First Impressions / Kore wa Zombie Desu ka?

「いや、帰れご主人様」 (Iya, Kaere Goshujinsama)
“No, Go Home, Master”

In a way, it’s hard to write about pure comedies. With a proper plot you can be objective, diving into the various storytelling tactics used and talking about how well they worked, where you think it’s going, etc. Not so with a pure comedy. With these, it’s more visceral, and there’s only one question you can ask – was it funny? And that’s subjective, of course. So please, excuse me if I’m less objective (and more gushy) than normal, because there’s only comedy (and fanservice) to talk about here!

So, let’s ask that question. Was this episode funny? Hellz yes! And please, imagine those words escaping in between bouts of breathless, full-bodied laughter. From the Full Metal Panic references at the beginning to the preview at the end, I was laughing my tail off the entire time. There’s still no plot to be found, but we got plenty of hilarious jokes and enough fanservice to tame a football riot, so I don’t care. Bring it on!

The centerpiece of this episode was, of course, the meido. I enjoyed Good Friend Orito bringing Ayumu to the cosplay cafe in order to realign his sexuality (dude, just because he likes to crossdress doesn’t mean he’s gay, though it’s fine if he was…and wait, he doesn’t like to crossdress anyway!!), but Saras quickly stole the show with some truly frightening business acumen. Packing this many high quality girls (not to mention herself) into one place? Genius! We need to keep her away from Wall Street, or we’re all doomed. Oh, or worse yet, Walmart. If Saras got in charge down in Bentonville, I’m pretty sure she would take over the world. Hopefully in a maid costume. Yum!

Past Saras’ continual sexual harassment of Ayumu, we had Reluctant Meido Sera and Bad Tsundere Yukinori. Of the two (and really, all of the girls), Yukinori continues to be the most adorable. Her not understanding the whole tsundere thing, but trying so hard any–erh, sorry, wrong screen cap…trying anyway was so cute! tehehe ;P

Which leads us to the contest! When I saw the black-robed figures, I thought what probably most of you thought – Sera, Haruna, Yuu, and Yukinori, not necessarily in the order. I’m glad I was right about those four, and even more so that I was wrong about the fifth! Yukinori failing at tsun was no surprise, but what was unexpected was how Ayumu went all genre savvy and drew out all the girl’s dere sides like a pro. That’s the sort of thing I would expect from half the cast of Ano Natsu de Matteru, not this show! Jealous Haruna was probably the most surprising of the two – Ayumu’s move with Yukinori was totally outside my projections – but I think Sera’s dere side was cuter. Totally worth eating a little nitroglycerin for, ne?

To me, one of Kore wa Zombie’s greatest strengths – and I think I’ve mentioned this before – is how quickly the gags fly. With a slower paced show (K-ON!, for instance), the gags build up slowly enough that you can think ahead and anticipate where they’re heading. Not so here. With Korezon, the jokes always come so quickly that even someone who delights at trying to anticipate events ahead of time (like myself) doesn’t have the time to do it! Jokes build upon jokes upon jokes, and soon you’re hurtling down a mountain in some kind of joke snowball, demolishing a bunch of metaphorical mountain villages along the way. I feel like Tsundere Yuu was like that. Had I had time to think about it, I may have anticipated the anticlimax. I mean, how can she be tsundere without speaking! Yet there was no time to think, so when the anticlimax happened, I was cracking up once again. Well done, writers. Well done.

And finally, there was the last meido, the formidable Mihara! I must admit that I have an odd affection for B-couples, so her unexpected reaction to Orito’s confession was simply delightful. Add onto that those twintails, and…well, I don’t know what she sees in Orito, but he’d be an idiot to let this opportunity pass him by!

Of course, it was all for a reason. Because she broke Ayumu’s model at the beginning of the episode, Haruna wanted to replace it…and she almost got it right too! (sort of). It’s the thought that counts, right? There, a heartwarming moment to cap off an episode of hilarity and fanservice. D’aawww!

tl;dr: @StiltsOutLoud – Either tsun or dere is fine, I don’t mind. Just please, give me a break…my heart can’t take much more of this!! #korezon

Random thoughts:

  • Ayumu’s “Ai shite iru ze, Kashim” (I hope I got that right) made me crack up. You’re getting a little too Gauron over there, aren’t you guy? Do not want!!
  • Wow, Anderson just threw out the “I’m from the underworld” thing. It’s not too surprising, what with all the crazy people running around the area, but damn man, no foreshadowing! I’ll be interested to see if he becomes a more major character this season.
  • About Mihara’s apparent attraction to Orito…I guess he’s really not that bad of a guy. He’s kind (ex: visiting Kyoko in the hospital back in season one), honest, straightforward, and a good friend through it all. If you get past the silly pervert thing, he’s really not that bad of a guy…and if there’s anything I know about anime, it’s that girls will always forgive an honest pervert (eventually)! In anime, at least. In real life? Less so.
  • Looks like they’re capping it at three mousou Yuus. Makes sense. More than that on the screen at one time would have been really chaotic. Though we might be back to one next episode, heh
  • Hands where we can see them, Ayumu.

Full-size images: 30, 33

 

Preview

72 Comments

    1. I honestly anticipating that they were going to play it off as some kind of knockoff… Then he said “Aishiteruze Kashim.” I literally said “they can actually do that???” out loud.

      KoroshiyaKi
      Reply

  5. “trying so hard any–erh, sorry, wrong screen cap…trying anyway” laughing so hard, can’t breathe…

    The Eu massacre at the end was a little unexpected. I cried. Seras’s dominatrix outfit was so hot… I cried. Yukinori always makes me smile though, and she was exceptionally cute in this ep. Don’t know if I’d rather have a curse dance Yukinori or a tsundere Yukinori. Too hard to choose.

    This was such a great episode, I don’t know what to say. I guess I go with “great write-up, Stilts. You manage to capture the feeling of comedies really well.”

    Now no to #WhenYouWishUponARack… er… damn that Yukinori pic… #WhenYouWishUponARock.

    cancerlad
    Reply

  7. Omg, this show has got to be the best so far this season, way too much random jokes I can’t catch a breath in between.
    Ok deep breath…..Sousuke!!!!!!
    Lol @ Yuu snapping Mousou Yuus’ necks and then drinking tea like nothing happened, perhaps we all underestimated her a bit ne? At least I think I have.

    gungnir
    Reply

  8. One pony tailed, frilly maid outfit wearing Yuu was almost too much to handle.

    But three of them? And with their bubbly imaginary personalities on top of it? I don’t know if they can match that, the post episode cuteness may have already peaked at episode 3.

    Qwerty1
    Reply

  11. I feel like the tsundere challenge is a good, and perhaps accurate way to measure the strength of a character’s relationship with his harem. After all, the character deserves them if he can make each of the members show their dere sides.

    Xumbra
    Reply

  12. I am now envious of Ayumu. Full Metal Panic arm slaves have plamo(s)? I thought the “Robot Damashii” line sold them as pre-built, non-plamo action figures?

    When the Arbalest broke, I was like: “do scale models break that easily nowadays?” My 1/144 Gundam X Divider takes a fall every now and then, but I’ve always been able to reassemble it. Maybe Korewazom is taking potshots at the quality of the plamo(s) being built by chinese factories. XD

    https://randomc.net/image/Kore%20wa%20Zombie%20Desu%20ka/Kore%20wa%20Zombie%20Desu%20ka%20OF%20THE%20DEAD%20-%2004%20-%20Large%2017.jpg <- THOSE Melons. Good for the heart and soul. LOL. XD

    I wish I'd meet a woman like Sarasvati someday, minus the "butt-love" part, of course.

    The_Magus_Killer
    Reply

    1. I also want a girl like Sarasvati, but a little more tender.
      Suddenly I have a desire to eat melons, XD sorry girls, I get carried away by the comment, I do not think that way.

      Shadow74
      Reply

  13. While I don’t mind episode full of comedies like this, I really hope studio DEEN balanced it with some plot progression, like fighting with Megalo or whatever that hunting Ayumu’s buttocks besides Saras…
    Studio DEEN sure take its sweet time with only 10 episodes will be aired.

    Kusabi
    Reply

  16. This city is the meeting place for every single crazy lunatic in the known universe, this is the only conclusion I can get from al this madness. Not that I´m complaining.

    haseo0408
    Reply

  19. I understand that you want the final season of Full Metal Panic!, but I hope Kadokawa could make a crossover game between Dengeki, Fujimi, Famitsu, Media Factory, and their own brand of light novels.

    Just imagine seeing Shana and Louise taking on an Arbalest…

    Benigmatica
    Reply

  20. OMFG! That was hilarious! So many jokes, so little time. I did not think they would actually use the names Arbalest and Sousuke. How did they manage that since FMP is a Gonzo production? I thought they usually referred to other studios’ works by changing a few syllables to make it similar but not exactly the same?
    Anyone else catch the joke about Anderson (アンダーソン君）? His commentator name was Shimomura　（下村）. The first character is 下　（した）which means “below” or “under”. The second character is 村（むら）which means “village” but can also be read as そん(SO-N). LOL.

    bertman4
    Reply

  22. *hands where we can see them* ?? What’s this ab-*clicks link* BWAHAHAHA XD. No wonder Haruna got all deredere o3o. Hehehehhe XD.

    This was a classic ep of Korezon, definitely thrives on just throwing the jokes at ya >D!.
    Bring on next week! ..

    The deaths of the moe-yuu was sad, but brilliantly executed. ^w^. hehehehhee. ^v^! Great laughs ^.^…

    Kumakaori
    Reply

  23. Producers probably thought more mousou Yuus will induce a mass-moe-attack that can result to human extinction. A guesstimated 57 Otaku NEETs were sent to the hospital because of last episode already. (>~>)

    MrRei
    Reply

  24. This is the only anime that I know that does a Full Metal Panic reference. And it was a pleasant surprise. Nice touch too. Where are these scale models of Arbalest anyways?
    This is like a good recap of each girls’ charm points. With all the comedy and fan-service packed into this episode, I hope next episode will have more action to it.

    random viewer
    Reply

  26. Interestingly enough, swallowing low-dose nitroglycerin doesn’t kill you and doctors prescribe it for angina. You’re not dead yet, Ayu..wait…

    Anyways, it’s nice to know Sera has a dere side after all! And agreed, Yukinori was so adorable! Haruna’s spending her money to buy a ‘replacement’ model for Ayumu was also sweet (and unexpected).

    Lastly…triple Yu is dead D:

    Beedle
    Reply

    1. Agree. I was hoping we get some semblance of a plot by now. As much as I enjoy seeing Sera’s legs and bust, if I wanted pointless fanservice comedy, I’d just watched a To-Love-ru episode (which, it seems this season of Kore wa Zombie is turning into). I the story starts rolling in next episode – otherwise I’m putting this series into the ‘wait for the season torrent patch’ list.

      RandomRick
      Reply

      2. Was reading through animesuki. Apparently this and season 1 do follow the novels, just that they’ve been jumping around a bit. Take the stargazing episode; that’s apparently from volume 6, while, as I understand, we’re supposed to be somewhere in volume 4.

        I think the anime is actually catching up with the source material (someone know how thick the volumes are? I understand LNs vary by huge margins…), and so they’re stretching the ‘fanservice’ episodes a bit instead of diving into the story like most adaptations do just to compensate. Again from what I gather, there have only been three main antagonists thus far (plus one running antagonist; three guesses to who~), and the novel is still maybe halfway through the third.

        Beedle
        Reply

  30. This was a better episode than the previous ones as it doesn’t focus too much on Ayumu’s cross dressing (that gag was getting tired). It might have been better characterization for Sara to take on Ayumu instead. So far we don’t see much of her personality other than her love of butts.

    Yuki seems more dere than tsun, Haruna is a balanced tsundere and Sera is more tsun than dere. Yuu doesn’t seem to be any type of tsundere when she didn’t need to control her emotions.

    Zaku Fan
    Reply

  37. Laughing from beginning to end. I also loved the FMP cameo. I’m really hoping for a final season season to adapt the remaining light novels.
    Yuu will never be able to stop all the Mousou Yuu`s. It`s only a matter of time.

    Kentaiyoshimi
    Reply

  38. Hey I’ve just found Saraswati is the name of a powerful goddess known for wisdom and art greatly worshiped in India,is it only me but I’ve been hearing India mentioned a lot these days in anime shows.

    shiki
    Reply

  46. Um….are these actual relationship progressions or will the next episode everyone be back to normal?
    I dont really care if Ayumu gets a lover but at least lets see some stronger bonds form or at least some plot movement.
    Episode was fun, i just dont want anymore right now.

    omeganx
    Reply

  48. Like the preview images:

    Yuu: Who are you three?
    Yuu?: We’re you, your inner selves.

    Yuu: *doing a sleeper move on one of them*
    Yuu?: What are you doing!?

    *all inner Yuu’s fainted*
    Yuu: With that outfit you’re wearing… I’m not gonna do it again *drinks tea*

    lester
    Reply

  51. lol I liked that Walmart reference! I actually work for the Home Office and live in Bentonville… I WISH SARAS WAS OUR CEO!

    Seeing all the Full Metal Panic references made me go back to reading the manga from the start, FMP Sigma that is, and watch a few episodes of The Second Run…

    I wish one day they would continue it! Thank you for putting the references into this episode :D!

    Tenkei
    Reply

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