(May Contain Spoilers)
Zombies, emotionless, cannot feel any pain and hungry for human flesh, these creatures have been a part of the horror genre for decades from George Romero’s Night of The Living Dead to Shaun of the Dead. When I first heard the name High School of the Dead I thought straight away that it was just another stupid parody of the genre but I soon was eating a huge slice of humble pie because I was completely blown away by this anime with the mixture of action, violence, horror and at times it was even funny.
Story
High School of the Dead is set in present day beginning as the world is struck by a deadly pandemic that turns humans into zombies. So the set-up for this anime is nothing original expect for the high school setting and it is quite cliché for the zombie theme seeing how the Outbreak happens is never explained, however it doesn’t make it any less interesting to watch. The opening animation I think does a job of foreshadowing of what the series is to become. As episode one begins we are introduced to the first of many characters
Takashi Komuro who is giving his point of view and it cuts away to Takashi himself armed with a bloody baseball bat running across the school roof with
Rei Miyamoto (Takashi’s love interest, childhood friend & classmate)
And Hisashi Igo (Takashi’s best friend, classmate & dating Rei) while hitting away the undead that stand in their way. Rei almost gets herself killed by stabbing one of the zombies (with a makeshift spear) in the heart instead of destroying the brain which results with Hisashi (who is later bitten and becomes one of the zombies) saving Rei at the last second killing the zombie by hitting it in the head with Takashi’s bat. About a minute or so later we are given a panning shot of all the zombies which is just another sample of the chaos that is to come over the rest of the series. As the episode progresses we are also introduced to the rest of the main cast including:
another of Takashi’s childhood friends and self-proclaimed genius Saya Takagi,
Saeko Busujima a senior and skilled in the combat style of using a bokken (wooden sword),
Kota Hirano a gun otaku (my favourite character)
and the well-endowed and ditsy school nurse Shizuka Marikawa
who are also later joined by a 7 year old girl named Alice Maresato who lost her father who was killed by members of a household who wouldn't allow them safety and a small dog which Kota later names Zeke. (Both are rescued from a legion of zombies with the combined efforts of Takashi & Kota) As they try to survive the zombie apocalypse, they must also face the additional threats of societal collapse, in the form of dangerous & paranoid fellow survivors, and the possible decay of their own moral codes.
Later we are also introduced to other characters such as the manipulative, villainous and sadistic Koichi Shido who gives the show some back story with certain characters such as Kota but mainly Rei who was held back a year in school due to him failing her as a favour to his father a Japanese politician who Rei's father, a police detective, was conducting an investigation on for corruption.
In general the animation is pretty good. Relatively detailed and stylized backgrounds work well. I like the character designs and animation, actually, though they're pretty par for the course when it comes to anime. The trend of random CGI continues with a few backgrounds looking a bit out of place at times. At some points things get a little obnoxious though. Flashbacks might have manufactured film noise & scratches, other sequences will have random Photoshop-like effects. At one point a cherry blossom petal falls in, and soaks up, some zombie blood. Subtle. Considering the subject content I'm probably being too picky. The music throughout this anime for most of the time sets up the mood nicely but often overshadowed by the action you're watching onscreen. Each episode has its own ending song which adds variety with some building suspense which makes you want to watch the next episode while others having a melancholic feel to them which lightens the show from the chaos which the characters have had to endure throughout the series. Personally if I could choose one song to be the only ending song it would have to be Kimi to Taiyou ga Shinda Hi which is the ending song for episode one because I think it suits the story very well.
I thought that the Japanese dub of the show was some of the best I’ve heard this season mainly there was the right amount of emotional content in the characters dialogue making the atmosphere of this anime that much more intense and horrifying. But the English dub is the complete opposite however after watching all the episodes I found that the voices were not suited for their respective characters. For example Saya comes off as a stuck-up bitch who enjoys putting the other characters down by calling them stupid and seems to have developed a superiority complex, Saeko has somehow become sarcastic and annoying and the main character Takashi sounds like a moaning emo kid.
Overall the English dub was a complete car crash and did the anime no justice whatsoever because it lacked the emotion which reflected the tension and horror which is a key component for the atmosphere and feel of the story. Even the zombies sounded shit in the English dub because they sound more like they are asthmatic than the undead monsters that we have come to know in horror cinema.
One thing that I noticed in this anime were the number of references to other zombie related movies such as in episode one Hisashi dubs the zombies as “Them” which can be seen as a reference to the warning just before the first zombie encounter in Night of the Living Dead, however my favourite references were in episode three with a cashier at the gas station who resembles the character Shaun from Shaun of the Dead and the name on his nametag is "Simon" which is the name of the actor who portrays Shaun, Simon Pegg, and there is a cricket bat next to him in the manga version which is the weapon Shaun uses in the movie.
One thing I haven’t addressed yet is the fanservice in this anime. Tits, tits, everywhere tits. As expected they randomly juggle and bounce around as though they believe they'd have a better life out on their own. Every now and then you'll get a nice random close up to remind you that you should be thinking about tits. At one point Takashi gets a good look and the close-up features so much shading that it completely clashes with the rest of the animation. Panties more your thing? Well, they haven't held back on that front either. Putting that aside I enjoyed watching Highschool of the Dead and I think that it is one of the best anime out this current season. Now I’m waiting for the OVA Drifters of the Dead to be released on 26th April.
Would I recommend this anime?
So, in the end, what'd I think of High School of the Dead? It's a show with quite a unique atmosphere; the sense of dread and hopelessness is pretty solid. It's an all around good zombie story, so yeah I would say give this anime a look provided that the fanservice didn't bother you.
