possible, exaggerate them to the absolute maximum limit of the imagination, and then cram them together into a single, epic anime.

So exactly is it that I mean when I say outrageousness? Let's pretend that there are 2 'idea guys' who started working on the story for this, whom I will dub them Jim and Bob. (Warning, minor spoilers)

"Here's an idea!" says Jim. "Let's make the main protagonist a zombie."

"Great idea!" replies Bob. "We'll have an utterly immortal zombie who constantly gets humorously dismembered, baked like a potato chip when he stands in the sun, and receives magical powers that turns him into a pink cross-dressing/chainsaw wielding mas(h)ou shoujo(nen)."

"Awesome," nods Jim with approval, "and since this is a harem, we need at least one tsundere character."

"Of course," replies Bob again, "we'll have a pseudo-sadistic tsun~ ninja girl with a ridiculously named fighting technique that uses cellulose (leaves), cooks up acid pots, and plays the violin in a maid orchestra."

"Let's make her a vampire as well." adds Jim.

"Why the heck not," laughs Bob, giving Jim a high-five.

... and you get the idea.

What is most surprising about Kore wa Zombie~ despite having so many wild concepts crammed in, it somehow still manages to tie it all into a very neat comical package. Normally you'd expect something so slapstick-heavy to comprise it's plot and characters, but Kore wa Zombie~ manages to seamlessly incorporate all it's content into an (almost) coherent and flowing story.

The characters in Kore wa Zombie~ are all, well, ridiculous. I mean one of them literally has like, 10 different voice actors. And she doesn't talk! (try getting your head around that one). Needless to say, all the characters are very 'interesting' and their backstories relatively well thought out and presented. There is the exception of the protagonist's human friend cuz, he's well... y'know, normal. Kore wa Zombie~ is a harem of course, so there is the usual male lead and his entourage of female companions. What is great though is that unlike many harem (to Love-Ru for instance) that focuses on the protagonist's perverse interactions with the females, Kore wa Zombie~ instead chooses to emphasize building the relationship between the male lead and his companions, which I thought was a nice change of pace.

I wouldn't exactly call Kore wa Zombie's story solid, the plot itself isn't exactly complex; there are various backstories which were left untouched and minor plot hole issues. As far as harem-type story goes however, Kore wa Zombie's plot is definitely up there in with the rest. The interesting aspect of Kore wa Zombie~'s story isn't WHAT is happening, but HOW it's happening, and I found that with Kore wa Zombie~’s almost surrealistic approach, I was caring about the actual plot a lot less that I normally would have, because I was too distracted that ridiculously hilarious thing that just happened.

Another thing is the art. While Kore wa Kore~'s animation quality is nothing too spectacular, the action scenes are unique in that they contain a very interesting combination of a dark tone, spectacle, gore, and an excess of pink. Yeah don't think too hard on that one. The OP is also surprisingly well done, and it almost makes me sad that they couldn't maintain the same level of quality throughout the entire episode.

The only gripe I have with this anime is due to it's comical nature, there are various moments when supposedly serious scenes are ruined because they took the humor a little bit too far. To give one example (spoiler alert), in the final moments of the main antagonist's death, as he lies dying in the arms of his necromancer, he looks into her eyes in a touching scene, and he says:

"If I die, make me a penguin."

Hahaha... No wait. Seriously?

This really isn't a major issue, but I was disappointed in the show slight deficiency in real consequential, solemn scenes which didn't involve some sort of joke tacked on the end. It made the anime feel a little bit one sided and narrow, and prevented me from giving it a higher score. One thing to mention though. They actually bothered air another episode after the 'big climatic battle'. I literally can't count the number of times I've watched anime that seemed to think that a 3 minute epilogue was sufficient in ending the story after the big boss goes down. Kore wa Zombie~ actually took the effort to give some rarely found closure to the story. Thank god.

Kore wa Zombie~ is a rather unique anime, perhaps something you'd expect if you crossed J.C. Staff with SHAFT. It definitely won't win any awards and it's not exactly thought provoking, but it easily makes up for it in sheer ridiculousness and outrage. So why should you watch Kore wa Zombie desu ka?

I dunno lol, who cares? It's fucking hilarious! read more

Is everything really better with zombies?

Given the recent surge in stories involving the shambling undead it's pretty obvious that there are people out there who believe that they can improve any form of entertainment, so much so that at times it seems as though the world is already in the midst of a zombie apocalypse. Tales of creatures that wander aimlessly, groan a lot, and have the annoying habit of eating people while they're still alive are rife in movies and games (although I tend to class Resident Evil as more of a playable soap opera with added undead), but that's only the tip of the iceberg. Zombies are now appearing on prime time TV (The Walking Dead), and even literary works have fallen foul of them (Pride & Prejudice & Zombies).

Of course, anime and manga are no strangers to stories of the undead, and while there are some interesting takes on the theme (and before you ask, no, the adolescent wet dream that is Highschool Of The Dead isn't one of them), the majority of titles on offer follow the George A. Romero method and offer up a healthy dose of body shock. While there are stories like Zombie Loan that try to do things differently, these are often lacklustre affairs that are more drama than actual horror.

And then there are shows like Kore wa Zombie Desu ka (Is This A Zombie)?

Originally a popular light novel series by Kimura Shinichi (which has also spawned three different manga that are set in the world of the story), the anime adaptation follows the life of Ayumu Aikawa, a highschool student who was murdered by a serial killer. He was quickly resurrected as a zombie by the necromancer Eucliwood Hellscythe, and since that time he has tried to make the best of a bad situation. His life now consists of everyday mundanity (barring an inability to tolerate the sun and avoiding fire hazards), as he lives in relative peace with his silent saviour, but all that changes when he meets the young, chainsaw wielding masou shoujo in training called Haruna (and no, that's not a spelling mistake).

After that his life takes a turn for the worse.

Okay, it all sounds pretty intriguing, but that's as far as it goes. The plot features some interesting tokens that work well with one or more of the themes in KoreZom, but the series composition has been poorly executed, so much so that viewers may find themselves wondering if there's any point to the show. The main problem is that there's simply too much going on, and because of this the storyline is so disjointed it can sometimes seem like the narrative is being held together with some glue and a couple of nails, and that's not the worst part.

KoreZom attempts to parody some well known genres, and initially it may manage to raise a few laughs with its approach, but this quickly becomes tiresome as the series attempts to turn them into running gags. In addition to this the idea of putting all of the protagonists under one roof has only been done for those stereotypical comedy moments that are amusing to those with more teeth than braincells, which is a shame as there are a few hints of how funny the show could have been. The storyline appears to be desperately trying to reach for ... something, but what it is and how it could be achieved are things that only the producers may know.

Unfortunately the shoddy workmanship continues into the visuals where generic design seems to be the order of the day. Aside from the outfits, KoreZom features some truly unremarkable looking characters, all of whom look like they were copied directly from other harem based shows. That said, Studio DEEN are only partly to blame for this as the main inspiration came from the light novel's illustrations by Kobuichi and Muririn, which is a tad unfortunate as if the rest of the artwork is anything to go by, the series would have been better served with the producers creating everything from scratch. While the scenery and settings may sometimes be generic, they can also be atmospheric and detailed, and there's a variety to the imagery that highlights the difference in creative mentalities. Granted the character design may have been an attempt to support the parodying of specific genres, but that's no excuse for the obvious lack of originality or innovation.

Which brings up the issue of fanservice.

When a show has a transparently weak foundation there are many ways to bolster the viewer's opinion of it, but the one that takes the least effort follows the simple ethos that "sex sells". Now somebody on the production team obviously realised very early on that KoreZom was a shaky proposition so not only is the fanservice aggressively blatant, it often feels more like a slap in the face.

I mean seriously, is there any need for all those close ups during the fights? This is supposed to be a comedy, not Ikkitousen or Queen's Blade.

Aside from the background imagery, the only other good point about the visuals is the animation, most of which is of a decent standard. There are a few blips here and there, some of which are purposeful to highlight certain comedic aspects while others simply slipped through the net, but these can be forgiven in light of the major problems this series has.

The opening sequence features a rather dramatic array of imagery depicting the main characters in various "thoughtful" poses before adding some action sequences to highlight their combat skills, all set to the song Leave-It-To-Me-Tonight by Nomizu Iori. Unlike the OP, the ending sequence is more true to the predominantly humourous tone of the series, and features the track Realize, Mr. Zombie, I Am Your Classmate by Rie Yamaguchi and Manzo. As for the background music, KoreZom has a nice variety of well choreographed accompaniments, but the truth is that a few of them are unnecessary as they don't really add much to the scene and seem like nothing more than another support for a weak storyline.

Surprisingly, especially given all of the production issues, the acting is actually pretty decent. The script is fairly mediocre as it follows an age old comedy format (so repetitive phrases abound), which isn't really the best thing for the serious moments in the show as it can be difficult to make the mental switch between humour and action - and this shows in several places. Thankfully the seiyuu are on hand to save the day, so what could have been very flat comedy routines gain some life and the more emotive scenes are provided with much needed personality. Unfortunately the actors are only human, so even though they do their best with the script, there's simply not enough viable content to support or develop their roles.

Now given that KoreZom is supposed to be a parody of sorts it should be the case that characterisation is all that's needed to make the series work, so it's a little disappointing that the characters are nothing more than shallow copies based upon one or more archetypes that are generally found in harem romantic comedies. Aikawa is the typical clueless lead male with few future prospects who is suddenly surrounded by females who apparently like necrophilia (he's a zombie, remember?), and after his introduction viewers can engage in a spot of ornithology (bird watching).

Oh look! There's the Greater Spotted Tsundere Loli, and over there is the Large Breasted Warrior trying not to look embarrassed, and in front of the TV you can see the Silver Haired Silent Warbler waiting to be entertained.

Yes, KoreZom has a wealth of common character types that will keep any harem junkie entertained for five minutes, and the best thing about all of them is that viewers will never once believe that they could ever be real, so feeble is their characterisation and development.

So is there actually anything good about this series?

Well ... actually there are a few bits worthy of praise, and if one discounts the generally banal and inane humour then KoreZom has a few morsels to offer. There are some genuinely funny moments that are both surprising and well executed, and the while the initial parody of the mahou shouko genre is pretty bog standard, the second one actually refutes the idea that Puella Magi Madoka★Magica was in any way genre breaking.

Unfortunately the comedy can only carry the show so far, and the simple fact is that KoreZom simply doesn't know what it's supposed to be, so it winds up being nothing in particular. It's a shame really as the seeds are there for this to have been either an interesting supernatural tale, or a very good parody (if one removes the unnecessary fanservice), and it's nice to see a different take on zombies once again.

The sad fact is that the traditional zombie is now almost extinct in entertainment media, and those that remain are treated as rare relics of the original belief that a person could be magically raised from the dead in order to complete tasks like carrying the shopping, painting the house, etc, etc. These old style zombies from West Africa and Haiti are usually a far cry from the modern take, often being better groomed, able to speak, and capable of following simple orders.

Actually, they sound a lot like husbands. read more