Download Anime Highschool of the Dead [Subtitle Indonesia] 01-12

It sure has been a while since I last wrote a review. And I'm thinking of writing my Angel Beats! review without waiting for the extra episode in December.

High School of the Dead is, in case you haven't already figured it out,a fan-service heavy zombie apocalypse type show. There is no explanation whatsoever for how the dead are reanimated, or how They can infect others, but this is okay. ("They", "Them", "Their". etc. are used to refer to the zombies) Moving right along...

The characters in H.O.T.D are generally, in terms of how I like them, pretty mixed. Some, I like, some, I hate. It happens. Especially when there's essentially a zombie apocalypse going on. That can bring out the best or the worst in anybody. Anyways, the the first of the main protagonists, Komuro Takashi, seems like a punk at first, but he's actually a pretty nice guy (cough Ichigo cough) with natural leadership skills. He's actually a likable character.Then there's his childhood friend and crush Miyamoto Rei. She's apparently a lancer (not the F/S N type!) who is Takashi's childhood friend. Personally, while I think she's a nice character, there's something about her that bothers me. Perhaps it's her somewhat over-the-top admiration for a character that got killed off in the first episode. I don't know. She is quite a looker though. And her Zettai Ryouiki is awesomeness. Takagi Saya is the cast's tsunderekko AND meganekko, as they (especially Kouta) quickly found out. Well, not necessarily the tsundere part. She is a genius, as stated many times in-show, often by Saya herself. While she may seem bratty, there is a reason for this, as shown later in the show. She is one of the weaker fighters, but she can do quite a bit to Them with a drill. Hirano Kouta is a gun otaku who Saya randomly teamed up with, but his skills proved to be extremely valuable. He is an excellent shooter and knows a lot about weapons. Which is to be expected, considering where he was for a while. He is actually one of the better characters in this anime. But, by far my favorite character, Busujima Saeko exists in H.O.T.D. She is extremely skilled with a sword, and is probably the most bad@$$ character in the show. She also has, in addition to her usual calm demeanor, a hidden personality that she tries to suppress. Marikawa Shizuka is an almost unnecessary character in this show. She would be totally unnecessary if this wasn't a fanservice-heavy show and if she wasn't the school nurse. By the way, her school nurse bit doesn't show up very much, and she usually ends up as the driver, as she is probably the only one in the main group who can drive a car/bus/tank/Humvee/whatever proficiently. Takashi isn't too bad at dealing with smaller vehicles though. Other characters get introduced, some of whom are okay, some of whom are funny, some of whom are good, some of whom are idiots, and some of whom are just WTF. Like I said earlier, a zombie apocalypse can bring out the worst in people. The WTF ones and the idiots should be pretty obvious as you move along though. Overall, I have mixed feelings about the cast as a whole, but a few characters serve to bring up my rating fairly well.

H.O.T.D. is one of the more fanservice-heavy shows out there. And there is no surprise here, as the manga's artist also draws hentai manga. I think he'd be pretty good at this kind of thing. It is rather difficult to find pictures from this show that DON'T contain fanservice. But I intend to keep it low. Like that picture of Rei just above. She looks pretty cute, doesn't she? Anyways, the art is pretty good. Being a healthy high school boy, I have no real issues with fanservice, but some scenes in this show are a bit off the wall. For example, that bullet-through-the-breasts scene is just so stupidly weird that I'm not even sure what to say. At least the action scenes animate smoothly and well. As for the zombies, They look pretty undead to me. Well, I haven't really seen any zombie movies, so my opinion on Their appearance probably isn't the best. The facial expressions range from well-done to flat out weird, but, in the end, they are generally good.

The music, once again, isn't really something I paid much attention to. I'll just assume that it was decent. Unless the soundtrack is EXTREMELY good (like Clannad's), I probably won't notice it very much. The voice acting was decent though. Actually, it suited the characters' personalities pretty well, even if some of the voices annoyed me (I'm looking at you, Shizuka-sensei, just not in THAT place). Takashi's voibe felt kinda off too, perhaps because of his speech style.

The story is about essentially a zombie apocalypse. It starts and ends really well, but the middle slows down a bit. This by itself isn't too bad, and neither is the fact that some of these middle episodes were fanservice episodes, but the fact that very little happened is. There wasn't much action, there wasn't much background given, there wasn't much actual plot. The start and the finish were good though. It essentially goes through about one manga chapter per episode, and, as the manga is around 26 chapters and going, this doesn't even get halfway though the source story. There are some nice action scenes though. And, for whatever reason, all the girls high school age and above all have giant breasts. Haven't really seen that since Divergence Eve. But that's not too important. The fanservice does detract from the actual story though. I think that, instead of Rei's breasts, they should have focused on her Zettai Ryouiki. It would have made the show sooo much better for me. Anyways, the story is decent overall, and it does a good job of developing Saya.

Overall, this wasn't the best thing I watched this summer, but it certainly was the bloodiest. This show will probably appeal mostly to action and fanservice fans who can take a lot of gory scenes. Some of the action scenes were downright ridiculous, and not necessarily in a good way. However, for whatever stupid reason, I found this a fairly pleasant (that's probably NOT the right word) watch.

Opening: "HIGHSCHOOL OF THE DEAD" by Kishida Kyoudan & The Akeboshi Rockets
Okay, I'll start listing song names properly. Anyways, this is a great opening. I like the song, and the animation is well done. Still not as good as "Paradise Lost" though.

Ending: (12 of them) by Maon Kurosaki
Why there are 12, I don't know. But they all had similar animation, essentially a slideshow. But, instead of a normal slideshow, each ending starts on one picture and zooms farther and farther out until a large board full of pictures is revealed. Often, there is still some episode left after the endings, so stick around.

Scorez:
Story: 8
Art: 9
Characters: 8
Voice Acting: 9
Music: 7
Opening: 10
Endings: 7
Overall: 8

Anime Subtitle Indonesia, High Quality but smaller size: in this episode Highschool of the Dead [Subtitle Indonesia] 01-12..