First Impressions / HIGHSCHOOL OF THE DEAD

「Streets of the DEAD」

Houston, “we have a problem”. Another episode starting off with some enjoyable engrish. It’s always nice to feel superior once in a while in these otherwise alien videos that we seem to enjoy. Alas, a new character is introduced, and if you couldn’t tell, it’s Nurse Boin’s friend. She’s Minami Rika, a sniper of Japan’s Special Assault Team, voiced by Takeuchi Junko. Weird thing is, Takeuchi also voices Uzumaki Naruto, so that gave me some shudders.

Shido also gives me the shudders, with him somehow able to generate pure ecstacy from women just by touching them. What the hell was up with that scene anyway? Takagi is also tsundere for Komuro, but can’t really beat Saeko in a battle of “who’s the cooler/calmer one”. But honestly, the face-off scene between Takagi’s group and Shido’s was just awkward as hell, with Shido’s lip licking and Boin’s ..well boinging. Regardless, Hirano became badass once again, but still not up to Viral levels. I think he’s trying to refrain from doing it so early on in the series, as you can see he calms himself down often when his voice levels start reaching there (lol). Anyway, great music at his scene, but where’s that 28 days later song? I’ve been wanting to hear it again since the first episode. 😛

I’m going to be honest, the episodes since the 2nd one haven’t really brought up the same adrenaline I felt in the first episode, and this episode didn’t feel any different. But then the 17 minute mark came around, and suddenly the action went into overdrive. You’d have to be lying if the combination of slow motion and a Zombieland reference didn’t get your blood boiling, but then again maybe you’re just not a man, man. There was just something epic about Hirano finally receiving an actual gun in his hands. Although I have to admit, the spinning Busujima attack, while cool, was not really realistic or necessary. But then again, neither is whacking zombies with a motorcycle as if you’ve been riding the thing for years. But hey, realism is boring sometimes.

While they tried to play that angle of “we’ve changed so much in one day” at the end, it’s really because they changed that they’ve survived so far. After a whole day of killing zombies, you’re pretty much used to what you have to do to survive, no questions asked. It was just a bit eye rolling for me, since it felt a little forced. Considering the preview almost entirely consisted of moans, I think it’s safe to say the next episode won’t be as censored as I thought. I’m pretty satisfied with the current pace so far, as for some reason I thought the show would end when they near the loli-rescue arc, but it seems that might happen in the next two episodes.

I can’t hear youuuu…

 

ED5 Sequence

ED5: 「Memories of days gone by」 黒崎真音 (Kurosaki Maon)
Watch the 5th ED!: Download, Streaming ▼

Preview

53 Comments

  6. I thought this episode was pretty great. I really enjoyed that awesome fight scene (although I kinda questioned the necessity of throwing Saeko into the air) and the strange conversation on the bus. But I think the best moment of the episode is when the police force blasted those high school idiots off the bridge with a hose. I rewatched that like 12 times, just because it was so f**king hilarious 😛

    Click
    Reply

    1. no its going up to 50.
      also i have a feeling this is the same way cults get started. -Also this guy badly badly needs to DIE preferably by being torn apart this teacher is the kind of person i dislike the most.

      chaos
      Reply

  9. Seems like they are pretty much going one episode for one chapter so far which would in theory put the show where the latest chapters are IF they go for a full 24-26 eps. They are sticking fairly faithfully to the manga so far with just a few bits gone here and there or cut dialogue, but still not bad at all (still didn’t like the recap in eps 4 though, grumble grumble).

    shinobi2u
    Reply

      1. You mean 13. Planned. Right now. Hence the ‘IF’. I’m talking about if they do a second ‘season’ like a lot of other shows. 13 episodes won’t hardly cover anything.

        shinobi2u
        Reply

  13. Voice acting really changes a lot huh? I mean as much as I hate Shido in the manga, I even hate him more in animated form. Sure, be a creep to make everything much more worse and awkward. He just gives off this creepy antagonistic atmosphere which is well, fitting in a chaotic apocalypse setting.

    Action was still impressive, and yes, I think the motorcycle scenes were a bit exaggerated. Anyway, I still say fog and steam next week for the sake of encouraging people to buy the blu-rays.

    Jaden
    Reply

  14. The action scene was so hollywood and out of place.. they just casually meet in the manga, this was a bonus that i didn’t like it.. I mean in the Bridge there it’s still people and under control, there are not zombies, it really pissed me off, but whatever.

    Joseph Edward
    Reply

    1. But, but but. When you get a rush of adrenaline you can do ANYTHING.

      But, coming from someone who hasn’t read the manga, it was a well welcome change of pace. I mean, who wouldn’t want to see some zombie action?

      chingoo
      Reply

    1. They just left the mall in the manga so its noway they will get that far without skipping a lot of stuff. It seems fairly obvious that they are much more interested in getting the manga story to last then to reach the end, the recap last episode is a good indicator of that as well. From looking at the credits so does it look the writer of the manga is somewhat involved as well as some H.O.T.D outfit, so this might explain why we are getting a focus on dragging things out instead of ending asap.

      Znail
      Reply

  22. The scene which Hirano fires a gun reminds me of The Matrix and Wanted. poor Hirano, he seems to like Saya but then she interested in Takashi.Rei and Saya seemed pissed when Takashi was talking with Saeko after they wiped out the zombies in the bridge,a moment of jealousy perhaps?

    fluidity
    Reply

  25. Well Fatty showed some good stuff there and the all talk no action teacher was really irritating, so good stuff on the VA and scripting.

    The nurse still needs to be less useless but like Fatty thats probably happening later, likely when someone gets injured (amputation maybe?)

    Zaku Fan
    Reply

  27. Concerning the music from 28 days later. They seem to do spoofs and references to various horror movies only once per episode as if we’re supposed to go look for them, as last time it was Shaun of the dead (with the gasstation).

    Mike4DOA
    Reply

  29. Hirano (the fat gun otaku) is actually one of the better developed characters in this series. I like him a lot better than whats-his-face-stereotypical-anime-hero-guy. At first I just assumed Hirano would be a useless running gag character but in the manga he’s pretty kickass. That said, Shido squicks me out. And lol @ his Mr. Burns/Gendo impression.

    Raiju
    Reply

  36. The cameo of a Bae Yong-joon as a zombie on the runway brought a chuckle to me when i found out it was him. Also the Double Tap that I think Hirano was actually implying was from Modern Warfare 1 as the tier 2 perk, since it also shows what looks to be the game he was playing when he was daydreaming.

    Siege
    Reply

  37. Did anyone else get weird Lelouch vibes from the creepy teacher as he was contorting his body while giving his speech? Except it worked for Lelouch. This teacher is just creepy as hell.

    longtimefirsttime
    Reply

  38. Well, I’ve played Resident Evil series, Left4Dead (and the second one also), and watch some Zombie appocalypse movie, and then I watch this series. All gives me one big question mark, just how, how “the idiot, unable to see” zombie are capable to distinquished their own kind and humans?
    I might missed it, but never in any media that i see / watch / play do i ever find any zombie, “friendlyfired” its own kind. Would somebody give me a rational explanation for this, plz?

    Himeya
    Reply

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