Review of High School of the Dead

Lately, there has been a sudden interest in zombies and multiple TV shows, movies, and novels have been made on this topic. The well-known “High school of the Dead” tells a story of a group of high schoolers surviving a zombie outbreak. Because there have been multiple successes with this type of show (ie. The Walking Dead), it grabbed a lot of attention fast. Even though the concept promised success, the result was poor. Outrageous characters, random story development, nonsense back stories, and poorly timed fan service all made the show worse than it should have been. But before I criticize it, I’ll start with someof the positive things. Throughout the show, there are small side stories told about the people outside of this high school group. They tend to be more realistic and believable. Because they are realistic, probable situations, they are more interesting to watch than the main story itself. They also manage to evoke emotions and set the mood the show was meant to present. In addition, the animation runs quite smoothly. The fight scenes are exciting and not at all choppy (with the exception of few). Another interesting part of the show is the unique method they chose to present humans. The writers chose to show both light and dark side of humans. Unlike most characters in shows, everyone in HOTD acted like a human. They weren’t always good, and they weren’t always evil. It was able to portray what people would actually do during a crisis.

Now that the positives are out, I will talk about the negatives of the show. I’ll start off with the characters. It seems that characters were created in a way to allow writers to have an easier time explaining situations. This made for characteristics that are ridiculous and over-the-top. This may sound all right, but as the show progresses, their characteristics seem to amplify and become more and more ridiculous. In addition, the backstories that come with the characters are far too unbelievable. From being a daughter of an insanely rich family to being trained by a soldier in the US, they come out of nowhere and expect the viewers to comprehend them. The overall story is not much better. Every time they are stuck in a sticky situation, something miraculous occurs to help them out. Every solution is too convenient, ending up making the whole scene anticlimactic. The final, most obvious, mistake of the show is the timing of fan service. Fan service can be found in most anime so it is expected. But intentionally showing them in the middle of an intense scene takes away the seriousness of the situation. I am not necessarily saying that fan service ruined the show and there shouldn’t be any, but the timing producers chose to put them in is just stupid.

Do I recommend it?

I do not recommend this anime to anyone. There are some interesting side stories, but that one factor cannot redeem other failing parts of the show. HOTD is simply not worth the time.

(When I talk about this with my friends, they all say it is an anime and it is expected to be ridiculous. I do not have a problem with ridiculous shows, but I believe when a show starts out with the intention of being realistic, they should stick with it.)