Hello and welcome to Project Nitsuj. Guess what, we’re still talking about zombies. After the success of High School of The Dead everyone was waiting for the next zombie anime to come out and at the beginning of 2011 it appeared in the form of a light-hearted but interesting comedy simply known as Is this a Zombie? Is this a Zombie is an anime based off a light novel written by Fujimi Shobo in 2009 and still continuing today. The series follows the tale of a high schooler who gets turned into a zombie and through a series of events accidently becomes a magical garment girl and is forced to battle other demons while trying to figure out the mystery to his death. On his journey he encounters all sorts of strange people and creatures and gets involved in all sorts of hilarious hijinks. In a way the show is kinda of like a funny homage to every magic and horror themed anime. This anime was done under the production of Studio Deen who also produced Rave Master, The Bandit King Jing, and Ruroni Kenshin. Let’s put are guns away and enjoy the silly antics of a high school horror comedy this, Is this A Zombie? Also, I’m watching the English version of the anime because I watched both the English and Japanese version and came to the conclusion that I found the English version funnier than the Japanese version.
Opening and Ending Theme
The opening for this anime is “Ma・Ka・Se・Te Tonight” by Iori Nomizu. Which is an okay rock song for me. I feel that the song is kinda slow for an opening it doesn’t get you as hyped up for the anime as it should. Near the end it starts to pick up the beat up but it’s a little too late. I will say that I like instrumental in the song but I think the singer is singing too slowly. The ending is “Kizuite Zombie-sama, Watashi wa Classmate Desu” by Rie Yamaguchi with manzo which is a song that I liked but at the same time I find weird. It starts off upbeat and happy but then switches to slow and Gameboy like sounds and then back to an upbeat song and then goes back to the slow and Gameboy sounds. While it’s an interesting bland of music layers that works it’s still a very odd song. I also like the singers in this song, you can tell that Rie and manzo are having fun singing it and enjoying themselves.
Episodes 1-4
We start are anime off by getting introduced to our main character Ayumu voiced by Austin Tindle (Alzack from Fairy Tail) going to school and doing all things a regular high school boy does (hmm maybe this might just be a normal anime after all). As he’s walking home from school he saves a kitten about to be hit by a truck in the street. He saves the kitten but the truck hits him and he stares at the camera breaking the fourth wall to reveal that he’s a zombie and goes flying through trees losing an article of clothing in each one until he’s completely naked (who knew zombies were so light). After getting hit by that truck he returns to his house where he lives with a necromancer named Eucliwood (nicknamed Eu) voiced by Cherami Leigh (Lucy from Fairy Tail) who is responsible for bringing him back to life and communicates with others by writing what she wants to say. Ayumu believes that she’s tsundere and has delusional fantasies about her talking and acting sweet and cute to make himself feel better about what she says (the sad mind of a high schooler). After cooking diner he goes out at night to look for a serial killer who’s been killing people at random and is the one responsible for killing him (you know what they say, payback’s a bitch). He has no luck and goes to a cemetery to relax where he gets caught in the middle of a fight between a magical bear creature known as a megalo and a magical garment girl named Haruna who uses a chainsaw to fight and is a bitchy self-proclaimed genius (wow, she’s like Saya from H.O.T.D only with a chainsaw). She’s voiced by Jad Saxton (Reki from Hidan no Aria). The bear pierces right through his body but that doesn’t stop Haruna from using her chainsaw to cut him in half along with the talking magic bear (scene here: https://youtu.be/iWDVTBA7lrU?t=3s. Halfway through this episode and I already find this series weird, crazy, and funny. This is gonna be a great anime). After defeating the bear (https://youtu.be/pa_e9B6uNnE?t=3s) Haruna tries to erase Ayumu’s memories of the event he just saw but he instead absorbs her powers causing her to become naked right in front of him (ow! Nice power *raises thumb in air*). After that she decides to stay at his place until she can figure out what the hell is going on and reclaim her powers (oh I forgot to mention his parents aren’t around so he’s basically living with two cute girls by himself. Alright place your bets who do you think he’ll sleep with first?). The next day at school we see one of the problems with Ayumu being a zombie, he can’t stand the sunlight because he dries up being in the sun for too long (this is confusing considering that this doesn’t happen to zombies. I mean we saw in H.O.T.D that even when the sun was out the zombies didn’t dry at all or decompose for that matter and even if they did it would take months for them dry up and shrivel away like Ayumu is doing and this is all assuming each day is hot and sunny with no chance of rain). Once all of his classmates are gone and he’s in the classroom alone a megalo clayfish comes to the room sensing the magical garment powers in Ayumu and wanting to have some fun with him (and by fun I mean snap off a piece of his dick in Ayumu’s ass). But Haruna shows up and tries to fight the beast but she can’t transform and is defenseless to fight against the clayfish leaving only Ayumu to fight the clayfish himself (scene here: https://youtu.be/FO0XIvP-y0Q?t=3s, oh God that transformation outfit is so wrong! Let it haunt you in your nightmares for weeks! And why the fuck are they holding the camera on his crotch area). After defeating clayfish he lands in the schoolyard where everyone see him cross-dressing and takes pictures of him (why? If anything they should be running away screaming and promising to never talk about this again). Haruna shows up and tells everyone that Ayumu isn’t a drag queen (I didn’t write this crap that’s literally what she said in the dub) but he is now a magical garment girl forever (and there goes his pride and dignity as a man).
In episode 2 we find out that Ayumu used his magical garment girl powers to erase the minds of everyone at school (you did not see a boy cross-dressing at school yesterday nor will remember the events from yesterday. You will love and cherish your school days with your classmates forever). After that not much happens except for two (technically 3) important things. First we get some fun little dinnertime innuendo from Haruna (scene here: https://youtu.be/RyIuPf9SYq4?t=52s. 0_0 I heard it too here’s something cool and funny to offset it, https://youtu.be/eQ65-FabVHU?t=1m, awesome~). As they’re eating a girl by the name of Sera shows up out of nowhere to join them. After dinner she reveals herself to be not just a big-breasted vampire but a ninja vampire (oh shit, as if vampires weren’t dangerous enough now they have the skills of ninjas at their disposal, we’re fucked). She’s also voiced by Caitlin Glass (Vivi from One Piece). She’s here to request the help of Eu but Eu for some reason refuses to help her. Sera tries desperately to get Eu’s help even going as far to become her servant but Eu tells her she only needs Ayumu to be her servant (Eu: I prefer to the horizontal bop than the scissors dance). After Sera insults Ayumu the two decide to have a battle to decide who gets to be the rightful servant of Eu (scene here: http://youtu.be/7bGc9hqBVBI?t=3s). In the end Ayumu wins by throwing his arm at her (I imagine his night time activities are fun with this technique) but Sera hasn’t given up on Eu and decides to be Ayumu’s servant even though she has no respect for him whatsoever because in her eyes he is a worthless and useless maggot with no qualities whatsoever (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xfzZ7KGEv8). The other important event that happens in this episode is that we see how Ayumu and Eu met. When Ayumu was going to a store at night he saw Eu sitting outside and he tried to impress her with breakdancing (scene here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q35KaT2P04w, okay in terms of rap the Japanese version was better but the scene is funnier in English). This somehow impresses her and the two become friends. As he’s walking home he hears a scream coming from a house and goes inside to help. Once inside the serial killer stabs him and he drops dead. But for some reason Eu was nearby, used her necromancer powers to bring him back to life and promised to stay with him.
Not all that much really happens in episode 3. Ayumu goes bowling with his best friend Orito voiced by Anthony Bowling, where they run into Haruna, Sera, and Eu and it gets revealed that Ayumu is living with them which makes Orito (as well as all other guys) jealous of him (burn his body with fire). They decide to have a bowling match where if Orito wins he’ll get to move in with Ayumu and join his paradise (trust me, it’s more of a hell on earth kind of thing instead of a paradise). Ayumu beats him since he has zombie powers and after bowling they go to visit a friend of theirs named Kyoko a big-breasted girl who is in the hospital after surviving an attack from the serial killer (it’s also said she has a crush on Ayumu). She’s voiced by Lindsay Seidel (Hazuki from Baka and Test). When alone Ayumu asks her if she saw the killer and she describes that the killer was Eu (of course! It’s always the quiet ones) but Ayumu has a hard time believing that Eu is the killer (and he should he lives with the girl don’t you think he would have noticed her acting strange or going out at night to commit these murders? Also, what on earth would a necromancer gain from killing people).
In episode 4 a megalo Doberman who is a guardian of Hell named Kerberos comes for Ayumu but after seeing Eu he stands down (Eu: No, bad Kerberos. No killing the zombie in the house). After that Ayumu and Kerberos go to investigate a murder scene where the serial killer stabbed another person. The killer is still there and stabs both of them killing Kerberos in the process (oh no, he. . .wait a second why should I feel sad for the guy? He was only on the screen for like 10 minutes so how am I supposed to feel any sorrow or regret for his death. This has been another pointless character). However before he dies he does tell Ayumu that every time Eu heals him she takes on his pain (okay that’s useful information to know. Still a pointless one-time character). When Ayumu returns home he and Eu have a talk about her. Eu explains that in order to keep her magic under control, she can’t express emotions or speak any words otherwise she’ll accidentally unleash her magic. She also says that her body will keep producing magic even after she dies (wow, so even magic going green). She then starts to cry thinking that Ayumu hates her now that he’s found out that she is somewhat of a monster but Ayumu tells her that he will always stay by her side no matter what and that he could never come to hate her (nice Ayumu, dropping lines from Keima right there). The next day a megalo whale attacks the city and Ayumu fights it (right the fuck out of nowhere. Sorry, but this whale is spoiling the mood that we just saw 3 seconds ago. Talk about a mood spoiler. Imagine if in FMA we just saw the death of Hughes and the next thing they show us was Ed and Al spying on Winry while she was taking a bath. That would spoil the mood and sadness that we just saw instantly). With the help of Sera he defeats the whale by chopping off its head (the Prime Minister had this to say after the whale attack incident on the city: http://youtu.be/E39WWj_RpBc?t=7s).
Episodes 5-8
In episode 5 the serial killer finally gets revealed. The killer is none other than Kyoko who it turns out is a magical garment girl who has been killing people to stay immortal. Each time she kills someone she absorbs their soul and adds it to herself (this almost sounds like Highlander). She tries to kill Ayumu for a third time (third time’s a charm) but Ayumu, Sera, and Haruna combine their powers to defeat Kyoko and kill her (Ayumu wins. Stab in the back- ality). They think they killed her but it turns out she has 10 more lives left in her (so she’s a video game character. Interesting). As she’s about to finish them Eu comes in to end the episode (oh shit, about to get real).
Once Eu shows up in episode 6 she takes Kyoko on herself to protect the others. Kyoko tries to use her magic on Eu but it keeps getting deflected by Eu’s magic (I’m Eu the necromancer biatch *DX chop*). In a moment of badass Eu begins to kill Kyoko by simply saying die to her. She keeps doing this but every time she does she feels the pain of Kyoko dying each time (sort of like a double edge sword). Kyoko pops her eardrums (ouch) and uses self-destruct on Eu to knock her out. Inspired by Eu’s effort the rest of the group gets back into the fight with Ayumu finally destroying Kyoko’s garment armor and using Haruna’s chainsaw to chip away at Kyoko’s lives. He manages to bring her to her last life but instead of killing he just knocks her out instead. With Kyoko defeated Eu wakes up and the headmaster of the magical garment academy named Dai-sensei shows up ready to take Kyoko back with her to re-educate her. But Kyoko gets back up to reveal that she’s possessed by an entity known as the King of the Night who was once a zombie bought back to life by Eu but when he started going down the dark path Eu destroyed him or so she thought. He disappears with Kyoko’s body and says that they shall meet again (King of the Night: This is not over. . .*looks to side* ZOMBIE).
Episode 7 is a filler episode so to speak. After his exams Ayumu goes to help Haruna fight a perverted megalo horse (okay are all megalos perverts or something). He gets double-teamed by some megalo jellyfish who mistake him for a girl, tentacle rape him and get one hell of a surprise (Megalo jellyfish: AHHHH~, NO, NO, NOOOOOOOO~). With their backs against the wall another ninja vampire named Mael Storm shows up to save them by pouring great ramen on the megalo to destroy them (so much for not wasting food in Japan). After being saved by Mael Storm, Haruna accidentally pushes Ayumu in to her and they kiss on accident. After the kiss Mael Storm begins to act shy around Ayumu and blushes whenever talking to him. Later on, Sera reveals that because of their kiss the two are legally married to each other according to ninja vampire customs (I now pronounce you zombie and vampire may you have. . .I don’t know an even weirder life than you have now). After that the group celebrates Tanabata (the meeting of deities) where Haruna gives an interpretation of Santa (https://youtu.be/ys_t1CVn04Q, and that my friends is what Christmas is all about). After that amusing interpretation of a holiday school starts back up and Ayumu receives a wonderful gift to hold on to for Dai-sensei of the magical garment academy. X-ray glasses (let the funny times roll).
We start off episode 8 with Ayumu losing the x-ray glasses to Sera since they were meant for her (damn it we could have such a fun episode with those bad boys). After that Haruna has a dream about kissing Ayumu since she’s developed a secret crush on him. Because of this she starts to get pissed off whenever she sees Ayumu with Mael Storm (whose codename is Yuki and I’ll be calling her that from now on). For the rest of episode Yuki tries to fall in love with Ayumu by trying to get to know him more and hangout with him. The next day they all go the mall with Ayumu buying all of them clothes. Also Sera seems to like wearing cat ears (scene here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waRk-dFzMcc). After their shopping spree they go to the park where Ayumu gets asked by Haruna to kiss her but it instead turns into Haruna pummeling the ever loving shit out of him for screwing up their date (this scene cracked me up). At the end the King of the Night approaches Eu while the others weren’t watching and she disappears.
Episodes 9-12 and OVA
In episode 9 it gets revealed that Sera’s mission was to originally kill Eu because the ninja vampire clan believes she’s responsible for the recent increase in megalos but Ayumu talks her out of it saying that there are more important things than following the rules of a clan (screw the rules, I am a zombie). After that the King of the Night tries to get Eu to grant him his wish but Eu refuses to give it to him so he threatens to torture and attack the others until he gets what he wants. He begins attacking Ayumu by making a Ferris wheel fall on him which causes Eu to lose control of her powers for a second and summon a giant plush toy which lands on Haruna crushing her. The group tries to get it off her but its infused with Eu’s magic and won’t budge. Luckily, Dai-sensei shows up and uses her magic to blast it off Haruna but it lands on Yuki (wa wa wa waaaah~). Once the plush toy is on Yuki she somehow becomes possessed by a summoned weapon named Mysticore (sounds like something out of Power Rangers) which goes out of control and is about to self-destruct and take Yuki with it. But Ayumu doesn’t wanna see the only girl who is actually willing to marry him die and he embraces her which stops the self-destruct sequence (well they’re just throwing stuff in here without really explaining shit are they). Once the King of the Night takes his leave Eu reunites with the others and they go home but along the way Eu leaves and leaves a note with Ayumu saying she doesn’t want him or the others to get hurt (the others I can understand but he’s a fucking zombie he’ll live. Plus it’s funny when he gets hurt).
In episode 10 we see that months have gone by since Eu left and its winter time. The team has reunited after going their separate ways to look and gather information on the whereabouts of Eu. Ayumu and Haruna find nothing and Sera also returns finding nothing and being labeled a traitor by her clan for abandoning her mission. We see in the episode that Eu tried to go back to Ayumu’s house but the King of the Night shows up and takes her with him. Thanks to Yuki, Ayumu and Haruna find out where Eu and the K.O.T.N are and go to his place where they have dinner (no sense in fighting on an empty stomach). The ninja vampires break in and surround the place to capture the K.O.T.N (Ninja vampires: We’ve got the place surrounded! Come out with your hands up and your neck exposed) but he puts a bomb on Haruna’s head, uses his powers to freeze everyone and takes his leave with Eu. Ayumu removes the bomb and jumps out the window with it to save everyone from dying to end this episode (https://youtu.be/7tClSJgMDF8).
We start off episode 11 with Haruna, Sera, and Yuki looking for all of Ayumu’s body parts. After the bomb went out in episode 10 all of Ayumu’s parts got scattered throughout the city and the girls have to find them all in order to bring him back. They find all his parts and put him back together but he goes into a coma where he blames himself for not being strong enough to save Eu. Haruna does a mind dive and brings him back just in time because the K.O.T.N has opened up a portal to Hell to allow spirits and megalos to enter the human world and kill everyone in the city in order to get Eu to grant his wish which is to kill him. He’s been living for eternity and has come to see it as a curse and wants Eu to give him death so that he can be reborn as a penguin because he loves them. Ayumu and Haruna go to confront him while Sera and the ninja vampire clan keep the city safe from the Hell army by playing orchestra music to keep them at bay (I don’t know, I think the electric bogaloo would have been better). Ayumu and Haruna both transform into magical garment girls and take care all of the black mist the K.O.T.N uses but Haruna gets blasted away leaving only Ayumu to fight him by himself (fight scene here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OT6bKFDAfUI). After that scene Ayumu talks to Eu about staying with him forever and she finally speaks for the first time (scene here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7uCkoIO_ICA). After that they all go back to Ayumu’s place and everybody is happy (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0skAChFEYJM, I can’t believe I just made that joke).
In the final episode we just have fun and have an idol fest at an indoor water park. After Sera sees one of her fellow ninja vampires Saravasti (who has an obsession with Ayumu’s butt) has a double life as a net idol she goes on stage and gets into a popularity contest with her. Eventually Haruna joins the battle for net idol queen followed by Eu who swaps her powers with Ayumu using a machine created by Dai-sensei so she’s able to speak and sing. The songs are very good and the English voice actors do an impressive job singing their songs. I honestly thought they were gonna botch it but when they began to sing they honestly pull through in the end. Everything seems to be going well but Ayumu accidentally uses Eu’s power to put all the girls into skimpy bikinis and Sera punishes him for his actions. After that we end with Ayumu talking about his life and saying that despite all the craziness he enjoys every minute of moment, is happy, and that’s the end.
There is an OVA episode that got released not too long after the anime ended. The episode is split into 3 parts. In the first part Haruna takes over a festival and turns it into a battle of the men where the winner gets to have Sera or Eu for one night (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWFW0B9EBx0). In the end Orito wins but after eating some of Sera’s awful food he passes out and has to be rushed to the hospital. In the second part Ayumu receives a ninja vampire recipe to give to Sera but he gives it to Haruna and Yuki and makes up the lie that if Sera wants to get it back she has to come and get it herself. Sera takes this as a challenge and breaks into Yuki’s group compound with Eu and Ayumu (scene here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yX9JcudDuJc). The final part is probably the weakest part, the whole school gets together and they play Uta-garuta (a Japanese card game where someone reads out a poem and the players have to find the right card that completes the poem) where the winner gets a special fountain pen. At the end Yuki wins and during the whole competition Ayumu and Orito peek up the skirts of girls. The only thing worth mentioning in this part is that we get introduced to Taeko the class representative and friend of Yuki who has known Ayumu since childhood and secretly has a crush on him. Aside from the last part the OVA is quite funny and crazy and well worth watching after you get through the first season.
Final Thoughts
It’s awful! No, I’m kidding it’s a very good anime. I went into this anime not expecting much from it but to my surprise it was a very good, exciting, funny and well-executed anime. The characters are very nice, they’re the complete opposite of what I was expecting. I like how Ayumu is thrown into this zombie lifestyle and doesn’t curse his fate but instead is thankful for it because it gives him the chance to avenge himself and the others who died before him. He’s also quite funny and caring putting up with all of the crazy characters in his life and just going with the flow of things because he’s happy he’s not alone. I like how Haruna and Sera are so different from the typical anime character trait that are given to them. Haruna is completely crazy, hyperactive, violent, over-confident and sharp tongued the complete opposite of a magical girl. Sera still has that calm demeanor of a vampire but at the same time she also acts different from the normal vampire. She doesn’t mind the sun, doesn’t transform into a bat, seems to have control of her bloodlust, and is also sharp tongued but at the same time loyal and caring for her friends. Eu was probably the biggest surprise character for me. They give her a very good backstory and make her a very cute character that you come to feel sorry for and at the same time come to care for greatly and just want to see her find happiness. Even the villain is understandable. He’s lived out his life and has come to see the harshness of living eternally and now wants it all to end and the only person who can free him from his hell is a kind-hearted person who doesn’t like to see people get killed.
There are a few problems I have with the anime like Ayumu not being able to handle the sun is kinda ridiculous but luckily they only use that card a few times in the anime so it doesn’t become an annoyance but still just him not being able to handle sun in the back of my mind does annoy me. I’m also curious to know what happened to Kyoko after she was defeated. She just vanishes and is never seen again. Was she acting evil on her own or was she manipulated by the K.O.T.N? A few other problems I have are nitpicks at best such as the ninja vampires, I’m a little bit confused about their clan. Is it multiple clans or just one big clan who have split into two factions because they don’t see eye to eye? Also what about Eu’s past and powers? I wish they went a little bit more into her past such as explaining if she was born with these powers or if they were given to her by some unknown entity?
The animation is good I didn’t notice anything special about it and the action is quite intense in the anime I really wasn’t expecting this anime to have excellent and intense fight scenes. The music was alright, it’s not bad but at the same time it didn’t really standout all that much to me except for the main bump in the series. I don’t know maybe I was just too focused on the scenes too actually take notice of the music. It’s also very funny as well it’s one of the funniest animes I’ve seen in a while I’m not gonna lie. I haven’t seen an anime make me laugh this much since Baka and Test. The English voice actors also did a top notch job on this anime. You can tell the voice actors are having fun and really getting into character I highly recommend watching this in English when you go to watch the series. It’s honestly funnier than the Japanese version. If not than that’s okay because the Japanese version is also good but like I said before I just found the English version funnier.
Final Score
Is this a Zombie earns a 7.5/10. Is this a high and deserving score? Yes. Is this an anime worth checking out? Yes. If you like zombies and wanna see an anime have fun with them as well as have fun with other horror theme characters and looking to get emotionally invested into the characters than I say watch this anime you won’t be disappointed. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj as more Ani-ween continues MUHAHAHAHAHAHA *baseball comes crashing through the window to hit me on the head* OW *falls to ground*! (???): Sorry! (Nitsuj): Who plays baseball at night? Honestly.
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