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As you all know, I’m pretty bad with deadlines, so these impressions are a bit late. But I actually have a valid excuse this time. I’ve been all up and down the South the past two weeks with family, so blame them. The shows I picked to watch this season are Cat Shit One , High School of the Dead, Kuroshitsuji II, Sekimatsu Occult Gakuin, and Shiki. But, since Cat Shit One seems to be released under an irregular schedule, I’m going to go ahead with the other four.

High School of the Dead

Everything was normal when Takashi went to school. His classes went on as usual, he skipped them, was chased around by his class representative, and his childhood friend continues to bitch at him. Then, while standing on the roof, he witnesses his teachers being attacked by slow-moving intruders. His whole world changed in that instant. In the matter of hours, some kind of infectious disease has spread throughout the entire world, reanimating corpses that were given even the tiniest of scrapes. With the world falling apart around him, can Takashi and his classmates hold on together?

It’s a zombie show—a campy, George Romero-inspired zombies show. So with that in mind you know exactly what to expect: Running, boobs, screaming, killing, rinse, and repeat. If you ignore the annoying fanservice of Gainax breasticles, HSotD is quite serviceable for what it aims to be: a mindless zombie survival romp. Characters in their own right are either annoying or bland as hell, but in combination and as a group, it just works. Each personality is neatly balanced by another, so I’m only annoyed when a character is isolated or get a ‘story.’ The plain fact is that with a show like this, story doesn’t matter as much as atmosphere and pacing. So I do have to take issue with the fourth episode and how the first half of it was framed as a recap. As bad as that was, it also was the episode with the most striking characterization of the world post-zombie apocalypse. . We don’t get the living dead too much in anime, and it’s handled rather well. So for anyone who loves the genre, I think it’s a must-watch.

Kuroshitsuji II

So I haven’t done an impression on a sequel since last year because I feel like people know exactly what they’re getting into and don’t need me to say anything either way about the show. In the case of Kuroshitsuji, though, this thought doesn’t hold true at all because the sequel isn’t making a lick of sense considering where we left off at the finale of the first series. SPOILER ALERT. Everyone died. To top that off, the show was promoted as though we were going to watch a new sexy butler, shota count, and all their supernatural antics, but that was all one big troll. By the end of the first episode, we witness the protagonists of the last season alive and well with no explanation. And every episode after has resurrected more characters.

It’s absurd. There has been no attempt to explain or acknowledge the time line of this season, so the viewers can only sit and watch in befuddlement as dead characters interact as though nothing has gone on. Then there’s the compounded fact that I distinctly remember celebrating the death of a few of these zombies, and I want to pull out my hair even more. “So why the hell are you watching?” you might ask. I don’t know. This season looked so sparse and crappy that I said why not. And I did enjoy the over-the-top nature of Jun Fukuyama as Grell. And Sebastian is cool. Save yourselves and don’t bother watching. Though I’m sure you won’t because no one really watched the first season.

Sekimatsu Occult Gakuin

The year is 1999, and Uchida Fumiaki has been sent back in time to prevent the doomsday that Nostradamus foresaw centuries ago. He arrives just as the teenage Maya Kumashiro’s father dies, leaving the position of headmaster to his private academy vacant. The school is an oddity in that its students study the occult, and due to her father’s neglect, Maya is determined to have the school closed. With the arrival of bumbling Fumiaki, however, Maya’s plans have changed drastically, and she decides to take on the challenge of saving the world and investigating the death of her father.

I’m pretty damn entertained by this. Something really great seems to happen each episode where the plot unfurls quickly and consistently, despite being a little unoriginal, but the combination of mystery, horror, comedy, and school life is enough to keep any one genre from feeling stale. What really sells the show, though are the lead character, Maya and Fumiaki. Maya is a no-nonsense, smart, and talented teenage girl who bullies the wilting, spastic, and dim-witted adult Fumiaki around into solving the case of each arc. The dynamic between them is a thrilling anchor that grounds all of the insanity swirling around them. One of the funnier shows of the year, Occult Academy is my favorite of the season by just a bit.

Shiki

In a quiet town surrounded by graves, a summer cold causing anemia begins to sweep the town, slowly killing the elderly residents. It isn’t until an eccentric, young, and healthy girl named Shimizu dies that the town doctor, coroner, and priest realize the strange pattern of symptoms and investigate the cause. But is it too late? Many more residents are dying at younger ages and accelerated rates. Most unnerving, is that Natsuno, Shimizu’s crush, can’t sleep because he feels like she’s watching her. Grudges can’t be real, can they?

It’s pretty obvious what’s going on here, but I won’t say, since (technically) I could be wrong. After four episodes we haven’t really had the big reveal of the cause, but it’s fairly obvious after the first episode, and nearly impossible to be left in the dark after the second. Plot aside, the art is borderline atrocious. There is little cohesion between body types, and the show suffers from “Make the hair distinguish who’s important” syndrome. Though the art is terrible, the direction is fantastic. Again, we have a show that really knows how to do atmosphere, which is very important for a horror show. In fact, I’d say that Shiki does a much better job of creating and holding tension than High School of the Dead because excruciatingly bad characters don’t ruin the pacing. Shiki is a pretty fine show that surprised me, and is the runner up for project of my affection.

So that's it for the Summer, feel free to discuss your thoughts on all four of the shows below.