Is This a Zombie? Of the Dead OVA

Is This a Zombie? Of the Dead OVA

Flea Market Challenge

As I suspected, I had already watched the Is This a Zombie? Of the Dead OVA years ago. I guess wherever I watched this series included the OVAs along with the series. I very clearly remember thinking that this episode was the final episode of the second season, not an OVA.

The reason I remember it so distinctly is that the episode ends with an uncensored shot of Haruna where we can see through her shirt and she’s not wearing a bra. I always thought it was odd that this would be allowed in a TV series.

But, now that I know this episode is actually an OVA, it makes a lot more sense. Still, it’s a bit odd that Haruna was the one we see uncensored when you consider her body type and implied age.

Eu, Ayumu, and Sera setting up for the flea market from the Is This a Zombie? Of the Dead anime OVA
Eu, Ayumu, and Sera setting up for the flea market

The OVA episode starts off with Orito challenging Haruna to a flea market battle. The rules of this competition aren’t exactly clear. It’s implied that the winner is whoever sells more of their wares. But it’s also later implied that whoever makes the most money wins.

Why would Orito challenge Haruna to this competition in the first place, though? Well, he knows that if she’s challenged to literally anything, she’ll go all out in her attempt to win. And that’s exactly what he’s counting on her doing here.

Orito believes that in an attempt to win, Haruna will sell some of Sera’s underwear — which he’ll obviously buy from her. It didn’t quite work out as Orito was expecting, but he did come away with one of Sera’s tanktops. Considering his reaction, he probably views that as a success.

Marketing 101

As Ayumu goes around to different booths at the flea market, he notices that all of the successful booths have something in common: sex appeal. This is true of Sera’s booth, Taeko’s booth, Yuki’s booth, and Saras’s booth. What’s being sold matters less than who’s selling it.

Of course, there’s a bit more to it than just who the seller is. What the seller is wearing also plays a big role. Sera was wearing a low-cut shirt, Taeko’s shirt could be seen down when she bent over, Yuki was wearing a bikini top, and Saras had girls in bunny suits selling lewd prints of herself.

Even after Haruna lowered the prices on all of her goods, she still wasn’t getting any customers. So, naturally, Ayumu is going to suggest that Haruna utilizes her sex appeal just like everyone else. But, he quickly realizes that Haruna has none.

Yuki Yoshida selling ramen at the flea market from the Is This a Zombie? Of the Dead anime OVA
Yuki Yoshida selling ramen at the flea market

Overall, I’d say that this first half of the episode was very average. There wasn’t anything wholesome or heartwarming. There wasn’t really much comedy. And there was very little ecchi. Without those things, what does Is This a Zombie? have going for it?

I think this OVA falls into the same trap as the first OVA, which is that it’s kind of just a worse version of the main series. OVAs generally don’t progress the plot of their respective series. So unless they add something the main series can’t, they end up just feeling like worse episodes that were cut from the main series.

But, what can an OVA do that the main series can’t? In the case of an ecchi series like this, the OVA can go all-in on the ecchi content. We got a little bit of uncensored content at the end of the episode, but adding more throughout is something that would set the OVA apart from the series.

Physical Assessment Day

The second half of the episode was better than the first. Not only was this because it was more ecchi-focused, but also because it had a “unique” premise in Ayumu sneaking into the female physical assessment while invisible.

I say “unique” because a male character using the fact that they’re invisible to spy on female characters isn’t actually unique. But it’s more unique than the first half of the OVA because it involves magic. The first half has nothing magical about it. It’s just a flea market.

Again, though, this half of the episode could have gone in a more ecchi direction. But, that doesn’t mean that it needed to feature uncensored content, despite what I previously said about uncensored ecchi content making the OVA stand out more.

An invisible Ayumu watches Mihara stretching from the Is This a Zombie? Of the Dead anime OVA
An invisible Ayumu watches Mihara stretching

Really, adding any more ecchi beyond just the girls stretching while wearing their gym uniforms could have added to this portion of the episode. Did we need to see all three girls doing the same stretches? Couldn’t they have each done something different to add more variety?

And although it’s cliché, having Ayumu go into the girls’ locker room while invisible would have been a great way to add more ecchi content here. That would be a natural way to include ecchi shots of the girls wearing things other than their gym uniforms.

I do have to admit, though, that this content was definitely better than the majority of the content in the season 1 OVA. The season 1 OVA had a higher peak in terms of good content. But this season 2 OVA was far more consistent — in a good way.

The only thing it was missing was a scene to make me laugh. It didn’t really succeed as a comedy.

Conclusion

The Is This a Zombie? Of the Dead OVA — also known as Is This a Zombie? Of the Dead: Yes, This Suits Me Just Fine) is a 6/10. It’s better than the first OVA, but not good enough to actually break into the “good” tier of 7/10. It’s enjoyable for what it is.

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