I recently ran out of good shows to talk about especially with my recent obsession with The Future Diary or as I’ve come to know and call it Mirai Nikki. Because of this I started taking recommendations from Hulu on what I should try next and low and behold Is This a Zombie came up. To be honest… I had no idea what the show was called until the really awkward opening scene. The gist is that a high school boy has been turned into a Zombie by a necromancer. He was killed by a serial killer stalking his neighborhood and now he’s on a quest of vengeance. Too bad he runs into countless female distractions along the way that constantly make him forget his quest. Mix in the fact that he’s still going to school and that no one knows he’s a zombie and hijinks ensue. The necromancer that raised him from the dead begins living at his house and only communicates by writing on paper. She doesn’t do anything for herself and basically sits and mopes all day. The main character Ayumu then runs into a Magic Garment Girl (think Sailor Moon with a chainsaw), Haruna fighting a big fucking bear in the cemetery. She very comically cuts him in half to get to the bear thinking that he’s already dead. Being that he’s a zombie… he’s not. For whatever reason (I’m probably not far along enough in the show to know), Ayumu inadvertently steals Haruna’s Magic Garment Girl powers which means he's now wearing female clothing and holding a chainsaw.
Because of the whole power stealing thing and Haruna being unable to return to her magical land, she ends up living with Ayumu. At this point you should ask where the fuck this kid’s parents are. Well they travel… and buy stuff and send it back to him. Basically whatever made up reason they needed to have him live on his own and could add female after female to the house. The second episode sees the addition of a Vampire Ninja named Seraphim. She’s the typical big boobs character and basically treats Ayumu like utter and total shit.
I enjoyed the show. It was mindless and everything it is doing is typical. I like the character of Ayumu because he’s only randomly perverted and he keeps it to himself… even then it’s pretty timid too. I don’t think that he’s really passionate about finding his killer; I think that was just the catalyst to make him a zombie. He’s the average guy with no special traits that everyone ends up really caring about because he’s the focus of the story character type... and it works. Because of that I also enjoy the countless embarrassing situations that he’s put in.
Is this the greatest show I’ve watched? No, but it’s pretty new and the entire first season is on Hulu and Crunchroll so you can check that out. The second season is set to air next month in Japan and hopefully Hulu picks it up the way they did with Guilty Crown and The Future Diary and air it just after its Japanese premiere. I’m not expecting this show to blow my mind anytime soon and it’ll probably follow the same story path as a hundred other properties, but it’s very entertaining and pretty mindless. I don’t expect a heavy ass story like with my previous picks and that’s okay for right now. If you’re interested then check it out.
Score: 3/5