First Impressions: Hourou Musuko and Kore Wa Zombie Desu Ka?

Hourou Musuko.
A boy wants to be a girl; a girl wants to be a boy & they’re good friends.

Anime is no stranger to cross-dressing or gender confused characters, through more often then not, the character has already established their gender-identity and this is not the major focal point. It’s rare for an anime to address the issue of transsexuality in such a progressive and sensitive manner, one that doesn’t just accept cross-dressing as an eccentric characteristic, but tactfully draws the subject into an ordinary, realistic environment involving normal, day to day people. Wandering Son does precisely this, and it is so beautifully crafted. The animation has a dreamy watercolours style that seems almost surreal and it’s absolutely enchanting. That being said, as an opening it felt a little muddled. It seemed like a lot had already happened, that the audience was joining the story half way through rather than at the beginning. Still the story is easy to follow so that’s not a massive problem. In all, I’m very excited with Wandering Son, even it promises to be more of a coming of age than a slice of life programme, which means its probably going to be a tear jerker.

Rating: 9/10

Kore Wa Zombie Desu Ka?

Undead Tweenboy is a magnetic for magical women and soon his house becomes a harem.

At first glance “Is this a Zombie?” seems to be peddling the standard harem material. You’ve got the bit-of-a-drip male lead living by himself one minute, and then suddenly bombarded with a horde of antagonistic women the next. Unfortunately for Ayumu Aikawa he isn’t lucky enough to exist in the type of harem where all the girls are aggressively into the male lead. On top of that, the first two episodes feel very claustrophobic. There is too much happening with far too little explanation, almost like a series of events taking place without an actual purpose. The characters could have been brought together much better. Still the sub-plot that Aikawa is plotting revenge on his killer is intriguing and if developed well could do wonders to improve the shows initial rating.

Rating: 5/10