Review of High School of the Dead

The greatest problem some people have with this anime is they take it seriously and fail to miss that it is a complete parody of the American horror films of the late 70s and 80s. When you realize the light hearted fun it is meant to be you can see this for what it truly is, fun. Yes, there's excuses at every turn for the female characters to loose clothing, guns galore, and massive giggle physics that make dark matter theory look simple, but that's exactly what happened in the movies this series is a loving tribute too. Look kids, seen through the filter ofa Japanese audience, the American actresses of those days were insanely endowed and the American men gun toting crazies, this view carries over in to this silly romp where American zombie lore is retold, in some cases so closely you might be temped to go pick up the original 1978 "Dawn of the Dead" to see how series 2 might have gone.

The plot is simple: zombies=bad, people=sometimes really bad. Like most zombie movies this series shows just how self centered and dark people can get while our "heroic" core group struggles to move on with just staying alive. Don't expect a lot of character development, this is a giggle and gore fest that sadly with the death or the creator and the traumatic Great Quake will never be concluded, but that doesn't prevent you from having a good time with this series.

If you can set aside the idea that everything must be "correct" and enjoy silliness for silliness's sake you'll enjoy this series. If you can't you're going to focus on all the "mistakes" and "incorrect" behaviors and hate every moment of it.