High School of the Dead

So High School of the Dead was one of the shows I was interested in, mostly because it's pretty much the only zombie apocalypse anime I've ever heard of. Okay, first off, this show has an unbelievable amount of fan service. The picture above was the only one I could find that wasn't a manga scan, and wasn't practically porn. Not that that's a bad thing, I just think it's hard to take a show seriously when it has more fan service than Ikkitousen (Battle Vixens, for you dub-watchers).

Now that that's out of the way, we can talk about the show itself. I won't talk much about violence, as it's a zombie anime, and thus expected to be encountered in large quantities. The show has (I think, Kevin would probably disagree) interesting characters. They have definite personalities, and while they may be somewhat stereotyped (Why do all male leads either do badly in school or are geniuses?), they react believably to the situation. So if the characters are interesting, that means the show is pretty good, right? Unfortunately, that may not be the case here. This show is easily the most predictable show I've ever seen. It follows pretty much every zombie movie cliche out there, [spoiler]right down to the main character having to kill his best friend, who happens to be going out with his unrequited love.[/spoiler] The main character, who seems to be somewhat of a loser, as far as I can tell, sees a zombie attack outside the school when he's skipping class, sees it for what it is,  pulls his unrequited love and his best friend out of class in an attempt to save them, and from that most of you can guess pretty much the entire episode's storyline.

Some of the things the show does very well include an accurate depiction of how most people would react to a zombie apocalypse. One teacher jumps out a window, people turn on their friends to save their own lives, most of the students are simply too confused to react in time, resulting in quite the zombie horde. The main characters' emotions are very well communicated, and like those of the rest of the cast, seem very human.

It might just be me, but the show itself was somewhat depressing, but it made me want to watch more. The last line sums up the general mood of the show: "On the day everything I knew came to an end, [spoiler]I killed my best friend[/spoiler], and embraced the love of my life for the first time."

Note: Highlight spoilers to see them.