Peps' Anime Wrap-up: Highschool of the Dead

image from jamaipanese
I first watched Highschool of the Dead in 2010.  While zombies have always been popular (but really, when were they not popular?), this was during the time when the undead craze have yet to reach the fever pitch caused by the airing of The Walking Dead.

I was looking for a new anime title to watch and stumbled upon Highschool of the Dead.  As I've mentioned in my American Horror Story post, I try to avoid the horror genre because I get surprised easily.  My curiosity, however, was piqued at the time, because I had gotten addicted to playing Left 4 Dead.  My friends needed a fourth player and wanted me to overcome getting motion sick every time I played 1st person shooting games... but that's a different story.

The bottom line was that I was zombie crazy enough at the time to try watching the first episode of Highschool of the Dead.  Needless to say, the first and the subsequent 11 episodes were great fun to watch.

Marvin finally got around to watching it this week, and since my blog was very much neglected back then, I decided to write a belated anime wrap-up post.

image from ultima-i
Highschool of the Dead introduces us to a group of high school students, a school nurse, a seven year old girl and a dog who are trying to survive a zombie apocalypse.  Komuro Takashi, whose quick thinking during the outbreak's early stages saved himself and his friend Rei, is the group's leader.  Miyamoto Rei is Takashi's friend who once promised to marry him and ended up dating their friend Hisashi, who died during the outbreak.  Busujima Saeko is the captain of the school's kendo club.  Takagi Saya is the daughter of a high ranking politician and comes from a wealthy family.  Hirano Kohta is a gun otaku.  Marikawa Shizuku is the school's ditzy nurse.  Maresato Alice is a seven year old girl the group saved after her father was killed by members of a household that refused to let them in because of the zombies.  And Zeke is a dog that joined the group when they rescued Alice.

image from everythingfornobody
The series isn't groundbreaking.  It uses tried and tested formulas of the genre, even if they refuse to call the undead zombies and uses the term "them".  You have a group, with one of them acting as the leader.  You have the group pitted against a horde or a swarm that vastly outnumbers them, but they somehow manage to survive.  You have your group pitted against other living people, who are showing the effects of the collapse of society and moral codes.  You have your violence.  You have your gore.  And in this case, you also have your fan service moments.  Lots of it.

Yet, even with the familiar elements, Highschool of the Dead still manages to entertain.  The anime adaptation of the eponymous manga offers suspense, appropriately timed humor and zombie killing.  And the production company Madhouse did one heck of a job with the animation, which definitely added to the appeal of Highschool of the Dead.

image from Wikia
The group of survivors (so far) featured different personalities and skill sets.  Even the ditzy Shizuku had the role as the token adult driver.  My favorite characters, though, were Kohta and Saeko.  While everyone would have pegged him to be zombie fodder in the beginning, Kohta turned out to be one of the most valuable members of the group.  His otaku status as a gun expert have saved his comrades time and again throughout the series.  He actually turned out to be a cool and endearing character.  Saeko, on the other hand, saved everyone with her kendo skills.  Orginally armed with a bokken (wooden sword), there was a lot of excitement when she finally started fighting with an actual katana.  She ended up being one of the most complex characters, revealing to Takashi that she actually took pleasure in hurting others.  Although that revelation was disturbing, the character made up for it by being so awesome.  She actually tipped a Humvee running on full speed by herself.  If that's not enough for you, the girl dodged bullets.  And for the fanboys out there, she was one thong underwear shy of the naked apron look in one episode.

image from animevice
The anime also featured different types of villains.  Aside from the zombies, the group encountered challenges from other survivors.  There are those who don't believe that the zombies are a threat, thinking that the leaders who are protecting them were just exploiting the panic to exert their position.  There are those who threw away any moral fiber they had and took advantage of the chaos to do whatever they wanted.  And then there's Shido Koichi, who was a teacher at the school that Takashi and the others attended.  He found himself in his element during the chaos of the zombie outbreak and in a very cult leader like fashion, influenced some of the surviving students to give in to their desires.  He was so despicable, you just know that he would be around for a long time to cause trouble to the protagonists.  And you also know that he would be given a spectacularly gruesome death because of that despicableness.  I can hardly wait.

Highschool of the Dead pretty much stayed true to the manga version.  While they toned down some of the violence, I had to wonder why they didn't do the same for the fan service.  There was so much fan service, which were prolonged in some cases, that bordered on gratuitousness.  Although I do believe that those scenes were one of the reasons some viewers enjoyed the series so much.

If these types of scenes are not your cup of tea, I suggest you just take them in stride.  Despite the overt sexuality of the female characters and the many sexual allusions, Highschool of the Dead is actually a good series to watch.

And really, you can never watch too many zombies get their heads bashed in or shot at.

Happy viewing!!

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