Is This A Zombie? DVD Complete Series This harem anime was in the whispers of Anime Expo last year under the LOUD noises of X Games next door. AX needs to make a deal with them over double attendance. Is This A Zombie? whispers will soon be screams with its dubbed release from Funimation. Funimation can't pass up on any harem anime and this takes the playbook from Tenchi.
Is This A Zombie? is a story heard many times over in anime of a young man being in the wrong place at the wrong time and getting strange powers or being "the one" with a bevy of beautiful girls after him. This series eats dark humor for lunch and poops out cupcakes. How does it do that? How about the main character having to cross dress to save the day while he fantasizes about a cute girl saying naughty things to him while he beats up talking animals in school uniforms. As always, Thanks Japan.
This anime follows the resurrected Ayumu Aikawa. I guess zombies greatly differ in Japanese and American culture, because Ayumu doesn't crave brains, but most likely boobs. Being resurrected gives him super human strength and a weakness towards sunlight. He is essentially immortal and regenerates even when blown up. So he's more of a vampire than a zombie to me. He of course fights off bad monsters with his new powers in his city.
Who are the girls in his harem? They each get introduced along the way with their own special powers, but let's start with the Necromancer, someone who can bring back or control the dead, Eucliwood Hellscythe. She's always wearing armor, but it seems people think she's just cosplaying. She's also a resident of Hell whose so powerful monsters come after her after sensing her power Next we have the magical garment girl, Haruna. A vampire ninja who uses leaves as a sword would be Seraphim and she's no angel. There's the weaponized ramen slinging vampire ninja of a different clan Yuki Yoshida too. They all love Ayumu for their reasons and all of them have their quirks more than just their video game like titles.
Oh, tell me that again, but in a cute sexy voice! You see the Necromancer Eucliwood Hellscythe can't speak. Her words are so powerful she can kill someone with the utterance of a single world. She usually jots down info on a notepad. So Ayumu's young prepubescent mind imagines what she says all the time. What she has to say is pure sexual innuendo about food, baths and getting naked. At any moment the Necromancer could be saying things you want to hear. Now I'm uncertain if the original show did this, but Funimation has it's collection of female voice actors saying the lines for Eucliwood. That means you're getting all the voice actresses from your favorite animes saying some very nasty stuff. Random naughty lines with kinky scenes inside Ayumu's mind will be replayed if you're not laughing at the reversioned script's bed side manner chatter.
Winning! is what the reversioned script is saying and pops out of Haruna's mouth in an episode. Funimation sometimes makes our breaks the series with their reversion dubs, but they keep "Is This A Zombie?" fresh with dirty dialogue to pop quips one of which is Charlie Sheen's "Winning". Talking animals known as Megalos are your villain of the week characters. Just put an insect or an animal in a school uniform and have them saying some stuff you might here in a hentai and you have them down. One horny horse made my sides hurt more than let's say X-ray radiation slowly killing me focused in the same location.
Not much needed to be changed as the characters and animation already depicts a world filled with pain and love, but mostly pain for Ayumu. Ayumu's worst problem might be cross-dressing to save the day. Ayumu must suffer through magical transformation in a pretty dress to wield a magical chainsaw that's so powerful it can change the world around it in more ways than cutting through monsters. This and the scenes of monsters acting pervy and plenty of fan service make there way through every episode. Lot of blood too.
Ayumu somehow accidentally stole the power of magical garment wearing from Haruna, who will know live with him and also comes from a magical garment girl world with a teachers who cares for over a million students. Even though Haruna is a self-proclaiming genius she can't seem to figure out how to get her powers back. She also has her clothes stolen often.
Luckily, she's not alone a Seraphim plays the mean girl who constantly calls Ayumu a maggot, but is only staying for Eucliwood Hellscythe. Later, we have Yuki whose more of a tomboy going after Ayumu as a husband after a misguided vampire ninja mating act. She can also beat up high school clothes wearing animals with noodles.
When it comes to story really anything could have been the motivation to get these people together. The first arc is about finding the person who originally killed Ayumu. The second about who was pulling the strings behind his death and a past relationship of Eucliwood. It didn't really matter to me. The shows fun comes through the sitcom situations that play out with Ayumu having cute girls living at his place and sometimes bother him at school.The first episode set the tone as being ultra violent and silly when a Megalos that looked like Pedo Bear gets chainsawed and so does poor Ayumu by Haruna. Episode 12 which is the anticipated "swimming pool episode" also crams in an idol concert. It was one of my favorite as no big bad guys were present, but the show's characters were just off trying to win an idol competition. The bikinis didn't hurt.
I have no doubt Funimation will release the second season later on. A harem anime with a cross-dressing zombie hero, how could Funimation not want more?
Kudos on the box art, pink shiny chainsaws haven't gone out of style even after Lollipop Chainsaw went away. Careful finding the series, the day this was published the series was sold-out on Amazon, but was in stock other places online.
The DVD's were provided by the publisher for review
