Story (6.31/10): The story of the Kore wa Zombie is well...complicated. After being revived after his unfortunate demise, Aikawa Ayumu becomes a zombie thanks to Eucliwood Hellscythe, a silent necromancer from the underworld, he becomes very active in finding out who is the one that ended his life. For the first season, that becomes the series's "main" plot. For the second season, well, there's not really very much of a plot.
Kore wa zombie is a series that is a whole lot of something, with a whole lot of nothing. To be more exact, the series tries to accomplish a lot while at the same time, really accomplishing nothing. The story of the series essentially boils down to a bunch of random side stories trying to create a cohesive overarching plot. While side stories aren't necessarily a bad thing in anime, as they can create some rather interesting and funny sows to watch, trying to create a good story out of side stories that pose little to no relation to each other is a rather bad idea for a plot idea. It's because of this that the story suffers a huge downfall, as the confusion over what you should pay attention to, and what you can dismiss as an act of fanservice or something that serves little to no importance to the story is quite ambiguous and hard to find.
Another thing the series fails to do is proper pacing. The series as a whole has many scenes and plot points that feels quite rushed and above all, unexplained. Since the series I felt was trying to create something of a plot in certain aspects of it, many of its "story" elements felt very incomplete and open ended, leaving me a show that I felt could've done without it.
Now I know that this show is a fluff show. It wasn't trying to have a plot, rather, trying to establish its own set of gags and memorable moments, and things that would make the show unique apart from anything else. And for that, it succeeded very well. But, I can't stop thinking on how the show tried to create something that resembled a plot towards the end, which for me, was something bad that the show did.
Overview:
+ Good fluff show
+ Unique and interesting gags.
- Attempted to create an "overarching plot"
Characters (7.68/10): While the story of the show was less than average, the characters of the series certainly make it up tenfold.
Aikawa Ayumu. As the main protagonist of the series, Ayumu is more or less the least interesting character in the entire cast of characters, who, for some reason, has a harem of girls following him around wherever he goes. More or less your generic main protagonist that is nice to everyone he meets, the only real defining characteristic I can find from him is the fact that he is a zombie. Aside from that, there's nothing really extraordinary that I can find in his character.
As for the rest of the cast, the majority of them come back as returning cast, with a few extra additions that come to create a supporting role. For the most part, the rest of the main cast features Seraphim, Eucliwood, and Haruna, a vampire ninja, a necromancer, and a masou shoujo respectively. While their titles are quite intriguing, their personalities are even more so. Each one of them has quite a memorable personality that each makes them interesting in their own right. While the story lacked in any real substance to leave a lasting impression, the characters certainly made up for that.
As for side characters, we have a few interesting new additions to the cast. While many of them return with little to no change in their personality, the new ones also leave their own mark in the series that in the end, adds to the show.
Overview:
+ Great, memorable characters
+ Little to no change for characters
+ Good supporting cast
Art and Sound (7.68/10 and 7.01/10): The art of the series is a rather nice touch that adds to the show. The show has a very distinct, somewhat moe look to it that utilizes a very bright color gradient. It adds to the show's overall feel of it by giving it a rather bright sort of feel, whilst doing a rather dark feel by giving it a darker background in the more "serious" parts of the show. Overall, the art compliments the show well, but it still does have its jarring animation moments that can leave a lasting impression due to how different they are compared to the normal animation.
The soundtrack of the series is an interesting group of tunes. While I personally feel that both the opening and ending song of the show has a very unique and interesting sound to it, they never felt like really memorable tracks as they didn't have that certain sound or part to the song that stood out. While yes, they were tracks that had a unique tone to it, they weren't songs that I felt were worth listening to over and over again like other anime tracks.
Overview:
+ Good looking character designs
+ Bright, colorful characters
+/- Unmemorable music
Personal enjoyment (6.41/10): Fluff shows are a medium of anime that I for the most part, enjoy very much. They don't require much thinking to watch, and there are very simple plots in which really anyone can follow. Kore wa zombie compared to other fluff shows, gave me a little bit more to think about.
Personally, I didn't particularly enjoy this show. While there were things in the show that I oddly found funny and laughed at, (such as the crossdressing), I never really liked the show. (It's one of those unexplainable dislikes.) On a more technical side of the show, the show fails to focus purely on a main overarching plot or a bunch of side stories, which I felt was really one of the shows major downfalls. The characters on the other hand were delightfully enjoyable and the art was rather nice looking.
If you're a fan of fluff shows and...odd and unique gags, this show is certainly a watch that I would recommend watching. While I personally didn't like this show, it doesn't necessarily mean it's bad, as there may be parts about the show that you may like. (For me, it's the previews at the end of each episode featuring the imaginary Eu's with original Eu.)
Overall Score: (7.22/10)
