For those who aren’t familiar with the studio, they’ve animated many popular anime, such as Death Note, Kaiji, Monster, and the recent RAINBOW. It’s well worth your time if you love zombies.įor those that are unaware, HIGHSCHOOL OF THE DEAD is animated by Madhouse Studios.

If you haven’t seen the movie, check it out ( and it’s sequel). That particular song played in the background, and right away I noticed the similarity. With a badass movie already attached to the song in my mind, it just makes the scenes with that BGM appear that much more awesome.

This is definitely not a bad thing, as I loved that movie and that theme. It’s so familiar that I swear it must be a homage to the movie. However, the background music must be mentioned though, as one of the main background songs has a chorus that sounds suspiciously like 28 Days Later’s “In A Heartbeat”. But honestly, don’t take my word for it as my failure to understand the lyrics just makes any song without a good melody seem bland to me. ED animation was pretty disappointing to say the least as there’s lots of good animations they could’ve done as an ED. The ED had the same effect for me, as it was just your typical anime songs that you’d find in any action anime. The electric guitar in the background fit the adrenaline pumping show, and the OP itself was entertaining. Hisashi’s agonizing screams as he took his last few breaths had my gut twisted right along with Takashi.Īs for the Opening and Ending songs, I’ve never found myself liking most anime OP’s or ED’s, but HOTD’s OP wasn’t one of the worst I’ve heard ( remember Death Note’s second OP?). As far as my ears can tell of “quality japanese voice acting”, these seiyuu pull off the screams and panic required in the show spotlessly. This kind of sucked for me as she’s played by Sawashiro Miyuki, a seiyuu favorite of mine ( and I don’t even have that many). The wonderful Busujima Saeko was also shown for a couple seconds, but she doesn’t have any lines in the first chapter. Most of the supporting characters were also introduced in this episode, such as Takagi Saya, a close classroom friend of Takashi’s, played by Kitamura Eri. As Takashi reaches the stairs, he looks back at the rooftop filled with “them”, and screams questioning why this was happening as the camera fiercely pans out. The scene quickly pans to Komuro Takashi, Miyamoto Rei ( Inoue Marina), and Igo Hisashi ( Miyano Mamoru), as they run towards “them”, smashing “them” left and right to get to their destination. “They” flash by with a direction of cinematography that soon grows familiar to those well versed in horror flicks. The episode starts off with a cold start with a stern narration done by Takashi ( Suwabe Junichi), the protagonist of the show. After several hiatuses on the manga, an oddly surprising adaptation appeared out of nowhere for HIGHSCHOOL OF THE DEAD, and today, here we are.

Highschool of the dead meme