12 Days of Xmas – Day 3: Zombie-Loan

The going-to-break animation looks like “24″.

Third in the series of profiled moments or events from the past year is Zombie-Loan. More specifically, the anime’s dual fanservice and its comedy. For the past couple months, the anime club has been enjoying this Peach-Pit series and it’s become kind of like how Sukisho was seen last year, as a lighthearted comedy, except this one has more plot and a bunch more action to it.

When one thinks of Peach-Pit, the DearS series usually comes to mind and there is a slight link between that and Zombie-Loan in their chibi animations but that’s where the similarities end. While DearS was a shonen ecchi title that had almost all male-oriented fanservice, Zombie-Loan plays to both crowds and features hints at yuri and yaoi while not venturing not very far into each direction.

First, there is Koyomi, who turns into forward lesbian Yomi when she falls asleep. This freaks out Michiru, the main object of Yomi’s affection, pretty much every time her ”transformation” happens and provides the audience with teasings of yuri. She’s also useful to Shito and Chika because she can sense information about zombies they are interested in finding.

Second, there is a bit of yaoi subtext between loan partners Chika and Shito and also some of the other characters have bishounen looks. There are a fair number of lines exchanged between the two male protagonists and others that could be interpreted in a certain way, if you get my drift.

Besides the fanservice attractions, the anime is also funny, sometimes when it doesn’t mean to. For example, in the later half a mad scientist, Yoshizumi, has constructed a golem that has a black hood over its head and uses a chainsaw. I mean, you can’t help but laugh at the absurdity of it. Also there’s the caustic relationship between Chika and Shito and the way Chika uses Michiru as his “gopher”, which is kind of okay because both he and Shito took on more debt to save her life but he’s just mean with a smile about it so you feel sorry for Michiru but not too much.

Overall, Zombie-Loan is a short series (11 episodes) that isn’t the highest quality in terms of animation or story but is still enjoyable for its comedy and action elements and it might slightly exceed your expectations. The story continues in the manga, which has just started its release in America through Yen Press – volume 2 will hit shelves in late January 2008.