First Impressions / HIGHSCHOOL OF THE DEAD

「The DEAD way home」

If anything should be the main point of critique this time around, it would be the questionable actions of the characters driving the story. The entire predicament they got themselves into, being trapped in an alley with a fence that looks like you could crawl through (in fact, they did crawl through it in the end), required a little too much suspension of disbelief. They pretty much trapped themselves into a corner, panicking throughout the entire situation, leading to the typical “mistakes” people do in zombie flicks. Clumsily dropping ammo, standing around yelling, even giving up to die, what happened to our group that survived up till now? And this all happened because of a barb wire fence? Not only does it look like it could be crawled through, much less jump over, the fence isn’t really a 50 feet tall wall that they’re trapped in front of. Hell, if they didn’t swerve the car, they could have ran right through it, as it seemed to me it was merely attached to the walls. If a Humvee built like a tank could get across water, it could definitely demolish some measly wire. Because of that issue, the serious melodrama that played out didn’t really invoke any particular emotion except frustration.

Of course, it wasn’t all bad. Hirano continues to be the glowing reserve of the show, perhaps an implication of something by the creators. However, you now realize that Hiyama Nobuyuki’s English is horrendous. On the other hand, Taketatsu Ayana (of K-ON’s Azusa fame) who plays Alice can surprisingly pass as comprehensible. The team also gets a uniform change, with Rei looking pretty good rocking a ponytail. Things were going swell until Takashi started firing Rei’s weapon. Then it got a little weird. All of a sudden, slow motion kicks in and Saeko’s dancing around bullets. The hilarity of a bullet passing through two flopping breasts just begs the question “why”. Why was that necessary? Why is Takashi even shooting at Saeko? Why can she dodge it? I want to say these additions create a more “campy” atmosphere, but I don’t think that’s completely right either. It’s like those horror movies you watch, but end up laughing at the death scenes. Those animators must have had a field day while they animated Rei’s slow motion “ripples”.

By the end of this episode, it’s become clear that an original ending is looking more and more likely. Saeko and Takashi become split from the rest of the group (even though they could’ve easily made it back by walking along the upper area, then sliding down) while in the manga, the entire team just heads to Takagi’s house when they’re rescued. By the looks of the preview, next episode seems to focus on their little trek “alone” to Takagi’s house. Apparently, they’re sticking in a later situation now (where Saeko and Takashi split up), so at least Saeko will get some needed development. I assume it’ll still end up somewhere on Takagi’s House arc, with this side trek as merely “filler” to make the series end at a certain planned point. Regardless, like complaining about a game before it’s released, there’s no point except to wait for it to come.

Note: If you take a look at the pictures on the wall in the ED this episode, you can see a picture of Takagi and Takashi when they were young. Takashi had some pretty nice threads.

 

ED8 Sequence

ED8: 「The place of hope」 by 黒崎真音 (Kurosaki Maon)
Watch the 8th ED!: Download, Streaming ▼

Preview

71 Comments

  2. Thats not a fence. Thats a spider web. they should throw drama to the wind. it’s just wasted on this anime.if it was a brick wall ok then, but a chicken wire fence tougher than humvee,does not add up.

    Richfeet
    Reply

  3. I’m a bit surprised that they’re

    Show Spoiler ▼

    Suzuku
    Reply

      1. Show Spoiler ▼

        xcswmboy
        Reply

      3. Well:
        Its obvious plot has gone down the drain with the staff just doing the things for the rule of cool:
        – Saeko, we’re drooling too…
        – heroic last stand when all you needed was simply to move thru fence
        – frigging Hirano’s got a Loli Ammo Carrier!
        – Bullet Boobs Time!
        Staff was probably had great time drawing and animating this…
        One thing that I want to know after AF1 side story is if Russia and China (only ICBM carrying countries capable of striking US) are radioactive wastelands now – zombie-infested, for added measure.

        ewok40k
        Reply

  6. Kiiragi, help me understand why every single scene in this “Survival Horror” anime has to have super jiggly boobs? This is ridiculous now! I am a man, and I like me some breasts as every other man, but jesus this anime just pushes it to the point where its just annoying and a complete waste of time. After 3 episodes of straight out super fan service I’m very close to just dropping the anime and reading the manga instead. I was looking forward into enjoying this anime in the beginning but now, I just don’t expect much from it.

    P.S. The bullet through Saeko’s breasts was so (Forgive my language) Fucking pointless and watching Takashi give Rei multiple orgasims while firing a sniper rifle was also completely pointless. Thanks for blogging this too man.

    Rin-chan
    Reply

      1. short answer: no. i believe one of the comments on gg’s release post said they’d have to be moving at about 500 m/s to be able to wobble around a bullet (not to mention breasts don’t really move independently like that).

        diet otaku
        Reply

  7. I enjoyed the episode as just bullet-time boobs.

    True, this chapter did seem very pointlessly dramatic as Rei could have easily rolled right under the fence. How the hell do you set up a wire fence across a random street so taut that it could stop a Humvee.

    xcswmboy
    Reply

  10. the episode was awsome dont complain about showing boobs and panties all the time .. Too much serious anime will make it really booring iv been through some and stoped watching them

    nimerbushnaq
    Reply

  12. you deserve to die if:

    – you’re stupid enough to ride on top of a moving vehicle when your main purpose is running away.

    – you try to use a sniper rifle when the target is less than ten meters away from you and still cannot hit your target

    – you’re too dumb to figure out how to pass through an unelectrified wire fence with at least 3 feet of a gap.

    ugh! can’t wait for this to be over. i just want to see how it ends.

    kyuzo
    Reply

    1. A M1A with an ACOG is hardly a sniper rifle, and the M1A is notorious for having an ungoddly recoil so for a newbie, I wouldn’t be surprised if the first few shots fired in a panic are complete misses.

      Nanatsuya
      Reply

      1. I concur. The first time I fired a 12-bore pump action shotgun, all five shots missed way above, even though the target are only 15 meters away – just like the ep potrays it. Took me a full reload to get the hang of firing the thing. So I guess first timer firing a hi-power rifle that must be really jarred.

        Joez
        Reply

  13. Okay, I see everyone has good points about this episode, but no mentioned that the group could also jump on top of the Humvee and get down to the other side of the fence too. Near the end I was actually screaming at the monitor about telling that little girl to shut up since it’s just attracting more zombies to come. The whole matrix scenes with the breasts was just hilarious. And this episode just proves that Rei is dead weight to the team again. I’m looking forward to seeing the nest episode with the focus on Saeko.

    random viewer
    Reply

  14. Episode 8 crams two chapters into one, Alice in Dead Land(ch.8) as well as The Dead Way Home(ch.9). The ending scenes made the situation a lot more dire than it was in the manga IMO but every moment of it was great.

    The next episode (9) is The Sword and Dead, in the manga it is chapter 17. It looks like they are starting to change up the order a bit.

    alyxva
    Reply

  15. As the fanservice goes up my will to watch this goes down, yes i knew before hand of the fanservice at the manga but c’mon this level is ridiculous.

    The whole bullets through the ultra fast moving tits scene was completely unnecesary and unfaithful to the manga… the manga alone is got quite a bunch of fanservice but nowhere near this. the manga fanservice is a plus the anime one seems to be the plot itself.

    mako
    Reply

  17. I’ve seen other films, shows, etc. where the characters lose their common sense a little bit. But…this episode has to be the epitome of no common sense.

    Seriously, the dramatic last stand was utterly pointless. They could have just crawl through the damn wire fence and be home free. But no, we get pointless drama and some crazy acrobatic boobs. And who the hell uses another person as a mount for their rifle. He must not care for Rei as much as I thought he did.

    @kyuzo: I gotta agree with you, those zombies were pretty damn close to them. I’m pretty sure he could have at least hit one of them with his erratic shooting.

    I was enjoying this show until this. Now, I’m not too sure.

    sp33chle55
    Reply

  18. so their moving that story line up -what happens here is their moving some story elements around in a later part of the series they get seperated so its possible their doing this because they want to save some plot detail for the end and have to pad it out but don’t want bad anime original stories that serve no purpose

    chaos
    Reply

  21. boob matrix awesome. this episode was filled with win.
    why push the saekoxtakashi split early? this kinda worries me as these changes tend to go for the worse.
    animate a cartridge ejecting and hitting rei in the face while takashi is firing like that. by then i’d fall off my chair.

    fishies
    Reply

  22. Again, I have no quarrels with a highly entertaining scene of awesome. I’ve stated in the past that I watch this series for the over-the-top action and fanservice. I know I will rage a bit once I start reading the manga and see how far off the mark the show is (one example: Love Hina), but that will be at a future time.

    For those of you who have been watching then complaining about all the jiggling, at least they made Rei’s ripples somewhat believable. I’m wondering how much time Madhouse spent studying the physics of ballistics and breasts. Yes, it’s a little reckless that Takashi would shoot a firearm with Saeko there, but it wouldn’t have been as awesome that way.

    Sometimes you have to ask yourself “Why not?” (And that’s a rhetorical question, so don’t answer it, please.)

    TehJawknee
    Reply

  24. This serie continues to amaze me with how much of a breast they can show, without even coming close to nipples. Do they even have nipples?
    Guess they didn;t have any cash left after all the other over the top fanserve.

    Morridin
    Reply

  25. I don’t think there’s ever been a series that made me sigh in exasperation and facepalm as much as this one tbh.
    Yet I keep watching, because underneath the breastload of fanserv there actually are some awesome action scenes.

    Morridin
    Reply

  26. Most of these complaints about fanservice definitely applied to the previous episode. However, as far as this episode goes, the FS pretty much went back to how it was for the first few episodes. Breast jiggling only occurred about three times this episode, and the slow motion parts were just plain hilarious, not plot distracting. This is what I expect HOTD FS to be. As for the lack of common sense in the plot, that’s just the author’s fault, as it’s existent in the source material. But yeah, just my 2 cents so far (didn’t want to add to the post).

    Kiiragi
    Reply

  27. This series could learn from Sekirei how to have fan service and NOT be so over the top with it that it becomes the main part of the series that everyone discusses each week.

    Karmafan
    Reply

    1. Perhaps so but then it’s still something that brings attention to the show. HSoTD is a show about FS and zombies. When you expect nothing less, everything on top is just cherry sweet.

      Shinjiro
      Reply

  30. Wow, laughed way too hard at the scene Takashi was shooting between Saeko’s thighs and breasts. That was just stupid.

    Saeko drooling on Takashi’s lap was friggen adorable, and the girls all look hott in their new outfits. With the limited time the series has to work with, I like the change in the story from the manga. Takashi and Saeko going off on their own means we’ll get the shrine scene between them after all, and as a Saeko fan, that makes me so very happy!! XD

    With Zeke biting a zombie, I guess they made it clear that their blood doesn’t carry the disease, only their saliva. Decent point to wiggle in there as I’m sure a lot of people have been wondering about that.

    Aex
    Reply

  32. For those complaining about the fan service, perhaps you are too old to be watching this. If you take that out, it’s not High School of the Dead anymore. Just read The Walking Dead, or something else.

    RR
    Reply

    2. I don’t know about the “too old” part. You could also argue it might just be because you’re too young.
      I think it’s more about what you want to find and willing to stick with the show than anything else.

      Shinjiro
      Reply

  33. As someone who shoots as a past time I gotta get somethings off my chest. First off, the advice about aiming for the chest with a shotgun so that you will hit the zombies head made me face palm, yes there is recoil, but the buckshot is already out of the barrel before it has moved even a fraction of an inch. Also the spread of shot isn’t as large as it is portrayed in movies and video games at the range they were shooting you aren’t going to hit 3 zeds at once – end rant.

    yes the episode was outrageous, yes the characters were uncharacteristically dense this time around, yes physics was abandoned, yes I face palmed once or twice but dammit I enjoyed it and got my zombie fix for the week.

    k2000k
    Reply

  34. Oh course they freaked out. Their only highschool kids and with the exception of Hirano have never handled firearms before. Takashi didn’t necessarily use Rei as a mount, she had the gun harnessed still so instead of wasting time trying to get it off of her he just started firing away. We’ve yet to see any zombie animals, so maybe it doesn’t affect them.

    EliteF22
    Reply

    1. Valid point. I didn’t see any animal zombies. So, it must only affect humans…

      Rei was hurt from the fall and it was made clear he didn’t know how to use or shoot guns. Explain why he was missing his shots and why Rei couldn’t get up or move.

      Then again, a lot of things in this anime didn’t make sense:

      Why is killing the head stop zombies?…If they are real zombies, body parts move independently no matter what to them.

      Why isn’t anybody wearing armours?…Everybody should be like people in Mad Max from thunder dome.

      Chaos
      Reply

      1. Actually, it’s pretty much common knowledge that the only way to take out a Zombie is by destroying its head. It’s like Silver Bullets and Werewolves, Garlic and Vampires. Remember, it’s freaking Zombies. THE LIVING DEAD. Does it really need to be logical?

        Actar
        Reply

  35. This show gets worse with every episode. Had they got rid of the ridiculously pointless fanservice and work some more on the characters’ retardation they may have had something; but then it wouldn’t conform to the typically terrible standards that 90% of anime these days follow now would it?

    Tomer
    Reply

  36. Been lurking around RM/RC for awhile now but this is my first time posting. On the episode; I think everyone is being a bit unfair about the situation. The “wire” that spanned the street is called a Cable/Guard Barrier. From the wiki article it looks like that stuff could take a direct hit from a speeding humvee without flinching.

    As far as not dragging Rei through the fence goes; considering she was strapped to the rifle and couldn’t move, dragging her over the wire would have taken several people and alot of time. It would have been possible, but everyone did (understandably) panic a bit. They also would have been forced to leave all their supplies behind with the car, which could be a fatal mistake.

    The terrible FS just makes me laugh and shake my head. It’s there to pad the action scenes and to give the audience something else to watch. The “Bullet Boobs Time” was imo just meant to be intentionally over the top. It’s the same style as Gurren-Lagann with “Yes it’s totally ridiculous, but isn’t it really cool as well!”. So for myself, I’m really enjoying the series.

    Silentghost
    Reply

  37. The anime makes the fence look harmless.
    http://www.mangafox.com/manga/highschool_of_the_dead/v03/c009/4.html
    Same scene in the Manga. Watch the zombies get sliced up.
    I wouldn’t attempt to try crawling through that and get stuck especially while in panic or shock.

    There is just too much boob bounce, I started just guessing how many times I would see boob bounces by the end of the episode, but the matrix bullet boob time took the cake. I paused or had a minor rage after my tolerance meter went overload.

    Well upon seeing this changes to this episode, I expect their to be some minor changes, some fillers, and some chapter swapping here and there but nothing major.

    As for my thoughts on a season 2
    Show Spoiler ▼

    PunkZombie
    Reply

  39. I find it hilarious that many of you are talking about “pointless” fanservice. When does fanservice serve any actual purpose excepting its name sake? (Service for fans!) Pointless fanservice indeed. I find that a very comical conundrum.

    I liked the episode, as I have all the others, but I guess my expectations were such that I expected the whole thing to be ridiculous. A few thoughts: the matrix boobs. Dumb? yes. Hilarious? I think so. Unnecessary? Absolutely. But then again who the hell really cares? Saeko drooling. I never thought dull could be cute. I stand corrected. Tasashi you really need to learn to shoot a gun. Finally I think its easy to say other people are dense when we’re sitting on our butts at a computer. Now I’m not justifying the behavior of the characters. I like to think that I would act better, but I’ve been in some stress situations before and thinking clearly is usually the first thing to go in a rough circumstance.

    I must say that I also find the discussion of “realism” funny as well. We’re talking about a story where dead bodies animate and eat humans, which in turn go dead and re-animate in matter of moments. Realism has no place in this discussion. Just my personal opinion.

    Me
    Reply

    1. tl;dr

      Tits and asses, tits and asses. Story? Character development? Meh!

      Zero thinks this is the best show of the season. Hahahah. This is the biggest piece of trash. Try Sengoku Basara if you’re looking for a quality anime. Oh Japan, if only 99% of animes you produce didn’t suck. Even American dramas are better than this trash.

      Wat
      Reply

      1. Asking for quality plot and character developement in an anime wich opening sequence is full load of fanservice and it’s manga is also like that is an nonsense. You knew it from the beggining and know you are complaining about something you knew before. Drop this anime already and quit complaining.

        This is that kind of stuff. Watch rainbow if you want a good story.

        LoL
        Reply

  40. I heard a lot of complains in this episode and for good reasons. It would make prefect sense if the wire were barbwire instead. A realistic reason why nobody would crawl through them. They should have made it taller, too so it make sense why nobody would jump over it because it is too tall. Why didn’t Rei get up? I figure she broke a bone or two from the fall.

    It could have been way better if they would have made it more believeable. As far as Booby Matrix, it just for entertainment. No used trying to reason with entertainment.

    One thing we can’t complain about is the setup for Takashi x Seako time in next episode…I see that nobody mention the fact that Saeko get a sword in the next eps. If there was a zombie apocalypse, I would get 2 things first: swords & guns.

    Chaos
    Reply

  41. that was absolutely ridiculous!!i mean the slow motion boobs shooting thing..its was like boobs version of matrix..hahaha!!the way Saeko’s boobs moved to dodge the bullet..talking bout fan service..when i was watching the episode, i’m like..dude~wth?but watever man~things happening in animes are bs anyway.. :p

    noctis
    Reply

  42. just whats wit that episode,seems a lil bit weird watching big breasts dodging some frickin bullet. and another part, i was like OMG how did that large legs of hers evaded and was not hit by that,again,the “bullet”. >.< kewl 😀

    jinjerald
    Reply

  43. the intro sentence should be

    >>> A night has passed, and the second day begins. Trouble anew, they meet a new foe… the “impenetrable” barb wire fence. with the colons… ah shit…

    the holes of the fence is like 2 and a half feet basing the fireman’s size… it can accommodate breast sizes up to cup “Z” (if there is Z lolx, just adding exaggeration to show how big the hole is) so i don’t why the writer do that…

    Animeniac
    Reply

  45. um why not slip in between those wire? :0

    i can see the gap is wide enuf to allow ppl crawl between them ….
    instead of fire fight and drama they got plenty of time to crawl !!!!

    :Q …. Boobies Matrix…….

    Seafarer
    Reply

  49. Wow people, I have to agree that some of this is a little over the top….. (Bouncing boobs and all) But I really think that this is one of the best animes out there…. So for all you haters out there….. Stop Bit**ing…..

    Hahaha
    Reply

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