Hello everyone,
Here we are for yet another review of a rather recent anime series named "Highschool of the Dead" based on an original manga created by Shoji Sato that somehow for its "qualities" generated quite some hype and talk in the blogosphere.
Let's start with a synopsis :
Takashi Komuro is a normal highschool boy, until an infection breaks out that turns people into zombie-like creatures. Along with his friends & the school nurse, they fight their way out and continue their journey to find out what exactly has happened to the world.
Ok, till here you can wonder this will be a Resident Evil clone or anyway something filled with battles and zombies, maybe with some plot added to the top and well that's it. Well that's very far from reality...
Yes, because I started watching this series oblivious to the original work thinking I would be faced with tons of zombies, great battles, some dramatic scene and deaths and a limited plot around the high school setting escape with a bittersweet ending, instead...well I was first shocked, dropped the series altogether and then started again just to make fun of it.
The series is completely based over fanservice, and please do not misunderstand me. It's the bad side of fanservice (at least for me) that it was almost at the same level of Seikon No Qwaser. (it's difficult to reach the same level of bad taste)
The series go and increase the level of fanservice from episode to episode with gems like the rack physics reproduction in the rifle shooting scene with additional bullet jumping from our dear Saeko.
I was appaled and somehow it was funny, but for the wrong reasons. I don't know what category are they trying to cater for with this series (adolescent boy?!), but for sure it would have been better as a full H series at this point.
Let's be honest, I'm not a puritan old man as I do like my share of fanservice in each series and I do read visual novels after all, but there is a clear distinction between fanservice and fanservice...
The characters are flat and uninteresting, they exist only as a fanservice relief for the series. I mean, the whole premise of the first episode around the killing of the lover after he became a zombie was laughable, but the "nureru" scene was the apocalypse of the idiocy. (And I'm not going into detail into each scene or I would be here to write for many years to come)
I have not much to say against the production as the design of the girls is good and the voice over decent enough. The only real problem is the animation that was lacking of consistency and quality.
To conclude, this is not a suggested seris, you're far off better watching some H ova over this crap as in the end there is no other reason to watch this other than the fanservice
See you soon,
feal87