Sometimes you watch a movie or tv show that is just so bad or completely over the top that it becomes funny. A case in point could be made for most of the Quentin Tarantino movies. He has been known to include such incredible violence and gore, that it is pretty much his trademark. People almost expect to see it in his movies, and as such are not easily offended by them anymore. I have recently watched the Anime series Highschool of the Dead. It also takes things not too seriously, but does it in a completely different way. I guess the old saying “Sex sells” has been pretty much invented for this one, but more on that later. So lets find out what the story of this show is, and I use the term story pretty loosely.

Highschool of the Dead pretty much sums up what the show is about. Yes, zombies are on the loose again, the end of the world is here, and a couple of highschool students have been caught up right in the middle of it all. As the outbreak begins to spread the group first has to survive an attack on the school, and then try to escape to a safe haven. The leader of the group, well if you can call him a leader, is the young boy Takashi Komuro. Together with his old girlfriend, and an assortment of other characters they have to try and survive in this new and dangerous world. However with the world falling ever more rapidly into total chaos, it is something that is easier said than done.

Okay, I love zombies and that is why this series had my interest. I wasn’t quite prepared for what this show turned out to be though. The fanservice in this is, too put it mildly, completely ridiculous. We have got a couple of increasingly scantily clad girls fighting zombies, and the camera just tries to show them as much as possible in pretty indencent ways. In the beginning this was actually funny, but as this trend continued in pretty much every episode I soon truly become annoyed by it. The characters themselves, especially the girls are pretty much a bunch of airheads. The only ones that I found mildly amusing were the chubby Otaku boy Kohta Hirano, and his secret crush Saya Tagaki. They actually had some funny moments, and as such managed on occasion to save a certain episode. The animation and action in this show are actually pretty good, and there were definitely some pretty cool fight scenes that are worth watching. I guess you could say, this show isn’t a total loss. If you are easily offended by scenes involving a lot of fanservice in sometimes enormous amounts you had best avoid this show. If you can look past it, I guess there is just enough to enjoy in this series, that you might give it a try.

I give Highschool of the Dead a 6 out of 10 score.