Anime Review: Kore wa Zombie Desu ka?

Despite having more potential, Kore wa Zombie Desu ka ranks just below Dragon Crisis. On the surface both animes explores similar themes, the supposedly ordinary boy, living alone, suddenly becomes involved with a pint size magical heroine, eventually leading to a gravitational pull of more busty magical/supernatural women. However the end product flounders around, falling flat on its generic face.

The initial storyline was the most attention-grabbing. It introduced our male protagonist, Aikawa Ayumu, previously murdered off screen only to be resurrected by a cute, chibi necromancer, Eucliwood Hellscythe and returns to his normal life, only now as a zombie. Early on Ayumu clarifies his intention to solve his murder and take revenge. This was all the material needed to develop a substantial series, simple but effective. Nevertheless it quickly ran out of steam, abandoning the straightforward murder mystery twist in order to bombard the viewer with as much ludicrous hijinks as possible. Kore wa Zombie Desu ka struggled because it lacks perspective. There was simply no direction, just a cluttered mess of choppy storytelling served with ample of cheese.

Essentially there are two reasons why Kore wa Zombie Desu ka turned my stomach. The first should be fairly obvious, in that I have a hard time enjoying fan-service in general, least of which when it is unnecessary and plain dumb. The second reason concerned the personalities of the female harem cast. Enter the Masuo Shoujo, Haruna, an annoying, stubborn, ungrateful, tyrannical brat and the well-endowed Vampire-Ninja (are you fucking kidding me?) Seraphim, an arrogant, discourteous fucking bitch. Honestly there is nothing redeemable about these two. Ayumu basically lets them live with him, no catches, and they treat him like complete crap. Passive female stereotypes are bad, but portraying women as heavy-handed, man-haters, than physically exploiting them is somehow okay?

Ultimately the conclusion takes so many desu-ex-machine nosedives that all writing credibility is rendered obsolete. At least the audience are treated to miscellaneous fan-service final episode that tightly comprises everything I disliked about the series into 24 minutes. The show basically went with quantity over quality, ending on an atrocious low.

Rating: 4.5

Dragon Crisis! Review

As far as light-hearted, romantic-harems go, Dragon Crisis doesn’t set out to achieve more then it physically does. What do I mean by that? Simply put, priority has been placed on producing as much pre-teen sickly sweetness as possible, rather than attempting expand the already overpopulate genre in terms of depth and innovation. Dragon Crisis doesn’t pretend to be anything more than a sit-back-and-switch-off show. At least it’s honest.

Dragon Crisis opens with a classic, the magical-girl-in-a-suitcase scenario, a red dragon named Rose. Rose appears to know Ryuji and is fanatical about him, shifting the plot focus onto the antics of living with a girl-dragon with the mind of a two year old. Sure it’s funny but it completely bypasses giving a credible explanation for why Rose was in the suitcase to begin with. From start to finish Dragon Crisis prefers to distract the audience with the big picture, the Ryuji and Rose affair, rather then taking the time to fill in the small but gapping plot holes. This half-arsed approach prevents it from excelling.

There is one main arc to open and close the show, featuring the one and only major villain, whose actual motive seems particularly disincentive, not to mention a tad clichéd. Other then being required to as the primary antagonist and for the sake of the plot, there is no real reason for him to be interested in Rose. If Onyx knows something about red dragons we don’t, isn’t the finale the place to say it? Unfortunately most characters also suffer from acting out of convenience rather then of their own accord. Unsurprisingly this is a commonplace problem when you try to shoehorn a formula.

The middle consists of several sub-stories, primarily to connect another magical girl into Ryuji’s life. This introduction process starts to become tiresome pretty quickly, considering most characters tend to resort to the same tactic of attacking Ryuji first, asking questions second. The show is almost incapable of progressing without (literally) dropping a magical girl into our laps. In a sense there is no real commitment, just a series of half-hearted attempts to expand the cast and ultimately Ryuji’s harem. This is just sloppy storytelling, pure and simple.

In addition, the fact that Ryuji even has a harem gets increasingly difficult to swallow. As the leading male, in theory there should be plenty of room for him to grow as a person. Initially Ryuji is blander then a beige dishtowel and somehow manages to maintain the same level of dullness throughout the show. The only female fancy that feels halfway believable is that of equally drippy classmate, Misaki, but even this crush feels staged when Misaki recalls her first encounter with Ryuji and most treasured memory. While an explanation is later given for Ryuji ‘magnetic’ personality, it seems to cover dragons but not humans nor the wolf girl, so it’s hardly concrete. Interestingly this concept is actually quite appealing, but frustratingly before it’s even given a chance to develop, it’s immediately rejected in the next episode. The writing on this show is such a big flop.

Obviously the main romantic couple are Ryuji and Rose, despite having zero chemistry. For a large portion of the show, their relationship appears entirely one sided, while Ryuji appears to humour Rose and her constant declarations of love, yet regarding them with some embarrassment. Although a male teenager, Ryuji is unduly chaste, never showing romantic interest in any of the growing number of girls flocking towards him. Until the finale that is, when the plot needs him to man up and kiss Rose. Honestly the entire show has been so formatted that even the inevitable couple feels clinical and contrived.

Dragon Crisis is enjoyable, especially if you like light-hearted, fluffy anime that ultimately doesn’t go anywhere. Its fun, it’s bright and it’s cheerful, so there is potential to be easily drawn in. However the overall premise suffers from lack of sufficient thought, planning and of course, creativity. This is entirely a surface anime, what you see is entirely what you get – one long cliché. As long as you go in knowing this, you won’t be too disappointed.

Rating: 5/10

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

Fortune Arterial 1-10

Its open season for vampires. Not in the classic Dracula/Hellsing/Blade badass archetypes of course, thanks to Meyer the rules on vampire mythology have been rewritten, now comprising of fluffy teenagers, who'd rather worry about organising school events then biting necks. Brother and sister Lori and Erika Sendo are your standard modern vamps, pretty, popular, zero aversion to sunlight, the works. Just be thankful they don't sparkle.

Despite introducing (and painfully explaining) the vampire subplot in the second episode, that minor detail seems forgotten to the point of being inconsequential during the following events. As the show attempts to warm the audience to its characters by showcasing day to day school events and the blossoming romance between Erika and Kohei Hasekura, clichés are kept at a distance. Until they make a sour point of returning.

Erika faces a dilemma, at the end of her high school year she must have bitten at least one human and made them her 'servant' - remains human but has supernatural powers and lasting life, or return home to Mummy dear and never see the light of day. Wow. Tough breaks [/sarcasm]. Of course Erika doesn't want to be a vampire, she wants to be human, which is why she actively denies herself blood, and I'll leave you to work out the consequences. So, the main problem I have with this storyline, is that I don't sympathize with Erika. At all. Presumably I'm suppose to, but honestly she just comes across as annoying. Ironically its not even Erika's fault. The show has fallen into the trap of presenting its vampires as perfect, so popular, so attractive, so good at school and sports, that the siblings are naturally idolized by their peers. What the average teens wishes they could be like. And all Erika has to do to maintain this is drink a couple of transfusions bags. Yet she doesn't want to. Because she is stubborn. Therefore annoying.

On top of that the premise has been done to death and much, much better. It lacks the broodiness of Vampire Knight or the comic charm of Karin/Chibi Vampire to be a really good romance. With the finale right around the corner, its doubtful the Fortune Arterial will be able to redeem itself. Not if the ending is as predictable as it seems. Erika bites Kohei. They live happily ever after. The end.

What a bore.