Anime: Kore wa Zombie Desuka?

Kore was Zombie Desuka is an interestingly sad take of the Harem genre. It goes completely out of its way to deliver maximum ecchi while utterly abusing genre stereotypes. To summarize, our main protagonist is a dead zombie who then happens to gain the ability to transform/crossdress into a magical girl using a chainsaw. The series follows Aikawa as he puts up with more and more girls joining his household.

This is a ecchi-based harem/comedy, though it's the type of comedy where I don't laugh. If you want serious romance, serious development, or well anything serious-based look elsewhere. If you want to watch a cross-dressing guy in a garter belt slash mysterious creatures with a chain saw, while himself being dismembered repeatedly and abused by his tsundere wanna-be girlfriends, then this is for you.

Animation:
Animation quality is fairly average. You have your obligatory cute girls and your over-the-top ecchi scenes. I'm not too hot on the cross-dressing aspect and didn't like the overuse of CGI in certain parts of the show. There are quite a few fight scenes but these aren't finesse fight scenes like you'd see in Rurouni Kenshin or Kurokami; most of these scenes just have Aizawa being chopped to pieces and pretty much making it through just because he's a zombie. Since there's a lot of amputations of the main character, expect quite a bit of blood.

Sound:
The OP is a rock piece that if anything is a bit too dark considering the overall mood of the series. It isn't a bad song but it's pretty forgetful. The ED is much more lighthearted and fits the series' tone perfectly, as well as having a fairly catchy melody. BGMs in the series are pretty forgetful as well.

VAs are fairly average overall, note that the necromancer gets a different VA every time Aizawa imagines her speaking.

Story:
I give the story a bit of credit for the unique premise of a zombie-protagonist. However, they sure decided to take this in a bizarre direction going forwards. The plot line follows traditional harems in introducing girls every few episodes. However, each of these girls is unique and is designed to appeal to a specific niche, be it the quiet, silent girl or the sadistic girl who constantly derides the main character.

Once all the girls are introduced, the story then builds to a climax with a pitifully predictable outcome. This is actually an 11-episode series with two bonus episodes dedicated to pure fan service bolted on after the real plot-wise ending.

This is a very far-out series so expect lots of unanswered questions and some baffling character decisions with little explanation. The story isn't really too bad but there are many better executed stories out there.

Character:
While each character is very distinguishable and unique, they all follow their stereotypes by the book. Snotty magical girl, check. Quiet girl who communicates through writing, check. Sadistic vampire/ninja, check. Tomboyish yet cute wife, check.

As a harem, I expect there to be some jealously/tension between the girls, and for such efforts to result in some sort of romance. These expectations were pretty much not met at all as the series just substitutes this with screens full of fan service. Therefore, character development is pretty weak as the girls just start liking him after living with him.

I did like the twist of the serial killer but unfortunately I just watched Hidan no Aria, which has almost exactly the same twist. There are also a bunch of additional secondary female characters, who also have a crush on zombie Aikawa. I assume this is a handout to light novel / manga readers but for me they were just unnecessary, undeveloped additions.

Value:
The majority of the value for this series is the humor towards the crazy nature of the show in general. The overall plotline is passable but isn't going to win any awards, and the characters are definitely out there but will probably be eclipsed in my mind by better-developed characters in other series. If you're into harems with crazy premises and have a good 5-6 hrs to kill then feel free to try this series. Just know that there are much better harems out there for your time.

Animated by that piece of shit Studio DEEN, which automatically means you will get nothing but mediocre fap material. Directed by Kanasaki Takaomi, who also did a season of School Rumble and Macademi Wasshoi. Clearly a guy who does only goofy storyless shows and indeed that is all you get.

This is a comedy/parody of mahou shoujo and superpowers, heavily based on the clichés of series such as Shakugan no Shana or Fate/Stay Night. Past the mockery of the premise which may or may not make you laugh from time to time, it is otherwise a done-on-the-run farce with bold but tired fan service and anime stereotypes that offers nothing beyond a few ephemeral laughs before it is swallowed up by obscurity. The reason is simple; it is a show that can’t stand on its own feet without being a mockery of stereotypes, and just like any anecdote it may be funny only the first time you hear it... or it may not even be funny the first time.

The story begins with the archetypical highschool male being a zombie… and a mahou shoujo at the same time… while being constantly surrounded by half or completely naked girls in a way that resembles fantasy date-sims. Plus, there is gore during the action scenes and it’s done in both comical and interesting way in terms of strategy. I did laugh with the stupidity of this blend in the pilot episode but it would surely not work a second time; the joke will grow old fast if it keeps repeating in a similar fashion.

So I am then watching the second episode which has to do with school lunch quality, home cooking and ninjas… No, make that VAMPIRE NINJAS! It’s making ridiculous combinations of clichés in order to bring a chuckle out, like a lawyer mailman or an archeologist beautician. I laughed for the second time but I also wondered for how long this joke would keep working. But anyways, both these two episodes were different, provided an insight to the setting in a stereotypical albeit nice way. The flashback where the lead meets the necromancer knight cooldere girl (yes, there is one of that too) was actually very touchy and the fact this played out as a silly comedy up to that point made the sad and dramatic feeling of that scene to have a ten-fold emotional effect. The show was great up to then.

But hey, most mediocre series have a few good first episodes before they show their true colors. The rest of the show turns fast, as I predicted, from action/mystery/drama into a mediocre random ecchi/comedy and not even any further attempts at introducing more characters or weird situations manages to bring anything further to the lot. They do occasionally throw in dramatic moments to colorize the characters but all that are quickly lost and ruined by endless tired ero-jokes and slices-of-life moments. The only thing that really changes is the lead’s harem getting bigger and him still being beaten around… and remaining a virgin. There goes the initial feeling of the show. The finale is nothing but retarded ecchi comedy, devoid of any attempt at even trying to be serious or even respectful to the characters’ dignity, thus dropping deep further into mediocrity and boredom and destroying the last chance it had to be something slightly different.

But I will be honest; the show tries somewhat to offer a continual plot and character insight. It is not anything much, it is random/superficial/done-to-death but at least it is not aimless/storyless/randomness all the way. The visuals are good, the BGM is rather cheery, and the characters stereotypical but rather developed and rather colorized further than the normal ecchi comedy out there. Nothing much to deem this a good show but at least it tried. Not hard but it did.