Highschool of the Dead ~ Review ~

Note: This review is of a mature anime series. If you're a prude to fanservice, or not able to handle semi-gory action sequences and lots of blood, ignore this anime and review right now.

Carry on, otherwise. ~ Haru

It's time that I revisit this great anime, because back when I originally reviewed it on Facebook, I didn't feel like I gave it as thorough of a look as I should have done. Thus, I invite all of you fellow fans of zombies, breasts, highschool girls, and action, to give this new article here a read and enjoy! If you've been on the fence of this series then let me introduce you formally to Highschool of The Dead!

~Tits Need Not Apply~

Boob jokes are going to probably run throughout this review, so yeah. But anyways...Highschool of the Dead is Japan's first REAL animated entry into the fray of the recent zombie phenomenon in entertainment. Created by two brothers named Daisuke and Shouji Sato, this series brings a group of highschool students into the midst of the apocalypse which is already well under way and makes itself known in Japan. If you've been wondering how this show has been getting attention, then arguably it's because you only know very little with the screenshots and hubbub surrounding it...or are unfamiliar with the two brothers' history in the industry. Which is perfectly fine because they don't make anime or manga...at least...not "traditional" manga.

They're known as illustrators of hentai. Yep. So Highschool of the Dead is an attempt to actually make a zombie apocalypse story...but by two hentai artists and the small staff surrounding them.

This 12 episode (13 episodes, if you count the summer-special-OVA) series starts off firing on all cylinders and ends with a bang...and a cliffhanger. After all, how do you -really- end the story of a group fighting to survive in the end of the world? It all goes south when Takashi (the main protagonist) is playing hookie and trying to get over the fact his childhood friend Rei is now dating his best friend Hisashi, when she made the promise years ago that she'd be with him. Well, she technically said as a little girl they'd -marry-, but cut the guy some slack...he got dumped.

He's mouthed off by a pink hair, pigtail girl who's also known him for years and (will never admit it herself) also has a crush on Takashi named Saya, who's the school genius, that he needs to get over it and "Grow Up". Immediately after this, he sees a strange commotion down at the school's front gate where someone investigates some noise by (what appears to be) a random hooligan......until suddenly people at the front gate are murdered.

AND THUS THE SHITSTORM BEGINS!

Several students (Read: many) end up dying by being swarmed by the zombies but a select few DO manage to at least escape the school and form a group where no specific leader is at the header and only TEAMWORK gets you to live one more day. There's Saya (the genius, but doesn't really defend herself. She's more or less the brains to help everyone figure out what to do next), Rei (the spear combat expert), Saeko (a girl who is one of Japan's best swordsman), Shizuka (the nurse of the school, who tags along mostly as a medic.), Hirano (a Grade A nerd/member of the NRA and is very skilled with many types of guns.), Arisu (a girl who lost her father in the midst of the apocalypse) and her dog Zero, and Takashi (who loves using close-range combat weapons like bats, crowbars, etc).

Throughout the history of the beginning premise to the end the best thing that Highschool of the Dead isn't actually its fanservice, but always putting forth the effort to give a sense of dread, horror, and the feeling nobody may actually live to see tomorrow. Oh sure, there's some very curvy babes in this series who may be #1 candidates for helping to repopulate the human race once this is over.....but for as much fanservice (in official and fan-made artwork) as this show has, it almost never sells its soul to the levels of face-palm embarassing ecchi that other shows WHOSE SOLE PURPOSE is to fill every frame with ecchi do. I'm looking at you, Girls Bravo, Master of Martial Hearts and Sekirei. (Note: I love Sekirei, but boy does it suffer from a lot of ecchi tropes)

Ahem.

~These Hills Have Size~

Okay, so for what it is, you know already that Highschool of the Dead packs the punch of action, fanservice, and some drama. How's the voice acting? How's the packaging for the video release? What's the payoff on the final episode? How's the writing?

--Writing--

Well HOTD plays it safe, and by that I mean it doesn't really innovate or do much to make itself known amongst everything else that has zombies in it other than....y'know...mammaries, some smooth animation for its combat sequences, and a good color palette despite the setting. That's not a bad thing, mind you, but it shows just the limited vision the creators had for HOTD. Maybe that's a good thing? As such, the story goes on that once the group leaves the school they end up saving 20 or so students and staff...one of them being a teacher with a dark, hidden personality named Shido.

Shido is a teacher that, once he is freed from the school and amongst the other students (and our main group), decides he's going to be the leader to help everybody move along. After all, it's now the end of the world and he sees this opportunity to make other realize this by his argument of.......that.....he's...the oldest. And a teacher. I suppose. Shido possesses the strange ability with the power of suggestion that gets a certain number of students in the escape vehicle to blindly listen to what he says despite the way he says it sounding...fishy. You look at this guy, his mannerisms, and what he's saying and think "Yeah he's an asshole" and wonder how anybody else is taking him seriously. But alas, he somehow gains a following...which is where our main characters realize this guy has as much brains and guts as fries in a Happy Meal.

Though he never truly uses this position of power to any real deal: he and some of the other characters feel stunted. He never actually -does- anything that shows the audience that he's evil. You're supposed to feel anger and detest this character because of something you find out about his connection to Rei. Other than that though, he's just one REALLY loud guy that loves hearing himself talk while some -really- fucking stupid students just follow his every word. It's...kind of embarrassing and an insult to other, really under-developed villains in anime that left a much bigger impression on their audiences.

But while Shido  is uninteresting due to his all about nothing, the others don't really change all that much either. You gather that from the series Takashi has a crush on Saeko (and it's VERY obvious who the animation studio favors as far as pairings go) and tries to do his best as the "head" of the group, Shizuka is the big boobed woman who's under-utilized (which is a damn shame), Arisu is there for the moe crowd, Hirano is everybody's bro, Saya is a love-her-or-hate-her character who doesn't grow much humility until Takashi nearly hits her, and Rei is constantly jumping between wanting to whine that her boyfriend is dead and wanting to sex up Takashi to make up for her fickle nature. There's even a side character that's introduced as Shizuka's friend who is a sniper that's also caught up in the midst of this apocalypse but we see all of 5 minutes of her despite that she might have had more screen time. Plus she's pretty.

The problems though here is all of these issues are because of the length of the series: 12 episodes is only enough to build up a lot of backstory for most series and maybe introduce a good premise...but it's not enough to have a fantastical payoff in most cases. Highschool of the Dead currently only has 12 episodes with one OVA that takes place after the end of the series...and unfortunately we may never get more if the ridiculous hiatus of the manga is anything to go by.

-- Scripting and Packaging --

I bought HOTD on Blu-Ray, so this next part is something I'm assuming is also the same for the DVD release. Please do not use this as factual testimony though as this is only my guess.

Highschool of the Dead on Blu Ray comes in two discs that contain all of the episodes on them and VERY basic "extra features" like a clean video (no titles onscreen) of the introduction and ending animation of the series. You can switch between English and Japanese audio, but outside of this the menu is EXTREMELY basic. We're talking the absolute BARE MINIMAL effort in making a menu. Every episode is listed onscreen for quick jump-to for viewing but you can watch from the start if you wish, but the menu and the way the discs carry themselves is just...absurdly bland. We don't even get any menu BGM for as much we pay for the home video copy.  Be you a fan of English or Japanese though, you'll be pleased to know that both dub casts are very efficient in their performances of their characters. I never once thought "Man, I -really- need to switch to Japanese" but to me that's a case that's been more common since I usually don't hate dubs often.

Thankfully these VAs do their job and they do it WELL...sometimes even outperforming the original Japanese cast members. This is more than likely due to the liberties the US took with some of the script and on some fronts that's a good thing while on others, it can become subjective per viewer.

Literally the EPITOME of a "We're fucked" situation.

One example is how Saya tells Hirano early on that he's fat and needs to "put down the WAL-MART Cheetos and exercise", while another is when Takashi comments on the weaponry found in a building in Episode 6  "She said this place belonged to her friend? Just who is she: Sarah Fucking Palen?". Other times it just feels more natural...the sobbing and break down of Saya in Episode 3 when she finally accepts this is the end of the world and will probably die, or when sexual tension grows between Rei and Takashi after a bit of bickering (as it's much MUCH quieter and more breath-y than the Japanese original) feel a lot more real and what you'd actually be hearing out of these characters than what the original cast did. I'm not discrediting them, as I originally watched HOTD in Japanese online, but these voice actors obviously have some great talents that flexed in their performances. Other times, they just come off weak or "Okay". Then there's people like Monica Rial as Shizuka who I swear was MADE for the role as she plays her perfectly.

~Can't Come Up With a Tit Pun Here. Milk Mounds.~

So yeah, there's plenty of action in this series. Highschool of The Dead doesn't exactly innovate and runs a very "safe" formula. It knows its audience and it obviously isn't done pleasing the crowd of fans it's obtained. You won't come out pondering questions on life or "What I would do in this situation..." (or maybe you will?) because you'll be having too much time having fun at the roller coaster ride you get. There's rock and roll, there's sexual implications, there's blood, there's zombies, there's guns, and thriller! To take a rating from an awesome Youtuber... "It's a lot of fun; no alcohol required" - JeremyJahns

To me though, that's why I still find myself so fascinated with this series. Maybe it IS because it doesn't take itself too seriously with the plot (IE: getting pseudo-intellectual on me/the audience) and mixes in several vices that excite me in several ways that I just keep coming back.