In Zombie-Loan, Volume 4, Volume 5 and Volume 6, zombies are bound to die.

Zombies, of course, are the perfect displacement for wanting to kill another human. They are persistent, repulsive, annoying, dangerous and most of all, they are already dead, so you don’t have to feel guilty about snuffing out a life. The folks working for Z-Loan, kill people-shaped “things” for money, not people.

In a nutshell, Volume 4 ends the illegal zombie/golem-making mad scientist arc, and politics breaks out among the rulers of the not-quite-otherworld. Shito is captured and rescued and his back story, which had been previously established, turns out to be a huge lie so the artist can introduce a new bishie or three. Chika goes through about three crises of conscience and identity and in the end Shito, Chika and Michiru sort of all pull together as a team. Kinda.

In Volume 5 the politics take precedence and the dialogue – which was never award winning – descends into near incomprehensible pseudo-spiritualist babble. Thank heavens I’m not really trying to follow anything here – mostly all the pretty boys look the same to me and if Chika and Shito didn’t keep screaming each other’s names, I’d probably forget which was which.

In Volume 6 a rival zombie-hunting company, cleverly called “A-Loan,” opens up across the street and, as with all good rivalries, the new team is one-upping us all over the place. But something or someone else is catching all the good zombies and both teams are in danger of dying, oh noes!

Amid all the screaming and running, it would be nice to have a little bastion of comfort and quiet, such as a home usually provides, but alas, no rest for the weary almost-dead. Even during those would-be quite times, Koyomi’s unquiet personality makes it hard for Michiru to relax.
The Yuri in these volumes is most notable for its absence. In Volume 3, Michiru rejected Yomi’s confession that her feelings for Michiru were real. Since then, Yomi has not made an appearance. In fact, it is Michiru who calls the situation to our attention the first time – and it’s Michiru who keeps bringing it back up. Additionally, when it appears that Koyomi likes Soutestu, Michiru’s reaction is obvious even to herself. She’s feeling jealous. It is perhaps understandable that Michiru is led to believe that her interest must surely be in Soutestu, rather than Yomi, but it’s is still deeply annoying. It’s also unconvincing, as Michiru quietly calls Yomi’s name when in the bath with Koyomi.

I know that there’s no hope for them. It’s not really part of the story and should Yomi come back, I have no doubt that she will have subsumed her genuine interest in Michiru into being satisfied by service – because that is what is done in manga and I do not expect this to be something other than it is. Regardless of the reality, I believe that Michiru is feeling more than normally sentimental about Yomi and if they were left alone to it, they might come to like one another. Equally, they might grow to loathe one another, but we’ll never know…will we?

All the screaming and bickering has gotten on my last nerve. It was a trial to read Volume 6. Compared with something like Black Lagoon, or Dogs, Bullets and Carnage – both of which are equally filled with screaming and vast amounts of violence against both living and dead humans and both of which are significantly superior to this series (and gosh how I wish they would have the smallest smidgen of Yuri for me to make a review viable,) Zombie-Loan just doesn’t walk the walk.

Ratings:

Art – 6
Story – 6, dropping to 5
Characters – 7
Yuri – 2
Service – 3

Overall – 6

Today triple thanks are due to Okazu Superhero Eric P for nabbing all three of these volumes and allowing me to sum up a number of evening’s reading at once!