If you feel like you might enjoy High School of the Dead, then you are in luck, because you most likely will. Why? Well, because I liked it. I mean, it's not like my opinion matters or anything, it's just that I normally hate these kinds of animes. I hate ecchi animes. But I enjoyed HOTD. Again, why? Let's find out.
The plot is basically your average everyday zombie apocalypse plot. The outbreak happens, people band together and try to survive. I may be a bit biased because I've always really liked these types of stories. I love zombie movies and the idea of friends and sometimes complete strangers having to come together and survive. HOTD pulls off this often used plot actually pretty well. I mean, it's nothing special, but it's nothing really bad either. The characters form a group with only a couple people actually knowing each other. Since this is a fanservice show, all the females in the group have comically huge breasts and panty shots are sprinkled in at every opportune and sometimes inopportune time.
The main characters are hit and miss. As far as the girls go, you've got the smart bitch, the calm combat specialist, the ditz and the main character's love interest. I really don't know what he sees in her, she's also kind of a bitch. But, that's besides the point. Really the only female character I like was Saeko, because she was badass. The two males in the group consist of the generic hero/leader who is also the main character of the show, and the otaku who just so happens to be a gun nut, so he's quite useful to the group. Whether you like the characters or not depends on whether you feel a character can be saved based on how hot they are.
Seeing as how this is a show done by studio madhouse, the animation is actually quite good, and not just for the fanservice. The characters are well animated, move realistically and the backgrounds in this show look like an apocalypse, as they should. Weirdly enough, the angles in the show are pretty good too. Overall, very nice artwork and once again, not just for the fanservice.
The music is nothing the write home about, it's generic but works with the show. The opening is pretty damn awesome, awesome enough that I didn't skip it.
Overall, HOTD shouldn't be that good at first glance and really, it isn't. But despite annoying fanservice, some unlikeable characters and an otherwise generic plot, I did really enjoy it, and apparently I'm not the only one who feels this way. Many people have indicated HOTD as their guilty pleasure, and so do I. At 12 episodes, it's an anime you can watch in a day and it's a lot of fun. If you go in with the right mindset, you'll have yourself a good ol' zombie slayin' time!
