...What? I do have other interests outside of music, you know! Music might be my first love, but I am also very fond of...well, anything fantasy based, if I'm completely honest! Cartoons, superheroes, the supernatural...if it's got fantasy elements, chances are that I'm going to be interested in it! While I'm not a huge fan of horror (I scare far too easily for me to be able to watch anything labelled as "horror"), I can appreciate the classic elements of horror and get why it appeals to so many people. For so many people, the excitement of fear without the fear of actual danger to yourself is a very powerful thing, as it gives you the rush of adrenaline that you'd get in a life-or-death situation without the actual risk of any death. Indirectly, you could make a case that horror plays upon the fight-or-flight reaction in most people and, by staying through to watch the film, you technically won the fight. This is also why so many horror moves end with the villain not killed off and still out there roaming free: if the villain is still out there, you cannot shake the feeling that they might really be out there...and might be out to get you!
The problem, unfortunately, is that so many people mistake jump scares or huge amounts of blood for horror, even down to professional film makers, and, even among those who know better than that and who are very talented writers in their own right, it's very hard to shake up the basic principles of a horror film in enough of a way that a horror film can actually become original. True horror, for my money, is not what the Saw films provide (indeed, I personally prefer to refer to the Saw films as "torture porn" over "horror"): it is the feeling of helplessness against a force that simply cannot be stopped or, if it can, at a great cost to those facing it. H P Lovecraft nailed this in his writings and a lot of the classic horror films get this feeling down fairly well (heck, one could make a case that Alien could be referred to as a classic horror film that just been put through a sci-fi filter), but, in this day and age, that feeling is often downplayed in favour of blood and jump scares. And, while that can still be scary (heck, I've admitted that I can't watch horror at all, so it obviously still works!), it doesn't leave a lasting impression of fear in the same way that real horror should. Once you know what's coming in a modern horror film, you can't be scared by it, but, with real horror, you are scared every time you see it, even if you know the details of the plot down to the smallest details and have seen the film enough times that you should be used to it.
Where does Highschool Of The Dead come into this? Well...it manages to come into both of those categories and neither of them at the same time. I personally don't find it scary in the slightest (although the fact it has a Nightmare Fuel page on TV Tropes does indicate that there's some stuff in it that will scare some people) and it has enough blood in it to almost desensitise you to it entirely, but I recognise that, if you don't mind the cliche nature of a work involving a zombie apocalypse (because, lets be honest, zombie apocalypses have been done so much by this point that it's almost impossible for the idea to scare anyone any more), it does manage to create situations which have the potential to chill you to the bone. Yes, the series is more than a bit ridiculous at points (the amount of fan service in some episodes will raise a few eyebrows for male viewers...among other things), but I think it knows it is being ridiculous and is willing to indulge itself in the ridiculousness with all the excitement and enthusiasm that one would expect from a teenager being offered his first experience in bed with the hottest girl in his school year.
For the benefit of those who haven't heard of the series, I'll give a quick summery of the origins of the show. Highschool Of The Dead is an anime adaption of the manga of the same name, which was created by Daisuke Satō and Shōji Satō (I have no idea whether they're related or not). The first chapter of the series was published in September 2006 and the series lasted until March 2011, when it went on hiatus until May 2013, when chapter 30 was released...and it promptly went back on hiatus again after that. I'll admit, I've not read the original manga, so I can't confirm how accurately the anime follows it, but what I've heard indicates that some of the fanservice (not all of it, but some) was taken directly from the manga. The anime was first aired in Japan from July to September 2010, with the English dub airing from March to May 2011. An OVA of the show (I'll come to that later) was released in April 2011 in Japan, being bundled with the release of the seventh volume of the manga (for the benefit of those not aware, manga volumes in Japan are typically smaller than manga volumes in the UK, containing a smaller number of chapters than the versions released in the UK) and only got released in the UK with the release of the DVD and Blu-Ray of the series, which was released in November 2013. Interestingly, the dub originally censored some of the more graphic scenes in the original anime, but the DVD and Blu-Ray releases are completely unedited.
So, that's the basic history of Highschool Of The Dead. But what is the premise of the show?
...Erm, it's actually somewhat self-explanatory: the show is a group of five high school students (three female students with at least D cups (if you're wondering why I'm highlighting that fact now: EVERY female character old enough to have breasts has large breasts, so, if you start watching the show expecting a diverse range of breast sizes, you're going to be disappointed...or not, depending on how you look at it!) and two male students), the school's doctor who seems to have stored her brains in her chest (seriously, the airheaded doctor has the largest breasts in the show!) and, from episode 7 onwards, a 7 year old girl who seems to be taking the whole "zombie apocalypse" thing surprising well trying to survive a zombie apocalypse. It's hardly the most original premise (even by the time the manga debuted, you could have been forgiven for growing tried of the trend of zombie apocalypse related stuff being made), but I'd say that being unoriginal isn't automatically bad. I'd take an unoriginal story told well over an original story told poorly any day of the week, and the story of Highschool Of The Dead, while hardly a shining beacon of quality, is actually somewhat engaging. True, some of that could be attributed to the fanservice (of which there is A LOT: I'll get to that later), but the story itself never feels like it's really dragging: every episode has a purpose towards the whole story and very few of the episodes feel like they're lacking a point (with the only exceptions being episode 4 (which is a recap episode, for some reason), episode 6 (which might as well be called Fanservice: The Episode: The Movie) and (if you want to count it as part of the main series) the OVA (which actually has MORE fanservice than episode 6, believe it or not!)). Some well known anime move at nigh on glacial paces (Dragonball Z, Naruto and Bleach spring to mind at the minute!), so an anime which moves as quickly as Highschool Of The Dead does is actually somewhat refreshing for someone who is used to anime that take a while to get anywhere, as it runs for about five and a half hours if you watch it uninterrupted and the story rarely feels like it's struggling to fill that run time.
For five and a half hours worth of anything, though, you need strong characters. And...erm, I've got to be honest, the main characters vary between being fairly well rounded to being somewhat like stereotypes of what you'd expect their character to be. Easily the best character is Kohta Hirano, as he shows a surprising amount of depth over the course of the show and, by the end of the show, you actually believe that he is the kind of character who could survive a zombie apocalypse. Of the other six main characters, though, I have various degrees of issues, ranging from the minor (Saeko Busujima's more unstable side which we get revealed to in episode 9 feels like it appears out of nowhere, although it does give some more depth to her that takes her beyond being somewhat one note and it does actually get subtly hinted towards at a few early points in the show) to the somewhat serious (Shizuka Marakiwa might as well be considered a walking collection of boob jokes, with the only thing that she really does throughout the series which would justify her surviving the zombie apocalypse being her ability to drive). In between those two, however, we have Takashi Komuro (who is your typical dark and brooding leader figure, but is a passable character), Rei Miyamoto (who doesn't really have that much of a character, if I'm totally honest), Saya Takagi (who is the only main character who I personally dislike, due to her VERY stuck up personality, rudeness to the other characters, insistence that, because she's a genius, she knows everything and functional uselessness in terms of help to the group, but I accept that might be me looking at her from the wrong perspective) and Alice Maresato (who has the default expression of a bright and cheerful grin, despite seeing her father murdered in front of her and being in the middle of a zombie apocalypse...seriously, if I had both of those happen to me now, let alone at age seven, I'd probably be on the verge of a nervous breakdown!). For me, the characters are strong enough to act as our protagonists, but, with the exception of Kohta Hirano (and, later in the show, Saeko Busuhima), they're lacking some real depth to them to really push them to being actual people who I would really want to root for. The problem is made less pressing due to how much fanservice the four female characters provide over the course of the show (I'm getting to that, please be patient), but, for those able to ignore that, it's hard to shake off the fact that so many of the characters feel a bit lacking.
That minor characters...well, there's very few of them, in all honesty, but the ones that are there don't really make a huge impact on you, as they're all a bit one note. The only one that I'd say will leave a real impact on you is Koichi Shido, who has to be the only character in an anime who I've wanted to see dead and was not impressed when they were not killed when the chance was available. That's not to say that you could have the anime without the minor characters, but most of them don't even do much to advance the plot and don't even have much of a personality outside of being somewhat one note.
The amount of fanservice in the show is actually rather impressive. The episodes that deserve highlighting for it, however, are episode 6, a specific section in episode 8 and the OVA (although there is a lot of fanservice throughout the show: those two are just the most noticeable examples with their uses of it). Episode 6 involves a bath scene with all four female characters (at the time) and you get a surprisingly large amount of nudity (although the only part of it which would break broadcasting rules is Shizuka's bare breasts, which do show her nipples a few times in the episode). If you're reading that and thinking "that's quite impressive", bear in mind that that isn't the only bit of fanservice in the episode...in fact, I don't think that's the most impressive bit of fanservice in the episode, let alone in the show! It's the only time that all four female characters are seen without clothes at the same time, though. Episode 8 has a scene that I've taken to nicknaming "Enter The Boobtrix" due to the fact that you get THREE slow motion shots of Takashi Korumo firing a gun, each one of which is blatantly fanservice connected: one of them is showing the recoil effect of firing the gun on Rei Miyamoto's breasts, one of them is showing a bullet going right between Saeko Busujima's legs (narrowly missing her...do I even have to say what the bullet nearly hit?) and one is a bullet going right between Saeko's breasts, with them JUST avoiding being hit by it. It's almost hilarious to watch the scene just because of how over the top the whole scene is, and I'm saying this as someone who normally doesn't question stuff that happens in fanservice scenes beyond the necessity of the scene at all! The OVA goes BEYOND all of that, to the extent that I feel trying to explain it wouldn't do it justice...all I'll say is that it's a beach episode and that hallucinogenic leaves are involved.
...Yes, I know that doesn't help much. If you've seen the OVA, though, you'll know what I'm referring to!
The animation for Highschool Of The Dead, if I'm totally honest, is really good. I can't say it's the best I've seen at all, but it's certainly very high quality, suits the anime due to it having a somewhat dark style that fits perfectly with the whole "zombie apocalypse" thing and can be a real joy to watch on the strength of that alone. You might not want to put this on if you have kids in the house (or your partner) due to how graphic the anime can get at points, but it's hardly on the level of some anime out there which I've heard of (do NOT look up Violence Jack unless you have a strong stomach) and it does downplay some of the more graphic things which are apparently from the manga (one example that springs to mind is when Saya Takagi uses a power drill on a zombie's forehead...granted, that instance was her reaching for the first weapon she could find because she was cornered by a zombie, but be VERY grateful that the anime doesn't show the zombie once she grabs the power drill, as I suspect the result would put you off food for a while...and probably still could because of the sheer amount of blood that comes flying out of the zombie!).
The music for the show is really great! There are fourteen songs in the anime (the main theme and a different song played at the end of each episode) and I have to say that I rather like all of them! The Japanese, in my honest opinion, tend to make better music for their animated works than most European countries do, and this anime doesn't fail to live up to that bar! If I had to pick a favourite song, I'd say that the main theme is my personal pick, but, really, every song is worth listening to!
The voice acting in both versions of the show is perfectly fine, but I do have to say that, if you're wanting an exceptional performance from anyone in the show, you're not really looking in the right place. Nobody strikes me as delivering a bad performance (or, at least, bad in that the actor does a bad job: some of the characters have voices which I personally don't like much, but the performances are perfectly fine), but the word that doesn't ever cross my mind in either version of the show is "amazing". The Japanese sub arguably has the better voice acting overall (everyone at least SOUNDS like they're getting the right emotions, while a few moments in the English version seem like the actor wasn't completely sure of the emotion to go for), but I still wouldn't say it's a show that you're going to love for the voice acting.
Some people will no doubt be asking which is the version of the show that I prefer: the English dub or the Japanese sub. Well, the Japanese sub is the version of the show that I've seen in full, but I have watched a few episodes of the dub, so, based on that...I'd personally recommend the subbed version, as I think some of the dialogue in the dubbed version is worse than the original version (although that's not to say that the dialogue was flawless in the original Japanese: there are still more than a few moments where I found myself questioning the choice of dialogue) and the voice acting is a bit questionable at points in the English dub, but I think the dub is perfectly acceptable if you're unable to find the Japanese sub or prefer dubs over subs.
So, what do I make of this anime as a whole? Well, it's hardly high entertainment by any measure, but, if you want something to pass the time, then it's actually rather enjoyable. Yes, it's mindless entertainment, it's hardly going to win any awards from anyone who considers themselves a professional critic and it's not going to be for everyone, but, if you're just wanting something to watch to kill a few hours of time, you could certainly do far worse than this.
Final Rating: 6 Out Of 10
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