Tuesday, July 30, 2013
Highschool of the Dead
Episodes: 12
How: Netflix
Grade: C+
Summary: {from MAL} A mysterious, lethal disease is on the loose worldwide, resulting in a catastrophic death rate of humanity, and the increasing rise of attacks, caused by the living dead.
In Japan, several high school students and a school nurse have banded together to escape Fujimi High School shortly after it was attacked by zombies. The group now attempts to figure who or what was responsible for this plague, and in the meantime, attempt to survive the present apocalypse.
The story is initially narrated through the eyes of Takashi Komuro, one of the students who had survived in the initial outbreak.
Thoughts: Boobs. Yes, Boobs. Lots of them and they are huge and sometimes naked. There.... I got through that, now that I am past the boobs I can go onto other things.
The first time I attempted to watch this show I couldn't get past the first episode, I'm not sure what changed but this time.. I just marathoned it. 12 Episodes in one night.
There's nothing actually that special about this show, it's just another zombie vrs human situation. Focused on a High School and the struggles the few students who survived are going through to figure out what's going on and what's happened to the rest of their families. Which for the most part you don't find out..
Just another Zombie Show.
Who we have....
Takashi Komuro- He's the first student at the school to figure out something's wrong, He's skipping class on the roof when he see's some of the athletic teachers near the gate coping with some person trying to get into the school. One of the teachers are bit, then he turns into a zombie and so on and so forth.
After seeing this he rushes to Rei's classroom and pretty much drags her out of the room, following closely behind is Hisashi {Rei's boyfriend}. Hisashi doesn't last long which is all well and good, seeing that Takashi is or was in love with Rei at one point.
Anyways, Although it seemed as though Takashi was a slacker in the start he really stepped up throughout the series and really took a leadership type role. Of course he's the one "hot" guy in the mess of things so three out of the four females are going after him with the fourth occasionally making hints.
He's probably the most determined one out of the group to find out what has happened to his parents and really sucks at using guns. Yep, He should just stick with the baseball bat.
Kouta Hirano - I love this guy, favorite character by far. The rather chubby, gun otaku knows pretty much everything about every piece of firearms or military equipment the group has stumbled across. His first weapon in the show was actually a nail gun that he rigged up to have a sight thing..
At first he was running around with Saya, attempting to protect her even though she was a major bitch to him. She's one bossy lady. It seems like a one sided crush seeing that Saya seems obsessed with Takashi, but you never know...
I find him to be much more useful then Takashi in most of the situations, of course he's not really much of a leader but... killing zombies really seems to be his calling.
Saeko Busujima- The president of the school's Kendo club, she makes short work of the Zombies really. She seems to be scared of herself in ways, seeing that a few years before the epidemic she's attacked by a stranger and instead of just laying him out directly she waits...for just the right moment and... beats the shit out of him.
She likes this, loves this even and this fact scares her. It's exhilarating and it's as though she never wants to stop and now... in a way she doesn't have to. Afraid of loosing herself and really, I think it gets her "excited".
Rei Miyamoto- She's been close to Takashi since kindergarten, she even promised to marry him one day. This didn't go quite as planned since Takashi is a bit "meh" on the whole relationship front and she ends up dating one of their friends {Hisashi who is now dead}. The fact they aren't BF/GF doesn't stop her from worrying over Takashi though or getting onto him for doing stupid stuff.
At one point she was in the same grade as Saeko, but due to her father {a police detective} investigating one of her teachers fathers {Shido} the teacher holds her back a year. For no Reason. This causes an everlasting grudge against Shido who is just a skeezer anyways.
Saya Takagi- The "smart" one of the group, a genius or at least she thinks she is. She's the one who likes to point out how other people are stupid or just plain wrong about basically everything. Incredibly irritating at first, but in a strange way she grows on you after a while.
Her father is a high ranking political type who is pretty much by the sword-ish, her mother is very skilled with guns and such herself (a better shot then her father). At first Saya believes her father had forgotten about her in the crisis, but it's her mother and a group of armed militants that save the group from the zombies and bring them to their compound near the end.
Though obviously obsessed with Takashi, Saya has some connection to Kouta.
Shizuka Marikawa- The schools nurse, the ditzy one of the series really. Pretty sure she may have been put into the show for eye candy and comic relief. She's the only adult in the group, her apartment is where the group end up for a while to clean up,rest,eat and load up. Load up being, her roommate is a member of Japan's Special Defense Force... a sniper even. The apartment is loaded with tons of guns and other weapons along with a giant Humvee.
Alice Maresato- How she joins the group is just sad, She and her father are running around on the streets trying to find somewhere safe from the Zombies. They go up to a persons door and her father is knocking and stuff, the people inside tell him to go away and they end up opening the door just to stab him. They left her outside to watch her father die and to die by the zombies.
Uhg, Humans are worse then the Zombies.
Kouta and Takashi witness the happenings and Takashi goes down and saves her, she's the cutest member of the group.
Saya's Parents- Soichiro Takagi and Yuriko Takagi - Soichiro is the sword wielding, leader of the right-wing nationalist group in the district and he's quite the hardass, Yuriko was once a wall street broker and is now the proper wife...well..the proper gun toting wife. She's a better shot then her husband even.
Together they have used their estate to house survivors, until the end where it's overran.
The Asshole - Koichi Shido - This guy's a creepy, pedo, jackass that was responsible for holding Rei back a grade because his father wanted a way to screw with her father. During the chaos he's like some freaky cult leader with some of the other students who he "saved" from the Zombies.
The main group let him and his followers on the bus back at the school, but his being there is what caused Rei to get off the bus and of course Takashi followed. Later the rest of the group leave him with the bus, even after he attempted to keep Shizuka {she's value being a nurse}.
It's at episode 11 where it's revealed why Rei hates him so much when he and what's left of the students he was leading show up at Takagi's mansion. Saya's father allows Rei to decide what she wants to do with Shido and instead of killing him, she decides to let him live. Saya's father then tells him and his tainted students to leave.
The End: What can I see, The end is a Cliffhanger. The US had launched nuclear missiles at multiple countries thinking that the whole Zombie thing was an attack and they needed to protect the country from all the other countries. As the missiles approached the combined navel units of Japan and the US shoot them down, however one is close enough that the EMP burst takes out all the electronic items. Now their in the dark and nothing works.
If that wasn't enough, the Takagi Mansion is now being overrun with Zombies. Saya's father tells the group to leave, most of them were looking for their relatives still anyways so they fight their way back to their Humvee while Saya's parents and others at the mansion fight the Zombies.
They drive off into the chaotic mess.
Was the ending good? Not really. I guess it was proper though given the situation in the show. Maybe there will be a second season someday.