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High School of the Dead 1
"If you lie, I'll make you swallow a thousand needles."
God damn, that was fucking awesome. The moment I heard Archer talking about how the world has ended I knew that Madhouse was giving one of my favourite manga’s great treatment as an anime. High School of the Dead was my (and everyone else’s) most look forward to show of the summer, and I speak only for myself when I say that it was one of the best first episodes of an anime that I’ve seen in a long time. Gurren Lagann is the last anime I can think of with such a great first episode, and we all know how that turned out. I’ve read ever chapter of HOTD that is currently translated and I can say without a doubt to anyone that is exclusively watching the anime; you are in for one hell of a ride. I will say this now, I will try not to spoil anything from the manga for those reading that only watch the anime but in reality there is not much to spoil; they have to survive together, they have to kill zombies and almost all of the show will not take place in a high school.
I should mention that I loved the OP and ED...*nosebleed*
Genres: Horror, Action, EcchiThemes: Survival, Fuckin’ Zombies!Number of episodes: Unknown
The first thing you’ll notice when watching HOTD (other than the OVERUSE OF CAPITAL LETTERS) is how awesome Suwabe Junichi sounds as Takashi. Suwabe also voiced Archer in Fate/Stay Night and he was awesome in that too; even though the same can’t be said for his counterpart Emiya Shirou(A.K.A. Uchiha Sasuke). It’s very interesting to point out how different Suwabe (and thus Takashi) sounds when he’s yelling and when he’s talking, and especially when he’s brooding. Suwabe is probably the only voice actor I know that sounds fucking bad ass when he’s brooding. Here’s hoping that at some point he says “Unlimited Blade Works!” during the course of the series; wow that’s really unlikely. While we didn’t get to hear her this episode; Saeko is voiced by “Hiroshi Kamiya Award for Voicing way too many Characters in a Season” female winner Sawashiro Miyuki. Miyuki had eleven roles this year so far of shows that I watched and I can’t wait to hear her voice Saeko who she’s perfect for, especially later on. In case you are interested the male winner of the Kamiyan was Hiroshi Kamiya who is now taking a well-deserved vacation playing four-games-in-one chess.
*Falls over*
I also can’t wait to hear more of Hiyama Nobuyuki as Hirano Kouta. Kouta is a perfect character for the bat-shit crazy Hiyama to voice so I’m looking forward to see him go crazy with a gun. It’s worth mentioning that Madhouse and Hiyama just finished The Tatami Galaxy which was one of the best shows of last season. Speaking of Madhouse they have once again proved their pantheon level animation here, the lighting throughout this entire episode was incredible. I am also a big fan of the character designs from the manga so I was happy to see them adapted perfectly into motion. Speaking of motion there was a huge amount of crane camera action going on this episode which really gave a great sense of movement. I forgot to mention how weird it was to hear Miyano Mamoru in this for one episode considering he’s probably voiced more main characters in big shows then every other seiyuu combined it’s too bad he wasn’t able to say “Saji Crossroado” before he took a bat to the face. I guess everything didn’t go “keikaku doori”………….pfffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffft.
Still, great voice for the character....
The anime has once again solidified my pure hatred of Rei as a character. I mean, how can you say something like that to a guy that just killed his best friend to protect the girl he loves? She is such a bitch (later on too) and doesn’t deserve even the slightest bit of attention from Takashi, let alone his love. I will talk about how much I like the more favourable pairing when we get to it in the anime. I am very interested to hear what the ladies think of this series since it has a combination of violence, horror and ecchi which aren’t exactly the most female enticing genres (maybe a sexist judgment…). Well, considering the other show I’m covering is the exact opposite of this one (though they start out almost identically in high school brooding theme) and that I’m a huge shoujo lover I guess it just takes zombies and panties….I mean hot chicks killing zombies to bring out my violence loving ways.
"I killed my best friend, and held the girl that I loved for the first time."
Man, I can’t wait until they leave the high school, because on that first night has without a doubt one of the funniest moments I’ve read in manga because of how nonchalant it is. The director of this series Tetsurou Araki also directed Death Note and Black Lagoon, two very successful manga adaptations. In fact I think if you had to list the five best manga adaptations those two would make the cut. One last thing I liked about changes between the manga and the anime is how they’ve already shown that Takashi and Saya are friends, I didn’t really miss the stuff cut from the manga to do with surviving on the roof because they leave the roof immediately anyway. Currently it is unknown how long this series will run for (as far as I can see) but it would be quite easy to last 13 or even 26 episodes. There are currently 25 translated chapters of the manga and the first episode was only one chapter of the manga so it would be possible to do 24 episodes or even 26 with their own anime exclusive ending. No matter how long this series runs for, I think we are in for a very good time.
EDIT: If someone could explain the naming process of High School of the Dead it would be appreciated. It is usually in all caps which is fine, I don’t do that to save space in the title spot which would require two lines one we get to two digit numbers because of the size of the capitals, which would look super tacky. Also there is a lack of spacing between High and School in the manga and the OP song title. However in the OP there is clearly a space between the words even though it is still shortened to H.O.T.D. This is very confusing and once I figure it out I will fix the title. Cheers.
OP:「HIGHSCHOOL OF THE DEAD」 ED:「Major Doubt!」
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- Shiki 9 03 September 2010
- High School of the Dead 9 03 September 2010
- Amagami SS 9 31 August 2010
- Seikimatsu Occult Academy 9 31 August 2010
- Shiki 8 29 August 2010
- Ookami-san 9 29 August 2010
- High School of the Dead 8 26 August 2010
- Seikimatsu Occult Academy 8 24 August 2010
- Break Blade 01 23 August 2010
- Shiki 7 21 August 2010
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Decre on High School of the Dead 9
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Setsuken on High School of the Dead 9
Saeko and Takashi making out in front out Rei woul...
Sekijitsu was founded to provide readers a diverse perspective on anything and everything manga and anime. The scope doesn’t end there though, as the blog will also occasionally dish out on the the writers' other interests, such as gaming, technology, movies, books, sports or whatever the flavour of the month happens to be. Fundamentally though, the sole focus will tend to be on anime, manga and Japanese culture in general. 
I’m a little worried about the first episode of this series… It’s not that there are any faults that is present as an introduction of this anime, BUT! Let’s just say I was a little off guard while the zombie was feeding…
Ughh…. Those two so called BFF’s sorta defined how “messed up” this first episode as…
Good reviews buddy and looking to more iterations of this and Amagami SS!
I actually watched this show with a few female friends and their opinions differed but then again my female friends are weird. Seriously, don’t underestimate how man young ladies love zombies, you’d be surprised.
From the four ladies two loved it all around from action to ecchi, one liked it a lot, she’s a horror nut especially for psychological stuff but she wanted to facepalm herself on how much ecchi there was she had a hard time taking it seriously, and one didn’t like the ecchi but loved the show otherwise.
I think this is a mixture of loving horror action, and romance maybe? My personal opinion was that I loved it all around but all the in-your-face ecchi made me feel like a dirty old man. Hear it gets worse so will have to see how opinion holds.
Being a fan of horror, this is something I have been looking forward to. Zombie bashing is always fun, the only thing that turns me off is too much ecchi though Takashi stops me. I loved his brooding version of Pinky promise (make you swallow 1000 needles! xD).
Btw, Highschool can be me made a single word and you should use HOTD as Madhouse is sticking with it too. Also according to MAL, it will have 13 episodes.
I think it depends on from female to female
I’m a girl, but keeping up with current anime and trying out various genres of shows means that I’ve almost become numb to fanservice parts. The jiggling boobs and flashing of panties in every possible situation were slightly distracting, but that’s probably because I’m not a dirty old man yet (that would feel kind of… wrong).
I don’t like Rei either – yeah she’s probably having a hard time, but that doesn’t mean that I can stand her whining away. Still, I can’t bring myself to forgive Takashi for bitch- er, bastard- um, bitch/bastard-slapping Rei. After barging in and spouting out stuff about people being killed and running away, the first thing a logical person would do is to comply without fail. Uhhh rightttt, Takashi. Out of brooding, anger, frustration and many things, you slap a girl because she didn’t manage to process the situation in seconds.
I think using HOTD is fine, since people who watch the show would understand it either way. And psst, you said “There are currently 25 translated volumes of the manga”.. do you mean chapters?
Shhhhhhh…….
I always thought Rei was relatively annoying in the manga… but somehow she’s twice as annoying in the anime (so far)…!
Anyway, the constant bewbs & butt flashing is hilarious, I love it XDDD Although, it does make me self-conscious about my own (nonexistant) breasts… “orz
Another female here!
I really enjoyed the episode and as a person who has studied a little bit of animation and broadcasting, I tip my hat to Madhouse’s handling with the action sequences. The setbacks for me was that the fanservice was really jarring and blatant.
Also, I really hate Rei. Really, really hating her already and I haven’t read the manga or anything. I actually cheered when Takashi slapped her. I’m really anticipating for Saeko’s screen time.
The show was awesome simple as..!
I wasn’t very fond of Rei either, so I didn’t mind Takashi giving her the backhand.
lol’d at when she started begging him to keep her company after saying such disgusting things to him after killing his best friend to protect her.
I thought Madhouse did a fine job with this episode.
Mikoto´s last blog ..High School of the Dead 01
This was a pretty good introduction to the series and I’m definately hooked. I could have been hooked when it was announced, but I had reservations of how much ecchi (is that the right word?) there would be. I REALLY don’t like panty and breast shots in anime. It was a bit annoying in this episode, but I realize that it could have been a lot worse. If they can keep it around this level, or have even less, I’ll definately be staying for the long hall. If the jiggling starts overpowering the zombie aspect though, I might have to leave.
Ignoring the panty shots, there were some really nice choices in this episode. I loved all the swooping and crane shots; even the over the top stuff like the chalk falling was so overly-dramatic that I was able to enjoy it in a cheesy-but-actually-kinda-cool way.
So the voice of the love doll plays the chubby kid? This voice actor’s got some bizzare roles.
I haven’t seen much Black Lagoon, but I really liked what I saw (and as a member of my college’s anime club, bought a copy for the school library, so I will get to see it hopefully next semester) so I’m glad the same director is working on both.
chudleycannonfodder´s last blog ..chudleycannons- -hb211 was that in reference to Childrens Hospital or football
Although I know there are many guys out there who think that the combination of gory horror, zombies, blood, chicks with giant boobs and panty flashing are not something girls would be interested in. I am probably one of the few percentage of girls who find this show awesome~ It’s true I’m definitely not too thrilled with the ecchi stuff but I really don’t mind it. I accept it as part of this awesome show. I’ve been waiting for an action horror packed anime like this. Especially since MADHOUSE always does an amazing job~
I admit I haven’t read the manga but I’ve heard so far is pretty faithful in this adaptation. I will probably continue it after the anime is over. Also, after watching episode 1, I already know who is the most annoying character. REI can fucking die~ lol She’s so MEAN to Takashi, besides him probably wanting to get laid with her, I see no bigger reason why he would be in love with her…..she’s a messed up cookie~
Moving on, the zombie action is AMAZING and this show would rock if it weren’t for the annoying character mentioned above, but it’s all good. It’s all part of the horror like flick~ The pink haired girl is also pretty stupid but she hasn’t so far infuriated me like Rei has~ I’m really looking forward to this show