Leave it to anime to find a way to stick gratuitous fan service in a show about zombies.
I don't know why I'm surprised. At this point I'm ready to expect fan service to appear in historical dramas and children's programming. Fan service is just one of those things - like epic nosebleeds or giant sweat drops - that peppers the landscape of anime whether you want it to or not.
Oh well. Moving on.
I saw several clips from High School of the Dead during Sakuracon this year. The best was a parody AMV of the song "Call Me Maybe." I'd try to explain it but I don't think I'd do it justice. Just know it was pretty dang funny and a well made fan video over all.
The show itself isn't nearly as funny, but then it isn't supposed to be. This is a show about zombies, after all, and it is serious business. There is lots of screaming and running and yelling and dramatic pauses for deep emotional reflection.
Once again this is anime after all, and you can't have anime without long, dramatic, pregnant pauses where characters reflect on their emotional baggage with other characters or themselves. Even if the zombie apocalypse is happening.
And the zombie apocalypse is happening here. They don't play around in High School of the Dead. People start dying early on and it is graphic and violent and nasty. Flesh tears, bone cracks, and blood spurts all over the place.
Of course then the real drama starts happening, because character development is the backbone of a good zombie story. How do the survivors react to what they are seeing, what they are doing? How do they treat each other and themselves? How do they go on when their whole world has changed?
I'm only a couple of episodes in but so far I'm intrigued. Fan service isn't exactly my thing but good storytelling sure is, and so far as characters are introduced and storylines are laid out, I'm interested to see what happens next. I see much pain, anger, fear, romance, and panties in the future.
