high school of the dead 5

Watching High School of the Dead makes me hanker for some Final Fantasy Tactics, if, you know, I wasn’t knee deep in zerg.

The animation vacillates too much between “acceptable” and “lazy” at this point. Too many static pose shots, too many speedlines, and just general laziness. Heck, the fanservice panty shots aren’t even as detailed as before. What gives? Is Madhouse botching this up like how Microsoft botched up Windows Me?

(I think they spent their budget too fast and too early… or they just blew it on all the boing boing effects for Sound Effect Sensei. I can’t wait for episode 12 that’ll make Evangelion 26 look like Toy Story 3.)

(Takagi… I dunno. Useless NPC? She doesn’t really do much except whine, complain, and do tsundere-like emotes concerning Takashi.)

OMFG! Simon! Or was it Viral-Simon? I’m liking Hirano more. Can’t wait until he starts hogging the automatic rifles like Golem and his Precious. I kinda wish they went more on the MacGuyver or Mythbusters route with Hirano… he could piece together and make all sorts of fun instruments of death instead of just giving him gun boner after gun boner.

(Hirano is definitely an Archer. Range attacks with physical damage weapons. Have I mentioned FFT is one of my favorite video games of all time? Also rounding out the list from those days… StarCraft. I remember playing it constantly in the dorms, and I have pangs of nostalgia for LAN play. Too bad Blizzard took that out and replaced it with the crack cocaine achievement system for SC2.)

(If we had achievements for HSotD, would they be something like “Slay 10 Zombies” for 10 points, “Headshot 10 Zombies” for 10 points, and “Participate in a Hot Tub Orgy” for 50 points?)

Sound Effect Sensei? Reminded me of this video. Thanks Hiero Yo for the link!

(Sound Effect Sensei, SES, is the priest. I just don’t remember priests in FFT doing nakkid rubdowns.)

Still trying to figure out how Rei (a) jumps higher than LeBron James (b) manages to keep her balance despite such a handicap in terms of center of gravity (c) keeps those thigh highs… high… despite a day passing and no-reapplication of sock glue (d) hasn’t gone Yuno yet over Takashi. She’s clearly jealous of every girl that even talks to him, which is hilarious since she just saw him kill her boyfriend, oh, a day ago.

(Rei’s a lancer. Easy peasy.)

I like how Saeko just casually mentions that the only thing keeping her going is to see Takashi again. Only in anime can we get a semi-convincing harem scenario going in the midst of a zombie apocalypse. She’s also this cool as ice character… and she seems to instantly fall for Takashi. She doesn’t even do the tsundere act, leaving it to Takagi. Mmm… tsundere Saeko…

(Saeko Busujima… samurai. If samurai, you know, wore skirts that weigh next to nothing.)

A Minami appears! I like how Rika will eventually put in a bit too much effort in tracking down SES. No doubt the reason SES doesn’t have a boyfriend is because… well… she went to the same All-Girls School that Mugi wants to go to.

(Chest massages should be part of any sniper training course. Why don’t I ever see this on Sniper School on Military Channel or Top Shot on History Channel?)

The zombie survival horror genre needs more orgy buses. I hope they work this in the next Resident Evil movie somehow. And watching the stupidity of the people on the bus, it’s like watching Congress in action. Hell, let’s get Congress some orgy buses… they could use the loosening up.

(Shidou had a solid ten minute stomach punch moment after Hirano shot the nail at him and then another one when he realized he the three girls with the biggest hopes and dreams departed the orgy bus.)

My favorite part of the episode, when these poor saps just get owned. Reason #74 why trying to impressive girls during a zombie apocalypse will only hasten your metamorphosis into zombie chow.

I liked how Takashi took out all the zombies with the bike. Reminded me of the first episode of Ga-Rei Zero.

(Takashi… was a squire, now a knight. Job change 4tw!)

22 Responses to “high school of the dead 5”

  1. fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiirst

  2. Well… Takagi does have a nice rack. And that fang. And, at least theoretically, she’s the smart one. Certainly smarter than Sound Effect Sensei and everyone in the orgy bus of doom.

    Needs more Rei though. Maybe some more of Sound Effect Sensei, if only because.. welll, fanservice.

  3. Also, now we know who’s next in line to be zombie chow: feRfe looks like the type who tries to impress ganguro girls by going “FIIIIIIIIRRRSSTT”, only to get eaten shortly after. :D

  4. btw kanbaru = saeko is sorta lol

  5. manner haess.. that doesnt even make sense -.-;

  6. Takagi is the mage. The only issue here is that magick doesn’t exist in this world, so she’s stuck being nothing but smart.

  7. I have few coherent thoughts to offer, besides:

    Busujima >>>>>>>> Celty.

    Okay, fine, and something else; this is like every zombie B-movie I watched in college, but with so much more awesome. The girls /aren’t/ useless screaming wimps whose job is to get kidnapped and then rescued. There is little to no idiocy controlling the main character group. The thing that always pissed me off about Dawn of the Dead the like is a general lack of competence in NOT GETTING BITTEN, so High School of the Dead is like my wish came true.

    I can’t believe you’re complaining about the animation! Anime will always have static shots, no matter how much money you have; as long as they deliver during the action and fanservice scenes, I’m happy.

  8. @feRfe: Makes plenty of sense. (1) You’re making an awful lot of noise. (2) Zombies are attracted to noise. (3) They’re coming for you next.
    Binged on Serial Experiments Lain right after HOTD 5, and I have to say… whoa.

  9. @Ayame: I could be mistaken, but I don’t recall static shots in 5 cm/s or Ghost in the Shell: SAC.

  10. right cuz text makes noise

  11. I hope LuCT remake won’t suck as much as the war of the lion since they’re both on psp.

  12. The reason you didn’t see static shots in GITS:SAC is because it was so hard to tell the REST of the animation from static shots….no comment on 5cm, haven’t watched it.

  13. FeRfe: more like anyone dumb enough to mark “FIiiiirrrrrrrrrsttttt!” their post on anything just to get attention is like the doomed asshole in the second-last pic showing off to the ganguro girls. Plus all-caps is the Interbet equivalent of shouting, so it’s not hard to imagine you rushing onto the orgy bus, then turning atoned to scream “FIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIRST!”, only to become zombie chow as all of the ones in a four-block radius cut off your escape as the bus is out of gas and in zombie central.

  14. Hirano………. WILL PIERCE THE HEAVEN!!!! WITH…….. Double Tap lol
    My friends like him and the fact that the Seiyuu of Viral is awesome.

  15. If you want to put it FFT-style, the party would be like this:

    Komuro: Ramza on his Custom Squire (as he can equip a myriad of close-range weapons)
    Rei: Dragoon
    Saeko: Agrias of the PSP version (aka: invincible) with Katana feat
    Hirano: Mustadio
    Takagi: Mathematician or Dancer (pump the rest of the party)
    SES: Priest (having Rika as friend is like the Holy attack ability)
    Rika: Balthier (only on PSP, but is a Mustadio on steroids)

    Arisu (or Alice) is my only doubt. Rafa (only useful at gathering stuff) or Thief, maybe. (low resistant, but fast as hell)

  16. lol get called dumb on an anime blog site for calling first

    you’re jealousy and ugly character is blatant

  17. Yup. Zombie food.

    On a semi-related note, where did Saeko learn to wield a katana like that, and why did she happen to carry it to school that day?

  18. @Haesslich: Busujima is the president of the kendo club. She happens to be carrying a bokken, not a katana. I suppose that leads to the question of why she has a bokken and not a shinai, to which I have no answer. It’s not unusual for strong/wild characters to carry one though (see: Taiga, Hinagiku).
    @feRfe: blog comments is srs bsns.

  19. So, I stopped playing L4D2 for a couple of months, picked it up again recently to play with some friends, and now all I can think about is the piss poor lack of fanservice Valve offers in their video games.

  20. chartsuki: Still, why carry a bokken around? Taiga did it because she was mean and ornery, and only carried it around a few times to nail Ryuuji. Hina acquired it from Isumi for that mission into the dungeon under the Church of Alexander Marco, and she doesn’t CARRY it around – it’s more she summons it when she needs it, and it magically appears in her hand because it’s enchanted and she’s cool and elegant. Hell, technically a bokken counts as a weapon since using it against someone even in armor can result in broken bones or death if you hit them right.

    Which of course is why it’s useful in HSoTD.

  21. Haess – Trying to make sense out of anime since 1999.

  22. So Takashi needed five chapters to become what Kurono became after 10+ volumes (badass, leader, has harem (more or less, since almost every girl in the early volumes of Gantz dies)). Also, riding a bike while SES grabs your crotch? Nice. I remembered the Aerosmith’s Amazing video. Too bad they weren’t in a car, if you know what I mean.
    And what do you mean, Jason? Takagi is cute and awesome. You should know by this point that tsunderes don’t need any special ability other than being tsundere.

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