Manga Review: Zombie Loan Volume Four

[Jason]

Title: Zombie Loan
Volume: Four
Mangaka: Peach-Pit
Originally Serialized In: Gfantasy
Licensed by: Yen Press
Genre: Shonen, supernatural

Zombie Loan, volume four, picks up right after the hot springs ending of volume three. It can most easily be summed up as ‘family matters.’ This is probably the series’ can’t miss back-story issue. At first, we get to meet Chika’s Western father, who is the flamboyant blond ‘could be a big brother, not a dad’ stereotype. We’ve all seen the type before, but still he manages to be endearing, much more so than Chika’s sister who never stops text messaging to say anything interesting. A little too true to life, that is.

However, cute as it is, Chika’s family time doesn’t add much to the storyline. Not so with Shito, who gets a visit from a very creepy young man from his past who seems to have some control over him. Things blow up when Michuri happens on a woman’s comb in Shito’s room while bringing the laundry. Shito’s cruel overreaction gets Chika in an uproar, leaving Shito unfortunately alone when trouble comes his way in the form of a psycho with a chainsaw.


A mad scientist type then takes Shito hostage. The creepy man from Shito’s past, Touhou, pays a visit to the Zombie Loan office, spilling a whole lot of information to Chika and Michuri. Nothing is what it’s seemed to be. Touhou does offer up he knows, that Shito has been kidnapped, and we also learn that Touhou’s an exorcist, among other things, easily capable of controlling zombies like Shito and Chika.

Barely having time to comprehend Shito’s true history, Chika and Michuri go to rescue him and another zombie joins them: the motorcycle riding, ax wielding, Sotetsu. An off-again, on-again student at the academy with Chika and Shito, Sotetsu is eager to help. While Shito is trapped with the doctor, Chika, Michuri and Sotetsu go looking for a shinigami to help them, only to get into a cliffhanger’s ending worth of trouble.

Zombie Loanis really coming into its own now. Michuri does a little more here than quail this time, which is good. The story line is very interesting. Art wise, there’s still that bit of unevenness. However, Sotetsu is a nice piece of fan service to counterbalance the Michuri/Yomi stuff, running around bare-chested with his leather pants nearly falling off his hipbones. As I’ve said several times, Yen Press likes to leave the sound effects in place and add in both phonetic and English translations but it didn’t seemed too cluttered this time.

Reviewer: D.M. Evans
Proofed and Edited by Lissa Pattillo