I gotta hand it to ya dude, I would have never expected a review of HSOD these days that isn't immediately telling you what trash it is, or a review by edge 15 year olds. And more so, I never expected a review that frames it in a way that gives me a perspective that I hadn't ever considered. Good job dude.
A FEW of the pop culture references may be there. The sarah palin one and the romero one may have been present in the fansubs... (which is how I watched it years ago). I really would have to go back and rewatch.
I ALWAYS skip the sponsored ads. Except yours. I know it's not the right thing to do for the creators I love, but I hate ads for many a good reason... ANYWAYS I never skip yours! Since the beginning of you sharing content I've been watching (does that sound creepy? oh well) and I've always loved your comedy (though in your OLD videos you'd sit waiting for a laugh track a lil too long) your intelligence and care to deep dive into the backstory of what you're reviewing (though I'd call what you do video essays which is way better), and giving thoughtful takes I can really appreciate. You've shown me a lot of good shows that I either already loved, ended up enjoying or WE WILL NEVER SPEAK ABOUT SUGAR SWEET LIFE. I loved highschool of the dead. I loved it until I was just kinda put off by the juhbblies after life made it hard to appreciate due to my own circumstances... but regardless, it's still a gem and you always put it way better than I ever could. I share your videos with friends as often as I find an opening because if anyone's going to convince someone who is into David Lynch they'd enjoy Evangelion, it's you. I can't stress enough how much it means to see you still making content. I've made comments like this in the past knowing you may or may not see them, and you know? that's fine. You're not here solely for me! But as one of your biggest fans (I'LL CLAIM THAT TITLE FIGHT ME) I'm always so excited to see what new video you're releasing and I still rewatch your old reviews. Anyways, thank you thank you thank you! And I'll see you next video!
I remember when Netflix had this in their catalog back in the early 2010s. I used to occasionally watch this in the living room with my parents and both the nude bathtub scene and the gas station groping scene got me funny looks from them. Mainly a smirk from my dad. Good times...
i remember when my older cousin showed my older brothers this show and they'd tried their best back then to hide it from me but somehow the show ended up on netflix and i was able to see it freely on my own. tbh i'm surprised an anime like this ended up in their catalog all the way back then
It's very appropriate that you briefly discussed "The Walking Dead" as a lead-in to the review. I actually saw this anime after getting burned out by TWD. One of the most consistent problems I had with TWD was how the writing tried to portray the main cast as smart, but also becoming more ruthless. It was really frustrating to me how often the dramatic element was "Oh no, the main characters got lost/separated and are wandering around aimlessly. Will they ever reunite?", yet treating that very thing as a possibility was actually made part of the plan any time my family went anywhere that had a lot of space with sizeable crowds like the mall, amusement parks, etc. We singled out a centralized area and said "If anyone gets separated, come here and wait, we will meet up with you." The characters of TWD often took ridiculously stupid risks that were way too complicated. If even one thing went wrong, it was a disaster and another beloved character maybe died. One of the things that struck me in HSotD was when our main cast first gets together and discusses their situation. They discuss the scientific element to the issue, but they also discuss the fact that there be zombies. So they actually discuss finding a place nearby to fortify and shelter for a couple of months. However another character points out that they can't really assume that there isn't a supernatural element at play, so they need to consider that. Within the first two episodes the characters are already discussing and making plans for unpleasant eventualities. Okay, yeah there's lots of cheesecake...some of it is way too much for even me. But I do appreciate the thought that was put into some of the dialogue at least. I definitely appreciate it as a guilty pleasure.
They're legit zombie logic taken in HOTD. Most other Zombie IPs happen after everything went to shit and everybody that "makes" it are degrees of dumb and lucky.I know it started as a comic yet even then it treated zombies poorly.
One of my favorite things from the first season and a mark against later seasons of the tale tale games is this one character who's name I forget. She shoots someone by accident and I kicked her out of the group. The implication is we're never gonna see her again even if she made it off that highway and that implication is true right up until the final season where they've long abandoned any integrity.
@@ExeErdna One thing that I remember annoying me back before I dropped the Walking Dead after they spent a season looking for Beth and then immediately killed her off, was when they drove past that guy with a backpack and then came back once the walkers got him and took his stuff. Partially because I couldn't fathom how a slow zombie could get the guy when he was in the middle of nowhere. In fact, a lot of the slow, sluggish and clumsy zombies seems as stealthy as ninjas. And also come apart like their bones are made of butter.
@@thuranz2773 That's the inconsistency of zombies. They shouldn't survive long especially in US weathers. One good winter/summer and they should be done. Yet one video I seen that most of the people on TWD are hard of hearing. Due to stupidly shooting guns with no ear protection that's how those zombies can sneak up on people they can't hear them. But yeah it's also a lame trope to build up a character only to kill them off.
@@ExeErdna you're totally right about the zombies decaying due to the elements (how do they have the biting force to rip human flesh if they're rotting, I understand newly converted zombies would have the biting force since the flesh hasn't rotted yet) also, how did USA with its advanced military and poor gun laws lose to slow shambling corpses (I'm going to go on limb and guess that doomsday cults or extremists saw the outbreak as an opportunity to collapse the government. as the saying goes "zombies are predictable slow shambling corpses with an objective to eat you, they can be outsmarted as long as you're not surrounded and backed into a corner, while humans are fast, unpredictable, lying (morally grey), smart (compared to zombies), weapon wielding people who would kill for different reasons (desperation, paranoia, greed, sadism etc.) in conclusion, I'll take my chances with the zombies
This series, for me, is the perfect example of a guilty pleasure anime. Objectively, it is stupid as hell, but there's just something about it that you can't fully explain that makes it just plain stupidly entertaining and difficult to forget. And isn't that the one thing all creative endeavors should strive to be above all else: unforgettable? After all, even a negative reaction is better than no reaction at all.
Oh man, Bennet finally gonna review The Simpsons! Joke's aside, I think HOTD is one of those weird time capsule anime, not in that it's perfectly timeless, but in that it carries the condensed spirit of when it came out. I still remember when zombie culture was at its height and this show really does have all the good, and some of the bad, that came with it. It's a near perfect "B-Movie Anime". Now Triage X, the series made by HOTD character artist and Illustrator, that is a trip
2020 was that weird reality check where a lot of us realized that most apocalyptic scenarios don't usually have heroes or happy endings. Although, while I can't stand some apocalyptic stories now, I can still go back and find ones like HSotD to be a fun guilty pleasure. May just be nostalgia goggles at this point but, in my eyes, still holds up.
the manga's artist has since turned his own manga,Triage X,into pretty much a zombie apocalypse too in the latest arc,probably to homage the late writer of High School of The Dead
@@shanehudson3995 And it might interest a person who is (perhaps unknowingly) honoring a Nationalist by saying RIP to know this and decide if they still feel that way about someone who follows an ideology that denies WW2 war crimes
I'm not gonna act like the pop culture references in the dub don't come off as obnoxious at times because they definitely do, but the "I like turtles" line still makes me howl, partly because of the delivery, but also because I was 15 when I first heard it and some things die slow deaths (undeaths, if you will).
Jeez, you´ve grown a lot from a mere reteller of the anime´s plot into giving grounded and researched essays that contextualize each work of art you cover, often putting much more thought and work into your video than the makers of the animes.
Yeah I've always liked this anime a lot of action a lot of mayhem. Although I never really been all that much of a fan of the zombie genre although I do like the movie Train to Busan.
the sequel the penninsula was good too, although if you break it down train to busan was about the breakdown of korean socital norms, which i found interesting as a canaidian.
The only things I can remember if this anime are: 1. Tiddies 2. A stupid plot thing about a satellite being the one controlling the chips of everything electronic on the world (Uh... no. Simply, no) 3. One of the best, if not the best, opening song ever made.
Back when my little bro and I were still on speaking terms, he actually got me this series one year for the holidays. Suffice to say, I watched it, I enjoyed it - and then I promptly got rid of it before my now-wife could ever learn of its existence. Sad to (finally) here that season 2 will never happen. I can't say for sure that I enjoyed this anime for all the "right" reasons, but I enjoyed it nonetheless, and I'm sure 35-year-old me would've watched the heck out of it while he had opportunity. Maybe the fact that it all started falling apart around the time I got engaged was a sign from on high that it really was time for me to grow up and move on. Not saying this isn't somehow bigger than me, but one is the protagonist in one's own story. And I am agreed concerning the idea of revisiting this series after the Plague. Hindsight being 20/20, and firmly set on 2020, I suppose the whole zombie shtick just leaves a bad taste in our collective mouths. The Zombie Apocalypse we got was far less dramatic, but no less impactful - or dehumanizing. It revealed a darkness to our society that we are still struggling to confront, let alone understand. It revealed just how little stimulus is required for trust to break down and society to be brought to its knees. I'm sure most of us would like to move on, to forget what was revealed about our culture and about ourselves. But we all lost something. And we can never recoup those losses. Life, for better or worse, continues.
HOTD holds a special place in my heart. It was the anime that got me into anime, I was exposed to DBZ through Nicktoons and Yugioh on the CW but seeing something like HOTD was something else for me. I was already in my zombie craze at this point and Highschool of the Dead was everything I wanted from anything zombie media. Animation, hot high school girls (I was like 12 at the time), awesome action and adrenaline filled music. It was everything I could of asked for. I find it equally interesting that THIS wasn't only the anime that got me into anime, but also my first Araki directed show. Around this time, it was either Death Note or Attack on Titan people were more likely to be exposed to beforehand and around this time, AoT was already taking the world by storm as it was debuting that time around yet it went COMPLETELY under my radar. I just know that in some other timeline, 12 year old me would find Attack on Titan first before HOTD.
I want a HOTD spin off from the perspective of another Otaku by the name Kentaro Miura. In this story, Miura is a costume designer who builds custom outfits for LARPer’s and does Role Play himself. When Z-Day hits, Miura builds a makeshift combat armor for himself and takes up a real medieval style iron sword "gifted" to him by a veteran blacksmith Miura worked with during an apprenticeship
Ooh, I love this idea! Maybe there could be other manga-ka inspired characters? Perhaps an Otaku/gamer and budding manga artist by the name of Kazuki Takahashi? (Note: this is only meant for fun, don't take it seriously.)
I was pretty devastated to hear about the manga's writer's passing when I first got into this series as a teen. Especially having been introduced to the series a month before he died. It wouldn't be the first time I've enjoyed content from a creator who left this mortal coil before their time, and I know it won't be the last. Still, I agree it's probably for the best we don't continue the series, out of respect for him, as much as I loved both the manga and the anime.
This anime holds a special place in my heart. It's one of those few anime that has a decent amount of fan service that I can actually stomach a good amount, the fact that the characters are resourceful in a zombie Apocalypse type of story and the dub is outright hilarious but for all the good reasons definitely makes it a staple in my eyes. That and Saeko exists which is all I need. Still saddened by the fact that the story will never ever ever be finished in neither the anime nor the manga especially since the writer passed away years ago, along with any story arcs not concluding but at least we have this series that I will remember as that 1 that kickstarted the 1st episode with the words what the f*** is going on lol.
This is one I have been waiting since you announced it. I'm going to enjoy this. I love your whole take on it given the fact that I didn't want this anime back after 2020. When you look back at it, you're correct. This does hit differently when you take all the bits in when you see whole thing going on. It was a messed up year and the mess is still out there. It'll take a long while before it clears out and who knows if HOTD still has a chance to exist? Also, thanks for the jab at 27:48. I couldn't help but chuckle.
A dub that simultaneously hasn't aged well at all and yet is eerily prophetic, hm? *looks at Ghost Stories* Maybe Steven Foster actually is a prophet but can only get his predictions out through anime dubs. I mean the line right before that "2005 edgelord humor" joke is remaining pretty darn evergreen in 2023. If you know, you know.
I think Jason Pargin (aka David Wong) offered a better explanation for zombies and their appeal in his novel This Book is Full of Spiders. Essentially the undead make perfect villains, and there's no moral ambiguity about disposing of literal hordes of them due to the nature of what they are. Actually, the whole book is a fantastic subversion and deconstruction of the zombie genera. Makes sense it came out in 2012. And Flight of the Living Dead was awesome! Probably one of the best cash-in zombie movies of the time, when those still involved some actual effort.
I'm really going to miss the "Highschool of the Dead" series, it wasn't the 1st Anime that I ever watched, but it was the 1st Anime that introduced me to the Fantasy World of Ecchi and Fan-Service, not to mention this is what got me to loving the Zombie Genre.
So glad Sage finally talked about this anime. It was definitely a guilty pleasure of mine during my early to mid teens. I’m surprised though that he never brought up the infamous gas station scene! Definitely a moment of the show that did not age well!
Am I the only one who realizes that a zombie apocalypses would never get off the ground? Given the number of people who own a gun, and have training to use said gun, not to mentions various thugs and criminals just trying to not end up as zombie chow, by the time word got around, the contamination would have already been cleaned up.
Seems weird to leave out the quite overt bias towards militarism and strongarm tactics regarding social control buried everywhere in the show. From the main character backhanding his ex-girlfriend and lording his firearm over the thug at the gas station to the nurse knowing a military member who gives them their HMMV to the otaku having (unfinished) Green Beret level training. Rewatched the show a few years ago because they teased a second season that never came, and all of this stuff really stuck out to me considering the current political climate.
What gets me is how a virus with what is now confirmed as a 99.7% survivability got treated like a superplague from Plague Inc. Also that the masks (including N-97s), the lockdowns (because Covid spreads best inside houses/confined areas), AND the "vaxxines" don't protect against infection or spread. But THE SCIENCE is treated like it can do no wrong.
In the Manga, he and his cult followers got to Saya's and the zombies got past the gate. after that the crew had to leave and that's where it stopped if I remember right. RIP Daisuke.
Surprised at how okay you were with the series, but hey, surprised us before. And using Simpson to lead into next episode's subject (After already twirling your way to freedom), clever. BTW, that Death Note Simpsons Parody from the new Treehouse of Horror was legit their best segment in so long.
I remember this show blowing up being called the next big thing. I also remember cringing myself to death and enjoying all the senseless action and cheesecake. It’s a great piece of the past that I find hard to share
Big guilty pleasure here. The jiggling jubblies, blood and zombie gore. I knew what I came for! And such a shame it will never get a proper ending since the writer passed away long ago.
So I feel like there was kind of a point missed with the whole "Saeko loves violence and the show makes her feel guilty for it" thing. I think the show, while probably clumsy, was trying to say that the LEVEL of violence that she was going to and loving was too dangerous. She was starting to lose control of that part of her that was still human and not going off the deep end and just slaughtering for the fun of it. How long before the humans and Zombies end up looking like one another and she just starts killing indiscriminately? She already had a hard time back in her Kendo days holding back enough after the first time she literally broke someone's arm and nose, and now with the Zombie Apocryplse around her, that restraint was being pushed harder than ever, and it took Zombie kids for her to go "oh fuck, how can I take joy in murdering small children, Zombies or not?" There was that moral center that caused her to freeze up and brought on her and thr MC getting their Giggity on before catching up with the others.
I had the very good fortune to come into possession of the coloured omnibus of the manga! It is surprisingly heartfelt and has some devastating moments
Scenes like that are why I can't like dark "comedies". Eventually, they stop being funny, and are just the darkness of the setup, often with little hope.
The zombie genre is not dead. After HOTD there were loads of films that actually hit the jackpot of the genre, such as World War Z and Train to Busan, which achieved a success not seen since Resident Evil in this genre. In fact, the Zombie genre never will die, it just has periods when it is more intense or less intense. Fact is that it is more plausible to the human mind than other kinds of monsters, as a matter of mass catastrophe, and people like to have something between the unreal chaos and the reality details. This fits perfectly with zombies.
I never thought I'd revisit this anime again! That was a fantastic episode! As silly as it sounds, I hadn't thought of the pandemic being the reason for the drop of popularity of the zombie genre. I grew up watching zombie movies with my cousin and always adored that genre, for better and for worse; I never thought about how living through a real pandemic would take away some of the mystique of that setting. I'm looking forward to the next episode already!
As someone who has purchased a program license with a "lifetime guarantee"... it's not YOUR lifetime. It's their DEFINITION of lifetime... which, most times, means 3 years maximum.
I remember seeing this when I was younger: the Xfinity on demand menu kept advertising it so much and I was lead to believe that this was what anime is meant to be like
H.O.T.D was and still is one of my all time favorite shows and helped get me back into Anime in the early 2010s. I personally do not think it can be topped. Nothing is more perfect than zombies and nice anime tiddies. I mean sure some ecchi style zombie anime could come along but chances of it being this good? I highly doubt it. That one and only season brought me to tears.
First and thus far only anime where I swapped from dub to sub from episode to episode. That made the mood and tonal whiplash so palpable I honestly don't remember whether I stuck it all the way through to the last episode or not. Thanks to 2020 I know I have no inclination to go back and see if I did. But I do remember it birthed my voice crush on Eri Kitamura, which still lingers to this day. It's about the the only thing that redeems that bratty loudmouth Saya's character. Knowing Death Note is old enough to get the AA treatment I think spawned some spontaneous grey hairs somewhere on my head. But I eagerly await what you've got to say about it.
I was in the honeymoon season of my newfound love for anime when I decided when I got home from work, back in like, 2013ish or so, that I'd binge through the entirety of HotD in a night. And I did. And yeah, it was pure popcorn. Mostly. But Hisashi's death at the end of the first episode still shakes me a little to this day.
My wife and I love this anime, she always cracks the joke that Saeko's name especially in the dub sounds like Psycho and she's kinda bat shit crazy in a good way.
Dude awesome review, I totally get your points. When it came out I didn't finish it because somehow the cheesecake humor clashing with the drama bothered me so much, I don't know why. But some day I got a "leaving netflix" notification of this show, so I marathoned the rest and got surprised of how well they did zombie apocalypse tropes.
I'm an Old enough TGWTG watcher to remember Sage's cameo on JesuOtaku's review of HOTD many moons ago, which was my first introduction to Sage. Glad to see Bennett come full circle and give it a much more thoughtful examination.
Hey Bennett, great review of this classic action anime. I got into the manga first, and the anime follows it closely, so kudos to it for veracity. I understand your view that the story of Takashi and Saeko's trip together seems odd in the anime when they have a pause to talk about Important Things. That episode is out of place from the manga. In the manga, the river trip and night at the temple come after the escape from the compound. Our heroes split up, with Takashi and Saeko using the noisy ATV as a decoy while the others hoof it away. then Saeko has her moment of disconnect with the child zombies (a fine macabre touch), Takashi plays the man, and the hero and best girl spend time together. I personally feel the manga's sequence makes more sense, but the change in the anime storyline doubtless padded the episode run time, and helped end it neatly in 12 episodes approaching the mall. And I know the musing on societal breakdown and living by violence seems out of place, but we're talking JAPAN here, which is officially pacifist and groupthink-orderly to an extent that a zombie apocalypse is something that would be the worst possible situation for contemporary Japanese society. The mall arcs of the manga really emphasize this, as much as the compound arc did.
As somebody who has never been a huge fan of zombie fiction this anime has always been one of the big ones I never really touched. I remember catching an episode of it on late night tv and felt baffled by it being hyper brutal one second just to then hard swerve into a scene of the two girls slathering each other with some kind of "vatimine oil" almost against the will of one of them.
Really wish we got that season 2 in the mall, the amount of analysis you could do with the cop girl and Kota alone would have been a pretty good viewing. Though the recording and editing would be hell.
Yep, this was one of those Mid-2000s shows that got passed around my highschool Anime Club despite being... *far* from appropriate. Series holds a lot of memories for me, some good, some cringe, some horrified in a good way, but the fact it 'ended' in such a way years after is a depressing note to leave on. I know the crew shelved the series out of respect, but damn if this isn't a manga that deserves a Gaiden spinoff. Let Takashi's crew have somehow made it out off-screen, and pick up with a new high-school crew stepping into the setting. Or Edgerunners this shit with a prequel. There's *potential,* especially with how far the zombie and anime genres have advanced.
The Manga actually goes a ways further and actually got discontinued on a cliff hanger. theres a decent amount of story to it that sadly will never see the light of day now. I honestly would have loved a continuation. Its one of those series that went before its time.
Man. Bummer that he passed. Honestly, if I was working on a project like that, I would have wanted anyone that was working with me to carry it on. My last bit of legacy, being finished by others, would be a real honor honestly.
There is one o british Zombie movie called Stalled where a Janitor is stuck in the bathroom, and a Italian zombie movie where a guy is stuck in an Elevator
Another 'Recommendation' Bennett made for Jacob Chapman... I half expect the two of them to do a Crossover review of Conqueror of Shamballa at this rate.
Honestly, I think every so often I get reminded of this show and the impact it had even though it seemed to have been like a flash in the pants moment (not sure if that was the phrasing I wanted to use, but it was brief), because it's a mixture of different tones and themes that some people see as not being compatible, but I always assumed the "cheesecake" usually was done well and never did detract from the dark moments. Heck, I think kt's worth revisiting, even if it may have the stigma of current times, but I think it works - I wouldn't compare everything that happens to modern events, but it does show case how people handle certain events, showing the dark nature of humanity when societal standards stop mattering. It's legit one of the series I wish got a rereleased - both manga and animewise, even if it was unfinished just to preserve Lord Daisuke's work. I still miss him.
Another cool thing is how Takashi and his a-hole adult-age rival Shido exemplify the two main stereotypes in the Zombie Genre. Basically Takashi as the lead hero also acts as the idealized Zombie Survivor Group leader aka he sees himself as being equal to the group not their superior, he's willing to listen to the ideas and thoughts the others have and actually act on them if they benefit the group, he actually wants to help other survivors as best he can even if he doesn't let them join the group due to other issues such as issues with supplies, he's also willing to go out with the group and do some Zombie Slaying, and Supply gathering himself instead of just ordering the others to do while he stays behind in safety aka he lives by the saying "I don't give orders that I'm not willing to do myself." Whereas Shido yeah he represents the typical main human antagonist in the Zombie Genre for the reasons already stated.
The reason why the walking dead was so well thought off was Frank Darabont. Whos Frank Darabont? Oh, just the director of Shawshank redemption and the green mile. Higher ups reduced his budget so he left after season 2 - they wanted more episodes that's why season 2 sucks. After he left the walking dead started to decay.
I want to give you a hug. I'm in utter shock. You referenced Game of Thrones and didn't have to say "season 8 bad" like every single youtuber that I've seen who brought up the show. I honestly thought it was a rule everyone had to do or something.
Patton Oswalt now writes essays too like he is some big time critic? Man the over-exposure of that man never ceases to amaze me. He pops up in every youtube video these days, it's like he is a friend or relative of everyone... As for zombies, could never care at all about the genre. There is a reason that Hammer made like 7 Dracula movies and a lot more vampire, werewolf, mummy and ghost movies, even a gorgon one, but I struggle to think if they even made one zombie one. And Ravenloft has tons of adventures against various undead horrors but only did one zombie-themed one... and even in that one the swamp zombies play second fiddle to the giant Baskerville's moor hound. Zombies are dumb, slow, unimaginative. They don't think, and are not a big threat to kill. Even run of the mill skeletons pose a bigger challenge (you cannot stab them after all). I just never understood why 80-90ies and later 2000s horror got so damn fixated on it. And sadly the genre is still not dead. They keep making these, they just call them "infected", and COVID sure helped in the birth of the new zombie shows.
I agree. They really should've toned down the fan-service and focused a little more on the horror, plot, stakes and character development. I hate "In Your Face" Fan-Service in anime, sometimes. It's desensitizing and trying too hard to be "adults only". How are you supposed to follow what's going in the show if they're going to do THAT every 10 seconds?
One kind of zombie related media is the French show Les Revenants (based on the French film They Came Back) The show got an American adaptation (because it was successful and critically acclaimed) but to my surprise never got an anime adaptation. I'd have thought Les Revenants would have been rife for an adaptation as an anime, complete with Mogwai OP (Mogwai would compose very fitting anime soundtracks, see Take Me Somewhere Nice and Party In The Dark for more information) and a female singer singing Abide With Me solo with no instrumental accompaniment as an ED for at least one episode.
Why would anyone think you're making up the (masterpiece!) Nudist Colony of the Dead? Surely we've all seen Brad get a restraining order from his neighbors by this point.... EDIT: It's weird you'd bring up Ghost Stories (ANOTHER masterpiece), since I just finished watching the dub the other day.
Great vid! I haven't seen HOTD in years, but I loved it when I first saw it lol, especially the English dub. Thanks for making this vid. Congrats on the 100,000 subs! You def deserve it!
HSotD always frustrated me to no end when I first watched it. At the time I loved zombie media (though I was reaching saturation at that point tbh) and of course I love anime. Seems like HSotD would be a home run! But that inconsistency, man. The tone shifts were so swift. And I'll admit, the cheesecake fanservice was my personal worst offender. In a comedy, its obvious hamfisted "look at the boobs n butts" would have been eye-rolling but at least less out of place. In what I thought was a more action-drama piece, it just felt jarring. And yet there were pieces I still liked, because yes - tropey tropes gonna trope. Zombie apocalypse scenarios are fun! Kota was fun! Evil Glasses Teacher was fun! And the animation is very well done. All the pieces together though? I can't make it work for me. I loved revisiting it via this review though!!
Lolll I really did unironically love HOTD, this was when I was still watching every seasonal anime plus my long running shows. And it was still top 3 of that year, and fav that 13week season
I actually like the introspection in Highschool of the Dead. High schoolers would probably NOT fully embrace being zombie death machines, so enjoying cutting former people apart WOULD disturb them.
I've never been a fan of the brain-eating zombie trope. Partly because they terrify me, and partly because I hate how they rely so often on the "Humans are the Real Monsters" trope. To quote Red of Overly Sarcastic Productions: "Personally, this is my least favorite apocalypse, because I don't like Nihilism, and I really don't like zombies on principle (Stay dead, please)."
Well, to be fair, Zombies can cause society to collapse. And when that happens, it creates a power vacuum. Which cause people to fight for control. A fight for control can bring out the worse in people, especially if the law is destroyed. But I do hate the concept of cannibalism in the trope. It's pointless. Why do we need living people eating living people when we already got undead eating living people? Hell, one careless mistake and the cannibal will infect themselves. The plague spreads faster.
This anime makes me think of Onechanbara way too much (yet another series that knows what it is, and makes no attempt to hide it). Also I happen to have the two full-color omnibuses that, for some weird reason, the first one costs a stupidly amount more than the second.
I truly wish the manga continued so the anime would also continue, and be given a proper ending. One where Takashi and Saeko end up together - but that's just my opinion.
An anime that I actually watched in highschool being shown in Anime Abandon, man I feel old. for the record, this is actually one of my favorite animes if nothing else because I was young when I watched it and thought it was kinda cool. it's not great but like you said it can be a fun time, though I tend to watch it subbed instead of dubbed. (no not trying to start a Sub vs. Dub argument here, just a personal preference. same way I like to watch Black Lagoon and Cowboy Bebop dubbed and I prefer the original dub of Eva to the netflix one), but yeah with 2020 in hindsight it feels wierd beyond belief. (also I never got why Rei never... well shot her rifle. I get that she's skilled in using it as a spear, she used the mop handle she had like that but.. a few things probably would have been easier if she had used her rifle as a rifle.)
Firearms ownership and use of said firearms is very rare in Japan. Kouta is very much an exception to the rule, and Takashi is a quick study. Rei learned spear and naginata fighting as part of her martial arts studies, and putting a bayonet on a rifle makes it a spear by design. It made her more useful with the bayoneted rifle than just blazing away at zombies and likely missing all her shots.
@@observationsfromthebunker9639 ok fair enough. Though I do still have another question, her rig to carry the rifle doesn't seem all that practical given it's attached to her chest rather than it being on a sling. Pretty sure this was a problem twice
@@Romrojal The single-point sling works well in supporting the rifle, which is heavier than a practice spear. But it does have a couple of drawbacks, especially when not worn over a flak vest and tactical vest like it's supposed to be. HotD thoughtfully threw those drawbacks into the action mix. the story is honest in showing characters struggling with items they're not skilled with using. (The kids were smart and adaptive, which is good because the story gives them few breaks!)
@@observationsfromthebunker9639 fair, it would make sense to wear that with a vest of some kind (probably the one Kohta wears now that I think about it) so I can see it
For once, an animae I watched before the review!!!! Mate, I’m glad to see you back, you introduced me to animae and I plan to do the same to my little brother at one point.
I’m probably one of the few people that’s glad High School of the Dead never continued. I remember reading a comment from this guy saying that while he’s a guy, he couldn’t stand all the ecchi. All that shit was in the way of a good zombie anime. If anime or manga always has to resort to, as Sage would put it “cheesecake”, then the project has no reason to exist.
I mean the project could exist if it was a horror-comedy. But this isn't even a horror-comedy, it's just horror with inconsistent comedy. It can't pick a tone and stick with it. It shifts at wrong times like for example in, I think, the fourth episode, two of the guys watch and news report show traffic officers killing zombies and one of the the officers headshots protester for refusing to leave, sending the other protester in a horrified panic, before turning the TV off. THEN the nurse comes in barely dressed and drunk, seductively trying to "get fresh" with them. Comedy requires timing and that was bad timing. It would've worked if it was in an episode where they're in a safe zone like a settlement or something and chilling out. Or even a fan-service episode. Just not in a story episode. A show with Horror and Comedy has to have a good balance of the two.
Man I get sad anytime I here about the anime. So more info. The creator after his 1st bout of illness. When a made a different anime. World Tigger. Which he finished and was coming back to this one. He put out 1 more book. Then kicked the bucket. His colleagues did decide not continue it. But it was more a mix of well being a now older ip. That was banned in bunch of place to be graphic. And not selling well do to it being both dormant too long and zombie not being super popular like it was.
Reading Highschool of the Dead at my local comic store, it was great. I really do enjoy the series and when the anime was announced and came out, I got a buddy of mine and we watched together. We had a blast. Watching the world be this place where you are going nowhere in high school and bam! Next morning, it's a zombie outbreak. I pretty much helped a friend get into the zombie genre, pretty much Resident Evil itself.
Start your language learning journey today with Rosetta Stone today! ---> tryrosettastone.com/BennettTheSage-3
So that's why I put Gleipnir in a dumpster fire now! But, I just can't wait to see Jujutsu Kaisen season 2, yeah!?
Hey Bennett, Remember when you forced JO to watch this? Good times
I gotta hand it to ya dude, I would have never expected a review of HSOD these days that isn't immediately telling you what trash it is, or a review by edge 15 year olds.
And more so, I never expected a review that frames it in a way that gives me a perspective that I hadn't ever considered.
Good job dude.
A FEW of the pop culture references may be there. The sarah palin one and the romero one may have been present in the fansubs... (which is how I watched it years ago).
I really would have to go back and rewatch.
I ALWAYS skip the sponsored ads. Except yours. I know it's not the right thing to do for the creators I love, but I hate ads for many a good reason... ANYWAYS I never skip yours! Since the beginning of you sharing content I've been watching (does that sound creepy? oh well) and I've always loved your comedy (though in your OLD videos you'd sit waiting for a laugh track a lil too long) your intelligence and care to deep dive into the backstory of what you're reviewing (though I'd call what you do video essays which is way better), and giving thoughtful takes I can really appreciate. You've shown me a lot of good shows that I either already loved, ended up enjoying or WE WILL NEVER SPEAK ABOUT SUGAR SWEET LIFE.
I loved highschool of the dead. I loved it until I was just kinda put off by the juhbblies after life made it hard to appreciate due to my own circumstances... but regardless, it's still a gem and you always put it way better than I ever could. I share your videos with friends as often as I find an opening because if anyone's going to convince someone who is into David Lynch they'd enjoy Evangelion, it's you.
I can't stress enough how much it means to see you still making content. I've made comments like this in the past knowing you may or may not see them, and you know? that's fine. You're not here solely for me! But as one of your biggest fans (I'LL CLAIM THAT TITLE FIGHT ME) I'm always so excited to see what new video you're releasing and I still rewatch your old reviews. Anyways, thank you thank you thank you! And I'll see you next video!
Integra: "So, Alucard, how did your trip to Japan go?"
Alucard: "Eh, 99 point 9 percent complete."
And that point 1 percent still fucked up everything.
THE ABRIDGED VERSE
Alucard: Sup b#tch? I've got things to do, like the big titted police girl.
“Sup biatch?”
I remember when Netflix had this in their catalog back in the early 2010s. I used to occasionally watch this in the living room with my parents and both the nude bathtub scene and the gas station groping scene got me funny looks from them. Mainly a smirk from my dad.
Good times...
i remember when my older cousin showed my older brothers this show and they'd tried their best back then to hide it from me but somehow the show ended up on netflix and i was able to see it freely on my own. tbh i'm surprised an anime like this ended up in their catalog all the way back then
Your dad is a man of culture.
Your dad is a MAN OF CULTURE
In a world full of Isekai anime, Highschool of the Dead reminds you that sometimes the Isekai can come to you...
Bars!! 👏🏿👏🏿
@@kmdreacts he said nothing.
@@kmdreacts ON TOP OF BARS!!! 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾
Say what you want about this anime. But you can't deny it has one of the most awesome opening themes in history. Lol
Truth
Yeah it does.
This summer I bought its 2021 edition on iTunes.
The opening is straight fire. One of the only anime openings I learned in it's entirety
Music IS typically held to a different standard to a product it's tied to, like how a bad game can have awesome music
It's very appropriate that you briefly discussed "The Walking Dead" as a lead-in to the review. I actually saw this anime after getting burned out by TWD. One of the most consistent problems I had with TWD was how the writing tried to portray the main cast as smart, but also becoming more ruthless. It was really frustrating to me how often the dramatic element was "Oh no, the main characters got lost/separated and are wandering around aimlessly. Will they ever reunite?", yet treating that very thing as a possibility was actually made part of the plan any time my family went anywhere that had a lot of space with sizeable crowds like the mall, amusement parks, etc. We singled out a centralized area and said "If anyone gets separated, come here and wait, we will meet up with you." The characters of TWD often took ridiculously stupid risks that were way too complicated. If even one thing went wrong, it was a disaster and another beloved character maybe died.
One of the things that struck me in HSotD was when our main cast first gets together and discusses their situation. They discuss the scientific element to the issue, but they also discuss the fact that there be zombies. So they actually discuss finding a place nearby to fortify and shelter for a couple of months. However another character points out that they can't really assume that there isn't a supernatural element at play, so they need to consider that. Within the first two episodes the characters are already discussing and making plans for unpleasant eventualities. Okay, yeah there's lots of cheesecake...some of it is way too much for even me. But I do appreciate the thought that was put into some of the dialogue at least. I definitely appreciate it as a guilty pleasure.
They're legit zombie logic taken in HOTD. Most other Zombie IPs happen after everything went to shit and everybody that "makes" it are degrees of dumb and lucky.I know it started as a comic yet even then it treated zombies poorly.
One of my favorite things from the first season and a mark against later seasons of the tale tale games is this one character who's name I forget. She shoots someone by accident and I kicked her out of the group. The implication is we're never gonna see her again even if she made it off that highway and that implication is true right up until the final season where they've long abandoned any integrity.
@@ExeErdna One thing that I remember annoying me back before I dropped the Walking Dead after they spent a season looking for Beth and then immediately killed her off, was when they drove past that guy with a backpack and then came back once the walkers got him and took his stuff. Partially because I couldn't fathom how a slow zombie could get the guy when he was in the middle of nowhere.
In fact, a lot of the slow, sluggish and clumsy zombies seems as stealthy as ninjas. And also come apart like their bones are made of butter.
@@thuranz2773 That's the inconsistency of zombies. They shouldn't survive long especially in US weathers. One good winter/summer and they should be done. Yet one video I seen that most of the people on TWD are hard of hearing. Due to stupidly shooting guns with no ear protection that's how those zombies can sneak up on people they can't hear them.
But yeah it's also a lame trope to build up a character only to kill them off.
@@ExeErdna you're totally right about the zombies decaying due to the elements (how do they have the biting force to rip human flesh if they're rotting, I understand newly converted zombies would have the biting force since the flesh hasn't rotted yet) also, how did USA with its advanced military and poor gun laws lose to slow shambling corpses (I'm going to go on limb and guess that doomsday cults or extremists saw the outbreak as an opportunity to collapse the government. as the saying goes "zombies are predictable slow shambling corpses with an objective to eat you, they can be outsmarted as long as you're not surrounded and backed into a corner, while humans are fast, unpredictable, lying (morally grey), smart (compared to zombies), weapon wielding people who would kill for different reasons (desperation, paranoia, greed, sadism etc.)
in conclusion, I'll take my chances with the zombies
This series, for me, is the perfect example of a guilty pleasure anime. Objectively, it is stupid as hell, but there's just something about it that you can't fully explain that makes it just plain stupidly entertaining and difficult to forget. And isn't that the one thing all creative endeavors should strive to be above all else: unforgettable? After all, even a negative reaction is better than no reaction at all.
Honestly, there's a decent plot buried under the fan service, hell even the dub is packed with emotion
Successfully using a Nail gun as a Precision weapon.
Sums up the entire series.
Very true. The worst thing that a movie or show can be...is boring.
Same here I really enjoyed it, and I wish it a full on series just like the walking dead.
Oh man, Bennet finally gonna review The Simpsons!
Joke's aside, I think HOTD is one of those weird time capsule anime, not in that it's perfectly timeless, but in that it carries the condensed spirit of when it came out. I still remember when zombie culture was at its height and this show really does have all the good, and some of the bad, that came with it. It's a near perfect "B-Movie Anime".
Now Triage X, the series made by HOTD character artist and Illustrator, that is a trip
2020 was that weird reality check where a lot of us realized that most apocalyptic scenarios don't usually have heroes or happy endings. Although, while I can't stand some apocalyptic stories now, I can still go back and find ones like HSotD to be a fun guilty pleasure. May just be nostalgia goggles at this point but, in my eyes, still holds up.
I loved HSotD and was still holding out hope for a season 2. I didn't realize the creator died. RIP.
There's a lot both in HSotD and some of his other series that suggest the guy was a Nationalist
the manga's artist has since turned his own manga,Triage X,into pretty much a zombie apocalypse too in the latest arc,probably to homage the late writer of High School of The Dead
I didn't know he died... I was actually invested in the story and characters and wanted to see where it all went.
@@turkishvan2 And?
@@shanehudson3995 And it might interest a person who is (perhaps unknowingly) honoring a Nationalist by saying RIP to know this and decide if they still feel that way about someone who follows an ideology that denies WW2 war crimes
I'm not gonna act like the pop culture references in the dub don't come off as obnoxious at times because they definitely do, but the "I like turtles" line still makes me howl, partly because of the delivery, but also because I was 15 when I first heard it and some things die slow deaths (undeaths, if you will).
Yeah I remember a similar scene on Battle Royale. When two females said we'll always be friends. Then you see later on they both shanked each other.
Fun fact: in the japanese dub, the girl that gets betrayed is played by Lain's VA.
@@Kittylover074 I fear for anyone who watches live action Japanese movies dubbed. They deserve to be called my mom at that point
This reads strangely
@@kostajovanovic3711 oh well
Thank you for addressing Kouta's name. Because my reaction when you said the character's name was "Wait, isn't that the guy who wrote Hellsing?!?!"
I love this series. It's a Halloween staple. It's basically a great b movie horror comedy.
8:12 Hey, don't forget Anna & The Apocalypse which is somehow a genuinely *good* zombie musical.
Jeez, you´ve grown a lot from a mere reteller of the anime´s plot into giving grounded and researched essays that contextualize each work of art you cover, often putting much more thought and work into your video than the makers of the animes.
He is going there
Yeah I've always liked this anime a lot of action a lot of mayhem. Although I never really been all that much of a fan of the zombie genre although I do like the movie Train to Busan.
Yeah, that was a surprisingly effective zombie movie. Some of the same character archetypes common to the genre, but used really well.
the sequel the penninsula was good too, although if you break it down train to busan was about the breakdown of korean socital norms, which i found interesting as a canaidian.
@@BennettTheSage Loved Train to Busan, I even enjoyed the original Dawn of the Dead and Day of the Dead, Return of the Living Dead is funny as hell.
The only things I can remember if this anime are:
1. Tiddies
2. A stupid plot thing about a satellite being the one controlling the chips of everything electronic on the world (Uh... no. Simply, no)
3. One of the best, if not the best, opening song ever made.
I don't remember the satellite thing. It can't have been too big a plot point.
Back when my little bro and I were still on speaking terms, he actually got me this series one year for the holidays. Suffice to say, I watched it, I enjoyed it - and then I promptly got rid of it before my now-wife could ever learn of its existence.
Sad to (finally) here that season 2 will never happen. I can't say for sure that I enjoyed this anime for all the "right" reasons, but I enjoyed it nonetheless, and I'm sure 35-year-old me would've watched the heck out of it while he had opportunity. Maybe the fact that it all started falling apart around the time I got engaged was a sign from on high that it really was time for me to grow up and move on. Not saying this isn't somehow bigger than me, but one is the protagonist in one's own story.
And I am agreed concerning the idea of revisiting this series after the Plague. Hindsight being 20/20, and firmly set on 2020, I suppose the whole zombie shtick just leaves a bad taste in our collective mouths. The Zombie Apocalypse we got was far less dramatic, but no less impactful - or dehumanizing. It revealed a darkness to our society that we are still struggling to confront, let alone understand. It revealed just how little stimulus is required for trust to break down and society to be brought to its knees. I'm sure most of us would like to move on, to forget what was revealed about our culture and about ourselves. But we all lost something. And we can never recoup those losses.
Life, for better or worse, continues.
HOTD holds a special place in my heart. It was the anime that got me into anime, I was exposed to DBZ through Nicktoons and Yugioh on the CW but seeing something like HOTD was something else for me. I was already in my zombie craze at this point and Highschool of the Dead was everything I wanted from anything zombie media. Animation, hot high school girls (I was like 12 at the time), awesome action and adrenaline filled music. It was everything I could of asked for.
I find it equally interesting that THIS wasn't only the anime that got me into anime, but also my first Araki directed show. Around this time, it was either Death Note or Attack on Titan people were more likely to be exposed to beforehand and around this time, AoT was already taking the world by storm as it was debuting that time around yet it went COMPLETELY under my radar. I just know that in some other timeline, 12 year old me would find Attack on Titan first before HOTD.
I want a HOTD spin off from the perspective of another Otaku by the name Kentaro Miura. In this story, Miura is a costume designer who builds custom outfits for LARPer’s and does Role Play himself.
When Z-Day hits, Miura builds a makeshift combat armor for himself and takes up a real medieval style iron sword "gifted" to him by a veteran blacksmith Miura worked with during an apprenticeship
Ooh, I love this idea! Maybe there could be other manga-ka inspired characters?
Perhaps an Otaku/gamer and budding manga artist by the name of Kazuki Takahashi?
(Note: this is only meant for fun, don't take it seriously.)
This is a beautiful and hilarious idea v.v
as long as it has a scene where he singlehandly kills 100 zombies to let his friend escape I am game
Sounds a nice idea. You have someone who's experience with weaponry
I was pretty devastated to hear about the manga's writer's passing when I first got into this series as a teen. Especially having been introduced to the series a month before he died. It wouldn't be the first time I've enjoyed content from a creator who left this mortal coil before their time, and I know it won't be the last. Still, I agree it's probably for the best we don't continue the series, out of respect for him, as much as I loved both the manga and the anime.
There was some collab outfits in lollipop chainsaw I'm looking forward to the remaster
This anime holds a special place in my heart. It's one of those few anime that has a decent amount of fan service that I can actually stomach a good amount, the fact that the characters are resourceful in a zombie Apocalypse type of story and the dub is outright hilarious but for all the good reasons definitely makes it a staple in my eyes. That and Saeko exists which is all I need. Still saddened by the fact that the story will never ever ever be finished in neither the anime nor the manga especially since the writer passed away years ago, along with any story arcs not concluding but at least we have this series that I will remember as that 1 that kickstarted the 1st episode with the words what the f*** is going on lol.
I was shocked when I learned the author died. Shame. He was so young too.
@@zemox2534 Same like damn that was very sad to hear.
This is one I have been waiting since you announced it. I'm going to enjoy this. I love your whole take on it given the fact that I didn't want this anime back after 2020. When you look back at it, you're correct. This does hit differently when you take all the bits in when you see whole thing going on. It was a messed up year and the mess is still out there. It'll take a long while before it clears out and who knows if HOTD still has a chance to exist?
Also, thanks for the jab at 27:48. I couldn't help but chuckle.
A dub that simultaneously hasn't aged well at all and yet is eerily prophetic, hm?
*looks at Ghost Stories*
Maybe Steven Foster actually is a prophet but can only get his predictions out through anime dubs. I mean the line right before that "2005 edgelord humor" joke is remaining pretty darn evergreen in 2023. If you know, you know.
I think Jason Pargin (aka David Wong) offered a better explanation for zombies and their appeal in his novel This Book is Full of Spiders. Essentially the undead make perfect villains, and there's no moral ambiguity about disposing of literal hordes of them due to the nature of what they are. Actually, the whole book is a fantastic subversion and deconstruction of the zombie genera. Makes sense it came out in 2012.
And Flight of the Living Dead was awesome! Probably one of the best cash-in zombie movies of the time, when those still involved some actual effort.
Hirano's character archetype has appeared in Horror before, just not in a Zombie story. Anyone else remember Horus "the Fat Kid" from MONSTER SQUAD?
Yeppers
meanwhile we now have zombie idols, also G Gundam had zombies piloting mechs.
This series is amazing in the way that nothing worked in it. Not even Saya could save this mess.
There is a tragic irony about the fact that a show about the undead had to be put to an end because of actual death.
I'm really going to miss the "Highschool of the Dead" series, it wasn't the 1st Anime that I ever watched, but it was the 1st Anime that introduced me to the Fantasy World of Ecchi and Fan-Service, not to mention this is what got me to loving the Zombie Genre.
So glad Sage finally talked about this anime. It was definitely a guilty pleasure of mine during my early to mid teens. I’m surprised though that he never brought up the infamous gas station scene! Definitely a moment of the show that did not age well!
Yeah but the Animation was Raw
That implies it was ever ok at all. Which is wasn't at all back then you were just too young to fully grasp this
Am I the only one who realizes that a zombie apocalypses would never get off the ground? Given the number of people who own a gun, and have training to use said gun, not to mentions various thugs and criminals just trying to not end up as zombie chow, by the time word got around, the contamination would have already been cleaned up.
Seems weird to leave out the quite overt bias towards militarism and strongarm tactics regarding social control buried everywhere in the show. From the main character backhanding his ex-girlfriend and lording his firearm over the thug at the gas station to the nurse knowing a military member who gives them their HMMV to the otaku having (unfinished) Green Beret level training. Rewatched the show a few years ago because they teased a second season that never came, and all of this stuff really stuck out to me considering the current political climate.
that kind of cryptofascism is inherent to most zombie media not directed by john romero though
What gets me is how a virus with what is now confirmed as a 99.7% survivability got treated like a superplague from Plague Inc.
Also that the masks (including N-97s), the lockdowns (because Covid spreads best inside houses/confined areas), AND the "vaxxines" don't protect against infection or spread.
But THE SCIENCE is treated like it can do no wrong.
In the Manga, he and his cult followers got to Saya's and the zombies got past the gate. after that the crew had to leave and that's where it stopped if I remember right. RIP Daisuke.
Surprised at how okay you were with the series, but hey, surprised us before. And using Simpson to lead into next episode's subject (After already twirling your way to freedom), clever.
BTW, that Death Note Simpsons Parody from the new Treehouse of Horror was legit their best segment in so long.
Ok, I actually think the reference to "I Like Turtles Kid" is hilarious. It's funny because it's recognizable and so out of the blue.
I remember this show blowing up being called the next big thing. I also remember cringing myself to death and enjoying all the senseless action and cheesecake. It’s a great piece of the past that I find hard to share
I have to say, Psycho Saeko is my favourite character.
Big guilty pleasure here. The jiggling jubblies, blood and zombie gore. I knew what I came for! And such a shame it will never get a proper ending since the writer passed away long ago.
So I feel like there was kind of a point missed with the whole "Saeko loves violence and the show makes her feel guilty for it" thing. I think the show, while probably clumsy, was trying to say that the LEVEL of violence that she was going to and loving was too dangerous. She was starting to lose control of that part of her that was still human and not going off the deep end and just slaughtering for the fun of it. How long before the humans and Zombies end up looking like one another and she just starts killing indiscriminately? She already had a hard time back in her Kendo days holding back enough after the first time she literally broke someone's arm and nose, and now with the Zombie Apocryplse around her, that restraint was being pushed harder than ever, and it took Zombie kids for her to go "oh fuck, how can I take joy in murdering small children, Zombies or not?" There was that moral center that caused her to freeze up and brought on her and thr MC getting their Giggity on before catching up with the others.
But again that message collapses when the show activity encourages us to revel in that violence.
I had the very good fortune to come into possession of the coloured omnibus of the manga! It is surprisingly heartfelt and has some devastating moments
2:56 That moment still gets me every single time.
I thought it was from doctor who 😅
Scenes like that are why I can't like dark "comedies". Eventually, they stop being funny, and are just the darkness of the setup, often with little hope.
The zombie genre is not dead. After HOTD there were loads of films that actually hit the jackpot of the genre, such as World War Z and Train to Busan, which achieved a success not seen since Resident Evil in this genre. In fact, the Zombie genre never will die, it just has periods when it is more intense or less intense. Fact is that it is more plausible to the human mind than other kinds of monsters, as a matter of mass catastrophe, and people like to have something between the unreal chaos and the reality details. This fits perfectly with zombies.
Oh Shit! 'Theatre of the Dead.' I was a stuntman in that.
Hey Sage! I won't agree on every critic you've made, but this was a very good review! Kudos!
I never thought I'd revisit this anime again! That was a fantastic episode! As silly as it sounds, I hadn't thought of the pandemic being the reason for the drop of popularity of the zombie genre. I grew up watching zombie movies with my cousin and always adored that genre, for better and for worse; I never thought about how living through a real pandemic would take away some of the mystique of that setting.
I'm looking forward to the next episode already!
This got me back into zombie stuff. Booba was an obvious motivator. I also found it interesting that the zombies were blind.
As someone who has purchased a program license with a "lifetime guarantee"... it's not YOUR lifetime. It's their DEFINITION of lifetime... which, most times, means 3 years maximum.
I remember seeing this when I was younger: the Xfinity on demand menu kept advertising it so much and I was lead to believe that this was what anime is meant to be like
It is...
@@warlok363 yeah but like all the time
H.O.T.D was and still is one of my all time favorite shows and helped get me back into Anime in the early 2010s. I personally do not think it can be topped. Nothing is more perfect than zombies and nice anime tiddies. I mean sure some ecchi style zombie anime could come along but chances of it being this good? I highly doubt it. That one and only season brought me to tears.
Hey brother haven't been here in a couple months, hope all's well, best wishes my dude💪🏾💪🏾
29:02
And this part is why the story of Arthas was a compelling zombie story, too.
First and thus far only anime where I swapped from dub to sub from episode to episode. That made the mood and tonal whiplash so palpable I honestly don't remember whether I stuck it all the way through to the last episode or not. Thanks to 2020 I know I have no inclination to go back and see if I did. But I do remember it birthed my voice crush on Eri Kitamura, which still lingers to this day. It's about the the only thing that redeems that bratty loudmouth Saya's character.
Knowing Death Note is old enough to get the AA treatment I think spawned some spontaneous grey hairs somewhere on my head. But I eagerly await what you've got to say about it.
I was in the honeymoon season of my newfound love for anime when I decided when I got home from work, back in like, 2013ish or so, that I'd binge through the entirety of HotD in a night. And I did. And yeah, it was pure popcorn. Mostly. But Hisashi's death at the end of the first episode still shakes me a little to this day.
My wife and I love this anime, she always cracks the joke that Saeko's name especially in the dub sounds like Psycho and she's kinda bat shit crazy in a good way.
Dude awesome review, I totally get your points. When it came out I didn't finish it because somehow the cheesecake humor clashing with the drama bothered me so much, I don't know why. But some day I got a "leaving netflix" notification of this show, so I marathoned the rest and got surprised of how well they did zombie apocalypse tropes.
I'm an Old enough TGWTG watcher to remember Sage's cameo on JesuOtaku's review of HOTD many moons ago, which was my first introduction to Sage. Glad to see Bennett come full circle and give it a much more thoughtful examination.
Finally 100K subs! Congratulations!
Hey Bennett, great review of this classic action anime. I got into the manga first, and the anime follows it closely, so kudos to it for veracity. I understand your view that the story of Takashi and Saeko's trip together seems odd in the anime when they have a pause to talk about Important Things. That episode is out of place from the manga. In the manga, the river trip and night at the temple come after the escape from the compound. Our heroes split up, with Takashi and Saeko using the noisy ATV as a decoy while the others hoof it away. then Saeko has her moment of disconnect with the child zombies (a fine macabre touch), Takashi plays the man, and the hero and best girl spend time together. I personally feel the manga's sequence makes more sense, but the change in the anime storyline doubtless padded the episode run time, and helped end it neatly in 12 episodes approaching the mall. And I know the musing on societal breakdown and living by violence seems out of place, but we're talking JAPAN here, which is officially pacifist and groupthink-orderly to an extent that a zombie apocalypse is something that would be the worst possible situation for contemporary Japanese society. The mall arcs of the manga really emphasize this, as much as the compound arc did.
Great review. Your Italian is getting good.
Kota also kinda that archetype of ex soldier or law officer character that most of the gun work
As somebody who has never been a huge fan of zombie fiction this anime has always been one of the big ones I never really touched. I remember catching an episode of it on late night tv and felt baffled by it being hyper brutal one second just to then hard swerve into a scene of the two girls slathering each other with some kind of "vatimine oil" almost against the will of one of them.
So you should have found all the various citations/Easter Eggs to the genre.
Really wish we got that season 2 in the mall, the amount of analysis you could do with the cop girl and Kota alone would have been a pretty good viewing. Though the recording and editing would be hell.
Yep, this was one of those Mid-2000s shows that got passed around my highschool Anime Club despite being... *far* from appropriate. Series holds a lot of memories for me, some good, some cringe, some horrified in a good way, but the fact it 'ended' in such a way years after is a depressing note to leave on.
I know the crew shelved the series out of respect, but damn if this isn't a manga that deserves a Gaiden spinoff. Let Takashi's crew have somehow made it out off-screen, and pick up with a new high-school crew stepping into the setting. Or Edgerunners this shit with a prequel. There's *potential,* especially with how far the zombie and anime genres have advanced.
The Manga actually goes a ways further and actually got discontinued on a cliff hanger. theres a decent amount of story to it that sadly will never see the light of day now. I honestly would have loved a continuation.
Its one of those series that went before its time.
Man. Bummer that he passed. Honestly, if I was working on a project like that, I would have wanted anyone that was working with me to carry it on. My last bit of legacy, being finished by others, would be a real honor honestly.
this anime was this close to fame until attack on titan
well basically big giant zombies eating small people
@@joshuagraham2843 And AoT's later seasons showed that it really, REALLY should've just stuck to the giant zombie angle. :/
After watching this, I'd love to see your take on Gargantia. I love that anime, and it got so dark.
There is one o british Zombie movie called Stalled where a Janitor is stuck in the bathroom, and a Italian zombie movie where a guy is stuck in an Elevator
Another 'Recommendation' Bennett made for Jacob Chapman...
I half expect the two of them to do a Crossover review of Conqueror of Shamballa at this rate.
Ahh, my fourth favorite "- Of the Dead", Right behind Dawn, Day and House!
I remember your video with JO about HOTD. Honestly I'd love if he came back.
Honestly, I think every so often I get reminded of this show and the impact it had even though it seemed to have been like a flash in the pants moment (not sure if that was the phrasing I wanted to use, but it was brief), because it's a mixture of different tones and themes that some people see as not being compatible, but I always assumed the "cheesecake" usually was done well and never did detract from the dark moments. Heck, I think kt's worth revisiting, even if it may have the stigma of current times, but I think it works - I wouldn't compare everything that happens to modern events, but it does show case how people handle certain events, showing the dark nature of humanity when societal standards stop mattering. It's legit one of the series I wish got a rereleased - both manga and animewise, even if it was unfinished just to preserve Lord Daisuke's work. I still miss him.
Another cool thing is how Takashi and his a-hole adult-age rival Shido exemplify the two main stereotypes in the Zombie Genre.
Basically Takashi as the lead hero also acts as the idealized Zombie Survivor Group leader aka he sees himself as being equal to the group not their superior, he's willing to listen to the ideas and thoughts the others have and actually act on them if they benefit the group, he actually wants to help other survivors as best he can even if he doesn't let them join the group due to other issues such as issues with supplies, he's also willing to go out with the group and do some Zombie Slaying, and Supply gathering himself instead of just ordering the others to do while he stays behind in safety aka he lives by the saying "I don't give orders that I'm not willing to do myself."
Whereas Shido yeah he represents the typical main human antagonist in the Zombie Genre for the reasons already stated.
It might have it's flaws (also it and that one episode arc from Stargate aged "well.") But at the end of the day I still love it for what it is.
The reason why the walking dead was so well thought off was Frank Darabont.
Whos Frank Darabont? Oh, just the director of Shawshank redemption and the green mile.
Higher ups reduced his budget so he left after season 2 - they wanted more episodes that's why season 2 sucks. After he left the walking dead started to decay.
I want to give you a hug. I'm in utter shock. You referenced Game of Thrones and didn't have to say "season 8 bad" like every single youtuber that I've seen who brought up the show. I honestly thought it was a rule everyone had to do or something.
Patton Oswalt now writes essays too like he is some big time critic? Man the over-exposure of that man never ceases to amaze me. He pops up in every youtube video these days, it's like he is a friend or relative of everyone... As for zombies, could never care at all about the genre. There is a reason that Hammer made like 7 Dracula movies and a lot more vampire, werewolf, mummy and ghost movies, even a gorgon one, but I struggle to think if they even made one zombie one. And Ravenloft has tons of adventures against various undead horrors but only did one zombie-themed one... and even in that one the swamp zombies play second fiddle to the giant Baskerville's moor hound. Zombies are dumb, slow, unimaginative. They don't think, and are not a big threat to kill. Even run of the mill skeletons pose a bigger challenge (you cannot stab them after all). I just never understood why 80-90ies and later 2000s horror got so damn fixated on it. And sadly the genre is still not dead. They keep making these, they just call them "infected", and COVID sure helped in the birth of the new zombie shows.
D'Eon D'Chevalier is also another zombie anime?
I've been saying one thing about this show for years: if they toned down the ecchi, it would be the best "realistic" zombie anime by a long shot.
I agree. They really should've toned down the fan-service and focused a little more on the horror, plot, stakes and character development. I hate "In Your Face" Fan-Service in anime, sometimes. It's desensitizing and trying too hard to be "adults only". How are you supposed to follow what's going in the show if they're going to do THAT every 10 seconds?
One kind of zombie related media is the French show Les Revenants (based on the French film They Came Back)
The show got an American adaptation (because it was successful and critically acclaimed) but to my surprise never got an anime adaptation. I'd have thought Les Revenants would have been rife for an adaptation as an anime, complete with Mogwai OP (Mogwai would compose very fitting anime soundtracks, see Take Me Somewhere Nice and Party In The Dark for more information) and a female singer singing Abide With Me solo with no instrumental accompaniment as an ED for at least one episode.
I Do hope you will touch on the Death parade link when covering Death Note
Why would anyone think you're making up the (masterpiece!) Nudist Colony of the Dead? Surely we've all seen Brad get a restraining order from his neighbors by this point....
EDIT: It's weird you'd bring up Ghost Stories (ANOTHER masterpiece), since I just finished watching the dub the other day.
Just thinking about episode 9 of the Ghost Stories dub makes me chuckle.
Great vid! I haven't seen HOTD in years, but I loved it when I first saw it lol, especially the English dub. Thanks for making this vid. Congrats on the 100,000 subs! You def deserve it!
HSotD always frustrated me to no end when I first watched it. At the time I loved zombie media (though I was reaching saturation at that point tbh) and of course I love anime. Seems like HSotD would be a home run!
But that inconsistency, man. The tone shifts were so swift. And I'll admit, the cheesecake fanservice was my personal worst offender. In a comedy, its obvious hamfisted "look at the boobs n butts" would have been eye-rolling but at least less out of place. In what I thought was a more action-drama piece, it just felt jarring.
And yet there were pieces I still liked, because yes - tropey tropes gonna trope. Zombie apocalypse scenarios are fun! Kota was fun! Evil Glasses Teacher was fun! And the animation is very well done. All the pieces together though? I can't make it work for me.
I loved revisiting it via this review though!!
Lolll I really did unironically love HOTD, this was when I was still watching every seasonal anime plus my long running shows. And it was still top 3 of that year, and fav that 13week season
I gotta love how you called out TLOU2's inconsistency when discussing HOTD's rather inconsistent tone and mixed signals. Respect!
I actually like the introspection in Highschool of the Dead. High schoolers would probably NOT fully embrace being zombie death machines, so enjoying cutting former people apart WOULD disturb them.
I've never been a fan of the brain-eating zombie trope. Partly because they terrify me, and partly because I hate how they rely so often on the "Humans are the Real Monsters" trope.
To quote Red of Overly Sarcastic Productions: "Personally, this is my least favorite apocalypse, because I don't like Nihilism, and I really don't like zombies on principle (Stay dead, please)."
Considering that the world is currently overflowing with nihilists...
Well, to be fair, Zombies can cause society to collapse. And when that happens, it creates a power vacuum. Which cause people to fight for control. A fight for control can bring out the worse in people, especially if the law is destroyed.
But I do hate the concept of cannibalism in the trope. It's pointless. Why do we need living people eating living people when we already got undead eating living people?
Hell, one careless mistake and the cannibal will infect themselves. The plague spreads faster.
I describe HOTD as if Michael Bay made a zombie movie that somehow got made into a anime series
This anime makes me think of Onechanbara way too much (yet another series that knows what it is, and makes no attempt to hide it). Also I happen to have the two full-color omnibuses that, for some weird reason, the first one costs a stupidly amount more than the second.
Excellent video as usual sir......especially the last 4:00 minutes....true speak......
I truly wish the manga continued so the anime would also continue, and be given a proper ending.
One where Takashi and Saeko end up together - but that's just my opinion.
Who were better matches?
Takashi and Saeko or Takashi and that other girl?
@@kidprime6863
I just commented that Takashi and Saeko were a much better match - in my opinion.
@@M.W.K6996Point taken. I like the other one but she can be really bitchy most of the time.
An anime that I actually watched in highschool being shown in Anime Abandon, man I feel old. for the record, this is actually one of my favorite animes if nothing else because I was young when I watched it and thought it was kinda cool. it's not great but like you said it can be a fun time, though I tend to watch it subbed instead of dubbed. (no not trying to start a Sub vs. Dub argument here, just a personal preference. same way I like to watch Black Lagoon and Cowboy Bebop dubbed and I prefer the original dub of Eva to the netflix one), but yeah with 2020 in hindsight it feels wierd beyond belief. (also I never got why Rei never... well shot her rifle. I get that she's skilled in using it as a spear, she used the mop handle she had like that but.. a few things probably would have been easier if she had used her rifle as a rifle.)
Firearms ownership and use of said firearms is very rare in Japan. Kouta is very much an exception to the rule, and Takashi is a quick study. Rei learned spear and naginata fighting as part of her martial arts studies, and putting a bayonet on a rifle makes it a spear by design. It made her more useful with the bayoneted rifle than just blazing away at zombies and likely missing all her shots.
@@observationsfromthebunker9639 ok fair enough. Though I do still have another question, her rig to carry the rifle doesn't seem all that practical given it's attached to her chest rather than it being on a sling. Pretty sure this was a problem twice
@@Romrojal The single-point sling works well in supporting the rifle, which is heavier than a practice spear. But it does have a couple of drawbacks, especially when not worn over a flak vest and tactical vest like it's supposed to be. HotD thoughtfully threw those drawbacks into the action mix. the story is honest in showing characters struggling with items they're not skilled with using. (The kids were smart and adaptive, which is good because the story gives them few breaks!)
@@observationsfromthebunker9639 fair, it would make sense to wear that with a vest of some kind (probably the one Kohta wears now that I think about it) so I can see it
For once, an animae I watched before the review!!!!
Mate, I’m glad to see you back, you introduced me to animae and I plan to do the same to my little brother at one point.
HSotD was one of my favorite series back in the day, and it broke my heart when it was canned.
I’m probably one of the few people that’s glad High School of the Dead never continued. I remember reading a comment from this guy saying that while he’s a guy, he couldn’t stand all the ecchi. All that shit was in the way of a good zombie anime. If anime or manga always has to resort to, as Sage would put it “cheesecake”, then the project has no reason to exist.
50/50 on that there buddy,
Yeah I really could either keep in mind this is coming from heterosexual male by the way.
It does have reason to exist
For the sake of existing and because it can
I mean the project could exist if it was a horror-comedy. But this isn't even a horror-comedy, it's just horror with inconsistent comedy. It can't pick a tone and stick with it. It shifts at wrong times like for example in, I think, the fourth episode, two of the guys watch and news report show traffic officers killing zombies and one of the the officers headshots protester for refusing to leave, sending the other protester in a horrified panic, before turning the TV off. THEN the nurse comes in barely dressed and drunk, seductively trying to "get fresh" with them. Comedy requires timing and that was bad timing. It would've worked if it was in an episode where they're in a safe zone like a settlement or something and chilling out. Or even a fan-service episode. Just not in a story episode. A show with Horror and Comedy has to have a good balance of the two.
Man I get sad anytime I here about the anime. So more info. The creator after his 1st bout of illness. When a made a different anime. World Tigger. Which he finished and was coming back to this one. He put out 1 more book. Then kicked the bucket.
His colleagues did decide not continue it. But it was more a mix of well being a now older ip. That was banned in bunch of place to be graphic. And not selling well do to it being both dormant too long and zombie not being super popular like it was.
Reading Highschool of the Dead at my local comic store, it was great. I really do enjoy the series and when the anime was announced and came out, I got a buddy of mine and we watched together. We had a blast. Watching the world be this place where you are going nowhere in high school and bam! Next morning, it's a zombie outbreak. I pretty much helped a friend get into the zombie genre, pretty much Resident Evil itself.
At least Kevin Foster doesn't radically change the script for malicious reasons, like Jamie Marchie does.
Just gonna quickly add "Nudist Colony of the dead" to my list of films to watch in this new year.
I always thought there was a decent zombie storie in it and the out of place panty shost just made that hilarious.
I loved it.