Is This a Zombie? #04 — Whales in Sweaters, Dogs in Trenchcoats

January 31st, 2011

 

I see we’re back to combining random nouns.

Impressions:

Saying that this episode has focus issues is like saying that the Trix Rabbit is mildly obsessive. Let’s review. Cerberos McGruff the Crime Dog shows up at the house, attacks Ayumu, fawns over Eu, then heads out with the zombie to hunt the murderer and gets killed. Then Eu and Ayumu have a heart-to-heart about her past… sort of, then they fight a giant sky whale in a sweater which Ayumu defeats by powering up his magical girl form to extra ‘cute’ levels to behead the whale with a kick. None of these segments really had anything to do with the others at all. It just violently swung from one extreme to the next without even bothering to transition between anything. Oh yeah, and Kyoko was killed at the end of the episode right before CHEERY HAPPY FUN TIME ED.

The scene between Eu and Ayumu was probably the high point, but I really don’t like the way that was handled at all. The music was good, but it basically boiled down to a lot of distance shots of the two while Ayumu read out exposition of her fairly generic past (yada yada, bound by magic/destiny, etc) in a somewhat dull monotone. Even if they had to invoke the delusional scenes to give her a voice and add a little more emotion to the scene, that would have been a lot better than having Ayumu basically read off a bunch of cue cards explaining her backstory. At least they didn’t have the damn dog give it. I don’t even want to look at that thing when its mouth hangs open as it ‘talks.’

Posted in Is This a Zombie? | 16 Comments »

16 Shouts From the Peanut Gallery

  • Kurogane Shiroikaze says:
    January 31, 2011 at 10:45 am

    Minaguchi Yuko is this week’s Delusion Eu.

    She’s well-known for her roles as Minase Akiko and Sailor Saturn.

  • Aex says:
    January 31, 2011 at 10:51 am

    The whale fight came out of NOWHERE! I mean, was that really necessary? It was a little funny when Sera sorta paused to make sure she properly insulted Ayumu before attacking, but otherwise it really was totally out of place. And then we go to Kyoko killing herself. Random!

    Otherwise, I liked this episode. Eu and Ayumu’s moment was nice, if bittersweet. Upped her moe-level by a few points! This series is more of a mystery show then Gosick as to what is going on though.

  • Nanaya says:
    January 31, 2011 at 11:16 am

    Wait, what?

  • Jack says:
    January 31, 2011 at 11:32 am

    Fail whale.

  • Ransom says:
    January 31, 2011 at 1:26 pm

    I have to admit that Kyoko’s death right befor the ending was a little… Anticlimatic? Maybe… I mean… The ending just made things worst.

    I can’t help but feel that the whale was used since they didn’t have anything else to fill the extra time after Ayumu and Eu talked about her past…

  • Rednal says:
    January 31, 2011 at 4:01 pm

    I’m kind of wondering if we had the whale show up because Eu got a little emotional… it did have a pretty big water element…

  • Amyable says:
    January 31, 2011 at 7:00 pm

    I’ve literally lolled at least once for every episode in this series, but the transition-less whale battle and “o btw Kyoko done died” shot made this the first episode where the laughter was AT the show.

    Sera’s tsuntsun act is still really annoying to me; I know it’s supposed to be funny, but it just brings up memories of the rage she instilled in me in episode 2. Overall I still like this show a lot, especially the music and (when they do it right) the comedy, but my interest is waning. Eh.

  • Jack says:
    January 31, 2011 at 7:24 pm

    Hah! I was right in some of my speculation last week. I are awesome.

    I liked this episode. One of my favorites so far. I like the chemistry of the group, but I realize the ending is probably not going to be so tidy.

    So the souls are being sucked up and used nefariously. The chesty jailbait in the hospital was a pawn. No shock. For some reason the appearance of the whale didn’t surprise me. It could have been that Eu (Yuu?) cried (water), but likely, there are monsters afoot.

    Maybe it’s a mixture? If Eu (Yuu?) is the center of “everything”, then her very presents is impossible…much like Hild, Ruler of Demonkind, from “Ah! My Goddess”. Eu even suppresses her powers much the same way.

    But then…there has to be some plot-licious reason for the barren magical girl and the green vampire with the rack to exist. Must be monsters.

    Or..

    We don’t even know what the hell Eu (Yuu?) is doing on Earth much less in Japan and not, say, Detroit.

    Either way, I fully enjoyed it when Ayumu powered up to become cuter…1000% cuter. That…was Hild-esque.

  • Kurogane's Anime Blog » Kore wa Zombie desu ka 04 says:
    February 1, 2011 at 1:25 am

    […] to segment without nary a thought given to transitioning, but somehow, I didn’t find that quite annoying mainly because there was a lot of exposition combined with an appropriate amount of badassery […]

  • Yue says:
    February 1, 2011 at 4:42 am

    Okay~~~ Ultra-Electro-Magnetic-Facepalm! That’s what I get out of this, I hope everyone get their’s too. This giddy giddy feeling is at its limits.

  • bk47 says:
    February 1, 2011 at 8:47 am

    I think Ayumu s bf is the evil king he offers up souls for magic so he can make a harem or something
    thats the only thing that would make sense

  • alex says:
    February 1, 2011 at 10:17 am

    dropped

  • Kaisos says:
    February 1, 2011 at 11:51 am

    People who are dropping this show because of this episode have no sense of humor.

    Frankly I thought it was awesome.

    • Yue says:
      February 1, 2011 at 5:00 pm

      Darn right! And for viewers like me with an attention life span like that of squirrels or hamsters. ^_^

  • Mesousa says:
    February 2, 2011 at 3:27 pm

    “It was a little funny when Sera sorta paused to make sure she properly insulted Ayumu before attacking.”

    You’re kidding, right? In that scene, I actually gave the middle finger to Sera, because she really is that…um…annoying.

    It’s not his fault he had to do that, Sera, you piece of shit. And yes, I can say that to her.