Roll Call of the Best Modern Zombie Anime

The theme of zombies in anime has created numerous thrilling or terrifying stories revolving around the apocalypse concept of zombies. While High School of the Dead may be one of the most famous series when it comes to zombies, there are certainly other anime that can satisfy any zombie enthusiast.

High School of the Dead

Set in a world where zombies suddenly emerge, the anime follows a group of high school students as they struggle to survive. The series features intense battles between the main characters and hordes of zombies, interspersed with clever tactics that help them stay alive in a hostile environment filled with the undead.

Sunday Without God (2013)

The anime centers around a world where God has abandoned humanity, resulting in death and the inability to be born. This leads to a surreal cycle of existence where the “dead” roam among the living. Before departing, God granted humanity a final miracle, allowing the dead to rise, but these animated corpses lack consciousness or will. The series explores the implications of this new reality and the interactions between the living and the dead.

The “zombies” in this series are the corpses that the living must navigate while trying to find a safe haven.

The Empire of Corpses (2015)

This animated film produced by Wit Studio imagines a world where technology has been developed to resurrect the dead. However, these resurrected beings lack will or consciousness and are used as laborers in various scenarios. While corpses can be reanimated, souls cannot. Yet, there are rumors that Victor Frankenstein, before his death, managed to resurrect a corpse that retained its soul.

John Watson, a medical student from London, is on a quest to uncover the secrets of the resurrection technology developed by Victor Frankenstein. The Empire of Corpses presents a unique take on the horror genre, portraying the undead in a way that challenges the definition of life and death.

School-Live! (2015)

School-Live! presents a unique take on the zombie genre as it focuses on the day-to-day life of students in a high school setting amidst a zombie apocalypse. The show does not rush to the end of the world like many other series.

In most summaries of School-Live!, the main character Yuki expresses a strong desire to participate in her school’s School Living Club, where the rules are simple and the reality is a comforting illusion within the confines of the school. Viewers quickly realize in the first episode that Yuki is an unreliable narrator, creating a fragile psychological state for herself surrounded by the undead within the school building.

Zombieland Saga (2018)

Zombieland Saga is a unique blend of the idol and horror genres. In 2008, a high school student named Minamoto Sakura dies in a traffic accident just as she is about to audition for an idol group. Years later, she is resurrected alongside six other girls with the plan to help revitalize the Saga Prefecture by forming a zombie idol group known as Franchouchou.