High School of the Dead #12 — “Zombies, What a Pain”

September 20th, 2010

 

Great line to basically end the show on, Madhoue.

Impressions:

To this episode’s credit, it would have been decent just about anywhere else in the show. Yeah, the EMP thing was beyond stupid and I cannot think of a way that they could have ended it worse short of all the zombies just suddenly crumbling into piles of cookies and My Little Ponies, but it was about as good as some of the early episodes. It had action, uncomfortable fanservice, and slapping a whiny little spoiled brat, and while the godawful stills were omnipresent as usual, at least they were much briefer and fewer than usual. That’s better than the last month and a half, at least. This episode should have really come immediately after they arrived at the mansion… and not involved EMPs in any way, shape or form.

Regardless though, I seriously cannot believe that Madhouse thought it was appropriate that after Saya’s family sacrificed themselves to save her ass and everybody they spent the last couple days with was killed, they decided to end it with the entire cast smiling and going "Man, zombies… So annoying, brosef!" –cut to ED– I also question their use of that quote about the world ending with a whimper after an episode about roaring zombie swarms and nuclear weapons. Oh well, it’s not like I suspected the writing to suddenly not suck. The humvee side-wheelie was the least of the problems. I think the EMP also turned the entire small army worth of defenders that the tent city had into dust too. They had an entire swarm of guards and weaponry a couple episodes back, and yet, the only people left to protect the mansion were the kids. And nobody noticed the zombies attacking the refugee camp until they were inside too. You’d think the EMP would have caused panic, but apparently everybody was taking their siesta and couldn’t be arsed to be awake in the middle of the day.

Final thoughts at the bottom.

 

Final Thoughts:

A generic zombie thriller seems impossible to screw up, but Madhouse found a way. It took sloppy, uneven production, oppressive flashbacks and recap, woefully bad writing and pacing, and a thick helping of angst in its twilight hours, but Madhouse cocked this up something fierce. It could have been an easy show to turn off your brain, look at some pretty images, and doze off in a tryptophan (or your controlled substance of choice) daze, but they couldn’t even manage that. The vast majority of the show was talking heads or stills. Sometimes both. The most ‘interesting’ parts of the whole show were the otherworldly breast physics and the terrifying fanservice. Zombie panty shots are a largely unexplored market for a reason.

The biggest issue is that it failed to even live up to its premise. After the first couple episodes, the zombies simply evaporated from the main characters lives at all times except when they decided to go somewhere, most of the time in an armored vehicle. No tension, no thrill. That’s what it boils down to. It handled that okay at the start and the last episode of the show, but the great wide expanse of the middle, the zombies were just missing until it was time to avoid them. When was it time to avoid them? When the characters decided to go fight them. In the second half of the show, they were little more than a background detail to give the characters an excuse to whine about how life’s not fair for teens.

If you want to watch it, just skip to all the action scenes and maybe look through some screencaps of the episode where everybody’s naked and groping each other. You can probably wring about 40 minutes worth of enjoyment out of that and another few out of laughing over Saeko’s sonic bullet-dodging breasts, but that’s about the start and end of what you might be able to squeeze out of it.

Posted in High School of the Dead | 26 Comments »

26 Shouts From the Peanut Gallery

  • Aex says:

    Well, pretty true to the manga, a few improvements, a few more screw-ups. Overall, it’s done and I’m glad. They even left it in a place they could pick it up again without going away from the manga, and gods help us all if they do a season 2…

  • cutemi2 says:

    The Zombies are coming, RAISE!!!

    good thing that it ended now

    “This is the Way the world ends, Not with a bang but a whimper”

    I’ll never see another season 2 ever

  • ShuffleAir says:

    So then, what are they going to be putting in the OVA?

  • Myssa Rei says:

    I had to shake my head at the surprise cameo of Asami’s sempai passing by the wall of pictures in the ED sequence. I think that definitely opens the door to a future continuation.

  • fuckin magnets says:

    the lich king was behind it all.

  • Mesousa says:

    This was a pretty damn good series.

    It WAS mindless, it WASN’T THAT badly plotted and paced.

    Unfortunately, the anime ends before the mall stuff. Madhouse loves screwing us, huh (happened the same thing during Needless, except thety were able to turn that one into an original ending)?

  • hikaricore says:

    They should have simply filmed a fat man taking a shit and released that weekly instead.
    I suspect the ratings would have been higher at any rate.

  • DmonHiro says:

    OK, maybe I’m just stupid, but answer me this: WHY did the government fire a Nuke that exploded above? The only reason was because they wanted to create an EMP. But WHY did they want to create an EMP? Zombies can’t use any devices. The only ones that got screwed were the humans.

    • Chen says:

      Madhouse watched too many Matrix films. That would also explain the sonic bullet-dodging breasts.

    • Brin says:

      If I recall correctly, the government aka America decides to launch its first strike capabilities because of “the president’s duty to the American people”. Apparently in the retaliation, one country decides to blow up the international space station and that creates the emp effect. I forget if the anime really shows that but in the manga they have the space station crew going “oh shi” when they see a nuke coming for them. So I think the emp was more of a side effect from that.

  • lubczyk says:

    Reminds me of Ghost in Shell 2nd Gig ending. “Ugh, we need an ending somehow.” Durr! America is evil because they use nuclear weapons. Derp, Derp! The End!

    At least this anime had one thing in common with zombie movies. There is no logic and the living in zombie movies are dumber than the zombies themselves.

    Good thing I only followed the blog and only watched the first and last episode.

  • lubczyk says:

    Also, I don’t get how the zombie virus spread. Why were there multiple breakouts all across the world and not in a localized area first. Additionally, why didn’t some of the cast get the virus while being exposed to zombies non-stop?

    And yeah, I don’t get how an EMP would stop zombies.

    • Albedo says:

      For your second question I have two words man:

      Plot armor

      To answer the other questions of yours I need to use 3 words:

      Deus ex Machina

  • Dr_Tenma says:

    I came across this recently and thought it would apply pretty well to here, to illustrate how zombie outbreak stories conveniently ignore ‘facts’ and ‘logic.’

    http://www.cracked.com/article_18683_7-scientific-reasons-zombie-outbreak-would-fail-quickly.html

    I haven’t see the episode, but seriously? I know sci-fi ‘human vs. aliens’ stories love weaponized EMP bursts, but using it on zombies is a new level of LOL WUT.

  • ark noir says:

    At least the EMP isn’t as bad as that logic defying Microwave weapon from Batman Begins that didn’t vaporize people.

  • sora says:

    UGH!!!I throw my hands in the air. seriously!?!? a cloverfield ending would have been better than this!!!

    and let’s face it, Japan may still have bitter feelings about… uhmmm… you know what… lol

    but seriously??? a EMP??? what the h e double hockey sticks will that do??? screw everyone over. yeah thats a great answer to everything :/

    and one more thing, how is it that the zombies were so amp to get inside the safe house??? they made no noise. madhouse has lived up to its name.

  • The Phantom says:

    Well its over, lol to be honest this was on the top of my mustwatch list, mostly because there was nothing else to watch, or perhaps there was nothing else watchable, it was fun but damn I hated the fanservice.

  • Madao says:

    Phew… So glad this shit is over ^_^

  • Anonymous says:

    this anime is about hot girls, hot blooded friendships and ass-kick adventure done by a bunch of highschool students fighting stupid zombies, why bothering it? If you like it, turn it on to enjoy the show, if not, just shut it off and go for another :D

  • Sho says:

    this anime is about hot girls, hot blooded friendships and ass-kick adventure done by a bunch of highschool students fighting stupid zombies, why bothering it? If you like it, turn it on to enjoy the show, if not, just shut it off and go for another :D

  • rincewind says:

    Great anime. Hoping for a second season… when the authors publish some more chapters. Those lazy bastards! :P
    By the way, the cracked article fail at zombie pseudo-cience forever. :P
    And the EMP is not intended to kill zombies, just to ensure that will not be survivor. I mean, to the survivor, the spoils, so, the less survivors, the better.

  • Frost says:

    Damn, So Much Confusion…But The Suspense Of If A Character Favorite Was Gonna Kept Me On Edge…I Kinda Really Look Forward To A Season 2…WTF Was The EMP About, Though It Will Make Shit A Lot Harder For The Remaining Survivors…Survival Of The Fittest

  • NoNeed says:

    I think we all get that the EMP sucked and made no sense but the thing that really got me was the car wheely. I mean you expect me to believe the air headed nurse who only their because she has big tits can pull of a move that I cant even do in Need For Speed?

  • Maetel the Cat says:

    Seriously, weren’t any of you watching?

    The Space Station (which was conveniently over Japan at that moment) was hit by a Nuke, and that’s what caused the EMP.

    Further, someone already commented that they read it happening that way in the Manga (and yes, it was shown happening that way in the episode as well).