ThatAnimeSnob

This anime came out during the craze of the zombie fad of the 2010s. Many fans were waiting for something to be the Walking Dead of anime and they finally got it (or so they thought) when it came out from Madhouse, back when it wasn’t in the pathetic state it is now. As it turned out, Highschool of the Dead was not much of an alternative to the Walking Dead since it was very short, heavy on fan service, and light on plot. The very title doesn’t make sense after 2 episodes, since the characters left that place and never returned. And even the premise quickly changed its priorities and turned from “zombies with some boobs in the background” to “boobs with some zombies in the background”. The threat of the monsters quickly became unimportant and while more mature zombie flicks would focus on the society and way of living of the survivors, Highschool of the Dead was just about the characters getting naked and drunk in the bathtub. You were watching it for the action and the tits; there was nothing beyond that.

One could of course enjoy the show as nothing more than ecchi with cool fights, and never bother looking into it any further. Something many didn’t since there were ridiculously long essays while it was airing. The Monogatari generation that could fill ten pages about the symbolism of a toothbrush was at full throttle on this one, and a lot of them were taking it more seriously than what it deserved because of the ‘assumed’ sociopolitical overtones. Besides being the usual zombie infestation where people get bitten and friends turn to foes it also showed bits of people trying to organize, survive and increase their odds of making it out alive by not letting others to join them or to leave the city. Such scenes made the setting a bit livelier; even if they were nothing more than a few short skits around people you will never see or hear about ever again. It was nothing but a lame attempt to remind the viewer for a few minutes that there were still zombies somewhere out there before the camera swifts back to its main plot: Retarded fan service.

The supposed sociopolitical stuff didn’t matter in the excuse of a plot this anime had, since those other people didn’t interact with the main group and they didn’t form a lasting community that would allow a bit of theme exploration. Despite all that, at the time the anime was airing there were no decent animated zombie flicks and therefore it was ‘unlike anything we’ve seen before’ in anime. It was also food for thought as those same people would be writing novella-long essays about stuff Highschool of the Dead was barely scratching, thus in the process making a better plot than the anime they were supposed to be talking about. Because the actual anime didn’t do much of anything, and the only thing people remember from it after all these years is the clip of the bullet that passes between a pair of boobs that defy gravity and speed.

And it’s not like the anime didn’t have any hints that could lead to something interesting. It had romance, teen angst, and even dementia scenes here and there. It could have done something interesting with its cast and setting as well. But it didn’t since nothing came out of it. The story was left incomplete and so did the manga. Even the mangaka gave up on it. Thus all you are left with is caricatures that better fit in a hentai and not a horror survival show, since all you remember is the fan service and a few clips of sakuga. I mean, you can still overthink its social messages if you like. That way you might convince yourself you are not watching a mindless softporn and that anyone staring you wearing a Naruto T-shirt and hugging a Tifa Lockhart dakimakura just doesn’t get how smart this anime is.