Anime 2010 ReviewHigh school of the Dead [HOTD]Origins: Originally a manga, first published in 2006, picked up and produced by Madhouse Studios, first screened July 2010.
Genre: Action, Zombie, Fan service, High School, Romance
Premise: Komoro Takashi, is the main male protagonist, he happens to witness the infection of the school grounds by some deranged outsider and thus manages to warn child hood friend Miyamoto Rei and her boyfriend. Survival instinct kicks in and Takashi and others manage to 'get out' of high school and start to 'survive' so to speak in a contaminated zombie world.
Beginning: First episode is good, establishing the infection and the main characters. Action is fluid, with plenty of fan service panty shots, similar in fashion to Ikki Tousen [so much so I researched if they were the same author...not to be].
The survival actions of the characters is almost believable, although there is an almost instantaneous lack of empathy towards the zombies [past school mates], although this is nicely explained in a few scenes where flight mechanism cuts in. Human nature be damned, untrained souls will push past their own grandmother to get away from something if the feel the need.
The solid group are two guys and three girls, plus a well endowed nurse. Action is inter-spliced with snippets from what is happening in the rest of the city, country, world, etc. Additional characters seem to have references that are not immediately built on, but there is some time yet to go.
Opinion: Watch it if you like:
- zombies [seriously, zombies is a genre],
- Ikki Tousen-esk panty and cleavage shots,
- The idea of a class geek getting nail-gun revenge on all and sundry [because they happen to now be zombies]
Middle: The characters have survived 7 episodes, and have managed to live through 2 nights of Zombie time. They also seem to have acquired a ring-in little girl, [for the sheer brutal cuteness of it all], and this has in turn re-affirmed their ability to empathise with remaining non-zombies [or at least defenceless cute pink haired little girls]. I feel that half way through the series we seem to be getting no where fast.
However, the group has made itself fairly solid, and has equipped itself with a Humvee [HMMWV], a large arsenal of semi and automatic weapons and a desire to kill any and all zombies that mess with them. With these accoutrements perhaps the ordeal of getting 'home' or to some sort of safe haven, may be expedited.
Episode 7 challenges all previous episodes with the amount of fan service, panty-shots, bouncing cleavage etc, seeming never ending during the episode. A friend of mine commented that this series only grows on you more if you have also watched 'Zombieland'...I tend to agree with him.
End: Pending
