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Year: 2010
Genre: Action, Horror, Harem
Episodes: 10
Rating:
The world is barren and left in chaos. Bodies are riddled across the ground, lifeless with blood flowing everywhere. You quickly run down the street, wondering what is happening. You look to your left, seeing a woman eating on a man. You look to your right, seeing a group of people biting at a man, who is calling for help. You continue to run when something grabs your leg. You quickly brush it off and continue to run. Your heart is pounding as you don’t know where to go. You turn the corner down an alley when you are quickly met by a fence. You hear something shuffling towards you. You quickly turn around, noticing a man. The man makes weird sounds as he continues to walk slowly towards you. His mouth is covered in blood, with his arm broken in several places with a massive rod sticking through his chest. He has a wild look as he continues towards you. You quickly pick up pole as the man continues to move towards you. The figure lunges towards you when…..
Zombies have been a cultural phenomenon for many decades in films, television, literature, and art. The popularity of zombies has been on the rise ever since their introduction. Usually, zombies are introduced after some type of apocalypse. Where the world has gone into chaos as zombies start killing people. Movies like George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead popularize the zombie genre. Zombies’ popularity continues to grow with the TV shows like the Walking Dead and video games like Call of Duty’s zombie mode. Zombies have become one of the most essential supernatural figures.
Highschool of the Dead showcases the zombie genre to its fullest. An anime that has many zombie survival clichés mixed with hot girls, gore, and choices that make you even think. Get ready for a ride of a lifetime.
Overview:
On a peaceful day, chaos descended on Japan, throwing the country into chaos. The dead has begun to rise, bringing forth the plague of zombies. The story follows a group of high school students (and the school’s nurse) as they deal with a worldwide catastrophic event known as the “Outbreak.”
The story revolves around Takashi Kimuro, a high school student who was dumped by his girlfriend and witnesses a teacher being attacked by a zombie. As the outbreak spreads through the school, Takashi runs to protect his ex-girlfriend Rei and his best friend. Takashi in a heart-breaking moment has to kill his best friend.
As students begin to die and the realization of the dead coming back, Takashi and Rei band together with other students to find their family and uncover what is really happening in the world. As they escape the clutches of zombies, Takashi is joined by various other students with skills that will help the group survive. With their combined skills and might, will Takashi be able to lead them to survive long enough as the world plunges more into chaos and destruction?
Review:
Highschool of the Dead is a very entertaining and fantastic anime to watch. It is one of the best zombie anime that is out. The characters, story, anime, fight scenes, emotions, and everything else make this anime a must-watch. It is one of the best anime series to watch during Halloween. One of the downsides is that it is so short.
The first area that makes this anime good is the storyline. The story is simple and draws upon many other zombie movies like 28 Days Later, Dawn of the Dead and Resident Evil, to name a few. The story is actually straightforward as in most zombie films and shows. On a peaceful day, the world seems fine. The sky is blue, and the sun is shining. The main character is heartbroken and looks out from the top of the school when he sees a teacher getting attacked. He realizes that this is when all hell breaks loose. As the school and world fall into chaos, the only hope of survival is to fend for yourself or form a group. That is where Highschool of the Dead gets right. It is violent as the students must kill to survive, but you see some genuine emotions and decisions come out. One way it shows when two female students are running for their lives. They claim to help each other and protect each other no matter what because they are best friends. When one gets caught by a zombie. The girl cries out for help. As she looks towards her friend, her friend quickly changes her mind and sacrifices the girl to save her own skin. Once again, survival of the fittest. The anime also shows a great job of the unknown. No one knows how the zombie apocalypse has started. All that is around is a burning city, the world collapsing and humanity falling into chaos. The anime also shows the emotional changes and toll it takes during the zombie outbreak. Characters that were nice and kind transition into violent, killing machines, willing to sacrifice their own humanity to survive in the world that is now created, knowing they could never go back to the way things were.
The second greatest area about this anime is the characters. The characters drive this anime and you will definitely like one of them. First, all the female characters are drawn as curvaceous (shapely, big breast, high-quality female proportions) about them. The anime shows little background information on the main characters but as the series progresses, it develops their emotions and way of thinking as the chaos progresses.
The main character, Takashi Komuro, is the main male protagonist and the show revolves around his viewpoint. He starts the show as a heartbroken person since his girl left him for his best friend. Cold-blooded right there. When the world falls into chaos, he wants to protect his former girl and actually kills his best friend. As the series progresses, Takashi world views change along with his attitude. He develops from a person that doesn’t make quick decisions to one that can think on his feet. He has no problem with killing now. The more he kills, the further away he leaves his innocence. The second character that is amazing is Saeko Busujima. Saeko is my FAVORITE CHARACTER AND BAE!! Homegirl is a straight-up badass killing machine, and she makes it look so good and sexy.
She has dark violet hair and bright blue eyes. When the zombies first appeared, she literally ran around with a bokken and was taking heads. The scene when the bullet flies through her breast as she fights is priceless. The third best character is Kohta Hiranois, a wimpy overweight guy with glasses. He seems weak but underneath that shy exterior is a gun enthusiast. He states that he learned all about guns on his visit to America and trained under a former Delta Force member for a month. When Kohta gets a gun in his hands, he turns into a badass. A true killing machine. His personality changes to one that takes no mercy on anyone.
With great characters, some characters will straight drive you up the wall and then some. The first is Rei Miyamoto. Rei is Takashi’s ex-girlfriend. She is hot, but she is a total bitch and cry baby towards Takashi. She breaks up with him and starts dating his best friend. He comes to protect her, and she flips out when he saves her. Yea, he had to kill her boyfriend who was his best friend, but he did save you. As the story progresses, Rei does back off a little but still harbors feelings for her ex. She is definitely a rival to Saeko Busujima when it comes to Takashi’s heart. Another annoying character is Saya Takagi. Saya is hot, but she complains a lot. I mean A LOT. She thinks she is better than everyone else because she is a self-proclaimed genius which does come in handy when formulating plans but she is annoying. When shit was going down, all she did was cry and scream in the school. Someone needed to A) slap the mess out of her or B) Let her ass get eaten so you won’t have to hear her voice again
The animation is outstanding in Highschool of the Dead. Many of the scenes are drawn to perfection. The lights and fires as the city burns add to an element of desperation. The way the zombies are depicted with their grey, lifeless skin and walk but shown with perfect white teeth before ready to kill. How the scenes change from a light contrast to darkness when bad times are about to happen. The fighting scenes are drawn so well. When Saeko fights, the after image of her sword is top of the line. One of the best scenes with when Takashi is firing his rifle, and the bullet flies through Saeko’s breast as she is fighting. The way the bullet and scene are drawn is jaw-dropping. One of the highlights of the show.
On the downside, the anime is way too short and left you wanting more. It is only 10 episodes long. The final scene is all the characters ready to fight again on the highway. You don’t know what happens to them or any of the villains. It just stops, and that’s it. No more, no less. It could easily be a second and third season. One of the significant drawbacks of this pretty good show.
Overall, Highschool of the Dead is an excellent anime for Halloween. If you are looking for something that resembles the Walking Dead, this anime is the one for you. It is very intense for an anime and shows what happens to high school students when shit hits the fan. The story is excellent and moves at a high pace. The characters are good while the animation is fantastic. The only downside is that the story is so short and could be longer than 10 episodes.
