Highschool of the Dead
Aug 16, 2010I've been out of the review game for a while. Real life has gotten in the way. So bare with me, and sorry now for poor writing.
In a Nut Shell....
Have you ever wondered what an anime version of Resident Evil would look like? Well look no further. Go watch High School of the Dead!
First off, if you are going to watch this anime, and you want to enjoy it as much as I have, you need to be able to turn off your rational thinking cognitive rationalizing brain. This is very important because if you don't have the intention of watching it for the straight fun factor, find another series as there basically is no thinking involved.
This is not a complicated anime. You have a troubled badass guy, army crazy nerdy boy, and loads of hot stereotypical girls killing zombies left and right. That’s basically it. No joke. However, this show does this flawlessly because the creators of this show know exactly what this is; a shallow anime about hot girls and killing zombies. As a result, they have made one hell of a funny anime that I just can't get enough of.
Also, a word of advice for the females. More than likely you won't find Highschool of the Dead nearly as entertaining as the boys out there. Its a feminist worst nightmare.
Story: 7
The story starts out with the main guy watching from the roof of his school (he's playing hooky) an outbreak of some new virus that spreads by some epic Zombie-biting-human action. After that, our star teams up with the nerdy boy mentioned above, and 5 or 6 completely forgettable hot girls that spew ecchi all over the place. This anime follows their attempts to avoid zombies and escape from the city. However, the anime does take the time to showcase peoples' reaction, frustrations, and mental pressure that can drive people to do crazy things in times of crisis. It does this reasonably well in my opinion, but that’s not why you should watch it.
While the story is shallow and stupid, it works; nay its essential for this anime. By completely skipping out on a complex storyline, this anime can concentrate on the important stuff.
Hot girls. Zombie killing.
Anyways, I gave the story a 7 strangely because it keeps a story out of the way and lets us dive into the good stuff. At the same time... there is no story so I can't really rate it higher...
Animation: 9.5
This anime has some slick CGI enhanced animation. Movement of characters is smooth, and the lighting is great. The backgrounds are detailed which is especially noticable since this anime takes place almost exclusively in an urban city environment where zombies have been clawing up everything. Of upmost importance, the girls look really good, and there are enough different colored hair bobasious girls to please all but the most imaginative (or strange) guys (or girls?).
Highschool of the Dead really shines in scenes where the characters are swinging bats, shooting improvised nail guns, karate chopping, and slicing zombies with swords. This, along with the hot girls of course, is of upmost importance for this anime as poor animation in this department would have completely destroyed an amazing fun, yet stupid show.
Sound: 8
Intro song is some bland heavy metal that actually kind of works for this show. I felt the ending song is a little out of place with some girl singing about dispair or what not. Where the sound deserves the 8 are the sounds mid-show.
The background music is sufficiently spooky at all the right times. I think it did an excellent job of building you up for that time the ZOMBIES GOING TO FLY OUT THAT WINDOW!! Best of all, the zombies’ growls and howls are excellent. I thought they would be stupid. I mean, how do you really pull off good zombie sounds? Anyways, it all adds to the all important atmosphere of uncertainty/anarchy/hotness that is this anime.
I'm not to particular on voice acting because, frankly, I can't speak Japanese so I can't tell if they did a good job or not. The voices aren't too annoying, monotone, or squeaky high. Good enough for me.
Characters: 7
While lead boys are interesting, the girls are hot carbon copy stereotypes that plague ecchi anime. The difference between this anime, and many others is that by playing up these stereotypes and keeping things simple, you are free to just enjoy the mindless eye candy it offers.
However, as stated earlier, this anime shows how mental strain can drive people crazy, and it does this surprisingly well even if the story doesn't show the transition between normal to crazy.
Overall: 8.5
Many will be wondering why I gave this such a high score. The reason is just how plain old fun it is. As I have stated many times before, hot girls and zombies with a small dose of crazy people, is what guys call a winning combination.
Having sex while killing zombies. What more can a man ask for?
Girls, you'll probably hate the sexist assholes who made this anime, and probably won't appreciate the sheer brilliance of it so go in with an open mind, or just skip it.
Boys, if you liked Resident Evil, this series is for you. If you liked Valve's amazing Left for Dead game, this is definitely for you; I swear their escape from the school is exactly like the Mercy Hospital Campaign.
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what drew me to this anime was simply because it has zombies. hardly anime zombie animas right now. hot girls is always a plus, but even I facepalmed at some of the fan service shots. i wouldnt be surprised if the girls used their boobs as weapons to fight off the horde. few points where i thought the survivors were retarded in a particular situation( everyone is in a panic, but i still think of common sense). still, so far i enjoy the story, animation, fight scenes, and effects. looking forward to see where this anime will take us. zombies and hot girls is some good S***
It might be shallow, but it's the good kind of shallow. There are some anime that are so shallow I tend to wonder why they even made the effort to make it. As a matter of fact, I have quite a few female friends who enjoy this show. Just as Timeless said, " girls really shouldn't let it get in the way of enjoying this anime ".
Anyways, great review! ^^
Ahh this review is cool. I have to say, I feel really stupid because I never really realised how shallow the anime actually is. I guess I just enjoyed it's cool atmosphere it has about it. The "Oh ya, skip this anime if you’re a female, more than likely you won't find it nearly as entertaining as the boys out there." made me laugh, not in a malicious way, I just thought it was so funny how true that would be for most girls. And most of the time I hate pointless ecchi. But as far as ecchi goes, girls really shouldn't let it get in the way of enjoying this anime, I think the only scene that really made me grind my teeth was the bath scene. So basically yeah there's a lot of ecchi but you can still enjoy the anime if you can enjoy it for what it is. So I'd say to give it a try. And yeah, this is a brilliant review.