[1] Four 13-year old children, the lead character Hikaru (Keita Ninomiya), Takemura (Mondo Okumura), Ishi (Satoshi Mizuno) and Ikuko (Sena Nakajima), meet outside a crematorium.

Coming from challenging backgrounds, and often having unfortunate relationships with their family, they all dislike their recently deceased parents, all killed in unfortunate circumstances (automobile accident, double suicide, a wok-related fire and murder by the hands of a pedophilic piano teacher).

At the same age, they decided to run away and form their own pop music band, which they call "The Little Zombies".

[7] The website's critics' consensus reads, "We Are Little Zombies mixes the playful and the profane with a stylish and visually inventive look at death, abandonment, and the grieving process.

"[8] A positive review at rogerbert.com stated that the film was "a little hard to describe: it’s not really about how music can transform and/or improve you.