I had been out of anime to watch for a while, so I started looking around for some good-rated anime that everyone else was watching. I eventually stumbled across Highschool of the Dead and immediately started binge-watching the whole series. It is made by Yen Press and Kurt Hassler.

Source: Hulu

Plot

Source: Suptg

The main idea of this anime is that a random zombie outbreak occurs in Japan and the rest of the world, but the first scene we get of it is at a random high school. A zombie is running into the main gate as the faculty goes to see who it is. One of the teachers eventually gets bitten by the zombie and dies, only to come back as a zombie and bite another faculty member. The main protagonist, Takashi, sees this from an outside staircase and immediately runs to his friend Rei’s classroom and pulls her and her boyfriend out. The announcement over the intercom reaches the students, but the principal dies on the intercom, so a massive panic runs throughout the school. Long story short, the only survivors meet up and escape the school on a bus. They try and get out of the city, but it is already infested. The number of people infected has reached two million on the first day.

What I Like

I know that these are only high-schoolers, but they know a surprising amount about how to survive in an apocalypse. They have weapons like baseball bats and sharpened broom handles, but one student, Hirano, makes a weapon out of a nail gun and tapes a sight onto it. He is kind of a maniac-nerd when it comes to weaponry and wars, so he is a great friend to have in the apocalypse. The animation is also on point so we can have up-close action without any lagging. A lot of fast-paced action occurs in this anime and they nail it.

My Favorite Part

Source: gfycat

My favorite part of this anime is when Hirano and Takashi look through a pair of binoculars and see a little girl across the street that is about to be eaten by a horde of zombies. right as she is about to get bit, Hirano pulls out a long-range assault rifle and shoots the zombie in the head. The zoom-in and the voice line of Hirano is awesome and the buildup is a must-see. I do not think that there is a single scene in this anime that tops that one. First of all, they had to crack open a safe in a random house to find a full arsenal of assault rifles and ammo. The fact that Hirano already knows how to use these weapons just blows my mind.

Who Can Watch This Anime

I am going to be completely honest with the rating of this anime. This would correspond to an R-rated movie in the movie theatre because of the over-exaggeration and the literal nudity. This is probably the most mature anime I have watched, and it definitely contains blood and gore because the zombies quite literally rip people apart. Anyone who can look past these things can go to Crunchyroll or YouTube and watch all twelve episodes.