Zombie Loan

This week, my cruel overlords and Manga.com have decided that the nausea inducing Hell Girl review I had to do wasn’t enough to satisfy their insatiable, sadistic appetites. So ignoring my tear soaked pleas, I’m once again forced to review another dark and dreary Manga that has to do with death and the afterlife. Apparently that’s what the corporate suits in the Manga business are into now and days. Frankly I’d rather be writing about Yu-Gi-Oh! GX. No, wait…that’s a filthy lie. Today’s title is a little number known as Zombie Loan.
 
Now I’m one of the biggest zombie fans in the history of existence. In fact, I spend most of my free time fantasizing that one day I’ll wake up to a post apocalyptic world where the undead have risen and I’m forced to beat down the walking carcasses that were once my neighbors in order to loot the local Trader Joes for supplies. Take that expensive organic foods. Imagine my dismay when I realized that Zombie Loan has very little to do with actual zombies and is in fact another Manga based on the Shinigami concept wherein the heroine has the ability to gauge when a person is going to die by the stylish black collar around their neck. Okay, seriously people…stop with the damn Death God angle. I’m so tired of seeing the word Shinigami in everything I read. It’s like an internet meme that got popular on some mindless forum and spread like cancer across the minds of millions. We get it. Angsty people need stuff to read.

Addressing the actual content itself, the mousey heroine and her two overly effeminate boy toys are given another shot at life by working for some mysterious office known as, oh gosh, the Zombie Loan. This enables the plot point where the loan office gets to employ the trio in order for them to pay back their debt. The actual storyline wouldn’t be so bad if it weren’t for the fact that I couldn’t possibly care less for the characters even if they were to invade my home and relieve themselves on my Wii. The two male protagonists who are supposed to be the “bad-ass” ones come off rather like douche-bags and are completely unlikable as people. That and of course they had to be overly effeminate which makes me want to take to them with a pen and draw in some facial hair and beer bellies. The female lead reminds me of every soft spoken female anime character with glasses ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. EVER.
 
Peach-Pit may indeed have had an interesting concept on their hands, but a mix of bad story telling and cliché characters make the series almost impossible to read. You find yourself skipping through the actual bulk of the story just to get to the bloody stabby shooty parts and even that is unfulfilling. I suppose if you’re one of those people who simply must have their monthly dose of Shinigami related stories then Zombie Loan just might be for you. Then again a nice trip to the park surrounded by friends and family who’ll help you realize there’s things in the world other than the dark, lonely spiral of death in your Manga inspired fantasy world might do you some good as well.