Is This a Zombie? of the Dead

これはゾンビですか? OF THE DEAD (Kore wa Zombie desu ka? of the Dead)

7.5(225,237)

MAL Score

Ranked #2355

Popularity #700

Action
Comedy
Ecchi
Fantasy
Harem
Urban Fantasy
Vampire

Episodes: 10
Duration: 24 min per ep
Aired: Apr 5, 2012 to Jun 7, 2012
Status: Finished Airing

Synopsis

Aikawa Ayumu owes his second life to Eucliwood Hellscythe, a soft-spoken necromancer who brought him back as a zombie. After the chaotic escapades of the first season, he’s hoping things might finally settle into something resembling normal—at least by undead standards.

That peace doesn’t last. Fate has more complications in store, and Ayumu once again finds himself pulled into another round of unpredictable, over-the-top trouble.

Otaku Consensus

Is This a Zombie? of the Dead earns its cult-friendly reputation when Studio Deen leans into tonal whiplash: horror-flavored design, ecchi harem chaos, and punchline-first urban fantasy all moving at a brisk 10-episode pace. Critics and fans most often praise its comedy chemistry and oddball atmosphere, while the recurring knock is that its story and character growth can feel secondary to gags, fanservice, and genre parody.

Why You Should Watch

Watch Is This a Zombie? of the Dead if you want harem ecchi comedy that treats supernatural lore as a toy box rather than homework. It scratches a nearby itch to High School DxD’s urban-fantasy fanservice and Baka and Test’s joke-density, but with a weirder horror-comedy skin: necromancy, vampire ninjas, magical-girl parody, and deadpan humiliation all sharing the same room. The second season’s 10-episode length also works in its favor if you prefer fast escalation over long arc management. Viewers who need tight plotting or sincere romance progression may bounce off it; viewers who want absurd character chemistry, deliberately stupid genre collisions, and a lighter harem footprint than the tag suggests will get exactly the brand of nonsense they came for.

Key Characters

A
Ayumu Aikawa(VA: Junji Majima)
Ayumu is the rare male harem lead whose appeal comes less from wish fulfillment than from being a durable straight man repeatedly dragged through supernatural embarrassment.
H
Haruna(VA: Iori Nomizu)
Haruna anchors the series’ magical-girl parody energy, turning the “Masou-Shoujo” concept into a source of loud comedy rather than clean heroics.
E
Eucliwood Hellscythe(VA: Yui Horie)
Eucliwood’s soft-spoken necromancer presence gives the cast its strangest contrast: she is quiet, visually iconic, and often treated by fans as the emotional center of the chaos.
S
Seraphim(VA: Youko Hikasa)
Seraphim brings the vampire-ninja side of the show into focus, balancing sharp-tongued hostility with the series’ taste for supernatural absurdity.

What Makes It Stand Out

1
Studio Deen produced this second TV season as a compact 10-episode run, airing from April 5 to June 7, 2012, which gives the comedy less downtime than a standard 12- or 13-episode cour.
2
The series’ genre stack is unusually literal: Action, Comedy, Ecchi, and Fantasy are all active on-screen modes, while its theme tags add harem, urban fantasy, and vampire elements rather than leaving them as background flavor.
3
MyReviewer singled out the season’s design and atmosphere as a strength, noting that it makes the spooky premise visually enjoyable instead of treating the horror elements as throwaway decoration.
4
Its reception profile is notably split: a 7.46 MAL score from 225,194 votes and #700 popularity point to strong audience reach, while review excerpts range from enthusiastic comedy recommendations to harsh criticism of the story and humor.
5
Fan discussion often frames the harem component as lighter than the tag implies, which helps distinguish it from ecchi comedies that rely primarily on romantic competition.

Fun Facts & Trivia

Fun fact 1: Is This a Zombie? of the Dead is the second TV season of Studio Deen’s adaptation of the Is This a Zombie? light novel series.
Fun fact 2: The season has only 10 episodes, making it shorter than the first season’s commonly noted 12-episode structure and unusually lean for a spring TV anime cour.
Fun fact 3: On MyAnimeList, it holds a 7.46/10 score from 225,194 votes, with a popularity rank of #700 and an overall rank of #2355.
Fun fact 4: The main Japanese cast includes Junji Majima as Ayumu Aikawa, Iori Nomizu as Haruna, Yui Horie as Eucliwood Hellscythe, Chiharu Kitaoka as Sarasvati, and Youko Hikasa as Seraphim.
Fun fact 5: Contemporary commentary often identifies the show first as comedy rather than horror, even though its central iconography includes zombies, necromancy, vampire ninjas, and other spooky urban-fantasy ingredients.