Review of High School of the Dead
TL;DR? Should you watch this show? Yeah, it's not that bad, but then again it's not great at all. Watch this show when you don't really have anything better to watch or are in for some giddy (only cus of the constant fan service) and a slightly dark toned show. It actually presents a pretty "realistic" take on the zombie apocalypse. Like how people go crazy and what not, but again, so much fan service that it's hard to get into it unless you can somehow ignore it. I mean seriously, there was a scene where a bullet went in between a girl's boobs, now don'tget me wrong, I'm no anatomist, but I am preeeettty sure that that can't happen.
Loooooong Review:
Man dude, this anime had so much potential in so many departments.
The first most notable element of the wasted potential was the unneeded amount of fan service. And I mean, an unrealistic amount. You will (this isn't an understatement) see a panty or boob shot in almost every other scene. What could be so wrong with fan service if it was meant to be a fan service anime though? The problem is is that it wasn't meant to be just an ecchi fan service anime. It kept switching back and forth from a serious and dark tone, where you're actually legitimately getting into the atmosphere of the story. THEN BOOM, panty shot, and it completely ruins the whole feel of the story. Then again, they show it so often you actually get used to it.
Aside from the constant fan service, I would like to credit that the story did a spectacular job at representing the chaos that would most likely ensue if something like this were to happen. Of course, being anime, it showed it from the perspective of a bunch of high school kids. None the less, they did a good job at representing that in the first few episodes. You felt like you could really get into the story and you can feel the mayhem and the insanity that's going on between the people in the story.
For example, it shows the kids struggle to survive in the show rather than just instantly giving them a safe haven. If they had just been given an instant safe haven, it would ruin that dramatic and dynamic impact from the story. Like for example, in the anime tokyo ghoul, it shows the character struggling and not knowing what to do when he turns into a ghoul for like an episode, and then is instantly given a safe haven the next episode. There is a certain interest in seeing how these characters slowly recover and fight back (sometimes metaphorically sometimes literally) rather than just "BOOM, everything's here no need to worry."
However, despite the constant fan service the story can still be seen. Yet again though, that's only for the first few episodes. There gets to be a point in the story where it goes from a realistically tense and apocalyptic tone, to a slightly realistic and oddly tense regular high school drama. There were parts of the story that were also unneeded, the story would take the time to explain this certain thing or it would take time to include this certain thing and it ended up not even mattering in the end.
Along side that last point, the story also moves incredibly fast towards the end. At one point this thing happens, and then this thing happens, AND THEN BOOM all of a sudden next episode this huge thing is going on from the clear blue (can you tell? I'm trying to give out as little spoilers as possible).
Nonetheless, despite these flaws, I personally still had a good time with this anime. There were some unneeded scenes, the fan service was way too much and ruined the whole chaotic (in a good way) atmosphere this show coulda had going for it, and the story started to deviate quickly, taking a sharp corner into the random abyss.
TL;DR?
Should you watch this show? Yeah, it's not that bad. Sure it had a lot of lost potential but it's one of those ridiculous (only cus of the fan service) and slightly dark toned shows that you can watch when you don't really have anything better to watch.