Review : Highschool of the Dead!

I'm not going to waste my time comparing Highschool of the Dead! to other medias as that would be a waste of time and besides, we both know about what you're here for! "Is this anime worth watching?" is what you want to know, right? Well, I have mixed feelings about it the same as most of the other reviewers, but still here is my opinion on it.

Story

The story wasn't a 100% original. But still, I actually think that this is the only anime about a zombie outbreak and the good thing about these kinds of stories, is that you're able to manipulate it into anything you want. Personally, I find a fast paced survival story to be the best route and this anime did do this, but the whole apocalyptic setting and turmoil of possibly being turned into a zombie snack seemed to wear down as the plot continued because of one main flaw within the plot, which it that nobody in the main cast really gets that close to dying. For me, that made the story to be a little to predictable and I felt that the story would be better developed if the writers would have been willing to sacrifice their cast a little. Now for the actual story-line, A mysterious, lethal disease is on the loose worldwide, resulting in a catastrophic death rate of humanity, and the increasing rise of attacks, caused by the living dead. In Japan, several high school students and a school nurse have banded together to escape Fujimi High School shortly after it was attacked by zombies. The group now attempts to figure who or what was responsible for this plague, and in the meantime, attempt to survive the present apocalypse. The story is initially narrated through the eyes of Takashi Komuro, one of the students who had survived in the initial outbreak.

Characters

The characters, of course, were too archetypical. In terms of main characters, the whole group of the six survivors consisted of 2 guys and 4 girls and while the initial cast was interesting in terms of personalities, they at the second half became what you would expect of a high-end ecchi, where more and more skin was showed. Also all of the development happened within an episode and thus lacked of proper development. Also, while some characters did develop, it was still not enough. Let's go into specific details of characters, Takashi is the usual leader/sane man/chick magnet and though he was not that bad, he was just not that memorable. Then there was Kouta, who was probably the best character and a gun specialist. He also had a lot more personality and was a major help to the group. Then there was Rei, who was overall pretty but usually ended up in bad situations and then needed someone to save her though even she did prove herself sometimes. Then there was Saya, who was pretty annoying, being a complete smartass throughout most of the story and not really changing as it went. Also there was Saeko, she was probably one of the most complex of the girl characters, having an interesting back story of intense sadism. She was atleast the most helpful and used her abilities for the best. Then there was a character like Shizuka who you wonder why hasn't died since the first episode. This woman is useless and pretty much a walking pair of breasts for the animators to obsessively exploit any time they want to and besides her occasional nursing and driving, nothing she does really effects the story. Overall, The characters in this show were fair enough, they were mostly nice and enjoyable but if you're looking for character development in a show you won't find much of that here as while I did notice some development throughout the show, it was nothing major!

Animation and Sound

The animation and artwork was pretty solid and also there were very colorful and vibrant art-styles used in this anime. Also, The lighting was very well-done and the animation was surely brilliant. Every bit of action was also animated at its best through each splash of blood and sword swipe. The only downfall of course was the fan-service as it was everywhere in this anime. No matter how well drawn, all the girls having humongous breasts and incredibly airy skirts that lift up at even the slightest movement took away from whatever scenery there was.

For the Sound, The VA wasn't anything fantastic, but they at least did a good job on the emotions. Also, The script wasn't pure gold or anything but it was with great dialogues and at most, it was okay. Still, the opening and ending music were pretty good. The opening was fast paced and really got you into the action-adventure mood of the series and my only complaint was that the guitar got a little too crazy at times and just sounded messy. The ending themes also weren't much but were appropriately calming and slow paced! 

Enjoyment

I couldn't help but enjoy this anime. Even though it was trying to be serious, I found it more humorous and amusing to watch, mainly because of the unneeded elements that took it away from everything else and added such things that were not meant to be added. The action scenes were also very fun and were my favorite parts of the entire anime also I basically watched this anime series because of the action scenes and not for the cluster-fucked plot.

Overall, Amidst the incredibly overwhelming fan service, there was a lot of more great stuff going on in Highschool of the Dead. There was good action, some small romance, comedy, suspense and the reality of the situation in which the characters were portrayed. Also, It had an assembly of people who relied on each other for survival, in a world crawling with daner. But Really, I don't mean to try and simplify a show beyond what it is, as this anime is already pretty simple. It has some zombies, some boobs and butts, Go enjoy!

3 STAR ANIME.

Click to view my ratings guide.