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Is This a Zombie?
Manga Review
Brains, walking corpses, and mob infestation are vocabulary associated with the subject of zombies. The subject has been around as folklore, but in modern entertainment it has became even more popular with a 1968's produced film: Night of the Living Dead. A zombie is seen as an animated undead being. They are often used as a plot device in the horror genre. Though in this title, the zombie is the protagonist.
Meet teenager Ayumu Aikawa who unexpectedly gets killed and then resurrected as a zombie. He is either a poor sap or a lucky bastard, because he happens to live with three cute girls who make up the rest of the main cast. Being a teenage boy with plenty of raging hormones, Ayumu happens to have a very rich imagination in spite of the abuse piled on him by these three housemates. He wants to find out who killed him and is a cross-dressing magikewl girl as well.
 To clarify, a magikewl girl in Japanese is a play on the phrase "mahou shoujo" or what is known as a magically outfitted girl. A magikewl girl's duty is to defeat megalos. They are not "hackneyed twits."
Is This a Zombie, was adapted from a light novel series that was created by Shinichi Kimura. This title in turn, was adapted into two anime seasons, both of which have been licensed by Funimation. This is a unique comedic series, in which fan service is heavily used. Getting the terms and casting a high threshold view to the plight of Ayumu makes him a sympathetic character that is swept onto his fate.
For similar read alikes consider these titles of Rosario + Vampire for the harem, fanservice, and supernatural themes. Also; High School of the Dead with a similar zombie and sexualized themes and; Puella Magi Madoka Magica for the unorthodox portrayal of magical girls, and its unique portrayal of villains.
Reviewed by Linda Yau, June 2013
Is This a Zombie?
Anime Review
I can only imagine what the first planning meeting for this show must have sounded like... Men sitting around a table, saying "Well, Zombies have been pretty popular in American cinema for more than a decade, and this whole Zombie Apocalypse thing is a big deal, but how can we make our show different?" And then some meek little guy with thick glasses perks up and says "I know, let's make the zombie the protagonist!"
Yes, that's right. This being anime, with everything turned on its ear, we've got a show where the zombie is the hero of the show. Of course, to make him a little more personable, he's not the brain-eating, flesh shedding type that just groans and looks scary; in this case "zombie" seems to merely mean that he's un-dead.
 In fact, you'd think he's a normal high-school boy. Except that he was killed by a mysterious serial killer roaming through Tokyo, brought back to "life" by a cute lady necromancer, and is spending his nights searching for his own killer.
And then things start to get weird. You see, he steals the power from a "magical girl" type character, and then becomes a cross-dressing zombie vampire ninja magical girl... with a chainsaw. Well, perhaps I'm getting ahead of myself.
 You see, what ends up in his house is the Necromancer, the Magical Girl (who has lost her powers), and a Vampire Ninja girl. Now, before you say "ah, Harem-show, Skebe!", be aware that NONE of these ladies are the least bit interested in our (undead) protagonist. The Magical Girl thinks he's a (cross-dressing) perv, the Vampire Ninja considers him pond scum, and our quiet, reserved Necromancer can fracture his wrist with a pair of chopsticks if he even breathes too close to her.
 Instead, he's the object of ridicule, AND, he has to keep the entire thing a secret from his classmates, since they don't even know that he's a zombie. I mean, how exactly do you explain all this to your friends?
Needless to say; things get out-of-control pretty quickly, and while this isn't the best show I've ever seen in this genre, at least there's the unique twist of making a Zombie the lead character. And the hijinks are definitely refreshing since he's undead, so, episodes with him saw'ed in half, or otherwise dismembered are something you don't see every day in anime.
Reviewed by Brian Cirulnick, February 2013
Below: Scenes from Is This a Zombie?.
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