Review of High School of the Dead

I really don't know how I want to describe this anime. It had some great highs, but also it's mediocre parts. I guess I'll just try to explain the best I can and see what I come up with. Both the music and the art was touch and go. Some shots looked amazing, some songs sounded amazing, but the overall consistency just wasn't there. As far as the characters go, I feel like some of them were really well written while others were extremely basic and sort of horribly written. For example, you get a really intriguing that goes through an awesome journey, but then you gettwo other flat, uninteresting characters to counter that. I think the core characters were good enough, though I don't think a lot of their stories made sense/weren't realistic.

The story was... Um... Fine? It was your generic zombie movie plot, which is fine, because that's why I watched it. I wanted a potentially corny, classic zombie experience. I didn't expect for it to be something fresh and new, and I was correct. However, the ecchi sections of the story are what make it gimmicky for me, which is not something I wanted. That's down to personal taste, I suppose, but the risque moments were 100% not needed, and at times, it took away from the story and the immersion.

I did really enjoy the humor in the anime as it can be quite funny. Those lighthearted moments are similar to a Slice of Life type anime, so I enjoyed that. Also, the fight scenes were the coolest part of the whole thing. The shots from some of the scenes are incredible. The art itself, like I said, is give or take, but just the actions and animations of the characters and how they're fighting back was really awesome.

I do feel like more story could've unfolded in another season, but at the same time, the anime didn't feel unfinished. Maybe that's because you can't really end an apocalypse story unless literally everyone dies. So, it was ended as well as it could've been.

Would I watch it again? I don't know, maybe if I'm looking for that simplistic zombie feel again. I fought with myself on how to rate this anime, but it ended up getting the score it did because, at the end of the day-- though it surprised me-- I didn't enjoy it. I'd say give it a go if you're curious. You never know.