Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		4.0

High School of the Dead: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie Review

Is there a discernable difference between an ordinary teenager and a zombie?

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman June 9, 2011

Film theory classes are not always a good thing. That may strike some as close to sacreligious, coming as it does from someone who goes around making pronouncements on various home entertainment products. But bringing too much analysis to various offerings can often be nothing more than a buzz kill. Years ago in my college days I took a Film Theory class from a woman who has gone on to some renown in scholarly circles, chairing one of the largest University Film Departments in the nation, though in those days she was at a relatively lowly university in a Rocky Mountain state (names are being withheld to protect the innocent). She would show us various classic or quasi-classic films, and then we students would of course pontificate upon what we had seen. I still recall being introduced to George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead (hence my qualifying quasi-classic above) in that class, and then writing a supposed learned essay on the famous line from that film, “If you shoot the head, you kill the ghoul,” which I took as a not so subtle swipe against hyperintellectualism. Of course, to paraphrase one Sigmund Freud, sometimes a zombie is just a zombie. If Night of the Living Dead (re)introduced the zombie genre to a post-modern audience, there’s been no stopping zombies since, as is of course perfectly appropriate. Probably due to zombies’ inherent comedy potential, zombie offerings frequently are a mash up of straightforward horror elements combined with more outré, giggle worthy fare that if nothing else helps to relieve the tension. That’s certainly the case with High School of the Dead, Sentai’s anime series now getting its Blu-ray release, though the show also adds in a high school romance angle that may make it more appealing for the Twilight fan base.

High School of the Dead doesn’t waste much time getting to the “good” stuff, starting with a violent pre-credits tease that pits several kids attempting to defend themselves in the midst of a horrifying zombie attack. We then go back a bit to right before the attack began and see events unfold anew. Takashi Komuro is a high school boy who has an argument with his longtime female friend, Rei Miyamoto. Taking a breather from the skirmish, he wanders outside just in time to witness a zombie attack at the front gates of his private school. Suddenly Takashi is thrust into a defensive position, something made even more horrible when in attempting to secure his and Rei’s escape, their companion and Rei’s boyfriend, Hisashi, is bitten by a zombie and has to be dealt with by Takashi. It becomes evident that Takashi and Rei have had a long simmering relationship which has included unrequited love on Rei’s part and typically boorish teenage boy behavior on Takashi’s part, despite his obviously deep feelings for Rei. While Rei had attempted to take comfort in Hisashi’s arms due to her faltering relationship with Takashi, she’s now in a do or die situation with the boy she’s always harbored feelings for, and that aspect is what gives High School of the Dead its teen heartthrob element, for better or worse.

The at least slightly odd thing about High School of the Dead is that that selfsame romantic element is probably going to be a bigger draw to younger females than males, while the rest of the show is decidedly geared toward the adolescent to young adult male demographic. Younger females who will probably swoon at the developing relationship between Takashi and Rei are also probably the most to erupt into a uniform “Ewww, gross!” at the bloody battle scenes, and ubiquitous “fan service” elements are obviously geared squarely toward the guys and may be a decided turn off for the girls. Despite the odd skewing of potential audiences, High School of the Dead is for the most part an interesting and at times very well done take on the well worn zombie genre, and the teen focus gives it an unusual perspective which the series exploits very well indeed.

As Takashi and Rei and their small band of cohorts makes it through the devastating post-zombiefication of the world, they of course come into contact not only with the walking dead, but a series of encampments of survivors, survivors who don’t always behave much better than the zombies themselves. High School of the Dead is really a rather surprisingly sober enterprise in that regard, positing the surviving humans as a desperate bunch out to save their own individual skins, at times without much empathy for the rest of the non-bitten crowd. The show deals with this issue comedically at times, as when a young school girl kicks away a friend she has just promised to stick with forever after the friend is grabbed by zombies, but more often than not there’s a serious undertone to the proceedings that helps to keep the series from seeming too silly.

Where the series does seem silly is in its almost obsessive compulsive, frankly adolescent infatuation with “fan service.” Never before have gruesome zombies been interpolated between so much up the skirt action. The show seems to spend at least as much time on girls’ panties and heaving bosoms as it does in the slack jawed, bloody slothfulness of the zombies. It’s certainly funny, but it is one of this show’s most bizarre elements, and a combination which may not sit well with the more prudish in the audience. (It should also be noted that the English dub is full of obscenities, so this is definitely not a show for the younger tykes in the household).

High School of the Dead never even tries to escape from the stereotypes and clichés of its genre, but it doesn’t really have to. The mere fact that we’re dealing with high schoolers in an anime to begin with is enough to give the series a definite edginess that it probably wouldn’t have had with adult protagonists in a live action setting. The interplay between these kids is very well handled, the show is very attractively designed and drawn, and overall if you still have the feeling you’ve seen this all before, chances are you’ll similarly be thinking you’ve never seen it quite like this.

High School of the Dead: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

High School of the Dead looks bloody good (sorry) courtesy of an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. The really interesting thing about this series is how it interpolates gorgeously languid looking shots of the sylvan Japanese countryside—things like beautiful cherry trees dropping their blossoms—within the more expected gruesome rampages by the zombies, but in both instances this Blu-ray looks fantastically sharp and well detailed. The backgrounds are often painterly and quite well done, and there are frequent quasi-three dimensional aspects to the presentation which also pop quite nicely. Colors are excellently robust and well saturated, and line detail is also well above average. The character designs are appealing, if not especially unique, but the settings are exceptional, and some of the light effects, utilized quite abundantly through the show, are also very, very well done.

High School of the Dead: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

High School of the Dead has a really (and I mean really) robust lossless English dub presented in a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix. This track is exceptionally well done, with quick bursts of sound that add to the shock value of many scenes, but with an overall attention to surround activity and effects placement that is really laudable. Everything from panning helicopter rotors to the menacing grunts and groans of the approaching zombies fills the soundscape with nicely immersive moments. LFE is more than abundant here, with a throbbing soundtrack that makes copious use of the subwoofer. Voicework is also excellent, admirably capturing the nuances of all the major characters. By contrast, though we do get a lossless original Japanese language track, it's only in DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0, and the difference is astounding, and not just from a surround activity standpoint. The Japanese track is much narrower in every sense of the word, with a much less fulsome low end, and an overall cramped sound. This is one time I wholeheartedly recommend sticking with the English dub.

High School of the Dead: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Clean Opening Animation (HD; 1:33)
• Clean Closing Animations (HD; 21:16)

High School of the Dead: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

High School of the Dead may not really forge any excitingly new territory either in terms of anime or in zombie outings in particular, but it's a very well done series that benefits from exceedingly sharp design and a very aggressive soundtrack. While the cliché-ridden aspects of the basic storyline can't be denied, there's still a lot here to enjoy along the way. This is not a show for prudes, who will be easily offended by the naughty language and the frequent emphasis on the female anatomy, and it is similarly not a show for the squeamish, as the series certainly doesn't shirk from the bloodier aspects of fighting a zombie horde. If you don't fall into either of those categories, chances are you'll get a kick out of High School of the Dead. Highly recommended.