Another one of these?

Written by darkzombie on January 26, 2011 at 2:48 PM

First off... what's up with the opening title? It's translated as "KORE HA ZOMBIE DESKA?" in romanji. The particle ending は probably should've been translated "wa" in the title sequence (as it is in all of the sub titles and file names, to the subbers' credit). Since it's on the title sequence animation itself, it leads me to believe it's the animator/editors oversight. It's true the particle "wa" is written with the hirigana character that is USUALLY pronounced "ha". In this particular instance, when は is attached to a word to act as a particle, it's pronounced "wa". It's not uncommon in anime to have a less than perfect conversion from their native Japanese to English.

Small technicalities aside, the anime shows some promise, despite the onslaught of cliche's common to anime. First, you have the male lead, running into several assumedly romantically uninvolved women and ending up living with them. Then add a dash of "male being immasculated by stoic, and moody women". Finish it off with misunderstandings which lead to comical hijinks, and you've got your everyday average high-school-anime clone. After three episodes, it seems at it's root base, "KORE WA ZOMBIE DESUKA" contains all the usual gimmicks you can get from any garden variety japanimation.
But there are some unique elements to the story which foreshadow a divergence from the norm. For instance, the main character, Ayumu, became a zombie as a result of being killed by a serial murderer. He can use alot more of a human's available power since his body no longer has "safety limiters" to preserve the safety and health of a living body. He sometimes breaks bones and takes heavy damage (to the tune of being sliced in half and losing limbs) and ignores his plight to continue fighting. The stereotypical "quiet beauty" is not just quiet, but mute, and often times speaks through writing on a notepad she keeps handy. The foreshadowing alluding to the possibility that the Necromancer whom turned Ayumu into a zombie is also the one who killed him is compelling.
For now, it's hard to tell if I'm watching because it's interesting enough to warrant it, or if I'm just falling victim to my usual compulsion to finish a series I've started watching (why can't it be both?). Hopefully they continue developing the unique elements of the plot, and minimalize the cliches. Yes, I have not, and don't plan to, read the manga. So it will be a surprise.