Japanese Title: Gakuen Mokushiroku: High School of the Dead
Similar: High School DxD
Watched in: Japanese & English
Genre: Ecchi Harem Supernatural Action Horror
Length: 12 episodes, 1 OVA
Positives:
- The otaku.
Negatives:
- Every other character.
- Takes itself too seriously.
- Zombies aren’t a real threat.
- No effort fan service.
- Episode 4 recap in a 12-episode series.
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I watch a trashy anime expecting silly fan service and dumb action against zombies, but all I get is trash? What is this nonsense? High School of the Dead should have made for a great terrible anime that has you laugh at its ludicrousity. What it presents us instead is trash that takes itself too seriously and fails to understand everything about its genre.
A sudden zombie attack on the high school leaves a group of teenagers and a few staff members as survivors in a society descended into madness. It’s a fight for survival as they flee in search of loved ones.
The main group consists of Mr Bland the usual harem protagonist, useless main girl, a kendo girl (obviously), a fat otaku, some screeching wench, and the dumbest nurse alive (perhaps literally, at this point). Of this group, the otaku is the only passable character. He represents a glimpse at what High School of the Dead should have been.
You see, every other character is taken seriously. I don’t mean a joke played with a straight face. Rather, the series expects us to take the kendo girl choosing to fight with a wooden training sword for her life, wearing nothing but an apron and panties, as serious. It demands that we pay attention to teenage whining about which nobody cares (reason enough to take your own life after listening to them). The screeching wench, a totally serious character, has the defining trait of yelling at everyone that she is smarter than the rest. If High School of the Dead understood itself, it would have killed her in the first episode for doing something stupid. And finally, how can anyone take the zombies seriously when they can neither see nor smell people? No one would die to these things. You need skill on the level of Shaun of the Dead to make this work.
The otaku stands alone as he has some fun and cracks jokes in this borefest of an anime. He finally has opportunity to put his gun obsession to use when the world goes to hell, relishing in shoving a nail gun up zombie arse. He’s also – seemingly – the one character to acknowledge the ecchi. It isn’t some running joke that everyone is blind to it either. Again, we are meant to take it seriously.
The ecchi and fan service in general is garbage, even by the standards of a fan service anime. (Don’t you have to be a fan for it to be a service, and who would be a fan of High School of the Dead?) The camera does all it can to focus on the flailing boobs and pantie shots. Every movement has to have jiggle that puts Dead or Alive to shame. If there is no jiggle, the world will end. It doesn’t try to do anything clever with the ecchi, surprise you with a sudden angle change, or make a joke of it. I cannot recall an ecchi joke save one – the sniper rifle support. Mr Bland uses a girl’s chest as a rest to steady his rifle in one scene. Naturally, because they take the scene seriously, it loses the humour anyway. It was genuinely funnier when I saw that scene as an out of context gif.
I guess there is the recurring joke of the school nurse with boobs so big she uses them as pillows when asleep at her desk, but the joke is just that she’s a bimbo every episode. If I were a fan service otaku, I would feel insulted by the laziness with which High School of the Dead treats the sacred art. This is Boobs the anime and they couldn’t even get that right. Did I mention episode 4 is a recap in this single-cour anime? The lazy is almost impressive.
If you want to see the “raunchy + undead” concept done right, look to the movie Lesbian Vampire Killers, which is not only hilarious but also far less safe for work. It knows how to make humour of fan service.
Art – Medium
The entire budget went into the jiggle physics and the action, which has plenty of animation, though is a bit jerky at times – needs more in-between frames.
Sound – Low
The acting and music are so-so. Certainly not the worst things about this anime.
Story – Very Low
A group of slutty high school kids and their bimbo school nurse try to survive the zombie outbreak with their jiggle and panties. High School of the Dead is trash that fails to understand fan service, comedy, and zombies.
Overall Quality – Very Low
Recommendation: Avoid it. There must better fan service anime out there than High School of the Dead. I do recommend the movie Lesbian Vampire Killers instead, and Shaun of the Dead of course.
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Awards: (hover over each award to see descriptions; click award for more recipients)
Positive: None
Negative:
Nefarious Reviews 