High School of the Dead Review
Oct. 23rd, 2010 01:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
This series has a number of positive and negative aspects as well as things that irritated me or left me meh but overall I really enjoyed it. It was fun and I liked the characters.
- A big draw for me was the fact that the main group of survivors that we follow is made up of 2 men and four women, five after they rescue Arisa. That was unexpected and seemed very awesome. And while I am still happy about it after watching the entire series I am left a bit disappointed somewhat with how things played out. Our main POV character is one of the men (of course) and thus he gets a lot more of the screen-time/stuff to do than anyone else. At times it seems as if there are so many women in the group only so this could be a sort of harem situation (the three high school girls have some sort of crush on him, and the adult hits on him once), despite the fact that the women outnumber the men I don’t think it actually does pass the Bechdel Test every episode, and some of how the women are portrayed really bugs me.
Shizuka is the loveable, well-meaning and a completely helpless idiot but it’s actually Rei’s arc that bugs me the most out of everything in the series. Rei in the pilot has moments of helpless fear and panic, she vacillates between denial, terror and rage and it’s all very understandable. But she also fights back and kicks ass. As the series goes on we continue to get to see her as a warrior/fighter and she has a couple moments of ‘awesome!’ and then... something happens, and I don’t know why, but she ends up in the ‘helpless/need to be protected’ role more and more. It really bugs me. Everyone needs help, to be protected, sometimes but as one of the designated ‘fighters’ of the group that should not be a position she should be in every episode. I mean the fact that she acquirers a big ass gun in episode 8 and then never gets to shoot it from that point on says a lot. Hell, Takashi gets to shoot it but not Rei. Oy.
There is a lot that I do like about how the female characters are dealt with and how they interact with each other and the guys. I like that a number of the supporting characters we meet are female and are shown as competent. There are some gender issues that bugged me a lot though I think that some of that is cultural differences.
- The fan service is completely ridiculous. In the first episode we get Rei fighting one-on-one with a zombie for the first time and in the middle of the battle the camera suddenly pauses to show up her skirt, and then a second later we get a shot of her panty covered ass. *shakes head* There are a lot of similar shots throughout the series and in particular the director appears to be pretty obsessed with breasts as there are a lot of shots of them. All the girls have huge breasts and we get many shots of them straining against clothes of various sizes, mostly bared, and bouncing around. Personally I don’t find huge breasts like that all that sexy or appealing – Shizuka’s breasts are so big that they’re kind of gross and at one point Takashi shoots a bullet between Saeto’s breasts, as they bounce around it, which was just bizarre. But overall the fan service actually didn’t bother me all that much and while sometimes it annoyed me (hi, less panty/breast shots, more shots of the battle, thanks) mainly it simply made me roll my eyes. Oh, and I did like the gratuitous, silly bathroom scene in episode six.
Relationships
I don’t really ship any pairing strongly but I do like or am very intrigued by:
Rei/Saeto – I was intrigued by Rei/Saeto from the very beginning because of a bit in the credits that shows them huddled together in some building, clothes ripped up as zombie hands reach for them (and yet they don’t look defeated/cowering) and it pinged my femslash radar. There wasn’t much for them for most of the series until the final two episodes – the lack of jealousy over Takashi, the hint of the shared secret between them, Rei saving Saeto in the battle at the mansion and the silent exchange/acknowledgement between them (also Saeto being impressed by Rei in episode 2) all make me ship them now.
Rei/Takashi/Saeto – We have the obvious/canon Takashi/Rei and Takashi/Saeto relationships. One he loves deeply and the other he respects and shares a hidden secret/shame, there’s their admiration/love for him and then my shipping of the girls together and it just seems the obvious thing to do.
Shizuka/Rika – They’re totally a couple, y/y? Rika is so competent and Shizuka is – not. They worry about each other and maybe live together. I don’t know I ship it. Shizuka is totally Rika’s scatterbrained girlfriend.
Souichirou/Yuriko – I want to know how they got together, what they’re like together in private – they’ve just really hit some sort of button for me. He’s so powerful (in every way really) and she’s so competent and his equal. They seem to be partners. I want a series just on them.
- A big draw for me was the fact that the main group of survivors that we follow is made up of 2 men and four women, five after they rescue Arisa. That was unexpected and seemed very awesome. And while I am still happy about it after watching the entire series I am left a bit disappointed somewhat with how things played out. Our main POV character is one of the men (of course) and thus he gets a lot more of the screen-time/stuff to do than anyone else. At times it seems as if there are so many women in the group only so this could be a sort of harem situation (the three high school girls have some sort of crush on him, and the adult hits on him once), despite the fact that the women outnumber the men I don’t think it actually does pass the Bechdel Test every episode, and some of how the women are portrayed really bugs me.
Shizuka is the loveable, well-meaning and a completely helpless idiot but it’s actually Rei’s arc that bugs me the most out of everything in the series. Rei in the pilot has moments of helpless fear and panic, she vacillates between denial, terror and rage and it’s all very understandable. But she also fights back and kicks ass. As the series goes on we continue to get to see her as a warrior/fighter and she has a couple moments of ‘awesome!’ and then... something happens, and I don’t know why, but she ends up in the ‘helpless/need to be protected’ role more and more. It really bugs me. Everyone needs help, to be protected, sometimes but as one of the designated ‘fighters’ of the group that should not be a position she should be in every episode. I mean the fact that she acquirers a big ass gun in episode 8 and then never gets to shoot it from that point on says a lot. Hell, Takashi gets to shoot it but not Rei. Oy.
There is a lot that I do like about how the female characters are dealt with and how they interact with each other and the guys. I like that a number of the supporting characters we meet are female and are shown as competent. There are some gender issues that bugged me a lot though I think that some of that is cultural differences.
- The fan service is completely ridiculous. In the first episode we get Rei fighting one-on-one with a zombie for the first time and in the middle of the battle the camera suddenly pauses to show up her skirt, and then a second later we get a shot of her panty covered ass. *shakes head* There are a lot of similar shots throughout the series and in particular the director appears to be pretty obsessed with breasts as there are a lot of shots of them. All the girls have huge breasts and we get many shots of them straining against clothes of various sizes, mostly bared, and bouncing around. Personally I don’t find huge breasts like that all that sexy or appealing – Shizuka’s breasts are so big that they’re kind of gross and at one point Takashi shoots a bullet between Saeto’s breasts, as they bounce around it, which was just bizarre. But overall the fan service actually didn’t bother me all that much and while sometimes it annoyed me (hi, less panty/breast shots, more shots of the battle, thanks) mainly it simply made me roll my eyes. Oh, and I did like the gratuitous, silly bathroom scene in episode six.
Relationships
I don’t really ship any pairing strongly but I do like or am very intrigued by:
Rei/Saeto – I was intrigued by Rei/Saeto from the very beginning because of a bit in the credits that shows them huddled together in some building, clothes ripped up as zombie hands reach for them (and yet they don’t look defeated/cowering) and it pinged my femslash radar. There wasn’t much for them for most of the series until the final two episodes – the lack of jealousy over Takashi, the hint of the shared secret between them, Rei saving Saeto in the battle at the mansion and the silent exchange/acknowledgement between them (also Saeto being impressed by Rei in episode 2) all make me ship them now.
Rei/Takashi/Saeto – We have the obvious/canon Takashi/Rei and Takashi/Saeto relationships. One he loves deeply and the other he respects and shares a hidden secret/shame, there’s their admiration/love for him and then my shipping of the girls together and it just seems the obvious thing to do.
Shizuka/Rika – They’re totally a couple, y/y? Rika is so competent and Shizuka is – not. They worry about each other and maybe live together. I don’t know I ship it. Shizuka is totally Rika’s scatterbrained girlfriend.
Souichirou/Yuriko – I want to know how they got together, what they’re like together in private – they’ve just really hit some sort of button for me. He’s so powerful (in every way really) and she’s so competent and his equal. They seem to be partners. I want a series just on them.