GAKUEN MOKUSHIROKU: HIGHSCHOOL OF THE DEAD

DESCRIPTION

CAST

MANGA ActionGakuen Mokushiroku: HIGHSCHOOL OF THE DEAD
OVA ComedyGakuen Mokushiroku: HIGHSCHOOL OF THE DEAD - Drifters of the Dead

REVIEWS

• 

  biogundam

  63/100
  schlocky American zombie movie but with higher production values, better soundtrack & hentai hijinxs

  Warning: This review contains spoilers.

  First impressions: When I heard this was one of the very few zombie apocalypse anime, considering my penchant for gore and zombie apocalypse movies, I thought this would easily be worth checking out. It’s only 12 episodes and an ova anyway, so even if it sucks, who cares. Not like I’d be wasting much time. At least it’ll most likely make for a nice time passer, even if it’ll probably be forgotten after a week.

  Story: 5/10
  It's just a regular day, friends are hanging out and romantic tension is in the air. Business as usual, but then zombies happen. From then on, as one would imagine, shit hits the fan very quickly. And so we follow the not so happy-go-lucky adventures of a small group of animized good ‘ol American zombie flick essentials, brought together by hordes of the undead and the dream of living past the nightmare of reality. Highschool of the Dead is basically Japan's - and more specifically the mangaka Satou Daisuke’s - take on the schlocky American zombie movie, filtered through director Tetsuro Araki’s magnificently over the top lens. All of that, but with higher production values, a better soundtrack and of course, hentai hijinxs. So, to boil it down, the series is our “lucky” Survivors trying to get from point A to point B, while picking up anything useful they can get their hands on along the way.

  Now, while one would expect a story of this caliber to not do so well, it surprisingly does a pretty ok job of showcasing what would happen if a zombie outbreak just up and dropped. The people going crazy, the breakdown of society and the pervading chaos in the streets, all staples of the zombie apocalypse genre that add detail and credence to the environment and setting. Let it not be said that the series doesn’t indulge in the absurd, yet not necessarily inplausible though, what with bits like the school teacher that creates a sex cult out of his own students. Unfortunately, yet not surprisingly, issues are also bound, a big one of which is that the series itself never goes into any depth as to why what’s happening is happening, nevermind questioning it. Instead, the show just more or less tells the characters, and by extension the viewer to simply accept what’s happening. On top of that, it fails to properly explore the presented underlying animalistic nature behind the veneer of human decency, ethicacy and morality that manifests when push comes to shove. Additionally, it displays how spontaneously capable various normal people can be in the chaos and uncertainty, because of the ordinarily superfluous skills and traits they possess. It plays with the implications of the characters thriving more in the apocalypse that in regular society, but alas, that too goes the way of being window-dressing. Finally, this is not so much a problem with the series itself, but rather an unfortunate tragedy, but the creator of the source material passed away before its completion, making the ride that is Highschool of the Dead destined to go unfinished, with little material past where the anime ended. And with that, its latent potential goes unrealised.

  Characters: 6/10
  For characters I’ll mostly be focusing on the survivor group, as I feel they’re the only ones worth talking about, given that the only thing there is to say about the side characters is that they exist. So out of the main cast the first one to start with is Takashi, who at first is portrayed as slightly broody and indecisive, shown through his relationship with his childhood friend Rei that he likes, but doesn't tell how he feels, who just ends up dating his best friend. This all changes though when the zombie apocalypse hits and survival mode kicks in, as he quickly starts showcasing his capacity for bravery and decisiveness. Generally he becomes the kinda guy that gets shit done, which is shown most clearly in scenes like the ones where he gets jumped by a dude that wants his bike, only for Takashi to shoot him at point blank and leave him for dead as zombies approach or when he saves a little girl from a bunch of zombies just cause it’s the right thing to do. Pretty much a schlocky teen zombie survival horror movie leader in the making. It would’ve been great to see his character arc play out in full, and for him to progress all the way from rejecting the idea of being group leader to completely accepting that responsibility, but unfortunately, that just isn’t to be.

  Next is Rei, Takashi’s childhood friend, who’s the kind hearted, caring team mum type character of the group. Her development and progression were mostly well done, as she learns to deal with the world’s shift and goes from rejecting what’s happened, deluding herself into thinking things are gonna be fine and not wanting to fight due to viewing the zombies as people to accepting reality and rising to the occasion. The only drawback with her is that the whole drama with her and Takashi was just played out teenage drama crap that didn’t fit in with what was going on around them.

  Saeko personality wise is the calm and composed head of the school kendo club. She's basically a bladed yamato nadeshiko, because nothing says Japananese then being an absolute monster with a Katana. The major problem with her character comes in halfway through the series, when it’s revealed that she enjoys brutalising others, and that she’s internally conflicted over that part of herself. While the idea of a character questioning themselves over something in them that they deem wrong and trying to deal with that unsavoury element of themselves is good, one has to question the show’s intelligence when it decides to bring this up in the middle of a zombie apocalypse. The environment in which her skills and natural inclinations are both needed, and highly valued. Now if Highschool of the Dead were any other kind of story, like say one set in a normal school setting, this could've had more impact and pertinence from a character drama angle, but as is, this element is just kinda an eyesore.

  Saya’s the “smart” one of the group, as evidenced by the fact that she’s the only one that wears glasses(aside from Kohta, but he’s an otaku and male, so doesn’t count). While she’s a very intelligent girl that manages to come up with some very practical solutions to problems, she also suffers from rich, snobby bitch-itis, due to her family’s high social and financial status, and the standard that sets for her. Now it transpires that she views her family as controlling and oppressive, even if they actually end up being quite supportive and caring, for which the corresponding drama ended up being boring and hamfisted. The only redeeming moment was when she got bitchslapped by Takashi, so she would calm the fuck down already and finally just talk to her unexpectedly baddass family.

  Kohta’s the fat otaku nerd, you don’t originally expect anything from(aside from going on to write Drifters), but never judge a book by its cover. When the chips are down he’s the man to reveal himself to be a massive gun nut, to the point of having gotten gun training from a former member of delta force. His little drama revolves around his struggle to have more faith in himself and his ability to get shit done. This was probably handled the best out of issues plaguing every other member of the show’s cast because of how understandable and relatable it is, as well as how nicely it concludes.

  Shizuka is the nurse, as well as the token milf. She’s just a total ditz, only really being around as injury insurance and comedy relief, not really serving any other purpose, aside from filling out the breast size spectrum and driving the group around. Finally, Arisu is the token innocent kid that the group save along the way, which of course comes with a puppy included, that got left along in the world after a group of randos indirectly caused her dad’s death by leaving him, along with her out to die, which of course barely impacts her at all.

  Visuals: 7/10
  The art and animation are pretty decent for the time this series came out, not really surprising, as when it comes to this department, if in none other, Madhouse sure knows how to deliver. Even so though, a particularly notable aspect of the art I really like is the level of detail that was put into the backgrounds. The lighting that’s often applied to them helps add this very creepy tone to so many scenes. Couple that with the barrenness of a lot of the streets and buildings and the pools of blood everywhere and you’ve got yourself some prime schlocky horror movie atmosphere. The animation while flowing nicely, with high octane action scenes, that are packed to the brim with that oh so gory goodness, have the problem of the gore being lacking in detail and variety. There’re quite a few blood sprays and everything’s consistently covered in blood, while not looking uniform as a consequence, but even so, that’s not enough. There’s so much more that could be present, like dismembered limbs, bones and organs flying all over the place, like in various 80s or 90s OVAs, the absence of which takes away from the goresploitative nature of the series, making it feel somewhat neutered as a result. Fortunately this problem is somewhat mitigated by the show’s various camera angles, giving different points of view from which the action scenes, among other types can be observed. Another point in favor of the show is that the character designs are pretty well drawn, not to mention attractive as all hell. Although one slight knock against them is that they’re ever so slightly excessive with some of the proportions, as some of the characters can look a bit off model, not to mention this design tendency can be a bit distracting during action scenes. On the bright side, there are definitely worse distractions out there than ‘dat jiggle and bounce. Also, I didn’t know how to organically fit this in but Saeko has my favourite character design, due to the presence of several elements I really appreciate, including, but not limited to, good ass and tiddy, the color purple and swords.

  Sound: 6/10
  The opening is nice to listen to and has a good beat to get you hyped, despite suffering from “sounds like too many things by the same band” syndrome and the ending themes provide a large enough variety of songs to listen too, even if I personally don't like any of them. The OST by Takafumi Wada, who worked on series such as The Seven Deadly Sins and Terra Formars is pretty good and has quite a bit of variety. The voice acting is good, both in the sub and dub, although the dub is the recommended version, as the dialogue and cool one liners work particularly well in one’s native language and help add the necessary level of seriousness to many of the situations the characters find themselves in.

  Enjoyment: 6/10
  Needless to say, I enjoyed this series quite a bit, albeit for very basic reasons. I love blood, gore, action and just zombie apocalypse media in general, for which Highschool of the Dead did a pretty good job of doing justice to. Also what with being the man of culture that I am, I was able to greatly appreciate the visually “refined”creatively depicted and pleasingly prevalent boobalicious content that this show has in unusually high levels.

  Overall: 6/10
  If you're looking for a simple action show and you like zombie and ecchi, Highschool of the Dead will most certainly provide what you're looking for. It's very straightforward, simple, the girls are sexy, the action’s cool and the kills are entertaining. It’s just an all around good time. Of course if your not into that, you should maybe, just maybe, avoid this show at all cost, unless you just so happen to be a massive Tetsurou Araki fan or are a massive Masochist, in which case hey, how you enjoy yourself is your business.

  Special thanks to my not so consistently paid in Yu-Gi-Oh cards and slightly pissed editor Lonecrit.

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• 

  CyberSage999

  56/100
  A decent zombie ecchi romp for what it's worth.

  Before I get to the review proper, please visit the link here to see what you can do for the Black Lives Matter cause:
  https://blacklivesmatters.carrd.co/#victims

  Do you ever get the feeling of being pleasantly surprised by something? The kind of show you would expect to hate, but found to be enjoyable for the most part? That's what this anime has given me. Despite the hate that this show gets, I found it to be a solid enough zombie action romp with a distinct style to it that only Tetsuo Araki could give it. While the ecchi elements can be overbearing and excessive, I thought the show was a passable way to spend my time during the quarantine.

  Now with that in mind, the story for this show is yet another zombie action plot with some romance and ecchi thrown in. A sudden zombie apocalypse starts and destroys the world as we know it and a group of strangers decides to work together to survive. They go to one place to another to protect themselves from the zombies. Nothing out of the ordinary, but I do like how this group is actually pretty competent as far as fighting and working together is concerned. Take Hirano Kouta for example. From the outset, he seems like your standard basic perverted nerd, and he is that to an extent, but he's extremely useful thanks to his knowledge on how to use guns. That is a skill that no one else in the show has. It ends up saving the cast multiple times in the show, and the guy does pull his weight (no pun intended). He's what I would describe as a gun otaku, and the guy is handier than I thought he would be at first. I was afraid that he would be an annoying comedic relief character, but he turned out to be pretty decent.

  

  The other thing about Hirano is his dynamic with Saya Takagi, the cute glasses girl with pigtails. She's a bit of a smartass who initially looks down on him and calls him a fatass nerd. She works with him to survive and escape the school, and she does decide to slowly warm up to him (Though not in a romantic way, FYI). She also has an issue with her parents after the zombie outbreak, but that gets resolved fairly quickly. Her parents are rich folk who are total badasses and try to save as many people as possible. Saya meanwhile is a snob with a capital S though, since she is usually the one trying to take charge and telling the group what to do. She's also a childhood friend of the protagonist Takashi, but that doesn't really go anywhere.

  Speaking of Takashi, he had a crush on one of the girls Rei, but she dated his friend Hisashi who died in the first episode. After that, they do seem to try and kindle a relationship between one another. It honestly feels like she clings to him because she lost Hisashi so early into this disaster. While that may be unfair to her, she does take interest in him after that guy's death. More on that later. As for Takashi himself, he's a decent protagonist. He does come up with some legitimately smart ideas to deal with the zombies, and he does have some nice moments with other characters, namely with Saeko. He does come off as a brooding loner kind of character at first, but he gradually becomes the sort of leader that a schlocky zombie apocalypse would call for. He's an alright lead all things considered.

  

  I really don't have anything to say about Shizuka Marikawa. She's just the usual blonde bimbo type of character with big boobs. She is the school nurse, but it's not like her medical capabilities really get utilized at all. She's just there for ecchi scenes and for driving around the characters. That's it. Arisu is the little girl they decide to save from the zombie horde, but she's mostly just a normal happy girl aside from the fact her father was killed and she was crying about it. She's largely insignificant to the plot.

  Then there's Rei, and I don't think her romance subplot is really all that necessary considering the circumstances they're in. Especially since that plot isn't resolved at all anyways. Aside from fighting alongside the other characters, there's not much worth noting about her. She's also a childhood friend of Takashi, and it seemed like their long history together eventually made Takashi interested in her. When the catastrophe breaks out, she was in denial at first because she didn't want to believe that Hisashi is dead and she doesn't want to believe that everything has gone to shit. She begins to deal with this shift and help the others fight the zombies, but aside from that, she isn't too interesting on her own.

  Finally, there's Saeko. She's the wise and stoic kendo school student. Her skills do make her a legitimate asset to the team since she can kill zombies very efficiently with her kendo stick. A plot twist that's revealed with her is something that feels pointless considering the situation that they're in. The bonding moment seems rather unnecessary given what the issue actually is given the context of the series. Still, she gets shit done and she's easily the most attractive girl in the show, so I can't complain too much.

  

  One thing that I find annoying about this show is just how excessive the ecchi elements are. Now don't get me wrong, ecchi by itself is fine, but when you see panty shots and boob shots in action parts of the show, they get distracting. There was the legendary matrix boob shot, which whether or not you watched the show, you've probably seen it. That one is an exception because of how ridiculous and amazing it is in and out of context. Aside from that, I'm really not bothered by the ecchi parts of the series. As long as the series primarily separates those scenes with the action set pieces, then I'm fine with getting a little bit of fanservice here and there.

  Another issue is how annoying and blatantly evil or dumb some of the adults are in this series. Take the teacher for example. He smiles menacingly, and he gives off a creepy vibe to him. Rei says they should've just let him die, and judging by the way he acts, you are given the impression that she's right. The old lady arguing with our characters is an example of the adults acting stupid. She and a bunch of other adults believe that the zombies really aren't zombies and that this is just a disease spread about, only for her to get eaten anyway. It just feels cheap to have characters that exist to prove the characters right.

  One last issue that I'll mention is the lack of any sort of conclusion for the story. Granted, the manga author of the series has passed away, so the chances of this getting a sequel are slim to none, but regardless, everything feels like they haven't been properly wrapped up. It feels like this could be a two cour show, but as is, many plot points are left up in the air. For that reason, and for the aforementioned boob shots, I do think this show shouldn't have taken itself so seriously. People would've been kinder to it if that were the case.

  One thing you may recognize from zombie stories is that they like to call their zombies some kind of special name, whether it be clickers from the Last of Us or walkers from the Walking Dead series. In this series, they just call the zombies them. Just them. Not really anything distinct or memorable. They also function as a mixture between the two zombies I mentioned, where they're blind, slow, and rise from the dead. This makes it easy to deal with individuals but also hard to deal with in large waves.

  Then there's the visual presentation, which is fantastic. One thing you would expect from Tetsuo Araki is dynamic camera angles and panning shots. It's like a blockbuster action flick, and it really makes the action fun to watch. Lots of well animated facial expressions and boobs too, as everything feels so fluid and smooth (Pun totally intended that time!). Araki really does give this show much more flare than it might disserve.

  Not much to say about the soundtrack. Aside from the opening, the tracks feel like they just faded into the background. I can't remember anything from the OST during action or more quiet moments. Voices are also fine, so there isn't much for me to say there.

  Ultimately, whether or not you watch this show depends on your tolerance on ecchi. If you hate ecchi, you'll hate this show, but if you can tolerate the ecchi or even enjoy it, then maybe you'll like this series. As for me, I thought it a decent time waster. Nothing more, nothing less.

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• 

  Zigeuninja

  80/100
  By far the best (and only) zombie anime

  Highschool of the Dead is an anime that imo can be extremely enjoyable if you watch it with the right mindset. No it doesn't have a great story, the characters aren't anything you haven't seen before either, but what it does deliver are some great fights, music and overall atmosphere and that's what you should be expecting going into this show. --- __Art & Animation:__ This show has surprisingly good animation at times and the art is pretty great aswell, which isn't all that common for a harem anime. A lot of scenes look really good with fluid animation, especially the fights. I only found out it was made by MADHOUSE after my 5th rewatch or so, which definitely explains why the visuals are so great. __Characters: __ As I said before, the characters aren't anything special, but they are pretty well written for a harem and they actually get shit done. Every character, yes even the MC, has an actual personality that even somewhat evolves throughout the story. Unfortunately the anime will never get finished so some characters don't get developed as much as others but I'd say that isn't too much of an issue, it's just a harem after all. __Story:__ The story is fairly simple and about as complex as you'd expect. All of a sudden a zombie apocalypse breaks out and they're trying to survive and find their family. This show is really just a pretty generic zombie show but that's one of the reasons I like it so much, because the anime medium is definitely lacking in the zombie genre. Some characters get their own short arcs here and there like a flashback or something, which is a nice way to change up the pacing a little. One unique thing that comes to mind is how the zombies are completely blind and only respond to sound which does set this show's zombies apart from others at least a little. __Sound:__ The music is probably the best part of this show, especially the opening which is my favorite opening of all time. The music always fits the scene and atmosphere, which imo is one of the show's strong points and never feels out of place. It also has a unique ending song for every episode which is quite uncommon and the only anime I can think of that does it this way is Chainsaw Man. The english dub is also really funny and this is one of the few shows where I'd actually recommend the dub over the sub. There isn't really much else to say so why do I like this show so much and why did I watch it 6 (now 7) whole times? It's mindless fun that's really all there is to it. A Simple story, decent characters, good visuals, atmosphere and music just happen to make for a pretty good show. --- __Summary:__ Highschool of the dead seems like a pretty generic harem anime that doesn't really do anything out of the ordinary but it manages to be entertaining with it's stupidity / simplicity. If you wanna watch something that doesn't require too much of your attention without being boring, this is it.
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