Thanks to the popularity of horror films, there are a whole class of monsters well known to the general public. Unlike something as niche as a wendigo, these ghouls appear so often that they have entire sub-genres of their own. Amongst these is the zombie.
Zombies set themselves apart due to their focus on autonomy. As dead or infected human corpses, they prey on the fear of losing one’s control of their own body and their individuality, thus becoming a part of a mindless swarm. However, there are several interpretations where zombies retain their personalities and ability to speak, and anime hosts a decent collection of these.
8 The Zombie Devil (Chainsaw Man)
The Zombie Devil is a bit of a weird case. Technically, it’s more devil than zombie, as Chainsaw Man’s devils are manifestations of human fears. That makes it the manifestation of human’s fear of zombies.
While it’s not a traditional zombie, it certainly looks the part, and can even use its intestines to attack. Its main power is the ability to turn people into zombies themselves, with all the usual rules applying after the fact. Like most devils, ZD seeks to kill devil hunters in order to stop them from killing its kind.
7 Zombina (Monster Musume)
Monster Musume is an ecchi anime series with a wide cast of monster-girls. In this world, non-humans are starting to integrate into human society, but due to the laws surrounding this migration, humans and monsters aren’t allowed to have romantic relationships, and human police have no authority over monsters.
That’s where Zombina and the Monster Ops: Neutralisation team come in. As part of MON, Zombina is tasked with stopping any monstrous criminals. As a zombie herself, she acts as the team’s decoy, as she can take bullets without feeling pain, and detach her body parts at will.
6 Victoria Cindry (One Piece)
Victoria is a great example of how becoming a zombie can change a person, even if they don’t lose their self awareness. She was once a famous actress, but then tragically died when she fell off the stage during a performance. Then, her obsessive fan Dr. Hogback decided to turn her into a zombie servant.
As a zombie, Victoria’s once kind nature has been splattered with negative personality traits. She has an absurd hatred of plates, to the point where it overrides her compulsion to follow orders, and is now capable of making even Hogback horrified.
5 Sakura Minamoto (Zombieland Saga)
Sakura’s life certainly wasn’t the best. She suffered a string of failures for most of it, but still had some motivation to keep going. Tragically though, she was run over by a truck one morning, and awoke as a zombie.
In a rare turn though, her undead life didn’t descend into shambling around for brains, but instead dancing and singing on stage. She joined the zombie idol group Franchouchou, and ended up being a leader in the group, helping her friends stay motivated and get over their individual issues.
4 Doya (Akame Ga Kill)
Dying in Akame Ga Kill is by no means a unique feat. The anime is famous for killing off characters regularly. However, it is unique to have died and come back, just as Doya did. She was brought back against her will by her killer, Kurome, and now serves her as an undead puppet.
As a zombie, Doya doesn’t look the part. She lacks the pale/gray skin or sutures zombies usually sport, and could pass for being alive. However, she keeps the zombie ability to not feel any pain or fatigue, making her quite the useful tool.
3 Sid Barrett (Soul Eater)
At the Death Weapon Meister Academy, the staff and faculty are dedicated to teaching their students how to become efficient weapon and meister pairs. Sid Barett might share this motivation, but sticks out from the rest of his colleagues due to being undead.
After being killed in action, Sid was revived by the mad scientist Dr. Franken Stein, taking on a blueish-gray skin tone and empty, white eyes. Even in his afterlife Sid still teaches and works as an intelligence officer for DWMA, although his disposition has become noticeably more aggressive.
2 Ikoma (Kabaneri of The Iron Fortress)
Kabaneri of The Iron Fortress has a fairly standard anime zombie setup. A mysterious virus is going around that turns humans into the zombie-like kabane, and Ikoma experiences this first hand when his little sister is killed by a kabane.
He goes on to invent a special weapon that can kill kabane, but gets himself bitten in the process of testing it. By manually blocking off his arteries though, he’s able to remain sentient, while inheriting all the abilities of a kabane, making him a human/kabane hybrid.
1 Rita (Rage of Bahamut: Genesis)
Even before her death, Rita was a pretty brilliant scientist. However, when her entire town was massacred and she was left the only survivor, she found it hard to let go. As such, she revived her townspeople, turning them all into zombies.
While she was able to live with the zombies for a while, she was eventually bitten herself, but was luckily able to retain her sentience. She was then forced into the employ of Kiasar, and moonlights as a shady doctor who will take on any client she can get her hands on.