Zombie-Loan: anime review

Title: Zombie-Loan
Genre: action, comedy, supernatural
Released date: July 3, 2007 – September 11, 2007
Episode: 11
Director: Akira Nishimori
Animated by: Xebec M2
Comment: What would you do if you were attacked by flesh-eating zombies? You hit them hard and fast with a baseball bat or shoot them with shotgun. Now, what will you do if you run into Zombie Loan DVD or see a television showing this anime? You do the same thing before it eats you alive and destroys you forever!

At the beginning, Zombie Loan tells the story through a shy high school girl, Michiru, who possesses the Grim Reaper’s Eyes, that means she can tell normal people from the undead. After a fateful meeting with two Zombie Hunters, Chika and Shito, she is dragged into the business of Zombie hunting because her ability is rare and very useful. After that, there are few separate zombie cases and a big pile of purposeless characters and incoherent fragments of stories.

After the first few introductory episodes, the anime turns from mediocre to unbearably bad due to numerous things which I will make a list of them for easier understanding.

• The plot about the mysterious villain who creates sentient zombies and makes contract with them is simply dropped and is never mentioned ever again.

• Michiru’s character becomes boring and unnecessary. She is there, of course, but she means nothing. While Sotetsu, Otsu, Koyomi and Yuuta are introduced as the member of Z-loan, their characters are purposeless, colorless, underdeveloped and miserably flat.

• The Xu Fu Mafia appears out of the blue to reveal the Shito’s past which at first seems quite important but soon proved to be pointless. Okay, he’s been dead for hundreds of years and? Oh! That’s all!

• The Xu Fu shaman makes a really distinguish appearance. He is powerful and his intention is a mystery. But soon, he suddenly leaves saying ‘The boss calls him back for other errands’. And he never comes back. So why bother putting him in the show in the first place?

• The main antagonist, Doctor Yoshizumi, tries to create a perfect golem but he lacks the last ingredient. He kidnaps Shito because he wants to trade Shito for the reviving spells from the Xu Fu. Later in the next episode, he miraculously conjures the drug he needs for his research and he uses that drug to complete the final golem. What the hell?

• The final golem, called Phalanx, looks funny but that’s not the worst part. What’s worst is how it is defeated. In the middle of the battle, Doctor Yoshizumi’s assistant abruptly reveals that he has been secretly developed a ‘neutralizing agent’ that kills golem. What a fast, easy and brainless solution that is!

As if the plot is not messy enough, every five or ten minutes, some unfitting comic relief scenes are inserted right into the middle of other scenes creating interruption and disturbance to the story already in utter disorder. The animation is colorful and pretty energetic and the soundtrack sounds quite interesting with rock and electronic style. But, alas, all the good productions seem to be wasted because Zombie Loan ends up as complete failure in every essential aspect of making at least a decent anime. Conclusion: Please think before start doing something! I thought this is a common knowledge but apparently those who make this anime didn’t know that.

p.s. Please note that I have not read the manga. So my opinion about the anime is not related to the manga in anyway.

Rating: F