Highschool of the Dead - zombie otaku
zombie skinship
Highschool of the Dead - fanservice
Zombie? What zombie?

School’s out forever when zombies show up for class. But the undead aren’t the only pus heads hungry for the flesh of young girls – so are fanboys!

After all, just because these girls are about to become zombie lunch, doesn’t mean they can’t be a sexy zombie lunch. Highschool of the Dead delivers with gratuitous amounts of fanservice.

It’s not just warranted things like bouncing body parts or ripped clothes, the camera often drops well below eye level and holds there for an awkward amount of time, even in the middle of what’s supposed to be a frightening zombie attack.

While fanboys may appreciate indiscriminate T&A, those looking for some serious horror will just find it distracting.

Highschool of the Dead - torpedo titsOVERBLOWN.

All the characters have ridiculously big breasts. It’s not just the teachers and students, even zombies look like porn stars (well, except for the whole decomposing thing). Clearly artist Shouji Satou likes ’em big but not just any kind will do. While the size may vary (slightly) from girl to girl, the shape does not. They all have torpedo tits, huge gravity-defying tits that stick straight out. As improbable as these breasts may seem in the real world, in Satou’s world they’re standard issue. But they’re not just for show. They’re practical too. When one of students has difficulty shooting he decides to use his classmate’s chest to absorb the recoil of his rifle (bullet time).

HIGHSCHOOL OF THE DEAD 101

After witnessing a series of bizarre murders at his school, Takashi Komoru rushes to save his childhood friend and unrequited love Rei Miyamoto… and her boyfriend Hisashi Igou (sigh). Fortunately for him, Hisashi gets infected which forces Takashi to man up. His new take charge attitude not only impresses Rei but the rest of the students, who unanimously elect Takashi Komuro as leader of the group. His first order: save their parents! Conveniently the other students’ parents are away on business, to which they comically inquire “What are you, a manga character?”

Highschool of the Dead - characters
Takashi Komuro, Saeko Busujima, Rei Miyamoto, Saya Takagi, Shizuka Marikawa, Kohta Hirano (clockwise from the front)

Fourth wall jokes notwithstanding, the characters are anything but two-dimensional. The manga beautifully employs flashbacks that elevate what would otherwise be tertiary characters. And each episode ends with an ever expanding bulletin board of missing persons that illustrates the changes characters have undergone since Z-Day.

Highschool of the Dead is like a manga version of The Walking Dead comic. It’s not so much about the dead as it is the living and how they cope, which isn’t very well. Not only do they have to deal with other survivors that want their women & weapons, the group has it’s own issues (besides Takashi killing Rei’s old boyfriend).

On the outside, Kohta Hirano and Saeko Busujima couldn’t be more different, he’s a gun otaku and she’s a distinguished kendo student but they do have one thing in common. They’ve both been holding in violent urges, that is until now. But while Saeko fears what she’s becoming, Kohta fears going back to the way he used to be, a nobody. On the other hand, the group’s resident (self-proclaimed) genius Saya Takagi, desperately wants things back to normal if only so she can go back to proving her mental superiority to the people keeping her alive. Ironically, the most well-balanced member of the group is Shizuka Marikawa, the top heavy school nurse. Alone none of them would survive very long, but together they stand a chance of moving on to the next year!

Highschool of the Dead back from hiatus!