Gosh, I’ve forgotten how much I love this show. Ok, so it’s pretty dumb. and they’re using the same jokes as last season. But the thing is, Haruna telling Ayumu not to grow any cuter and the Mysteltain kick will never get old. Continue reading Kore wa Zombie Desu Ka of the Dead — First Impression
All too many comedy shows try to end with some half-assed arc involving some serious business and some profound moral lesson, like “believe in your friends.”
Kore wa Zombie Desu ka looked like it was heading down this path. Yuu had been kidnapped, and needed to decide whether to stay with her friends or not.
But then we had a maid orchestra battle a fleet of flying whales in school uniforms. Continue reading Zombie Penguindrum — Eleven Days of Advent and One Day of Christmas #9
This was the episode that wasn’t going to air on TV, so they stuffed it full of the most perverted parts. The subjects of the fanservice were split between Ayumu and his harem about 50/50. The fanservice was a bit much for me, but the episode still had its moments.
They used a lot of the time in this episode to look at two of the side characters, Orito and Taeko. Orito is the usual perverted sidekick, so his segment didn’t add much, but Taeko’s segment (particularly the end) was quite well done. I’m almost rooting for the Taeko ending now. Especially since Eu’s voice was a letdown this episode, and her notes seemed kind of out of character.
Ayumu’s harem also expands by two this episode, with the addition of both Taeko and Sarasvati. I think that Sarasvati is going to expand his misfortunes even more than Sera has, however. The picture below says it all.
A second season has been announced, so we can all look forward to seeing more of how disgusting Ayumu is. As far as I can figure out, a date hasn’t been set yet for the next season.
Kore wa Zombie Desu Ka?! follows the recently deceased Ayumu as he begins life as a zombie, living with Eu, the necromancer who revived him, Haruna, a magical girl, and Sera, a vampire ninja. Ayumu soon absorbs Haruna’s powers and becomes a magical girl himself. Our hero’s party battles fleets of flying whales, crazy women, giant stuffed animals and golems using the power of a magical girl’s chainsaw, leaves, and ramen.
I’ll be the first to admit that most of this show doesn’t make any sense whatsoever. But who cares? Making sense is boring. And Kore wa Zombie Desu Ka is certainly not boring. There were a few episodes in the middle where the show attempted to be serious and make sense (it actually didn’t do too bad, either) but fortunately the creators abandoned this endeavor and went back to the ridiculousness that made the show so much fun to watch in the first place.
One thing which I found that the show does particularly well at is combining the plot (such as it is) with comedy. Anime often have a tendency to focus only on comedy or only on the plot exclusively, and they’ll often end with a “climax” of sorts which is entirely serious and drains all the fun out of the show. Kore wa Zombie Desu Ka?! does an excellent job avoiding this: they even have the main antagonist tell a completely non-sensical joke and relive all the tension right at the peak of the climax.
The characters start out seeming annoying: Haruna has a cheerful, genius-level idiocy and refuses to wear pants; Sera is only capable of cussing; and Tomonori takes the role of the young “wife”. But all of them eventually grew on me as they played more of a role in the show. Harun’s genius became more idiotic, Sera’s disses improved from the initially generic insults to ones more specific to Ayumu and the situation, and Tomonori was sat on by a humongous stuffed animal and transformed into a golem.
Overall, I recommend giving this show a watch if you’re looking for some brainless humor.
Recommendations – Ichiban Ushiro no Daimao
This episode has got to be the stupidest thing I’ve seen in a long time. It was also hilarious. I had low expectations for a trip to the pool, and we got about the level of fanservice I expected. But what I didn’t expect was the four way idol battle. It wasn’t quite as epic as Hingaiku’s Cruel Angel’s Thesis and Hayate’s maid dash, but we’re getting there.
Even Haruna joined in, complete with flamethrower and punk outfit. Then we got Eu too, singing a slower-paced song that was well-offset by Sera and Saraswati’s stupid dancing and Ayumu’s outfit. This is how a fanservice episode should be done: put in some fanservice, fine, but also make it funny (they could have done with less fanservice, but whatever). An episode of nothing but fanservice is merely cringe-worthy, not entertaining. When used occasionally in combination with everything else that makes a show enjoyable, I don’t mind some fanservice.
But the best part of the episode was at the very end, when the King of the Night made his return!
