Review of Zombie-Loan (2007)

Review of Zombie-Loan (2007)

Hey, everyone. It's time for a new review.

It seems that recently the zombie genre has gained a lot of popularity in the media, with shows such as The Walking Dead on TV, and movies like World War Z and Warm Bodies. In addition there are zombie parties, and artists depicting popular celebrities or characters as zombies.

I for one have never been a fan of the zombie subgenre of horror. I do like Shaun of the Dead and Zombieland due to the fact that they are both comedies that include animated corpses. Even with the latter portraying zombies in a more intelligent fashion, the zombies of today resemble the classic types such as Night of the Living Dead. Well, there does seem to be a show that breaks zombie stereotypes, that being the anime series Zombie-Loan.

I first watched Zombie-Loan about five years ago in my college's anime club. I was surprised to see the zombie genre tackled in a different manner. For one, there are different types of zombies: some that have their own will, some that are more intelligent, and some that just haven't died properly and survive on basic animal instinct. Another difference is the fact that two of the main characters who happen to be zombies are well, attractive. Neither of them show any signs of decay, they still have basic human needs (eating and sleeping), and they have their own thoughts and feelings just like any normal human being. In fact, had it not been for them constantly discussing what they are, and their superhuman abilities, it's possible to forget they are the living dead.

Story:

The story of Zombie-Loan is quite creative, at least in terms of the horror genre, specifically zombies. For one, this is a zombie show that's not that scary. There are a few images of "classic zombies" that might frighten anyone who is opposed to that kind of stuff, but for the most part, the story is not focused on scaring the viewer.

The plot follows a shy and easily scared high school girl named Michiru. She is an orphan, who will inherit a large sum of money when she reaches legal age. Due to this her relatives keep her with the promise that they will receive half of the inheritance on that day. Despite this, they still despise having her in their house, and treat her unkindly. In addition her "friends" at school are verbally abusive and seem to enjoy tormenting her, treating her as their servant rather than an equal.

One day when retrieving the snacks during lunch period, she trips over an object that turns out to be Chika's right hand. Therefore she meets Chika and Shito, two teenage boys who are famous for having survived an accident several months back in which everyone else involved died. One of her acquaintances are curious as to why those boys are speaking to Michiru and she snatches Michiru's glasses from her face. In this moment it is revealed that Michiru has a special ability to see rings around a person's neck indicating how close they are to death. Since Chika and Shito both have black rings she believes they are maybe hours from death.

After nightfall Michiru follows the boys into the school cemetery to warn them about their condition. She sees them remove and exchange hands then summon weapons. Michiru then witnesses them kill a zombie dog.

The next day Michiru learns that Chika and Shito are in fact zombies who are borrowing life and will need to repay their loan within a year in order to regain their real lives. They earn the necessary money by hunting down and killing dangerous and/or illegal zombies, afterwards, they guide their souls into the afterlife. The boys believe Michiru's special ability will help them in their quest and decide to include her as a part of the team.

That is all just in the first episode. Right about now this story sounds pretty awesome. To be honest, I thought it was. Episodes one through six intrigued me, especially the plot twists in episodes five and six. Episode seven is pretty much a filler episode, but it was still enjoyable.

However, in episodes eight through eleven the plot took a sharp turn and the story went in a strange direction. I won't say that I found the latter half of Zombie-Loan to be boring, so much as confusing and straying too far from the original premise. What more, the new direction felt rushed, and wasn't fully explored, leaving quite a few unanswered questions. Not to mention there was a major reveal about a certain character that seemed to have come out of nowhere. I also felt that the ending was too abrupt. Perhaps this is better explained in the manga, or would be build upon in a non-existent second season, but as it stands I feel unsatisfied with the second half of the series.

Characters:

The characters in this story are decent, but I feel that only a few of them really stand out.

To begin with there is the main character, Michiru. She is shy and a pushover.  She's okay, but there's nothing that makes her an incredible protagonist, she's actually kind of bland. In one of the last episodes it's revealed that she adores cute things, but other than that not much is given on her likes, dislikes, interests, hobbies, immediate goals, hopes for the future, etc--she's just kind of there. What more she never shows much emotion on her subject of her deceased parents. Other than her special ability to see how close a person is to death, she is shown to have no other talents or ambitions. At the very least she does have some character development halfway through the show. In the first few episodes she is portrayed as easily scared and screams a lot. Of course that is a realistic human reaction to coming across a band of zombies. A little later on she does gather some courage and confidence, mostly when someone she cares about is threatened. Unfortunately, in the last third of the anime she seems to take a back seat to Chika and Shito, who get more screen time and overall attention. While she is not annoying (at least after she stops constantly screaming), she doesn't strike me as being interesting enough to make her a good protagonist.

Next, I'll move onto the two main zombies: Chika and Shito. I'm going to review them together due to the fact they are perfect foils of one another. For one, their appearances significantly contrast. I do think it is clever for the color associated with each character is the negative of the other: Chika's hair and clothing is mostly white while Shito's is primarily black. I won't necessarily say hate, but these two strongly dislike one another, however, due to a mistake they are forced to work together until their debts are paid, or they permanently die. If they spend any substantial amount of time apart, their right hands will rot, making their ability to hunt zombies near impossible. Beyond that while Shito may on the surface appear to be more polite, he is actually cold and distant due to his difficulty trusting others. On the reverse, Chika may come across as rude and complains a lot, but he is actually warmer and friendlier than his partner. I found Chika much easier to like than Shito.

Now onto the supporting characters. My favorite of the cast would have to be Koyomi. She is generally sweet and upbeat. What more, she has a second personality who goes by the name Yomi. Yomi has the ability to recall final moments of a late victim. Also she is proven to be a decent fighter as seen in episode five. She has a crush on Michiru which leads to the team using Michiru to awaken Yomi who prefers to stay dormant. As cool as Koyomi/Yomi may be, unfortunately she gets very little screen time after episode seven.

Among the others there is Bekko, or the Ferryman, who gives life loans to zombies. He wasn't given much time to develop in the anime. However, I'm very interested in learning more about him based on his last scene in episode eleven. There is also Yuuta, another zombie who has the ability to heal wounds. She has a morbid sense of humor, and while she doesn't get much screen time, she is amusing when she is on screen.

The antagonists are underdeveloped in my opinion. I don't know if it is due to the fact that there are so few episodes, and perhaps there is more depth in the manga (this is one manga that I will check out because I want answers to the many lingering questions). Each antagonist may have only two, maybe three if they're lucky, episodes to themselves. I feel that the fights with each antagonist ends too quickly, especially the one revealed in episode six--I felt that one was too anticlimactic. Overall, I feel that they're motives are never clear enough, or they don't make sense. What more I feel unsatisfied with the lack of use of the main villains of the series. They are introduced, have a little dialogue, and then do nothing else.

In short I find some of these characters okay, but other than Koyomi, and Chika for most of the time, I felt they were lacking.

Art:

The art style is decent. I especially like the design of the faces. The pink-haired golem in the last third has one of the most interesting face designs; I also like how much her innocence is displayed through her facial expressions. I also like the design of Michiru. As I mentioned before, the choice of having contrasting color schemes the two male leads is a good one.

For the most part the characters have physical variety. No two characters (well, except for the zombie extras) look alike. The one nitpick I have about character design, is that sometimes with certain angles, Chika's and Shito's bodies look weird. At times their limbs look exaggerated in length, almost out of proportion.

I like the dark, gothic feel of the setting. For instance the dormitory for special cases (such as Michiru, Koyomi, and the zombies) has a haunted house appearance. What more there is a school cemetery right outside that dorm. The same can be said about the abandoned and supposedly haunted inn that they visit for vacation in episode seven. While those designs may seem cliche were it used in a modern horror story, here I feel it adds to the atmosphere.

As for the animation, I have no complaints, but I wasn't blown away by it either. I do like the animation when a soul is released and guided into the afterlife. Also, some of the details of the battle scenes are fun to watch. It flows nicely and nothing looks out of place. However, there is nothing that stuck out as a defining moment of animation.

Music:

I hate the opening and ending songs used in Zombie-Loan. I'm actually a fan of metal and hard rock, and there have been times when that kind of music is an excellent choice ("Guren no Yumiya" in Attack on Titan and "What's Up People?" in Death Note to name two), but the two songs in Zombie-Loan were painful to listen to. I also feel that the songs don't match the tone, or the overall story. While there are plenty of serious  moments, there is also a good bit of comedy. In my opinion the theme songs just don't fit.

Several times during a dramatic moment, or right before a cliffhanger ending to an episode, there would be an ominous choir piece. I like that song and I feel that it's eerie enough to fit the tone of the show. It's also vastly different from any of the other musical pieces in this series, making it stand out above the rest.

As for the remaining score, there's nothing much that stands out. It's not bad, as there's nothing apart from the opening and ending that I felt distracted from the show, it's just average.

Flaws:

I've already discussed a few flaws I found in this series, so I'll just recap my top three.

The first of the main problems I had was that the story starts out promising, but then the plot derails and goes off into a direction that makes it feel that this turn was out of the blue, or made up as it went.

I found less than a handful of the characters interesting enough, that they alone can't carry the weight of anyone else. Then there are some that makes me wonder why were the even included since they aren't properly expanded, or serve no purpose to the overall plot (ex: Chika's family). Had the show had more episodes, and allowed the characters to have further development I might not have this opinion. And again, perhaps the manga has the depth I'm looking for.

Lastly, and most importantly, I am unsatisfied with the ending. It's too abrupt that I don't even have time to feel anything before the curtain falls. There are too many questions I feel that are left unanswered. Perhaps a possible second season or the manga holds these answers, but as it stands, I am left wanting much more at the end of episode eleven.

Conclusion:

Zombie-Loan is an original show that had a lot of potential. It has some good characters, some that were less than average, and then some that were a waste of screen time. The art is pretty good: for the most part the character designs are interesting and the settings have their own unique charm.

I expected a lot more from the protagonist who pretty much became a secondary character by the end of the series. The focus is taken away from its main objective and replaced by a strange choice of plot points in the last few episodes. Also the ending is less than satisfying. I do hope there eventually will be a second season to clear some of that up.

I would recommend this anime as it is an entertaining watch. What more it's only eleven episodes, so it won't take long to view the entire series. However, this is a time in which I would recommend the manga over the anime to fill in a lot of holes in the show.

In all I would consider this show to be average.

Zombie-Loan: 6/10

Beverage: Monster Absolutely Zero