Highschool of the Dead

Aug 19, 2010

7 of 12 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 7

Marquis_D_Luffy (All reviews)

1687 people found this review helpful

Preliminary

High School of the Dead is about a group of breasts trying to avoid getting eaten by zombies in whatever way possible. Tagging along with these breasts are 2 of our heroes, Kouta and Takashi. A couple pairs of breasts are even in on the action part when they're not bouncing across the screen like jello filled balloons hiding behind incomplete articles of clothing.

But in all seriousness, High School of the Dead has actually been very enjoyable overall. And I'm not a fan of fan service.

Story: Here are some breasts, here are some zombies, and here are 2 guys to enjoy and protect the breasts pretty much sums it up. With a show like this, do you really need a complex plot? Do you watch The Simpsons in the hopes that the characters will change and mature as time goes by? God no. Homer's still an ignoramous (all be it tainted by the Family Guy brand of humour) and Bart's still causing trouble. High School of the Dead operates in a similar fashion. You don't really expect much in terms of character development or plot. You expect a lot of fan service, and some action whilst fighting zombies. HOTD delivers on both. It's the "how" that sets it apart though.

Art: So HOTD is well animated. Just putting that out there. The animation is clear, it's well done, and it's eye-catching. The way they animate action scenes is high quality stuff. And they made sure that boobs would jiggle at every opportunity. So there's a good framerate going, and crisp clean artwork.

Sound: I like to think of the sound section as more than just opening and ending tracks. When we're talking about sound, we're talking about background music, sound bytes and effects, voice casting etc... HOTD has no characters whose voices don't suit them, and the voice acting is well performed. The drone of zombies does it's job. To be honest, I haven't really noticed background music in the episodes during action scenes. I can't tell you if the background music fits well or not, cause there may not be much. But what I can tell you is that what they're doing sound-wise in the show works. Where they choose to put music blends so well you won't be able to distinguish it from the animation. Where there is no music, it adds a suspenseful effect to help bring you the realization that we're in a zombie-infested wasteland of a city. So the sound department is definitely solid.

Character: Here are some boobs, sometimes they show butts too. Honestly, character is underdeveloped in HOTD. We've got a ditzy nurse, an egotistical girl, a somewhat selfish and reliant girl, a strong girl displaying leadership qualities, a macgyver who can work with any scenario, and the male leader. But most of that can be summed up as such. " We have 4 pairs of breasts, one is useful, a Macgyver and a typical male lead. I don't mean to demean it or anything, but the other characters get so bogged down in fan service that you could seriously give them any archetype and the show wouldn't be much different. HOTD revolves around only 3 of the 6 main characters, and the only thing bringing it up from mediocre to fair (5 to 6) is our Macgyver. Kouta is not only epic and awesome in his practical knowledge, he's wonderfully written, funny, and someone our inner otaku can relate to.

Enjoyment: I really, really dislike fan service anime. You have to give me more than some panties and bras to make me want to watch a show. Thankfully, HOTD realized this. There is enough action to make it enjoyable on that aspect alone, but I really feel like Kouta saves the show from being a big flop. He's not the main character, nor is he the most important, but he's there as some comic relief, as well as an integral part of the main cast. You'll find yourself enjoying this show overall, and when you look back, you'll find most of the best parts involved Kouta getting a nosebleed, getting all excited over a weapon, or shooting zombies in the head with a nail gun. That's not to say you can't enjoy anyone else, Kouta just elevates it to be really enjoyable.

Overall: Amidst the incredibly overwhelming fan service, there's a lot of great stuff going on in HOTD. There's good action, there's some small romance, there's comedy, there's suspense and there's the reality of the situation in that the characters portrayed aren't really all that special outside their role in the group. We've got an assembly of people who rely on each other for survival, in a world crawling with danger. And overall, it's a pretty good show.

And a final note: Really, I don't mean to try and simplify a show beyond what it is, but HOTD is already pretty simple. Here are some Zombies, here are some boobs, enjoy.

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May 17, 2014

12 of 12 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 2

Nerrawx (All reviews)

525 people found this review helpful

One could review this in a single sentence: "Why is no one having sex in this hentai anime?"

Here's the plot: In an alternate universe where the average female has breasts the size of grapefruits and all bras are made of wet paper towels, a zombie apocalypse happens. And as far as the plot goes, that about covers it. You could probably replicate it by watching The Walking Dead on mute next to a porn hub playlist.

In all seriousness, this is one of the worst anime I've ever seen. Here is one of those anime that really struggles to understand what its trying to be.The mindless read more

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Sep 18, 2010

11 of 12 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 7

Nanalilly (All reviews)

500 people found this review helpful

Preliminary

High School Of The Dead is a good anime. The tragedy is that it could have been a *great* anime if not for some horrible mistakes.

Let me explain. The setup is awesome. Zombie apocalypse+ a renegade group of kids + anime? It's pretty much every nerd's wet dream. Unfortunately, the writers decided to focus on the "wet" part much more than the dream.

A lot of people have been debating over HotD's overuse of fan service. Is it justified? I personally don't think so. Here you have a perfectly awesome setup for the apocalypse. People grabbing their guns, moral dilemmas, false messiahs, etc. HotD sets this up in a fairly realistic way and creates an immersive world that terrifies and fascinates the viewer. Then they give you episodes where 90% of the screen time is decided to naked women touching each other. Other episodes are more toned down, but the fan service isn't very subtle and it is very distracting and at times annoying. Shizuka, One of the main characters (who really isn't a character as much as she is a walking-talking fetish provider) has boobs that are literally larger than her head and does absolutely nothing besides acting stupid. She provides absolutely no other value to the show, and one has to wonder how she even gets out of bed in the morning.

Some of the other characters also have the same kind of one demential personality. Then you have characters like Saeko, and Takashi, who end up being dynamic and very interesting to watch. These two characters provide the show character development, constantly walking the line between hero and killer. They are fairly fascinating to watch, especially given that the series never promoted itself as being thought provoking.

The artwork is tough to describe, because while it is a visually impressive show, some of the character designs are incredibly awkward. As I mentioned before, the breast proportions on the female characters are insane. Rei and Saya have very edgy and unattractive hair that makes their characters look a bit cheaper than the rest of the cast. Despite this, most of the illustrations are very beautiful and it's generally top notch animation.

The best way to enjoy HotD is to expect very little from it and just go along for the ride. It has some terrible faults that might really ruin it for a lot of people, but watching the group survive the apocalypse is incredibly entertaining. It's a great mindless anime that is far better than any ecchi I have ever seen. If you are looking for a show with well developed characters and tasteful character interactions, find a different show. I would say that its worth making the exception for HotD though.

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Nov 27, 2010

12 of 12 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 3

Lindle (All reviews)

300 people found this review helpful

Highschool of the Dead is a show that knows a very, very base demographic and knows exactly how to pander to it. It aims to please simple-minded, uniformly male teenagers with base level action and lots and lots of large, jiggling breasts. Highschool of the Dead has quickly entered into the ranks of shows extremely popular, not for being well-written or emotive, but simply for being a barrel of big, dumb fun.

The problem is... it's not very good at it.

As the name would suggest, Highschool of the Dead involves a highschool and dead things. More specifically, the series begins in a highschool and revolves around a bunch of highschool students, who happen to have walked into a George A. Romero film. In other words, they're surrounded by undead, bloodthirsty corpses... zombies. From here, the plot is about as simple as can be. The cast has to try and not die.

So all in all, it really speaks volumes that Highschool of the Dead manages to fuck up such a simple task, for a wide variety of reasons. But let's start with the most glaringly obvious one... the fanservice. OK, so considering the demographic the show is aiming for, it's hardly surprising that HotD uses a lot of fanservice. But Highschool of the Dead crosses the line of what an acceptable amount of fanservice would be repeatedly. Any scene that was otherwise good had an irritating tendency to shove some schoolgirl's underwear into the camera. And don't even get me started on the infamous "Boob Matrix" scene.

Of course, no matter how much fanservice is in a show, it would not destroy an otherwise good show. So let's get to the next reason HotD is an incredibly poor anime - the characters.

Let's summarize the cast very quickly. The everyman, the ditz, the needy girl, the bitch, the action chick, and the nerd. Not one of these characters has any more depth than that. I have literally told you everything you need to know about the characters in the space of one sentence. Takashi is completely unremarkable, Shizuka is dopey and annoying, Rei is irritatingly helpless and inconsistent in her character, and Saya (probably the worst member of the cast) is a self-righteous bitch who has no consideration for anybody else and considers the rest of the cast below her. The only passable members of the cast are Kouta Hirano (named and designed after the creator of Hellsing, a MUCH better take on the same style), who manages to make his military obsessions at least entertaining, and Saeko, who manages to not be annoying.

The worst thing about Highschool of the Dead, though, is that for a show that tries to be simple and fun... it's very boring.

All in all, a survival horror really needs you to care about whether the characters live or die to work. At first, after a seemingly significant character is killed off, it seems quite possible that major characters will be killed off, and that the series will be a struggle to survive. And yet, after that, not one character we care about dies. It becomes quite clear that the entire cast is in no real danger, due to having that strange immunity from danger that being a main character grants you. This means that we are simply stuck watching these unlikeable characters do things we don't care about. It would have at least been passable if the action had been well-directed, but it really isn't. There are no fight scenes that really stick out (barring the aforementioned Boob Matrix, which sticks out for all the wrong reasons). The action is mediocre at best. All of this leaves it up to a plot that really doesn't exist.

So what does this leave us with? A show that really doesn't have any positive points at all, really. It's watchable, I'll give it that much, and the first episode was quite good. But it really doesn't follow through on any of the potential it has. The themes in this show have been done before many times, and almost always better.

Final Words: Just watch a George A. Romero film instead. Seriously.

Animation/Graphics: 4/10
Story/Plot: 3/10
Music/Background: 6/10
Characters: 2/10

Overall: 3/10

For Fans Of: Hellsing, Elfen Lied.

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Aug 9, 2010

12 of 12 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 7

TensaiShonen (All reviews)

219 people found this review helpful

After seeing the long line of reviews on HotD, I thought I'd say my piece on here to what I think is a "good" show. Not a "very good" show, not even a "great" show, but a "good" show as it is. Of course this may change should the anime continue to be as entertaining as its been so far.

Having come with no expectations, seeing as that ecchi seemed to ooze the moment you watch opening credits(something people should have noticed when they started this series), I was pleased and amused to what it had delivered.

Story - 6
Before I start I believe it my duty read more

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Jul 12, 2010

2 of 12 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 6

neopode (All reviews)

175 people found this review helpful

Preliminary

If you're looking for a complex detailed anime, you're looking in the wrong direction.

I know this is based on only two episodes. However, reading all of the 9s and 10s on this show made me furious. This show is not that great. Period.

What is this show about? It's another cliched apocalyptic world, but here's the twist! It's Ecchi! Wooo. Not.

If reviewers are allow to review and praise this series after one or two episodes, I'm allowed to criticize it. Am I not? So here it goes:

The first episode opens up with an outbreak of the zombie infestation in school and the school is quickly read more

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Oct 25, 2014

12 of 12 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 2

literaturenerd (All reviews)

145 people found this review helpful

Warning: the following review contains spoilers and gratuitous amounts of pure, seething rage. Please don't be offended or take this review too seriously. I don't actually want to kill zombie fans. I just REALLY hate zombie media.

Overview:

Highschool of the Dead represents the latest in an endless string of attempts to cash in on Zombiemania. If there is one thing that makes me go blind with rage it is zombie media and the brainless IDIOTS that keep this cash train rolling. Shows, games, and movies that are decent or mediocre become "OMG da best thing EVAR!" thanks to moron zombie fans. Walking Dead is a mediocre show, but zombie fans think it is Godlike. The Last of Us was a decent 3rd person shooter that stole some puzzle elements and escort missions from the vastly superior game Ico. Zombietards voted it game of the year and say it is the best game on the PS3! I own The Last of Us and enjoyed it somewhat, but I could name 20 better games for the PS3 off the top of my head without even breaking a sweat. These rabid, conformist fans are the only real zombies and I feel like one of the few lone survivors to not get infected by the zombietard virus!

Story and characters: 1/10

Zombies randomly start attacking and some bland Gary Stu and his harem of poorly drawn, badly proportioned, G cup babes must fight the zombies. Japan is quickly overrun and the world's governments decide to nuke each other with ICBMs. The US is able to shoot down all but one ICBM from China and Russia while completely destroying both countries with thousands of ICBMs. Yet, the blanket of radiation from the hundreds of missiles used to wipe out China has no effect on Japan, less than 100 miles away! Only the 1 missile that hit Japan has the minor effect of taking out the electric grid. The radiation is simply ignored. I am not even going to bother explaining why the US isn't capable of shooting down thousands of incoming hypersonic missiles with our current technology. I am thinking WAY too hard considering the average IQ of this fandom. Sadly, the only reason this series isn't rated an 8.5 out of 10 is that the fanservice angered Western female viewers. If this series had ditched its piss poor attempts at humor, toned down the fanservice, and taken itself seriously it would be called...Attack on Titan. Which Zombietards also think is "da best show Evar". They are so conditioned like Pavlov's dogs to have a kneejerk positive response to zombie BULLSHIT, that you can replace the zombies with drooling, stumbling giants and the positive response is the same. As long as everything else in the formula is left unchanged.

Art: 2/10

You fail human anatomy FOR EVER!

Soundtrack 3/10

The soundtrack is very lacking. At least a horror series should have a creepty OST, but this one sucks shit through a straw.

Entertainment 1/10

I want to use a baseball bat and brain the production staff and everyone who worked on this lazy, mockbuster!

Overall: 2/10

The massive production budget barely saves this one from the lowest rating, despite my overwhelming hatred of this series! Now if you will excuse me, I'm going to go read something good like The Brothers Karamazov. Then I will use the book's tremendous size to beat some zombie fans to death with it!

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Jul 4, 2010

1 of 12 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 8

stevewiess01 (All reviews)

142 people found this review helpful

Preliminary

Wow. As I'm watching the new anime shows of Summer 2010 season one by one, it seems like each one is better than the last. Well, it looks like this one is going to be my favorite show of this summer. Basically, H.O.T.D takes place in a post-apocalyptic world filled with countless zombies. What makes this show special is that it combines just the right amount of fan-service, horror, and goriness without being too excessive to spice up the show. In fact, all the panchira-like fanservice seems very superficial and you'll be surprised at how the atmosphere is very sad, serious, and even quite touching. read more

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Jul 21, 2010

1 of 12 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 8

Edon (All reviews)

97 people found this review helpful

Preliminary

Zombies...

Not a genre I've seen in anime very often, when they do appear its always in some upbeat anime, Like hey heres a zombie, and a vampire, and a succubus, and they all love this kid who happened to go to a school full of monsters... not really my ideal zombie.

This anime does a great job of displaying what a zombie apocalypse should be like. In recent years zombies have been transformed into allot of things, there bugs, there virus', there aliens. I say NO, zombies are the mindless undead, HOTD accomplishes that.

Its hard to tell where this anime will go off of only 3 episodes, I am excited for the ? total episodes, a zombie anime lasting for 200-300 episodes or more? i wouldn't mind.

So for my actual scoring (so far)

Story: This feels like a human reaction to a horrible situation, none of the characters are super elite soldiers, they are average people who took up arms in a time of crisis. I like where the story is going so far, with the addition of new characters along the way this could have some great development.

Art: The art style is modern, its clean, its sharp, the animation is done well, and the linear 300 style fight scenes are fun to watch. I DON'T like how the goriest or ecchiest scenes are blocked by a fat black bar that takes up half the screen, but hey, thats why we by the dvd's isn't it.

Sound: The music and sound quality is pretty good, they did kinda steal the beat for some of there songs from other zombie things like 28 weeks later. I did enjoy the homage felling tho, like they were giving praise to zombies of the past.

Character: The characters are pretty diverse in personality. I like some, I dislike others. One thing i don't understand is why it took so long for people to group up and work together. I know, the writers wanted to weed out the weaklings so they didn't have a army of armed, half naked high school kids marching down main street.

Enjoyment: BAM! 10, thats biased tho because I fucking love zombies. 'nuf said.

Overall: I believe this anime has potential, unfortunatly it has potential to be horribly bad too. They need to focus on a few things here.

1: FUCKIN ZOMBIES - The zombies need to be around, if theres like 4 episodes in a row of random character development without the appearance of a few hordes of undead, why the hell am i watching this.

2. Characters, and SHIT HAPPENS - People have to die, if the same starting cast lives more than a whole season without being scared by some zombie related event, I'm done watching.

3. Action - This is the hardest part, the action has to be different from time to time, you can only smash a zombie head so many times before you get sick of doing it that way, Dead Rising is proof of that.

Anyway thats my review, I'll revise after about 25 or so episodes, if it lasts that long, and hey if it doesn't I may change it up sooner.

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Sep 29, 2014

12 of 12 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 3

Drewmeister11 (All reviews)

80 people found this review helpful

Highschool of the Dead is one of those shows that I find myself having to show all of my friends, but not for the reasons the creators would probably like. Simply put, this show is bad. It is bad on a rather insulting level too. What could have been an enjoyable zombie romp had to be castrated with annoying characters, stupid plot moments, inconsistent logic (even within the realm of it's own universe), unbelievable amounts of fan service, and moments that just make you scratch your head and wonder how this ever made it into production. Because it didn't just make read more

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Feb 24, 2015

12 of 12 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 3

ZephSilver (All reviews)

62 people found this review helpful

Everytime I think of this title it conjures up an awful feeling in my gut. That uneasy queasiness that you get from a laughably shitty experience, which is only made worse when you realize what it contributed to the medium as a whole. Too fully grasp this feeling of comical disgust and disappointment I'll like to ask for your attention as I construct a made up story scenario.

Picture this, you're in class with your fellow students but you're the only one who watches anime as a storytelling medium. Your teacher then announces that we'll have show and tell and the subject will be different forms read more

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Sep 4, 2011

12 of 12 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 4

Shemyaza (All reviews)

53 people found this review helpful

HoTD is one of those anime which fanservices are proven far more annoying than any arousing. Naked female zombies, girls' panties being reveal as they are eaten, and female zombies in one of those 'fetish costume'(eg.nurse) did not turn me on in the slightest bit(and I'm a straight guy with average hormone level) and is rather highly disturbing. The mangaka's demand on how to 'put in as many jiggly boobs and panties as much as possible' sounds sick, and yeah he still make lots of money from it.

One thing I dislike of any zombie fiction is how the story is carried out, it simply bring out way too much questions, so a group of 5-7 average people with minimum battle expierence can handle infinite zombies coming at them? If that is true then why are the well-trained soldiers get munched on routinely despite having all the advantages in the world(except number) given to them? Why did the zombies that can't even run and would be killed with the slightest tap to the head manage to take over the world in the first place? Let alone doing that in TWO DAYS

The characters:
- Takashi, doesn't really have any reason to be the leader, but as the protagonist he would be assigned so anyway, and again he's one of those protagonist who get all(almost in this case) the girls without any apparent reason.
- Rei, despite how many fans have loathed her for bitching unendingly, I find her decent as how she act is the most natural reaction any real girl would in that situation. Don't deny it even if you're male you would bitch like that too, so unless your boyfriend/girlfriend was munched by zombie before I hope no one bring up an arguement on this. I'm not saying everyone would do it, but as the survival of most of you and your loved ones are never really tested, I prefer you to not skip to conclusions that you won't, believe me, 1 week before this mess happened Rei wouldn't believe she would bitch like that either.
- Saeko, on the other hand, may be liked by many but not by me, as she is one of the most unnatural characters in the series(wearing only apron to fight zombies? what kind of logic was she using? oh of course its fanservice again)
- Saya is simply too self-righteous and annoying, her intellegence demonstrated by observation and planning skills didn't meet up with her self-claimed 'genius' title at all
- Kouta, I don't have anything against him. I agree with everyone that he's the most bearable character in the cast, but as the fat-sidekick guy living with another guy with his harem, its simply sad he's cursed not to get any girl (*SPOILER* the girl who develop romantic feelings for him is soon killed before the party proceed to the following arc)
- Shizuka, despite being a teacher and the oldest member of the party, she demonstrate near to none maturity, leadership, or decision making skill. Her actions are like any other girls in the story, her logic being stripped bare from her for the purpose of fanservice, but with her case she would do it often time just to demonstrate how much her IQ is.
- Alice, her character is the most illogical of all the cast, she became a cheerful girl some few hours after her father's death. As far as I'm concerned no 7 years old girl with a healthy relationship with her family would do that, she would be scarred for life and become a total emo, but yes they have to make her the moe-source of the story so she has to be all happy with sugary rainbows in a zombified planet! yeah right
- Any minor and/or supporting characters joining the party are killed or dismissed(presumably killed) at the end of each arc, just to ensure the party go along by themselves and even with 3 hindrance characters, all will survive the apocalypse. Many minor characters are made to be specificly killed anyway but there are many that deserve to live, they just don't happen to do so.

The art of both the manga and anime is great, only if the author is less absent minded with his fantasies and write the story with a more sane and realistic setting it would have been good, which is unlikely for a man who work his part-time drawing ero-doujins despite having his own animated series. It is best that the author knows their dream anime is good, but suddenly turn bad when the dream became wet, moist is acceptable but the author should have been ashamed of the drenched mess he made, instead of being proud of it.

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Jul 6, 2010

1 of 12 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 6

phereia (All reviews)

45 people found this review helpful

Preliminary

As everyone else who has reviewed so far, this is based on one episode, which isn't entirely fair. But I will try anyway since I feel the reviews so far are heavily (and unfairly) one sided for what the anime is.

If you havent seen any episodes yet then I suggest watching the opening sequence, it'll give you a pretty accurate view of what to expect the first episode: Violence, zombies, and pantyshots. Not that I didn't guess this from the poster image on this page. So I wasn't exactly surprised.

So far we've been introduced to most of the main characters, though two were read more

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Aug 13, 2013

12 of 12 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 6

kerk12 (All reviews)

39 people found this review helpful

Hello there fellow anime lover, and welcome to yet another review of the REALLY hyped anime called Highschool of the dead (or HOTD for short...). In this review I'll be pointing out why you should (or you should not) watch this, but before I start let me say one thing: If you don't like high-end ecchi animes then this series is NOT for you. That said, let's get on with it.

HOTD is yet another one of Japan's attempts to take on the "zombie fighting" scene, this time following six survivors as they try to... well... survive through the apocalypse. Does it remind you of something? I don't know about you but it sure does remind me...
It all starts when one day an infected person (which we don't know how it got infected) knocks (literally) the door of a highschool and bites a teacher. Then, guess what... An apocalypse breaks and in about an hour or so half the city has gotten infected!

Story:
In terms of story, the whole series is nothing out of the ordinary. 6 survivors trying to survive as the whole virus spreads and more and more people become zombies. While it is good at the first half (till the sixth episode), it then starts to get more and more (and more) of a high-end ecchi rather than an apocalypse. This killed the mood for me, as the story at that point suddenly got into the ecchi side, without leaving room for the apocalypse to really shine, as a zombie fan would expect.
While the story is good till the first half, then it starts having many plot holes and twists, with many characters breaking out of nowhere and joining (and later leaving) the group of the initial 6 survivors and helping them. All of this happens in only 6 episodes (the second half), which makes the story REALLY undeveloped with no room for any development character wise, but I'll get into that later... If the whole high-end ecchi thing got tossed then it would be a great anime action-wise.
Score: 5/10

Characters:
In terms of main characters, the whole group of the six survivors consists of 2 guys and 4 girls. While the initial cast was interesting in terms of personalities, then (at the second half) becomes what you would expect of a high-end ecchi, where more and more (and more) skin is showed. All of that happens within an episode and thus lacks of proper development. While some characters do develop, it is still not enough.
In all that, let's add the sudden appearence of side-characters who "help" (and some even go against) the group, which again lacks of proper development and leaves way too many holes.
Score: 4/10

Art:
The animation is one of the pros if you want to watch the show. It is smooth and detailed, and covers all the action in a good way. The shading is done well and the whole atmosphere is good enough for the whole apocalypse. Nothing more, nothing less!
Score: 8/10

Soundtrack:
The soundtrack is the second pro of the whole show and it adds perfectly to the action and the atmosphere of the apocalypse. The opening and the many endings are well done and fit perfectly into the show. If I was expecting something whenever an episode would end, that was one of the many ending songs.
Score: 9/10

Recap:
While HOTD has a really strong promise as an anime, it then fails to achieve the title of "Great", simply because of the whole twist into a high end ecchi. It IS good if you want to watch some zombie slaying, all with a great atmosphere and a great soundtrack (and if you want to take a look at some boobs...), but if you expect a story well developed and a good cast, you will be disappointed eventually.
Score: 6/10

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May 5, 2013

12 of 12 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 1

ArchStanton (All reviews)

38 people found this review helpful

Fan Service and zombies. That's all this show is. So I suppose that any review has to cover both of them. Ladies first I guess.

The opening titles alone has a dozen crotch and boob shots. None of them serve any purpose. Throughout the show you are constantly plastered with this given the slightest opportunity. Or even when they have to create an opportunity. The number of dialogue scenes where the camera slowly goes down to focus on their panties averages out to at least two an episode. Probably more. The worst episode by far is episode six. In it the girls all bathe together, with predictable fondling and lesbianism, while the two guys sit in the other room and talk about guns. That's the whole episode right there. Oh, except for the fact that all the girls try to sleep with the main guy. I'm assuming that they got drunk somewhere in there because they all act it after the bath. Either it's just assumed or that's just how this guy thinks girls act when they let all their crazy feminine emotions out.

This is symptomatic of the treatment of the girls in general throughout the series. All of the girls (with one exception) offer nothing but an opportunity to show off their bodies. There are four main girls. I can't be bothered to remember their names so I'll just identify them by their hair color. Pink is a total b*tch. She says she's a genius at every possible opportunity although she never demonstrates any proof of it (many of her 'facts' are wrong and the ones that are right she cannot possibly know), and she enjoys belittling people for it. The blonde girl is a complete bimbo. She's the school nurse but she has giant breasts and the IQ of a five year old. The high point of her introduction is the 'comedic' moment where a male student is devoured alive protecting her and she's so indifferent she can't even remember his name. She never speaks except to whine or fawn all over the main character who is I might point out, actually an underage student. I suspect she works at a high school for a very specific reason... Brown hair is also obnoxious and likes to go on about how great the guy's friend was even though he's still traumatized from killing him. At one point she's thrown from a car and she just lies there for at least 3-4 hours (it goes from midday to sunset) while everyone else protects her. She's not hurt or anything, she just gets up and walks it off when the plot feels like advancing. Naturally she's the main love interest. The last girl is purple haired and she's the only semi-good one. She's a master with swords and genuinely loves killing zombies. Her competence and professionalism do not prevent her from being used as yet another sex doll for them to display. It is made quite clear that even the competent girl can do nothing without a guy to lead her. More than that the girls cannot think for themselves and constantly put everyone's lives in danger because of their uncontrolled emotions and lusts. It really is a disgustingly misogynistic and exploitative show.

So now the zombies. Zombies are cool right? How can they mess them up? Well first off they never call them zombies. They seem to think this makes them realistic somehow. Secondly they bind them with stupid rules and then constantly break them. These zombies are cannot see, smell or touch. The only sense they have is hearing. Sounds interesting right? So naturally they'll be quiet and sneak around to prevent the zombies from hearing them. Except they don't. They run around screaming with zombies all around ignoring them and then one of them will bump into a pole, or drop a bat, or the wind in the trees will make noise and suddenly the zombies are attacking them everywhere. I want you to think hard about that last one. The wind in the trees attracted the zombies. THE WIND IN THE FRIGGIN' TREES!!!!!! So having established by the second episode that zombies need sound to hunt they then proceed to ignore it until it is convenient to the show for them to be in danger. How can there be any actual sense of danger when they ignore their own rules whenever it's convenient?

The two guys are there too. That's really all that can be said of them. The main guy is basically how the author views the perfect guy to be. He has no real flaws and is fawned over to an obscene degree by all the women. The other guy is a fat nerd and a gun buff. He's probably the most interesting character there since he's extremely competent at one thing and enjoys it immensely. Naturally he's treated with contempt by all the girls, who are nothing if not superficial.

So, the good things...
...
...

I'm drawing a blank here. I suppose that technically it's an impressive series. The animation is quite good and the character designs aren't bad at all. The main theme's pretty catchy too. Apart from that zip. Zilch. Nada. This show has no redeeming features whatsoever. I suppose that if you're a 12-year-old boy or can't figure out how to search for hentai on the internet this might be a good show for ya. I have to say that I enjoyed it immensely, though not for the reasons the creators intended. The sheer stupidity and horribleness of the show alone make it worth watching if you like that sort of thing. My brother and I played a drinking game to it based on taking a drink whenever we saw fan service, but we couldn't repour fast enough to get through the opening titles.

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Apr 9, 2015

12 of 12 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 8

lawlmartz (All reviews)

36 people found this review helpful

"This is the way the world ends- not with a bang, but a whimper." - TS Eliot

Preface:

Oh, Tetsuro Araki, how you've divided anime audiences since you introduced yourself to the world with Death Note, and look where we are now!
I'm going to make this plain and simple: Highschool of the Dead is boob, butt, and fanservice city. You want bouncing breasts? Check. You want upskirt shots? Check. Do The Matrix inspired scenes of fatty mammary issue jiggling and waving in slow motion like grass in the wind excite you? My friend, you have come to the right place.

(Note: I'm going to rate this read more

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Aug 24, 2010

8 of 12 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 5

Shin_85 (All reviews)

36 people found this review helpful

Preliminary

An anime about zombies with lots of fan-service thrown in.

Firstly I should point out that I'm not the biggest fan of fan-service animes however I am a huge fan of zombie films and generally all things dead but living.

High school of the Dead follows a group of high school students and their attempt to survive the sudden worldwide zombie apocalypse. The anime has been faithful to the manga which is always a plus in my eyes however it seems almost too faithful at times, as there has clearly been a lot of effort made to ensure that each episode of the anime covers exactly read more

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Sep 20, 2010

12 of 12 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 8

Detective (All reviews)

34 people found this review helpful

There's enough reviews out there and enough information to debate over as to if Highschool of the Dead is a masterpiece or an abomination. This review is not about trying to convince you that one side is right, I'm just laying down the facts as I saw them.

Story: 7/10
To put things into perspective, I want you to review in your mind, all the zombie media you have ever seen - maybe it's none (maybe you're a veteran). That being said, as far as zombie media goes, the story behind HOTD is not awful. A virus hits the world, an infectious one, that spreads on contact read more

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Jul 22, 2014

12 of 12 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 4

FoxPrincess (All reviews)

33 people found this review helpful

Highschool of the Dead is based at the beginning of the zombie apocalypse, centered around the lives of five teenagers, a teacher and a small child - accompanied by her dog - in their quest to find their families.
The plot/story-line provided a good basis for the anime itself, giving many different directions to be taken and to keep the anime ongoing for several series. However, it quickly becomes clear that the story-line, while still obvious and in play, appears to fade into the background in a few episodes, the idea of teenage drama taking over. Yet, the plotline is a constant and this is a read more

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Feb 12, 2013

12 of 12 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 3

LiveLoveYaoi (All reviews)

31 people found this review helpful

I wanted to like this anime, but in the long run, I didn't and here's why.

The Good;

This anime was not boring. Its hard to be bored in this fast paced anime where something is always happening. The story basic but one that can be good as long as done right. There's plenty of action to be found and this anime and its not half bad. The zombies weren't PERFECT in my opinion, they were slow and apparently deaf and blind, but they weren't terrible. There were times were I did laugh occasionally, and I think if you just want a zombie horror anime with blood read more

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