High School of the Dead
Title: High School of the Dead Genre: Action, Ecchi, Horror Rating: 8.0/10
Review: Probably thinking why I’m writing a review for this anime, I mean it is hot chicks and zombies. Seriously it is a win-win situation. Well close to it I would say. It is something about the strange combinations of blood splatter and bouncing breasts that really hit it big. Another thank you to MADHOUSE for the funding they put into making this anime. It was clear that the got the best-of-the-best to work on this project. Many of you should know this was based off a manga which is currently on hiatus (or in other words gone), and they followed it rather well. There were a couple key areas that differed, but not necessarily for the worst. So do you realize that the ending may not be absolute. One can only hope at least. So what made this anime so great? Just about everything I would say. The story is a rare one when talking about anime, a zombie apocalypse has swept the world and a group of high school students just want to survive. Pretty basic, but simple doesn’t hurt. Plus there is quite a big of leg room in terms of “how” and “why” the country has turned into a bloodbath. And who doesn’t like a good ol’ fashion zombie hunt? The only thing that could turn you off from a zombie killer is if in the main characters were annoying. Thankfully High School of the Dead did things right. The main characters were well rounded and fun to watch, while the villains or corrupted humans truly grinded your gears. What is best about the anime is it shows you how things can flip upside-down when the social norm shifts: stealing is common, abandoning others is acceptable, and killing a necessity. Suddenly best friends become mortal enemies, and the value of relationships take the extremes. This visual of how things can turn for the worst really gets your blood pumping. This was only further assisted by the anime’s art style and soundtrack. While watching flips, kicks, stabs, slashes, and dismemberment you can hear the sounds of drums bashing and guitars thrashing in the background. A blissful sound complimented by visual euphoria to those twisted viewers. But in all seriousness, the actions added to the anime were magnificent. I couldn’t have been more happy with how MADHOUSE took the best of drawings and CG to create amazing battles. Sure zombies died over and over, but it is HOW they died that made it so fun to watch. And of course the glistening sweat rolling down the skin of the beautiful ladies wasn’t exactly an eye sore either. So I’ve told you how great the story, characters, art, and soundtrack were: why not a must see? A couple things: I said before that I read the manga so there were some differences I was against and there is no word on continuation. Though I don’t really mind if they made this into an anime original and stopped the manga complete, the ecchi is greatly amplified. Ecchi did go well with the zombie killing because it alleviated some of the drama, but not when they extend to 2 pages from the manga to 15 minutes in the anime. Some episodes were complete (and extreme) fan service. Throughout the anime they also added additional ecchi scenes that I could have done without (maybe add more action instead?). And as I said, the ending was horrid but there is no word on continuation.
Final statements: So to wrap things up, everything was brilliant about High School of the Dead with the exception of additional ecchi compared to the manga. Overall I’m very happy with the transformation from manga to anime and would consider it a preferred watch or possible high priority watch for the ecchi lovers.