Anime fans you might not know this but I also like horror and horror fans you might not know that I like anime I mention that because I very rarely talk about something that is both something to do with horror and something to do with anime but that is coming to an end right now as I review the anime version of High School Of The Dead sometimes called Highschool Of The Dead.
There is no real plot to this series there's just the basic set up which is a zombie outbreak has occured and some high school students try to survive it. It's not really an original plot since that's the plot for a lot of zombie shows and movies but I don't think it's involved high school students before so that is kind of a refreshing twist on things and seeing how they deal with certain situations does make for some interesting viewing to say the least but it still would have been nice if there was an actual plot to speak of.
Now i'm reviewing the dubbed version of the show just because that's the version of the show that I was introduced to so starring in this version of the show is Leraldo Anzaldua as Takashi , Jessica Boone as Rei , Taylor Hannah as Saeko , Maggie Flecknoe as Saya Takagi , Mark X. Laskowski as Kohta , Monica Rial as Shizuka and Brittney Karbowski as Alice AKA Arisu. Since this is the version of the show that i grew up with i'm a little bias when it comes to the cast but even I can admit that at times the acting isn't that great but for me it didn't hinder my enjoyment of the show since the overall show isn't that good anyways.
There's no way i can do a review of this show and not mention the passing of the manga's original creator Daisuke Satō his passing was truly tragic as all deaths are but when you add in the fact that he never technically finished this story that to me makes it all the more tragic because now we will forever be left wondering what happens next and for those wondering I have read the manga but even that isn't a complete story I know this will never happen anytime soon but it would be nice if someone else took over writing the series to finish the story.
Madhouse is the company that supplied the animation for the show and for me the animation is a pretty mixed bag because it is good when it comes to the action scenes but when it comes to the dialog heavy scenes it looks weird like the animators didn't have enough time to take another crack at it so they were forced to leave it as it is.
I know that alot of people find this show to be dumb and stupid but the way I see it is this is the anime version of the fast & furious franchise in that while there are elements that are indeed dumb it's the kind of show that really won't require you to think or use your brain this is the type of show that's just meant to be fun and nothing else and for me that's fine we don't always need or want shows that require us to think sometimes we just want a dub show that we can have playing in the background and this is one of those shows for me.
Perhaps the most famous or infamous scene in anime history is in this series it's what is more commonly known as "The Matrix Boobs" scene and it pretty much speaks of it self in context of the show this scene does work since the tone of the show is that of something that's not meant to be taken seriously but at the same time for many people this was the scene that pushed it a little to far and I can see where those people are coming but at the same time it is in line with the overall tone of the show.
This is perhaps the most ecchi show i've seen there's several boob shots and pantie shots in every single episode now I love a good ecchi show as much as the next guy but even I was getting tired of seeing the same kind of pantie and boob shots in the episodes and it was during the watching for this review that i came to the conclusion that this show was made for fourteen to fifteen year old boys.
Don't you worry horror fans I havn't forgotten about you because like I said when explaining the set up for the show there are zombies featured in this show infact now that I think about it they could be seen as the main antagonist of the show because there always a threat to our main heroes like they could turn a corner and there could be a whole swarm of them but tho the zombies kind of take a backseat to the ecchi scenes which depending on how you see things could either be a good thing or a bad thing I personally view it as a bad thing since I want to see more zombies in this zombie show.
I'm not sure if people remember this or not but for a while there was a zombie craze going on in Hollywood with not only alot of movies being made featuring the undead but also TV shows this is mostly due to the success of *sigh* the Twilight saga and The Walking Dead but tho one of the things that has never been turned into a movie was this franchise and for that's a shame because at the time it would have been a hit think about it you have the fans of the anime / manga going to see it and you have people who like zombies going to see it that right there is alot of people going to see your movie.
In anime we anime fans always like to find what is known as "best girl" it's kind of hard to describe exactly what that means since it changes depending of who you ask but for me there are at least four candidates for the best girl of this anime and there all the four older girls you see in the above picture i've always been a Saeko (purple hair) and Rei (brown hair) fan so much so that when I got Lollipop Chainsaw I bought there costumes but when I was watching it this time round I found myself also liking both Takagi (pink hair) and Shizuka (blonde hair) and all for pretty much the same reason they are all badasses all of them at some point have a moment where they do something truly badass and cool.
Something that to me was extremely hit and miss was the shows comedy don't get me wrong there was some jokes that worked but for every joke that did work they would add in a line which to me came across as something that was obviously added in the dub and it just wouldn't work at all in fact it was rather jarring but the jokes that do work are cute there not laugh out loud funny but they will get a smile of out of you.
If your expecting this to me a straight up horror show you'd be wrong because there's alot of action thrown in there granted it's whenever the gang have to fight of a horde of zombies but it's still there and to me that's when the animation is at it's best because those scenes are so much fun to watch and that's when all of the cool stuff happens you get to see gun nut Kohta take out multiple zombies with a few bullets and Saeko pretty much be this show's version of michonne from The Walking Dead.
Unlike alot of anime this show had a different ending performed by the singer of my personal favorite being the one at the end of episode 7 Fuss Fuzz by Maon Kurosaki I just loved how that song not only worked well in the sequence before it but it was also a really good song and the opening is Highschool of the Dead" by Kisida Kyoudan & The Akebosi Rockets this is just such a catchy as heck song so much so that when I was watching it I would start singing along to it.
Overall this isn't a good show not by a mile but if your looking for a show that's just pure fun and knows it's meant to be pure fun then you can't really go wrong here but if your looking for something more then that then I suggest you look somewhere else for me tho the show gets a 5.5 out of 10 from me and if your on anime amino this is where I get my name from.