That’s it. With this I’m done giving these generic looking moe shows a benefit of doubt. Kore wa Zombie Desu ka is not as bad as Dragon Crisis. In fact, it has a few parts that are actually good, especially in its first half. It lead me to believe that, in fact, we might get a very enjoyable fanservice show here. Unfortunately though, this show then proceeded to run all of my hopes into the ground.
Let me start with the good stuff: this show is quite creative when it wants to be. When it wants to, it can use its cliched ingredients, insert some good chemistry between the characters, throw in some crazy plot twists and create an excellent tension. There really are a few excellent episodes in this series, especially the first and the one about the slasher. It’s just that there’s just so much crap in the rest of this show.
Zombie is at its best when the chemistry around its characters is dynamic. It’s got well written banter that works well with its nonchalant zombie main character. It’s quite enjoyable when it doesn’t take its own cliches seriously and instead tries to put them into a creative scenario. Most of the time though, it just forgets this and devolves into dull moe hi-jinks. Eventually, it just gives up trying to be interesting and just opts for lazy slice of life that’s just there to fill up time. The characters in this show are nowhere near well written enough to remain enjoyable when they’re not funny.
The big nail in this one’s coffin though is that it has no bloody clue how to tell a good story. The drama in the first half can actually get quite good when the show still is a collection of random episodes about the important characters, but it completely falls apart when it tries to build up for some overall storyline. The drama gets incredibly cheesy, and the worst part is that the creators don’t even realize this, so they just keep stretching the cheese ad nauseum.
The entire second half of this series is based around complete stupidity from one character that ends with one heck of a Deus ex Machina (several of them, actually). And then, when the climax is over and you thought that things couldn’t get any worse… episode 12 will destroy any good memories that were still left with one giant middle finger to both its audience and cast of characters.
Studio Deen. Please put some people who can actually tell a story on your next series. I mean, you’ve showed in the past that you can make genuinely good moe shows with Touka Gettan and YamiBoushi. Why so much laziness?
| Storytelling: | 7/10 – When it wants to, it can be very enjoyable and dynamic, but this doesn’t happen often enough and gets ruined by some terrible episodes and drama. |
| Characters: | 6/10 – Try to be serious, but fail. Try to be enjoyable, but fail as well. Only when they try to be themselves they work well. |
| Production-Values: | 8/10 – Pretty decent animation. Certainly not the worst. |
| Setting: | 7/10 – Has nice ideas, but doesn’t use them often enough. |
Suggestions:
– Touka Gettan
– Higurashi no Naku Koro ni
– Yami to Boushi to Hon no Tabibito
Are you gay ? Okey, the drama bits where horrible, but the last episode destroying any good memories ? WHAT ??
well, i thought Zombie was quite fun.
but is the original material (novel) supposed to be in this way? else we cant really blame DEEN if they were to adapt this *cough*faithfully*cough*
This really was a love it or hate it show, myself being in the former catagory.
Nice review, also if, i’d say all the best apply only to the very first episode. It was a free fall down to hell soon after that. Last episode could have been shown how this would’ve actually have been a nice humour fanservice party, but yet it failed also that. What a shame.
Actually, Dragon Crisis wasn’t worse than this, it just kept being poor from start to finish. Korezombie just deserved its own 55 too 😛
i wouldnt give it 55. it had its interesting moments…. I think
I can’t agree pgsels. I really think the score should be at least 5 points higher just for being that crazy and still making sense in it’s own weird way in the first place.
We all know that pgsels subtracts at least 10 points if there is a panty-shot, and adds at least 10 points for childish, metrosexual, and western content :p
As for the second half, the problem was that they compressed two novels into 5 episodes, instead of one during the first 6 episodes. That alone made all the directing, pacing, and transitioning problems even prevalent than in the first part. Finally, obviously a lot of reviewers will hate the episode, but better that than make another failed attempt in adapting the source material.
By the way, the suggestions are really weird? the only thing similar to those shows and KoreZon is the animation studio that the adaption. You’re better of with Ichiban Ushiro no Daimaou, Sora no Otoshimono, Asobi ni iku yo for shows that do have a plot, but never make the mistake of taking themselves too seriously… unfortunately, like KoreZon, they fail to adapt their sources properly since it is very hard to balance comedy with drama, but are decent efforts.
I loved this show…i’m really going to miss it
lots of things were all over the place in this anime.
I think this show deserves a 6/10. Psgels was just so generous.
Zombie has probably been my biggest guilty pleasure of the season. I’m more than ready to acknowledge its laundry list of faults, but stuff like the banter, and trying to make Yuu tougher to read in the harem mix by keeping her mute and expressionless were interesting. Episode 12 didn’t really bother me since Ep. 11 pretty much telegraphed what to expect, so I just looked at it as a fan service bonus for those interested in that stuff. The series proper was enjoyable enough when I turned off my brain and just enjoyed the ride, faults and all.
@Makut: What’s metrosexual? :O And did really Sora no Otoshimono have plot?
I can buy that Korezombie was still another failed adaptation. I heard the novels are much better before elsewhere, but I can’t yet excuse how poorly this was directed. From episode 3 till 11 drama was really poor and cheesy. I also heard that other evil zombie was a anime only char, so I wonder if it was just another poor attempt at fabricating cheesy drama. (waiting confirmation about it)
Once the ‘dramatic’ arc was over I longed to see how Korezombie would turn out as a meaningless fanservice show, but the last episode was terri-bad. So it failed also in fanservice. How poor.
The real issue with Korezombie is they still wanted to stuff too much without setting a proper genre before. They either didn’t want to make it definitely a drama or a comedy or they actually didn’t know how to do it. So they kept spinning like crazy in a poor attempt to deliver both comedy and drama, but they clearly failed. What a pity.
And that’s how you don’t do a dramedy, guys, learn with one of your masters. Sora no Otoshimono was nice, Angel Beats was awesome, but Zombie shows that actually getting to work and reach a good balance between drama and comedy is not an easy task to achieve.
Everyone says “Oh, but the first episode was so awesome, it seemed so original and stuff…”, what about it? I can make up interesting ideas from time to time, that doesn’t make me a genius. On the contrary: a genius can turn a bland idea into an awesome work in the end.
I really liked this show for 2 reasons: I like zombies and it combined drama with comedy, which is really hard to do and I appreciate the effort. The last episode will be released on DVD on June 3rd with the 8th novel. Can’t wait for it!
anyone can give me the song sugao on music sheet thx
I love the very crazy characters here, and its one of my favorite comedy shows, I would rate this higher by at least 5-10 points.
Though its probably personal preference ^^