Highschool of the Dead. It’s about Takashi, a school nurse and friends trying to survive a zombie epidemic. Nothing to gawk at really… they’re pretty basic zombies, pale, bit weird diverging pupils at times, loves brains. Which begs the questions why did I enjoy it so much? Could it be it added a unique twist on the mythos and some new insight on how a zombie apocalypse could happen? Or maybe there’s some in-depth characters and narrative arcs to rival The Walking Dead Seasons 1 and 2 put together? No?
Then it must be the fact it has enough hentai-inspired, upskirt, Double G’s, unnecessarily fetishy scenes you can swing a phallic bokken at. And as such, after watching season 1, hoping they make a season 2, the HOTD series has eternally marked me as chauvinistic subman human… thingy. I’m surprised I can string this blog post together using near-eloquent English.
But the animation is good, from a pace and technical standpoint, of course. The extra frames for swaying mammaries is truly gravity-defying. Just go into google and type in “Highschool of the dead breasts” and take in an eyeful of Google’s suggested searches. Ha Ha, hilarious. There is one that ends with “sizes”, another with “physics”… The artwork and composition are done well, with low angles you could only get perfect if you spent time researching that special brand of adult entertainment that has to be recorded without sound to exploit and circumvent some ‘invasion of privacy’ law loophole. And what’s amazing is there is technically no nudity in the series. None. But I can’t remember blushing like giddy school girl this much. Embar-rass-ment.
Nevertheless, I respect it for what it is. A raunchy horror anime based on a raunchy horror manga. I have two levels of enjoyment (pipe down back there…*phrasing*…you know what I mean). One is for film narratives that ebb and flow effortlessly in to an intricate, convolute weave. And then there are those stories that are just delightfully pulpy. I grew up on pulpy… Frank Miller, Conan… pulp’s good. Why? because they amplify and exaggerate the elements that make up more powerful narratives. So much so they become almost parodies. HOTD is as such. And Takashi Komuro and the gang don’t care. And once you can understand the cognitive cogs, belts and wheels of a specific brand of narrative you can better construct new ones, or challenge the old.
But still, there were scenes that, even with my threshhold of filmic tolerance, had me saying, ‘Is that really necessary?’. Like Takashi squeezing Saeko’s breast with the iron-paw-grip while giving tough-love-encouragement to pull through a bout of depression and self-loathing? Although quite funny, having Takashi use his ex-girlfriends breasts to balance a heavy-duty rifle whilst firing? Splendid.
Where’s HR when you need them?
That’s not an army-certified kickstand, sir…
HOTD is what it is. Love it. Hate it. It’s pulp. You either like it in your orange juice. Or you can take them out and squeeze them in your eyes blinding yourself in a PC rage.