Zombies, guns, excessive bounces, Hirano's rapeface.
High school of the Dead was one of my biggest anticipated shows this season. Throughout the season my expectation has changed. It's not a new take on the zombie apocalypse genre, but more of a tribute to the genre with an anime twist to it. This show felt like a video game: You have your mission for the episode, you have your epic pwnage party members, you even have your mascot. Everything just goes right for the main party that it felt kind of sickening.
I like the 12 EDs. Some of them might be hit and miss, but a number of them are quite nice. They all flow quite well with the tone of the story at the end of each episode. The first one still got the most impact due to the flawless transition from the 28days-later-isk theme.
The art is quite excellent. Madhouse obvious poured in a decent amount of budget into this series. None of the shots look cheap, while a lot of the scenes look quire remarkable, so it's a plus. Not to mention one slick action scene involving a double tap and one awesome motorbike assault.
The director obviously is having a lot of fun putting in a lot of boobshots. Granted it's not necessary, but when he openly admits it it becomes so much fun anticipating what kind of outrageous stunts he will put in. They have no bearing to the story so I don't get why people are so upset upon this matter. Those shots are so excessive that it's no longer a "omg boobs fap fap fap" unless you are a 13 year old virgin who gets excited easily. I still maintain my stance that only few zombie-related stories don't include an overdose of sex appeal, so while the fanservice may seen gets out of control it still manages to completely fit the theme of a zombie parody.
My biggest disappointments though, are probably two things that not many people had talked about: the constant 'the world ends today" whining in the narration, and the remarkable slow pace the show takes. Looking back to the season, surprisingly not much had happened over the 12 episode period. The season felt like an introductory session than a stand-alone. I know the manga is not finished yet and they can't allow for an original ending, but it just felt empty for some reason.
The slow story progression also adds to the fact that there's not enough time for decent character development in this series. Most of the characters still felt a bit unconvincing, with possible exception of Saeko with her backstory. Each character serves a fixed role in the story, and, like it or hate it, there just wasn't enough time to expand on them. The manga goes into more details, but the anime is not up to the part yet.
And you have to admit, Hirano's rapeface and Takagi's father are the two of the most badass entities.
P.S. loving the little touch of adding new photos of the victims on the photo wall during the end credits, just adds to the sense of the impending disaster and serving as the final reminder of the lives of those that were lost.
tl;dr
Not a great show, but still a fine watch if you can appreciate the hidden humour instead of bashing on it aimlessly. 7/10
