Category: Kore wa Zombie Desu Ka?

oh boy, this was a disaster. It was an episode that was doomed to fail, simply because of the decision of the creators to include the new girl into the cast of major characters. I mean… what exactly do they hope to get out of someone with such a terrible backstory? This episode could at least have been enjoyable if it wasn’t for her utterly contrived reason to fall in love with the lead character. I mean, is she supposed to be another parody or something?

This pretty much was an episode that contained nothig but character building, oly to come with some drama at the final minute. So, after having to sit through some completely generic dating scenes, what do we get? The lead female gets kidnapped. Ooh, we’re original now. Seriously, what happened? The drama in this show used to be so good. Cliches like these could be excused in the introduction of a series, to get the plot started. Not when you’re nearly done!

The only enjoyment in this episode was in the small details, like surprisingly smooth animation, the hilariously named “Mask Donalds”, good poses and facil expressions and the surprisingly good food jokes ehre, even though cooking girls usually are beating the same dead horse over and over again. Like I said: it could have been an interesting episode, but when the creators have such a terrible premise for an episode, what can really be done with it?
Rating: – (Disappointing)

Yes guys. If you gripe and kiss a girl you only met five minutes before, you will totally get away with it and she’ll even fall in love with you. I mean, I know that this episode provided a reason for it but it nevertheless was a really flimsy one that has been used to death by now.

Zombie’s episodes are either great, or boring cliche-fests. This was a clear example of the latter. This episode had some decent chemistry, which prevented it from being a complete disaster, but still the largest part was pretty boring. I mean, in the previous episode I didn’t complain about the fanservice because of the way it was used. This time it was just tasteless, especially when the X-Ray glasses popped up.

Still, this episode did have some good points, like being able to kill Megalos with noodle soup, or the various things that were written on the Tanabata-notes. The math explanations and weird theories about some demonic Santa Claus showing up at Tanabata also were pretty fun. Those were all mere details, though.
Rating: – (Disappointing)

This episode… was something else. Talk about gore here, seriously. This episode was a really intense one thanks to that demented villain who didn’t care at all how much she wrecked her own body. Usually when anime use regenerative powers, it makes the action scenes rather dull, but this really is one exception because the creators still managed to make the gore look really painful.

After all of the build-up, it also was great to see Hellscythe finally use her words. Seriously, the last thing I’d expected this series to be was a good drama, but this show knows exactly how to create a tense atmosphere and use its characters for the best with it.

Now, this episode did introduce what will probably be the major villain of this show… who still needs a ton of work though. He’s quite generic at this point: really evil and brainwashes others to do evil stuff for him. His back-story of being related to Hellscythe could promise to be interesting, but if his character isn’t interesting then that backstory also isn’t worth much.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

As for choosing which Studio Deen series to blog this season, last week sealed the deal for me. What does Dragon Crisis do? A beach episode. What does Zombie do? GIANT FLYIONG WHALE! It’s really a shame for Dragon Crisis: it does have a pretty good execution. It’s just that the story is way too cliched.

Now, I am a fan of Studio Deen: whenever they’re good, they’re really good and whenever they’re imaginative, they’re really imaginative. Obviously that part of them is nowhere to be found in this season, but Zombie is still pretty good. I originally didn’t want to blog it because I’m already blogging two other comedies this season, but episode four showed that this show also delivers in the drama department.

Having said that though, this fifth episode was a step down, partially due to the ridiculous amounts of fanservice in it. The saving grace there was that at least the fanservice was diverse: it was not the same scenario repeated over and over like what most harems do, but the creators like to keep it at least a notch creative.

In the same way, the story is pretty cliched and this episode showed that this show also isn’t the best at combat between human-like creatures (the whale battle last episode was very good, though), but it’s the details here that are surprisingly creative, and the dialogue is surprisingly witty at times. Ayumu is quite likable with his nonchalance. For now, that’s enough to keep me interested, though this show WILL get very annoying if the rest of the episodes are going to be like this one.

In the same way, the drama was decent, but it in its turn did turn Haruna in a typical tsundere. Yes, this show is inconsistent, and I hope that the second half will make good use of this. There are only 12 episodes, after all.
Rating: (Enjoyable)