Zombie Loan

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

A Manga and Eleven Episode Anime series by Peach-Pit (of Rozen Maiden, Shugo Chara and DearS fame).

Michiru Kita is an orphaned girl living with her aunt and uncle. She is pretty much normal other than the fact that she possesses "Shinigami Eyes", meaning that, without her glasses, she can see rings around people's necks that show they will die soon.

One day, she meets Chika Akatsuki and Shito Tachibana, two survivors of a horrible bus accident in the middle of a Zombie Hunt, and learns the horrible truth about them -- they're already dead, and only alive through a "Z Loan" that they seek to pay off by hunting Zombies who are alive illegally. Michiru ends up unceremoniously dragged along in exchange for her life and the use of her eyes to find the already dead.

Has a character sheet.

Tropes used in Zombie Loan include:
  • Abusive Parents: Chika's mom left him alone at home to live with another man, resulting in him nearly starving to death.
  • Akashic Records: In the form of a computer database!
  • All Love Is Unrequited: Let's see. Shito, Chika, Zen and Yomi have all shown an interest in Michiru, who doesn't notice. Koyomi has a crush on Shito and Aso, who both don't notice.
  • Ambiguous Gender: Yuuta. The only definite thing this troper can say is "he/she is cute".
  • Artificial Human: The Golems, who provide several Pet the Dog moments for Shito.
  • Better as Friends: Michiru and Aso after one date decides to break up.
  • Beware the Nice Ones: Michiru is one of the nicest characters around. But when Carmella tried to hurt her and her friends, she snapped and easily crushed Carmella's core.
  • Big Badass Wolf: The director of the dormitory has one of these as her pet/assistant.
  • Blind Without'Em: Subverted, Michiru can actually see fairly well without her glasses, she just doesn't like seeing the rings around people's necks.
  • Brand X: Koyomi is known to get drunk on "Fantan", a sound-alike soda to a real brand. There's also a card game called "Umo".
  • Breaking the Fourth Wall: Michiru.
  • Broken Ace: Shiba is a cool, handsome, friendly and highly intellectual person. But he became so bored with his monotonous life that he committed suicide and would come head to head against his best friend Chika.
  • But Not Too Foreign: Chika's father, who's also a Phenotype Stereotype blond and green-eyed Westerner.
  • Chained to a Bed
  • Chains of Love: Between Chika and Shito's hands (long story) and neither of them are happy about it.
  • Cliff Hanger: Had they left the anime as just the 11 TV episodes it would have been fine. The two DVD episodes set up a brand new arc... and then stop.
  • Conspiracy Redemption: How Michiru ends up working with Chika and Shito.
  • Creepy Child: the little servant boy who helped Michiru is one of these.
  • Creepy Cool Crosses: On the school uniforms and several of the weapons.
  • Dead All Along: Shiba, and later, Shito, who was actually born a zombie from a 7-year zombie pregnancy. Eww...
  • Deal with the Devil: The very idea of the Z Loan, though some forms are more devilish than others.
  • Demonic Possession: Yomi briefly possesses Michiru after the latter went into her Heroic BSOD and to get them out of the warping space from collapsing and taking them with it.
  • Diabolus Ex Machina: So Shito manages to save a rather woobie-ish golem girl from her creator, who saw her as nothing more than a defective failure. Now she's gonna go back with him to Z-Loan and get cared for by people who won't abuse her, right? Cue said creator's assistant shooting her in the head out of nowhere, saying that she was just another monster to be dealt with.
  • Drives Like Crazy: Sotetsu, of course.
  • Dysfunction Junction: Pretty much everyone living in the dorms. Michiru lost her parents at a young age and we find out those aren't really her parents. Shito is a living corpse, trying to save his mother. Chika suffered from Parental Abandonment as his mother went to live with another man, resulting in him nearly starving to death in his own home. Koyomi's family had Yomi sealed inside of her to please Yomi, and that didn't work as well as they thought it did, they locked Koyomi inside the house.
  • Eleven Episode Anime: Plus two DVD episodes.
  • Even the Girls Want Her: Aside from a lot of the guys, Yomi wants Michiru too.
  • Evil Eye: Shinigami Eyes
  • Expy: The Butterfly looks like an older Jun Sakurada from Peach-Pit's earlier series Rozen Maiden, and Yuuta and Kuze Shimotsuki are dead ringers for Souseiseki and Shinku respectively. (Although this troper believes Yuuta much better mirrors Natsuki Ikuhara of another Peach-Pit series, DearS.)
  • Eyepatch of Power: Soutetsu
  • Eyes Always Shut: Tohou, a liaison from the Chinese mafia, a la Gin Ichimaru.
  • First-Episode Resurrection: More like second episode, but same idea.
  • Forbidden Fruit: An interesting case. The little servant boy tells Michiru when entering the entrance to the spirit world, she mustn't look back. However, Yomi, the one that Michiru is looking for, tells her to turn around. Not knowing whether to trust the boy or Yomi's voice, Michiru does turn around, only to find that the little servant boy standing creepily behind her, wanting to eat her.
  • Grand Theft Me: Lao Ye takes over Shito's body.
  • Grim Reaper: An actual character; also, the job description of the heroes.
  • Hand Cannon: Subverted, other than the barrel Shito's gun is not actually that big.
  • Heroic BSOD: Michiru briefly suffers through this, when she finds out that her parents had actually adopted her and there was something dark lurking in her past, unknown to her.
  • Hot Shounen Mom: You gotta admit for a corpse, Shito's mother is really, really pretty.
  • Hot Springs Episode: Complete with Censor Steam and Skinship Grope scenes.
  • Important Haircut: Michiru loses both of her braids symbolically in the second and third episodes. It represents her turning over of a new leaf.
  • Innocent Fanservice Girl: Michiru and Koyomi.
  • Instant Bandages: Is actually one character's power, and she pays off her debt by selling them to the other hunters.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Chika. Shito, on the other hand, is actually icy under his friendly demeanor.
    • Zarame, despite his gruffness and insults, is actually quite protective over Michiru.
  • Katanas Are Just Better: An actual argument in the show about the protagonist's respective weapons.
  • Killer Rabbit: Shinigami Zarame may look like a adorable and very huggable plushie, but I dare you to say that to his face.
  • The Mafia: Shito's the heir to a powerful Chinese mafia syndicate.
  • Man, I Feel Like a Woman: An interesting case, where Yomi had taken possession of Michiru's body briefly and wanted to "play with her for a bit".
  • Meganekko: Michiru.
  • Meido: In one story arc, Michiru and Koyomi end up buying maid outfits and blending in with the Otaku gathered for an offline meeting.
  • Mind Screw: In the most recent manga chapters Michiru has to dive into Chika's subconscious mind a la Pensieve Flashback, but something goes wrong and his younger self is able to see and interact with her, making the conversation that originally happened in his mind part of his reality in the past making the whole situation into a bit of a Timey-Wimey Ball. When his teenager self showed up, all bets were off.
  • Murder.Com
  • Number One Dime: Shito's comb, which had belonged to his mother.
  • Odd Couple: Chika and Shito, who openly state that they hate each other.
  • Ordinary High School Student: Michiru, minus the Shinigami eyes.
  • Otaku: A group of Otaku following a serial murderer's "virtual murders" feature prominently in one episode (complete with Nerd Glasses on all of them).
  • Papa Wolf: Zarame tends to act this way towards Michiru. Same with Yomi, Shito and Chika, when Michiru gets involved.
  • Parental Incest: Shito really, really, really loves his mother, even making the loan, so that she could have her years back.
  • Pensieve Flashback: when Michiru has to dive into Chika's mind after he reverts to his cannibalistic zombie instincts
  • Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Zarame the Shinigami fits into this.
  • Psycho Lesbian: The school nurse from the first two episodes.
  • Scary Shiny Glasses: On Otsu, Michiru and Bekko at varying times.
  • Showing Off the New Body: Lao Ye takes over Shito's much younger body to attain immortality.
  • Sinister Scythe: Wouldn't have a shinigami without one.
  • Skinship Grope: Koyomi's "other" personality Yomi has a definite fondness for groping Michiru's breasts.
  • Sleep Mode Size: The Grim Reaper after his body is stolen, making Michiru Squee (even as his scythe is embedded in her forehead).
  • Split Personality: Koyomi/Yomi.
  • The Stoic: The director of the dormitory Michiru lives in, Shimotsuki Kuze, is this.
    • Also Koume, the little girl who used to work for the Shinigami.
  • Story Arc: Several, usually taking up two episodes each.
  • Suicide Is Painless: Shiba, who jumped off a building out of boredom.
  • Super-Deformed: Especially during comedy sequences.
  • Teen Genius: Shiba later revealed to be a Mad Scientist.
  • Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Shito and Chika.
  • Tomato in the Mirror: It has been revealed that Michiru is this.
  • Urban Fantasy
  • Unwanted Harem: Not so much unwanted as unnoticed, as Michiru has garnered the affections of Shito, Chika, Zen, and Yomi but is oblivious to it. She has also been shipteased with Shiba a little.
  • The Virus: When it's discovered that a new breed of Zombie can create other Zombies by killing normal humans, it's a problem.
  • Work Off the Debt: The entire premise of the show.
  • Yank the Dog's Chain: Shito promises the golem girl that he will take care of her, teach her how to speak and send her to school like a normal person. She gets killed by Yoshizumi's assistant the next page.
  • You Gotta Have Pink Hair: Michiru.
  • Zettai Ryouiki: Seems to be a default part of the female uniform at Michiru's school.
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