Review of High School of the Dead

So this is my first review, and I am by no means a great reviewer or can go in depth as to what really makes me enjoy something (really the most important part of a reviewer of all things), but I will try and briefly (oops) explain why I really enjoyed Highschool of the Dead contrary to popular opinion. I must say now that I might be a bit biased, as I have been a huge fan of zombies practically my whole life, although I do think I bring up some valid points. Highschool of the Dead is by no means a fantastic story or onethat has great character development (largely the most important factor in an anime for me), although this anime fulfilled its true purpose, making it fun to watch the characters kill zombies. When I walk away from finishing this anime, I wont remember the heart throbbing characters like that of Clannad or the Monogatari Series, I will remember how much fun it was watching zombies get sliced and diced, and killed by other means. Since I feel like I am getting kind of lost here, I'm just going to switch over to bullet points now;

1: It has a good dub. I myself normally watch subs, but HotD actually had a great dub with some hilarious voice lines. A good dub or a dub in general only increases the quality of life for the non-Japanese speakers, and I am thankful for that. I must admit, I did not hear how the original sub sounded, so I cannot draw comparison between the two.

2: The genre is not often explored. Now I am sure there are other animes out there that might feature themes similar to HotD (most notably Gakkougarashi!), although it's pretty rare to stumble upon an anime that features the modern (George A. Romero) zombie and has a pretty high production value. If you are a fan of zombies, I think you'd really enjoy this anime, also I don't think you are left with many other choices.

3: The lewd aspect. If that is even the right word for it, basically the fan service and nudity present throughout the show. This is one of the main bases for criticism and I can agree, it's just holding the story and the characters back. Most of the female characters have huge goddamned breasts, and have "those" scenes to show them off. It only takes away potential time from the rest of the episode to further develop the story among other things.

4: All the other stuff. The story) was OK, I could keep up with it and enjoy it for the most part, although among some scenes like a certain bathroom scene... (see the previous point) I did not enjoy. Art) was good, everything looked pretty good and the theme of a zombie apocalypse really gave the artists a lot to play with when it came to killing zombies among other things. Sound) The sound was good. As said about the story, there was a lot of opportunity for some cool sounds being the zombie apocalypse. The voice acting, the action sequences both sounded great. I don't know much else to say about that in particular. Character) The characters are pretty hit and miss. I will let you discover for yourself what you might think, but some I've really come to admire, and others, are just really pathetic, *cough* big boobed teacher *cough*. Enjoyment) This is the best part of the anime really, I touched up on it somewhere in the mess above. But it was really fun to watch, minus the "lewd" scenes.

In conclusion, 8/10, and an end to my actually not-brief review of HotD, and first MAL review ever. Sorry I could not elaborate more deeply as to what really drove me to enjoy it, I tried my best. I do not think this anime is as bad as people say it is. Don't watch this anime thinking you are in for a serious story with great characters, you are here for some great zombie killing and action sequences, and some story and character development as a side to complete the dish.