Review of High School of the Dead

Highschool of the Dead, an apocalyptic anime that could've been great if it wasn't utterly ruined by the poor physics and vast amounts of unnecessary ecchi. Now, don't get me wrong, I don't mind ecchi in anime at all, but this anime really just tried way too hard with shoving the fanservice down our throats. There were multiple occasions I thought I was watching a hentai with all the actual sex scenes cut out. For an example, a female character could move just a few steps and her tits would be flying all over the place. The physics in this anime are just terrible, and theinfamous scene that showcases exactly how boobs work shows this perfectly.

And that isn't the only problem I had with the art, the art is also just inconsistent and it's really disappointing with how beautiful the visuals are. I honestly would've rated the art a 10 if it wasn't for the inconsistency and poor physics, because the special effects, the scenery, all the cinematics were just so amazingly well made and genuinely beautiful, and I find this especially impressive given the anime is now 11 years old and in that department still manages to beat many animes that are airing this season. I really feel like if the writers didn't try so hard to shove tits in our faces the artwork would've just been better and less disappointing.

As for the story, I feel like the story was honestly a let down compared to everything else in this anime. There were some plot holes, but in all honesty it could've been worse, since many plot holes were patched up. However, one of my least favourite things story wise in this anime is the progression. It just felt slow and boring, it was like they didn't have enough content to actually show us so they stretched out all the insignificant parts and called it a day. You see, for the first 5-7 episodes despite the slow pacing and plot holes I was quite enjoying the anime, but it just kept going downhill and slowly got more boring each episode. Not to mention plenty of the dialogue was just plain embarrassing. Like, sure, I'd expect that from a 2010's anime but in some cases it was to the point I had to pause and just take a second to think "What went through their mind when they wrote that out?".

Speaking of dialogue, the voice acting was actually pretty solid. The voices matched the characters perfectly, and really brought them all to life. There were plenty of atmospheric sounds that also managed to make the anime feel much more alive and also created good suspense in many scenes. Now, one of the things I enjoyed from the sound of this anime is the backing music. Backing music is very important in any sort of media, using the right type and genre creates the desired feeling in the viewer and this anime did a good job with it. The only issue I have is that, contrary to what I just said about them doing a good job with backing music, is that there were a fair amount of scenes that needed backing music and just simply did not have any at all. It just ruined the scenes, made them empty and awkward to watch. The sound is another part of this anime I would've rated high if it wasn't for this one thing that, although small, can really make or break an anime.

And finally, the characters. The characters in this anime really just felt like I had already seen them in plenty other anime. They all fell into some sort of stereotypical anime character category, and all were just mediocre at best. Even the ones that made me go "Oh, I like this character!" I felt were still just ok. Not amazing, not terrible just simply ok. They didn't feel like they were well written, and some of them made me wonder "Why are you even here?" and the reason they were there was most likely for the sake of fanservice. They barely did anything, just stood around whilst all the action was happening, and really the anime would've been fine without them. And not to mention, with the characters that do actually manage to contribute to the story, they just have either boring or inconsistent personalities. They seem to constantly switch up, and it just makes you both confused and annoyed.

Overall, this anime felt incomplete. There were moments where I was enjoying it and excited to watch the next episode, but it slowly just got more and more boring just to have an even more boring and lacklustre ending. Honestly, I'm disappointed in myself for even taking the time to finish this anime even after I was bored by it, all for the hope that it would have a satisfying ending. In the ending, this anime is a 4. It's saving grace being the visuals, and if it wasn't for that I probably would've rated this a 3.