Thursday 19 May 2011

Highschool of the Dead.

A change of pace here with an anime i've watched recently. I'm a pretty big fan of the zombie genre. Not necessarily horror, just zombies. I think it's the survival thing. It's formulaic. I like the decay of human morals in the face of apocalypse. And secret bases. And looting. Seriously, zombie apocalypse has to be one of the best ways to go.

 In this series, we follow a group of students, a school nurse and a young girl as they struggle to survive in a world that has fallen to the dead in a matter of hours. And falls to the living with their nuclear holocausts, shortly after that. Hectic. The action scenes are great, covering sword and gunplay, it's got a bit of everything.



Not to detract from it's awesome plot, character dynamics and overall animation style, the first thing you will probably notice is.. The fan service. For those not familiar with anime, wikipedia defines fan service as the following:


In Japanese manga and animeFan service (ファンサービス fan sābisu)fanservice, or service cut (サービスカット sābisu katto),is material that is designed to amuse or excite the audience with especially derived content. It is about "servicing" the fan - giving the fans "exactly what they want" – and usually refers to "gratuitous titillation".


So, basically, boobs and panties. 


Pretty much.


Honestly, most of the time i don't even notice it, it's just a part of the culture when watching anime. But this show is seriously pushing it. A lot of what the zombie theme is about is the gratuitous gore. But most of the time, instead of showing the action, you get a close-up of their squirming panties. It's quite hilarious. At other times, just frustrating and annoying. But, honestly, if fan service is the only thing you have to complain about, it's not a bad anime, i guess.


Like i said, they're pushing it.

So. Gratuitous titillation aside, this show has all the classic zombie elements with it's own original twist. Being set inside the school in the first episode, the students are limited as far as weapons are concerned, it makes for some interesting improvisation. Also, one of the characters is your typical trench-coat-wearing, otaku, gun-nut whose biggest issue is pretending he isn't having the most awesome time of his mouth-breathing, basement-dwelling, geek-fest life.

"Finally, Wood-work class comes in handy!"

It's interesting to see how the different characters, from different backgrounds and social circles, deal with the inevitable decay of what they believe and how they think they should feel about hacking down the animated corpses of their former lives. I enjoy that they only really reveal themselves a little at a time.

Indeed.

So, should you check it out? If you're a zombie, anime, boobs and gore fan, yes. But unless you fit into a minimum of 3 of these categories, i wouldn't bother. The core story is good enough to keep the casual anime viewer interested but the fan service is seriously overboard. So, if you can handle that, i say check it out! 





Here's a video of the opening credits, to get an idea of the animation style. Cool, punky tune, too. If you've seen it, let me know what you think.

I know this won't be everyone's cup of tea, so let me know of some shows you like in the comments and i will definitely check them out! :)



48 comments:

  1. I love this anime so much!
    Im up to date with the manga as well. ^_^

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  2. Me too :3

    Check out my blog if you like video games

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  3. I need this in my life now.

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  4. Fan service and zombies? This just made it into my must watch list! =D

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  5. Watch toradora, wait I forgot to add DO NOT.

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  6. I love this anime too, I recommend it to all my friend, like I did with ELfen Lied

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  7. @GhostDude - I've only seen the first 12 eps! ^_^ No spoilers! >.< haha

    @Carles - I liked Elfen Lied too :)

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  8. i love anime, but this might be too hardcore for me..

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  9. This show is idiotic. Manga is bearable

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  10. such unrealistically hot girls haha

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  11. i really have to start watching this...

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  12. I rather enjoyed this series, Killin' zombies is always fun to watch.

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  13. I like this, have been waiting for a new Anime worth to follow. I'm gonna try this one. Thx for the post :)

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  14. Oh man. That looks pretty good actually. Nice plot, I'm gonna mos def be checking this out!

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  15. Sometimes anime can be TOO derivative, the Streetfighter anime series' were a prime but entertaining example, this just looks like someone with a bit too much time on their hands saw The Walking Dead made it to TV, realised a lot of Zombie Apocalypse themed things are popular and just went with it. I'm not intrigued but thanks for sharing. Will be following.

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  16. The pic of the guy holding the gun shows a level of shading detail not usually seen in anime =) i like it!

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  17. Thanks for sharing :) maybe i'll take a look at this one and thse girls.

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  18. ive never really been a fan of manga, but this looks interesting

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  19. Ive been following the manga, haven't watched the anime yet though

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  20. I'd be a pervert if I were in an anime

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  21. Boobs and panties? oh dude me gusta

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  22. Some of those pictures looked tasty.

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  23. I'm probably going to check this out. Even with the fan service, it actually looks mighty decent. Thanks for sharing, I doubt I'd have found this otherwise!

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  24. ooookkkkkkkkkkkkkk so im downloading this RIGHT NOW!!!!

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  25. I have seen it a bit before, it's strange since they mix zombie and big breasts, i can't see it being more sex related than zombies trying to rape you or something like that xD

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  26. i love anime but hate blood even when its fake so might have to give this one a miss...

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  27. boobs and panties? :D
    following

    http://incredible-mo.blogspot.com/

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  28. boobs and zombies. What else could you want.

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  29. Wow those girls, never seen this anime

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  30. I watched a few episodes of this anime and really liked it kinda forgot about it though, anyway going to check it out again, thanks.

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  31. boobs and panties are always appreciated.

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  32. i watched one episode and dropped it, i hate over-fanservice

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  33. this looks pretty awesome. gotta check it out asap

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  34. I really enjoyed this anime. It had quite a different atmosphere compared to most other anime I've seen before, definitely something I found alluring and interesting.

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  35. Fanservice, fanservice everywhere. But I still enjoyed it and am waiting for S2.

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  36. lol finally someone else who saw this

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  37. I haven't watched anime in a long time, should try this.

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  38. I read the manga to this. It's pretty good.

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