Well the second season for Kore wa Zombie Desu ka wraps up with an interesting though in some ways underwhelming last episode. Certainly if people had hoped that the last episode woould give some major battle to wrap up the season then it didn’t deliver, but it did bring up some good issues about Ayumu and how parts of him might feel about everything that has occurred to this point.

Introducing ‘Dark Ayumu’ allowed us to explore some issues and also set up an interesting fight between Ayumu and Eu. When you think about it Ayumu having some resentment about how complicated his life has become would be normal. If he never met Eu that day then he probably would have gotten home without hearing a thing and never been killed by Kyouko. Of course possible he would have been killed at some point later, but at that point we’re just guessing. Instead of a peaceful life Ayumu died, was revived as a zombie, and then this harem started to be built around him. Normally harem is simply good, but this is one of the toughest harems I’ve ever seen someone have to work for. He takes a lot of physical and verbal abuse on a regular basis though things have slowly improved. At this point if it’s female and has a name then that character has some interest in Ayumu. How much tends to vary, but it has become quite extensive.

Having Eu transform again was nice. Of course she was actually getting handled pretty effectively by Ayumu, but that was understandable. There was the emotional reason for her to struggle and on top of that she couldn’t use her words to attack like with Kyouko since she didn’t want Ayumu to be destroyed. While I’m not totally sure how stabbing him in the gut with a chainsaw and turning it on helped to bring Ayumu back, in the end it all worked out. Ayumu did recover his memories that were erased earlier in the episode and the bond with everyone is stronger for it.

As usual the episode was good for some laughs. The slime that only destroyed clothing (minus underwear) was a classic, but still comical kind of foe. Nice job there Haruna though I suppose since this was a test that Dai-sensei had some role to play in it. Was pretty fun to have everyone panicking like that and how hard it was especially to get an embarrassed Haruna to allow herself to be saved from the slime. It might have ended in failure for Ayumu, but the series continues to deliver on it’s fanservice if nothing else.

Can’t say I was surprised to find that most of Ayumu’s inner ‘sins’ were all pretty melodramatic. He is the guy who is constantly complaining about the trials that Gaia keeps giving to him. Not that he doesn’t go through a lot, but having those inner Ayumu’s act so ridiculous really did fit. Even more hilarious was Haruna just going around and beating them all up in a shorter amount of time than their introductions took.

If this was simply one more episode than it would have been fine. But as a final episode I have to say it was a bit lacking. After all this build up with Chris just about nothing is resolved there. Ayumu was returned to normal, but this was just a test from Dai-sensei that didn’t seem to help Ayumu become any stronger. The episode felt like the rest of the season where comedy and fanservice seemed to take prominence over story and action.

Final Thoughts:

Now I’d say that my lack of action complaints wouldn’t be valid if the OP hadn’t given that impression. In the end that OP had more action in it than the entire second season. Ayumu defeated a couple of Megalo and got blasted away by Chris, that’s it. The first season did a good job of progressing the story, giving some laughs, and delivering the action. Even Kyouko didn’t bring a great deal of action to the second season though she did make it a bit more interesting. Just seemed like excuses upon excuses were piled up to make sure Ayumu didn’t have to fight anyone.

The story was also all over the place. Characters were introduced, but only really mattered for that episode before vanishing. That blood puking doctor and Nene both had potential to move things forward, but they really didn’t matter much outside of their respective episode. Sometimes the flow felt hard to follow like with the episode that had Yuki and Ayumu moving to a first name basis, but the rest of the series they behaved like that episode never happened. Makes me wonder if they were just animating different volumes out of order and just mixing them together in the most fun way they could.

I will say that the second season didn’t let down with its fanservice. While I personally didn’t care for the Ayumu focus in that….I’m sure someone out there did. But really a lot of the other girls (especially the Masou Shoujos) had their moments and showed off what they had. Think we saw Dai-sensei in the bath more than outside of it and Kyouko was living fanservice despite her clear mental insability. The inner Eu moments were just great with all those voice actors playing their parts well. Ayumu’s fantasies are always alright in my book. The sequence at the end of every episode with Eu and the inner Eu’s was a lot of fun since they were so crazy and she struggled to interact with them at times.

If anything was done well it was that Ayumu’s harem was developed fairly well and is a lot closer to him than before. Sera is getting more and more open about her feelings though being honest is still beyond her. Sarasvati made the biggest strides going from just another vampire ninja to a girl who really got closer to Ayumu (when she wasn’t creeping him out with her obsession with his rear). Ayumu might not have the easiest harem in the world, but he certainly has quite the lively one.

In the end I’m left with mixed feelings about this second season. It could have been something great that took a step forward, but instead kind of took a few steps backwards. For whatever reason it just seemed to be weaker. Don’t think it helped that every episode built up expectations with that OP and then proceeded to dash them. Felt like this season was more about fanservice than anything else and while fanservice isn’t bad it probably shouldn’t be what the entire season is based on. Will say that I still enjoyed most of the episodes, but just not as much as I could have.

I will write up a full review later, but those are just my ending thoughts for Kore wa Zombie Desu ka? Of the Dead.
Score: A-