High School of the Dead: The Complete Series (Drifters of the

It was a relatively normal day for Takashi Komuro until he saw one of his teachers attacked by a strange trespasser only for the teacher to then turn on his colleagues. Things go from bad to worse from then on as the living dead begin to grow in number forcing Takashi and his friends to fight for their lives as their normal life disintegrates around them.Although I am not usually a fan of the Zombie genre I did really enjoy watching this `High School of the Dead' and I must say that I wish it had been a longer series. Although the plot is rather basic but this is really par-for-the-course with Zombie stories and the series is still entertaining. The animation for the series is very good and the English dub has also been done very well, with some very funny lines added here and there.The only major gripe that I have with the series is that it does go a bit overboard with the fanservice in places as although it was probably meant to be a breather to break up the horror and action segments of the series, I feel it comes across as far too gratuitous in places (and I am someone who doesn't usually mind fanservice).This two disc set includes all twelve episodes of the `High School of the Dead' anime and although I haven't read the manga, it is definitely going on my to-read list. Overall I did enjoy the series very much and I would have given it a full five stars if the fanservice had been a little less gratuitous but I feel it is still worth a good four stars.

The physical product comes on two DVDs in what we expect the standard casing to be. Each DVD has six episodes and the second has the opening and closing song as an extra. It is all quite professionally put together.The series High School of the Dead is entertaining and fairly amusing Zombie Apocalypse. It is highly stylistic and unsubstantial, no real moral or involving theme within besides survival and boob shots. The whole story focuses around a group of five high school student's and a nurse's attempts to stay alive in a world being over run with the carnivorous dead. The lead characters are made up of two guys and bunch of girls and women. This series is made for a male audience with a strong emphasis on misogyny, guns, vehicles, weapons, petty family rivalries and fighting. There is not much actual horror here, you will be smiling or sickened most of the time as the actual horrific scenes are dubbed down with countless breast or panty shots!The animation and vocals are good. The soundtrack is excellent a very catchy piece of rock. The action is well paced and the battles blend in well with the story. Some of the fights scenes are really cool.The protagonists are mostly a pretty standard group of anime characters mostly about as deep as a puddle but very enjoyable to watch, it is just too bad none of them were killed. However these is no character development. I suspect that HOTD is incomplete and this series ends prior to the story's true ending. A number of other characters and events are shown throughout that do not influence the story, so this series clearly incomplete.The antagonists are the undead multitude. Zombies or 'them' as they're referred to by our protagonists are a pretty faithful to generally accepted model of such. They stumble about aimlessly drooling, moaning and reeking until they sense the presence of a person and then its biting time. After a short delay the bitten person turns and becomes a zombie and follows the simple ways of the dead flock. However such non-minded creatures can't provide a plot device for a whole series. Eventually a human antagonist has to be introduced and one is. He is built up and then he proceeds to do nothing to meaningfully influence the story. Towards the end it all seems like an anticlimax.The middle episodes of the series are the best. The last few are disappointing. Immature sexually frustrated zombie fans will love this.

The zombie apocalypse and anime - it sounds like the perfect combination.Unfortunately this fails to pay off at any point. It gets close many, many times but always manages to mess things up; usually by dragging your attention away from what's happening with a pointless and gratuitous boob-shot.God, it never ends.Your train of thought during a typical scene will go something like this: ''Oh man, those guys had better be careful because... oh hey, boobs... because those zombies are pretty close and they'll hear them. Oh great, the purple haired girl is here, she's pretty awesome and... oh hey, boobs... and she'll definitely be able to get her friends out of... oh hey, boobs... out of this particularly tricky... oh hey, boobs... tricky situation. Hmmm... this lingering crotch-shot is going on for waaaay too long. Oh hey, there's all the girls and their boobs.''If you're looking for a zombie-survival anime that concentrates more on cheeky up-skirts and boob-shots then you'll love this. And I do mean 'cheeky' - it's never explicit. There's some nudity about half way through the series but nothing is shown. However; if you want to see an animated zombie survival horror then this will leave you feeling frustrated and empty.Technically it's pretty good - the animation is competant and the voice acting always manages to stay away from becoming irritating. I found the subtitles were messed up so watched the English dub in the end and it was nowhere near as bad as I had expected. There is a good blend of character types; although they are fairly one-dimensional and few of them are actually likeable. The theme tune is also pretty catchy.They add in some fairly interesting themes, like zombies being unable to see and being attracted to noise. Unfotunately this plot device is fairly inconsistent. On several occassions the writers seem to forget they introduced it, having characters yelling and running right next to zombies with no reaction. Moments later something barely audible will attract their attention. It has the effect of dragging you out of the action and ruining any kind of tension the device may have built up.Along with the constant, pointless and frankly insulting boob-shots (I refuse to call it fan-service) you're never able to settle into an episode and enjoy the action.The best way of describing this is as a sort of animated 'Carry On Zombie Apolocalypse', only without the humour.Such a waste of potential.