>High School of the Dead

>‘Sup denizens of the internet? Ham here again talking about the show, High School of the Dead. The first thing you learn about this show when you start watching it, is that this anime has a strong foundation on fan service. There’s the ever-popular hordes of Zombies, lots of Zombie pwnage, and of course; cute, busty anime girls.

The story starts out on the day of the Zombie apocalypse, at the high school of the central character Takashi. Takashi is in love with the relatively annoying and semi-useless Rei, who knows that he’s smitten. However, because Takashi isn’t enough of a man, she is in love with Takashi’s long time friend Hisashi. Yeah, already we’re serving up a stereotypical love triangle. Well, when the Zombie outbreak reaches the high school, circumstances force Rei and Takashi to become seperated from Hisashi. From there, useless D.I.D (Damsel in Distress) Rei and Takashi fight their way through the Zombified school where they meet Takashi’s childhood friend, the obnoxiously intelligent Saya, and her friend, Kouta. Kouta is the stereotypical fat geek. However, apparently this geek knows how to turn a staple gun into a semi-automatic Uzi. Don’t worry, I was confused too. The four of them fight through more Zombies until they meet their final two “party members,” the natural fighter Saeko, a sword maiden with a dark, hidden past and Shizuka. Shizuka is the school nurse. She is the bustiest character in the series…and also the most useless. Yeah, more uselss than Rei. Rei at least uses a weapon. Shizuka does nothing. Long story short, they make it out of the school in about four-ish episodes and the rest of the series takes place out in the streets. Throughout their adventures in Zombie Tokyo, they meet up with a variety of characters including a little girl with a weak bladder, a dog, and an ex-teacher who has started a cult.

Now, even though the show may be a total fan service……it still has its redeeming qualities. My personal favorite is how it accurately portrayed how the Zombie Apocalypse would unfurl. The psychological stress, the abandonment of friends to save one’s self…the future looks grim. Not that I believe in the Zombie Apocalypse happening eventually or anything….ahem…like I was saying, the other thing I appreciated about the game was the fact that Zombies get their strength in their numbers. They may be shuffling, bumbling idiots in search of brains, but once they find brains, they eat them up quickly using their sheer numbers to overpower the living. That’s the beef I have with the popular game, Left 4 Dead. Zombies are not fast. They are dead, decaying humans. Decaying flesh cannot run. But I digress. Another thing I found positive about the series was the violence and Zombie killing. The did the whole slow down motion that was used in movies like 300 and Watchmen. Y’know, when they slow down at the impact? Personally, as a Zombie buff, I found it awesome the way they did it. There’s nothing quite so satisfying as the image and sound of a baseball bat meeting a rotting corpse.
I might need psychological help…Aheh…heh…heh….anyway…I’m gonna go ahead and give it an 8/10. The music was great, the fight scenes were epic, and the dialogue actually contributed to the anime, unlike most Zombie flicks. All I can say after watching this though, if the Zombie Apocalypse does arrive anytime soon, it’s going to be bloody, dark, and full of breasts.