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Fine print:
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Thirty second spot version: Ditching class to soothe his broken heart, Takashi Komuro notices his PE teachers being eaten by zombies and runs to warn his friends Rei Miyamoto and Hisashi about the approaching horror (and use the resulting tension to get away with slapping Rei for breaking their pinkie promise). Panic ensues, and the school is soon overrun by a zombie horde.
Struck out before / Now he's batting a thousand! / Love World Series.
Reaction:
First off, I’m not sure what Rei’s problem is. Takashi seems like a really great guy, for what girl doesn’t like an assertive fellow who’ll slap the hell out of her every now and then? Forget flowers and sweet talk, if you really want to capture a girl’s heart you need to eliminate all of her survival options (and your pesky rivals) with an encroaching zombie horde. At least that’s what the first episode of Highschool of the Dead appears to be telling us. Apologetically, at times. I mean, why highlight the overtly sexist symbolism of handing the girl a cleaning implement if you’re just going to go and explain it away by making her a part of the “spear club” (far less believable than a zombie incursion, right)? This is the end of the world (or at least the school) drop the political correctness and get to mopping up those zombies already!
While the love triangle (conveniently resolved in the first episode!) group were the main focus of this episode, there were a few other important characters (we know this from the OP) who were briefly introduced. Saya Takagi, the pink-haired girl who was harassing Takashi, and Kohta Hirano appear to have teamed up to use their superior intellect to escape the zombies. Shizuka Marikawa, the busty school nurse, was only briefly shown waking up from a peaceful nap when the screams of her fellow faculty member were so rudely broadcast over the PA. Finally, Saeko Busujima, the girl in the kendo dojo, didn’t get any real action this time, but if the size of her bust pressed up against the chain link fence is any indication, we’re going to be seeing an awful lot (though I’m not sure how much more) of her in the future.
Boob jokes aside, I’m not sure how much cleavage depth we’re going to get with this series, which seems to focus almost entirely on violent action and fanservice. I’ve only read a couple chapters of the manga, and while there may be some actual development down the road, for now it’s been shoved aside (like the girls on the stairs) to give the story (and the characters) a running start. Even if the series never tries to do anything profound, however, I’ll be content to sit back and watch the blood (and the miniskirts) fly. I’ve been looking for something that will let me turn off my brain for a bit and simply enjoy the spectacle, and HoTD definitely delivers in that regard.
Despite all the inane moments (okay, truthfully BECAUSE of them) the first episode of HoTD was everything I had been hoping for since I heard that it was going to be turned into an anime. Action, fanservice, and ridiculously awesome boy/girl/zombie on zombie/girl/boy/random PE teacher violence makes this one a winner in my book, and I’m looking forward to seeing more of it.
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This post was written by...
Halfadeckshort – who has written 92 posts on Sea Slugs! Anime Blog.
I always wanted to be the handler of a hot all-girl spy team, and joining Sea Slugs! made that dream come true. Well, the being part of a team portion of the dream, anyway. When I'm not busy trying to accomplish the rest of my goal, I enjoy watching anime from almost every genre with a focus on anything featuring sultry female voice acting or meganekko.
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Rei has quite a few reasons to act like she does, some of them to be explored in next two episodes, some latter.
Currently her main problem is NOT with Takashi. Its with the whole situation that happened. Her school got attacked by zombies, ordinary day turned into zombie apocalypse, can’t reach her parents on the phone and her boyfriend-turned-zombie got killed by his best friend and her ex-boyfriend with a baseball bat.
Its only normal that she reacted as hysterically as she did.
Frankly, a lot more than violence, this series highlights human nature. Its not “fighting zombies, why they are here, surviving” its “how this whole situation affects the characters, what are those characters made off and what happens when they survive day from day in this zombie apocalypse”. The series (at least in manga) is full on social commentary on human nature and society itself.
The show has two main strong points – intense atmosphere and characters. Atmosphere can already be seen in first episode and actually makes you care for each character and worry for every encounter.
Character wise, it contains quite a diverse cast and each cast member has multiple personality layers that get revealed due to stress, fear, depression, etc, as the whole situation progresses.
If using the DnD alignment system, pretty much every main character is chaotic neutral with constant swings in between chaotic evil and chaotic good.
Rei didn’t know what was going on when Takashi ran into class, and she barely got a protest out before Takashi put the smack on her. Instead of saying that Rei’s reactions were unrealistic, I was trying to say that Takashi’s actions were a little overly forceful at that point (he’s not great boyfriend or best friend material based on the first episode).
And while zombie films are commonly associated with social commentary, HoTD hasn’t shown much of that yet. It’s only been twenty minutes, so I wasn’t expecting that anyway, but I’ll take your word for it that it does tackle social issues and deeper character development (along with hot girls) later in the series.
I enjoy zombie movies, and I enjoyed the heck out of the first episode of HoTD (which I keep reading as Hot D(amn!), and why I’ve gone along with the abbreviation even though HSoTD makes more sense). I plan to continue in a somewhat lighter vein than usual with this series, and I hope that you find at least some of my commentary amusing. Thanks for reading and commenting!
Rei didn’t know what was going on when Takashi ran into class, and she barely got a protest out before Takashi put the smack on her. Instead of saying that Rei’s reactions were unrealistic, I was trying to say that Takashi’s actions were a little overly forceful at that point (he’s not great boyfriend or best friend material based on the first episode).
Oh but that was 100% realistic. They both are going through a rebound, By on what was going on through episode,it seems that Rei went on into denial of any sort of feelings for Takashi during the rebound(constantly trying to argue, denominate his opinions, etc), while he went through more common depression with affect-anger problems and strong magnification of his feelings for her.
I have a pretty good idea on what person goes through during a rebound.
In a sense she tries to downsize any qualities she ever saw in Takashi and deny whatever emotions are there left for him, while he is experiencing an overly strong surge of those emotions. Considering before breaking up,she was the affectionate one and he was the one who did not show enough affection, that makes a total sense psychology-wise.
This show is painful. On the one hand, I love the action and black humour. On the other it’s so misogynistic. -_-
if you’re just going to go and explain it away by making her a part of the “spear club” (far less believable than a zombie incursion, right)?
Do yourself a favour and read this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naginata
Interesting. I (obviously) didn’t know they actually had spear club. And thanks, I’m now even more thoroughly disappointed with my own high school experience. All that time wasted on Mathletes….
Don’t be, you Americans got it lucky. I wish we had had matheletes at my school. I don’t even think there was any club.
LOL, it was a long time ago. I’m entitled to be disappoint through the fish-eyed lens of half-remembered nostalgia.
Compared to the zombie apocalypse though, I guess my high school days weren’t that bad. Mathletes was fun, even if half the guys went for the free cookies and the chance to ditch school 7 or 8 times a year. Thanks for prodding me into expanding my Japanese cultural knowledge, and for commenting.
Hmm another filler anime. I’ve been reading the manga long before so I’m just expecting nothing more and nothing less than what I’ve read. All I know is come winter time or was it summer? The zombies will stop. You know, cos of decomposition n’ stuff like that.
I read a couple chapters a while back when Anime on My Mind linked it (like Epi), but I never really picked it up because my scanlation-finding skills were nonexistent at the time. I’m not expecting much other than an interesting ride, so it’s a good summer fit for me.
This is where supernatural zombies definitely have the upper hand, even if the whole zombie -> skeleton transition is a little awkward.
Zombie to Skeleton is like mahou shoujo fanservice for the undead!
It’s no wonder they all end up DFC….
Hmm I know OneManga carries it as well as a bunch of others. Mangatoshoken and mangareader.net.
Wait until you come across the “peaceniks” that don’t believe in zombies and just want to give the zombies a hug and understanding. Muhahaha!
Interesting episode, but if you have fanservice + zombies, then…
God hope there’s no necrophilia.
If you see an upswing in the sale of muzzles and oven mitts, be very afraid.
Nope, no necrophilia thank gawd. Rest easy on that front.
I’m always up for a good zombie apocalypse. Now I’m itching to play some Left4Dead!
It seems like Jason panned the series a bit after recommending it 4 years ago, but we’ll see how it goes. I’m really not expecting anything from this show, so since it has excellent production values so far and good looking character designs I’m pretty psyched.
This is exactly the kind of distraction I need to help me get over the passing of Magic Hand #1 from Working!! last season. HoTD may be a trashy rebound anime in comparison, but she looks sturdy enough not to break during those critical moments. And I wouldn’t mind a little zombie Magic Hand action, if you know what I mean.
I’m also happy you’re finally blogging a show I’m watching so that I finally get to follow your blogging
Quite frankly I was so sure I hated Rei. But the closeup of her panties were just so exquisite that all is forgiven.
Unfortunately, everything I love about zombie flicks has been ruined (or enhanced) by the stellar Shaun Of The Dead.
Even watching George Romero’s Dawn Of The Dead on loop is not going to help my shattered mind too much.
With that said, are there any moments where they discuss a departed friend’s taste in music while they fling useless discs of plastic at an incoming zombie hoard?
Also, will there be moe zombie schoolgirls who act human (at the very least)? YES I AM TALKING ABOUT SANKA REA HERE.
Shaun of The Dead is awesome. Dead Alive is also a lot of fun, with the single most memorable pudding-eating scene of any movie ever.
I think it’s going to be a no-go on the vinyl tossing as well as the moé moé zombie schoolgirls, unfortunately, but there is quite a bit of violence and pantsu.
Also, checking out Sanka Rea now….
Well… I don’t want to go into details, because they might actually delve into this issue some more in a later episode, but let’s just say that Takashi has _not_ been a very assertive guy in the past, particularly in regards to Rei. Just see how Saya found him moping around in ep1.
Going from unassertive to slapping her silly in one move is a bit much though. He should have at least tied her up or something to get her in the mood….
Anyone noticed how the soundtrack completely rips of other Zombie film scores. Seriously watch the scene again where Hisashi finally turns into a Zombie and stands up with the theme to 28 days/weeks about two minutes in and tell me someone isn’t owed royalties. Still as long as nobody finds out that kind of “homage” actually enhances the episode an awful lot
They do not rip off.
MAdhouse actually has the licenses to use and create remixes of various zombie soundtracks. Expect to hear more known film scores in future episodes.
Awww really, thats quite cool I guess although I actually preferred it when I thought they where sneakily taking other peoples tracks and hopeing nobody would notice. Not sure if i’ll know any other themes as I haven’t seen a huge amount of zombie flick but 28 days/weeks later was fairly recent and the theme kicked ass. I’d personally love it if they included computer game zombie soundtracks like Spaced did with Resident Evil 2. That would be awesome.
I’ll be happy as long as they don’t pull any lame FPS stunts like they did in House of the Dead (yes, I actually watched the whole thing) and Doom (yeah, that one too… y’all are questioning my taste now, aren’t you?).
And yeah, the “zombie way” would just be to nom nom other soundtracks and add them to the horde… but those rights folks are rather lawsuit happy, so it’s probably better this way.
I’m looking forward to all of the naughty haikus that this series will spawn.
I also lol’d at how quick Takashi was to slap Rei. Some childhood friend he is! This is anime, though, so I guess slapping is the easiest and quickest way to get someone to listen to you.
I hope they won’t disappoint.
I also thought it was amusing* that Hisashi didn’t say anything about his buddy assaulting his girlfriend. I guess he was tired of her outbursts too….
*Domestic violence is never truly funny, kids. Stay in school! Literally, in this case.
Ahaha, Half, your captions never fail to amuse me
Glad I could oblige.
I hope I can maintain the
highstandards that I have set for myqualitycontent.the guy would be more likable if he became emotionally detached to the girl, this ep made him look like a bad guy.
Yeah, he could learn a few things from his buddy Hisashi about how to treat a lady… oh, wait, he killed him. He definitely needs to work on his people skills.
HE WAS ALREADY DEAD. IT DIDN’T COUNT.
HE TOTALLY LET THE ZOMBIE EAT HIS BUDDY. Just sayin’.
I’m very glad that I DLed the first episode of High School of the Dead before I went back. Sure, as you said, it doesn’t have character depth or plot, but honestly–who cares? We’ve got action ‘n’ boobs, and the excellent animation from Madhouse doesn’t hurt either. (Really, Madhouse is on a roll this season; Black Lagoon and High School of the Dead kill the competition in terms of animation and action.)
There’s one scene in particular that I liked from this series, like when the guy slaps the girl (I forget names easily, and I’m too lazy to look it up). Not that I’m misogynistic; I’m just glad that he finally had the balls to knock some sense into her.
My favorite scene, though, was when Takashi turned into the zombie. Although the directors could have made it particularly cheesy with some dramatic music, when he was turning into the zombie and wishing for death as a human, there was no music. There was just him, his face pale and filled with pain, his body flailing, spitting and spraying blood around him. I don’t know why it stuck with me; perhaps I pitied the poor soul and could really see his pain and suffering manifested physically.
Either way, I’ll be catching up on this series soon. (Love those boob jokes by the way.)
I’m liking HoTD a little better than the first episode of Black Lagoon S3. Though we get all kinds of static scenes with shaky camera and speedlines, it feels more realistic than Fabiola’s wire-fu that is almost a parody of Revy’s. Not to say that I don’t like Black Lagoon but I’m having a lot of fun watching this cheesy zombie show.
Glad you enjoyed the jokes, and I hope you stick with the series.
I’ve read a lot of this manga, and it’s fairly predictable. Still, it is totally awesome when animated correctly, and I especially love the crazy, frantic, first person view scenes. I also noticed in that one first person view scene, the camera pans to the cleavage and then quickly pans away.
Also, it’s great how zombies are an excuse to do whatever the heck you want. I noticed that while exiting in an orderly fashion, a few guys took the opportunity to randomly rough up girls that weren’t even in their way.
BTW, that Rei slapping scene was one of the more realistic slapping scenes in anime. Seriously woman, there is a freaking zombie apocalypse and you think it is about you. You’re so vain!
As long as the FPS stuff stays in frantic territory and doesn’t start looking like the rail-guided jerky motion on the Haunted Mansion ride, I’m okay with it (though it would have been awesome if the words “ZOMBIE CAM” had come up when we got the through-the-teeth zombie view).
The totally unnecessary violence was entertaining, and I figure the guys saw Takashi’s little outburst in class and decided to get back at their unreciprocating crushes as well. And I hope that the slap continues to fuel the warm feelings between Rei and Takashi, you know, like when she said that she’d rather let her dead boyfriend eat her than spend any more time with Takashi. He’s going to be paying for that forever.
they really need to finish this anime its one of the best out there