Maid of the Dead

From the director of Shitcom, comes another claymation masterpiece! This time the revolutionary and brilliant Mr. Takena Nagao brings us his take on Romero's Dead series. The ridiculous amount of blood and poor clay animation reminds me of Celebrity Deathmatch, which aired on MTV back in the 1990s. My fond nostalgia for that stupid show probably explains my softer criticism of this title vs. Shitcom.

One day inside a Tokyo maid cafe...ZOMBIES ATTACK! The maids then fight zombies in a 3 minute sketch comedy. There really isn't much to say here, although I enjoyed the clear homage to Day of the Dead with the infamous "Choke on em" scene.

This was short, stupid, but ultimately harmless. Hell, I actually enjoyed this piece of shit more than Highschool of the Dead, so there are worse zombie anime than this!

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Thanks to MAL I was able to discover this Youtube channel called Takena. Takena makes all these short claymation videos that are usually quite gory, including Maid of the Dead (don't watch it if you have a weak stomach)

This claymation short had some good animation and good looking blood/gore too. There's not much to say about it other then the story. A guy goes to a maid cafe, a maid gets bitten by a zombie, and it all goes downhill from there. Just watch it and you'll see what I mean.

We all have those moments where an idea conjured up was considered an amusing thought that passes by in your head due to boredom. But, for one to go the extra mile towards manifesting that said product of mental boredom into short claymation cinema with the mind of independent animator, Takena. An eccentric claymation animator with a facinating resume with works such as "Bloody Date", "Pinky" and his most notable work, "Chainsaw Maid", Takena was one of the pioneers of horror shorts in the early years of YouTube. But as history and basic human nature reminds us, anyone is bound to run into some missteps.

Story: Very basic premise as the title aptly states: Maid cafe, ketchup drawings, zombies. Possible hidden meanings concerning social alienation but, that would be reaching too much for any conclusive thoughts.

Art: Use of colors is alarmingly bright and highly oversaturated, coupled with the bright palette of the blood. Could lead to minor sensory overload, beware. One could say it's meant to give the feeling of curiosity leading to embarrassment or lack of shame visiting a maid cafe. Character designs are typical for a Takena animation, not much to go by. In tradition of zombies and this particular artist, the gore delivers a simple but, satisfying display of guts and red stuff made into meals enough to please any gorehound around. Those omelettes don't look too bad as well, yum.

Sound: The Cooking Mama-esque tune in the beginning juxtaposing with a menacing synth score coupled with the use of drums slightly enhances the action to prevent you from dosing off into lucidity as you hear the familiar splats and squishes during the expected carnage.

Characters: Just blank shapes meant to be eaten or to 'survive'. No voice acting, only means of communication consist of a single speech box used in silent films centuries ago before sound was developed for cinema as we know it.

If you're looking for a short with good gore, doesn't take itself seriously at all or simply crave for more claymation hijinks, you can do worse. Overall, it pales in comparison to other works Takena has developed in regards to the undead, the macabre and black comedy. It's safer to make and eat omelettes at home anyway.

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This anime was hard for me to give a fair review for. I settled on 4. Note i am not a horror buff, i do have a weak stomach one could say but i would give it a higher ranking if it met my beliefs like a 8-10 if i was terrified the next day, for example.

Pros and cons

Pros
The reason why it was titled was answered... Better clay animation then i could ever do but let it be known i have never attempted clay animation.

Cons
-the titled ruin the small surprise.
- not much of an intro
- character development sub-par at best
-not the slightest bit happy with the english title... doesn't it seem like an incomplete sentence to you? Sticking with the same words i think it would have been better with: dead maid,Dead made maid(yes, this does seem a bit wonky but i found it funny)... well you get the idea.

in a sentence for a review: I bet this will make you rethink clay!

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In terms of pure aesthetic draw, every anime in my extensive viewing history pales in comparison to the animation of MAID OF THE DEAD. The characters are near indistinguishable from actual human beings, drawing the viewer into a story that highlights the multiplicity of the human psyche. The creator, Takane, uses flawless word choice to draw out the potential of every character, making each character stand out in their own unique way. Takane also uses countless symbols to communicate the themes that strongly emanate from this piece of animated perfection. The deep red of the ketchup matching with the blood of the customer creates a wonderful juxtaposition that every fan of symbolic analysis would acknowledge to be superb. MAID OF THE DEAD also uses the color yellow as a backdrop color due to its dual meaning. Yellow represents hope and optimism to most but can also mean cowardice and fear. Both of these are fitting themes to the story but the main character fights against them once he takes center stage. Despite the absurd setting the main character remains unsettled at the events that have transpired he insists on receiving his ketchup drawing, uttering the single most heroic line, a line I will never forget, a line i'm seriously considering getting a tattoo of, "Ketchup drawing, please." In the face of certain doom this man/boy/child/whatever looks beyond mere appearances. He does not see the maids as undead ghouls, but rather humans with a job they must do. This beautiful gesture is shot down in a twist that I could never have predicted as the two maids knock him down and feast on his innards, finally giving his omelette rice a drawing. 10/10

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Literally I lost my three minutes of my quarantine life watching this stupid animated clay short like it only just takes place in a childlike Maid Cafe setting and a random zombie comes out of nowhere to cause disruption by infection any clay figure he can get!

Seeing the blood and guts on this short, it's like I'm watching tons of roses and thin wrapping paper coming out of each clay figurines body in this. Basically it's real scary guys....sure...

Also I don't understand the point of the zombies puking on one of the maids and then she suddenly turns zombie herself. How was that even possible??? So zombie boi is basically a squid since the vomit was black but not green? Wtf man...

My mind is going crazy right now with this pointless comedy horror sketch like honestly, WHAT WAS I BLOOMING WATCHING HERE?!?!?!?!

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