For starters, I feel like the writing is trying too hard to be edgy. I don't know who the author of the manga is, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was like a guy in his 60's thinking of unrealistic dialogue a teenager would say in a zombie apocalypse. There's also a little narration from the main character Takashi 6ix9ine at certain points where he says shit like: "We had to change. The world as we knew it came to an end. We got used to killing zombies." Like, no shit. And he pretty much says this like five times just in different ways. It's like if Black Lagoon was written for adolescent teenagers.
And speaking of Black Lagoon, this show also does a lot of cursing and makes pop culture references. Which I don't really mind but in this show it felt kinda awkward. For example, one of the girls references George Romero even though she pronounces his last name wrong. It's not row-MER-oh, it's row-MAIR-oh. Get it right! And I guess some of the jokes where they mentioned popular fashion brands were kinda funny. But really the funniest moments to me was when this show wasn't trying to be funny.
There was this one scene near the end of the first episode where Takashi just killed Hisashi after he turned into a zombie. And Rei is really sad about it while also being pissed at Takashi because she thinks Takashi was jealous of Hisashi for dating her, and how she thinks he enjoyed killing him out of revenge. So Takashi decides to leave her saying that he doesn't need to be around her anymore, and then she immediately changes her attitude to be like: "No, stay with me I don't wanna be alone!" So yeah, if you're expecting the female characters to act like real people, then you're watching the wrong show. Because all the female characters are mostly just sex objects and to be attached to Takashi and that's about it.
There was also another scene near the end of episode six where Rei was telling Takashi how much better Hisashi was to her and how he wasn't boring like Takashi is. Then Takashi proceeds to yell at Rei that Hisashi is dead and how she has to move on. And then Rei tries to get awkwardly intimate with Takashi. Because if there's one thing that really puts a girl in the mood, it's being yelled at about how their old boyfriend is dead and telling that girl that you killed him.
Really the biggest problem with this show is that the tone is all over the place. Like this is a show where some naked girls have a sexual bathroom fight. And in the same episode, a police commander shoots himself in the head and a photograph of his family comes flying out of his pocket. I mean High School DxD was also dumb and stupid to me but at least it had a consistent tone to it. This was like the exact opposite and it was really distracting. And this has nothing to do with the tone, but what's the point of calling this show Highschool of the Dead when the main characters are only at the high school for two episodes? I think calling this show High Schoolers of the Dead or Teenagers of the Dead would've been more appropriate.
Another thing is that there are a lot of plot conveniences in this show. Like the blonde chick, Shizuka apparently has an expensive apartment owned by one of her friends who happens to work in the military. And it happens to have all the food, clothes and weapons they need. And the main character happens to know how to ride a motorcycle pretty well. Imagine how much better this show would've been if it wasn't so convenient for the characters and things didn't go according to plan.
It would kinda make us feel bad and we'd want our characters to get to safety even more despite our characters being pretty underdeveloped. Except for Saeko who actually gets a backstory. And for some reason she's the only female character who gets a mildly interesting backstory. Or maybe if this show was a commentary about how zombies are still human on the inside and how we should question if they are worth killing or not. I guess this show kind of makes an attempt on that concept with some human riot at one point. And everyone is like: "Don't kill them! They're still humans!" But it's pretty surface level and it's never brought up ever again. Because that's not very interesting, HERE"S SOME BOOBIES!!!
In fact sometimes the characters don't really see the zombie apocalypse as that dire. They kind of treat it as a joke at some points. Why should I give a shit if the main characters aren’t more worried or afraid of their situation or struggling with their predicament? I wouldn’t mind asking this but like I said before, this show is tonally inconsistent as there are points where the show is taking itself too seriously. That’s why there’s never any tension in this show. They make it very apparent from the beginning that the main characters are gonna get away Scott free and things are gonna go their way. Suspend your disbelief all you want but I dare you to get invested in anything that happens in this show.
This all culminates in the last half which like many times before is taking itself too seriously. Like the plot of this show was pretty simple before and I think the show was more entertaining when it was just dumb fun. But for the last three episodes it tries to be kinda somber in tone and it seems so out of place. Like does this show want to be dumb or does it actually want to say something significant for some reason? Although I think the climax went back to being dumb fun which is what I wanted. But on the flip side, in the 16 minute OVA, they made a joke about Breaking Bad that made me cringe so hard that I was willing to turn the show off right there. That one small moment was when the show finally broke me.
But it was the last episode so I kept trudging through it just so I could get this whole show over with. And speaking of OVA, not worth watching, and the ending was really unsatisfying and just shitty. But the part that really made me burst out laughing was when Alice said: "To be continued!" Yet there hasn't been a season two since this show's release. And the manga was discontinued in 2013. Which is pretty heartbreaking if you're a fan of this show for some reason, but I personally don't give a shit because I was never even emotionally attached to this show to begin with. Sorry.
But yeah, uh, this is a show that exists and I'll most likely never watch it again. But still I guess I had my fun with it, and it felt pretty short. It was only 12 episodes so it doesn't really waste too much of your time. And other than that, I don't really have much else to say. It's obviously not the worst thing ever. I mean just like High School DxD you can enjoy it ironically and laugh at it like I did but that's about it.
ORIGINALLY REVIEWED ON 06/27/2023
