Review of High School of the Dead

"This is the way the world ends. Not with a bang, but a whimper..." Zombies, action, total bloodfest, unrealistic jiggle physics, High School of the Dead is everything that I just stated. Originally I had started reading the manga, and I can say that I really enjoyed it, like a lot. I was at that phase in life where all I wanted to watch or read was things involving apocalyptic points in life involving one of two things: the end of the world, or zombies. Once I heard that there would be an anime based off of the High School of the Dead manga, I gotreally pumped up and started watching it once it was released. Despite how much I personally enjoyed the anime, I ended up concluding, sadly, that it wasn't as good as the manga. I'm not saying that the anime itself was bad, I'm saying that it could have been better. Without further ado, let's get this review started, shall we?

As far as stories go, there haven't been a lot of unique ones out there. All of them have to do with the world facing one of two options: being eaten alive by hordes of the undead, or standing up and fighting. In High School of the Dead, that is practically what the whole point of the story is. A group of High Schoolers and their teacher with like a bust of 99 are off to survive this apocalyptic event, while looking for their families in hopes that they are safe and sound. That's what a crisis will do to you, you want to spend every moment with people you care about in sudden realization that your days on earth may be numbered. I haven't seen many zombie animes before, but I can safely say that this is definitely one of the more popular ones out there, and there is surely a reason for that, and the story might be one of those reasons. The manga is still going right now, so the story has obviously not been completed, so hopes of a season 2 might not be impossible.

Detailed artwork, great but unrealistic character art, and awesome action scenes and effects. For an echii/action genre anime, High School of the Dead delivers in both departments. The mixture of blood and boobs actually mix perfectly for some reason, despite them being 2 different characteristics. The effects were well made, the blood seemed like a realistic amount when the fight scenes come around, and it isn't such a huge amount that people might get sick when you see it.

I have not watched the Japanese Dub. I have only watched the English Dub. Therefore I cannot tell you the difference between the two. However, the English Dub cast was nearly perfect. I know how people feel when it comes to this kind of stuff, usually people prefer the subs just because they can't stand the english voice actors, but this time it's actually watchable to my surprise. There was maybe one character that didn't really fit too well, but overall the dubbed cast did a good job.

Boobs and turtles. That's what I got from the characters in the show. If you haven't already figured it out, this anime has jiggle physics beyond belief. It's like every time a girl moves on this show, their jugs bounce around like they were on trampolines. It's not just bouncing, but for all I know, these boobs could have minds of their own, they could be living beings. Oh, and the turtles also have to do with boobs. Now that we've described all the main characters, lets get into some of the minor characters. Oh, wait, technically the characters I am about to talk about are the main ones, but you could never tell, because there could be a character called "Saeko's Boobs" or "Rei's Boobs" or "Miss Shizuka's Boobs". Jokes aside, the male protagonist of the show, Takashi Komuro. At first glance, he's just your average teenager that skips class and seems to be fairly popular with the ladies. All of this is true. But once the zombie apocalypse starts, he turns into a man of action and starts taking them all down. Next is Rei. You might know her from other characters, such as Rei's Boobs from High School of the Dead. Anyways, childhood friend of Takashi, but for some reason they kind of split apart after a few years, but obviously there's chemistry between the two of them. Apparently very skilled with a metal pole, if you know what I mean... yup, she's awesome at martial arts. Next there's Saeko. Don't mess with her. Despite the fact she has a wooden sword, she can use it with deadly force. So stay away, especially when she gets her hands on a real one, then you're screwed. Next is turtle boy, Kouta. To keep his character bio short, he's an otaku that knows his guns. Maybe next time everyone that bullied him will know to stay away, cause this fat tub of lard will shoot you. Takagi is the smarty-pants-tsundere in the group. Her hobbies: calling people fat otakus and whining. God she was annoying... Miss Shizuka, the nurse that all the guys seem to fall in love with for one reason. What might that be you ask? Her caring personality? Her good looks? Nope. Boobs. Lastly, there's Alice. The one normal girl in the group. She may be like 10 years old, but she's definitely one of the characters you'll be able to stand the most, I can assure you.

I enjoyed this anime. My friends enjoyed this anime. We all enjoyed episode 6, you don't have to lie about it. We all enjoyed the OVA for High School of the Dead. No one has to lie about that. Overall, I can say that I really enjoyed High School of the Dead. If you aren't a fan of zombies, boobs, blood, boobs, action, boobs, or boobs, don't watch this. Cause there's a lot of that. Especially boobs. So many boobs. Boobs. Boobs everywhere... hopefully, if there is a next season, they might take the jiggle physics down a notch and actually focus more on the story, but that's just me. Oh, and one last thing, boobs.