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The second title reviewed for the ‘Anime of the Year 2011’ audition, coincidentally also this blog’s 200th entry (furthermore, in World IPv6 Day), is for the one-episode Highschool of the Dead OVA, titled Drifters of the Dead. Surprisingly, there is no ANN entry for this OVA. This anime isn’t even a full-length OVA episode, yet it is able to do what 98% of the anime titles reviewed here before hasn’t done. Want to know what it is? Read on until the end.
Story:-
Summary: This OVA is definitely the best ever ‘beach/hot spring’ episode in anime history.*
*=outside hentai titles of course.
For a slightly longer explanation,expand the spoiler button below.
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Just when the zombie busters group is about to enter the shopping mall shown at the end of the first season, suddenly they were whisked away to a nearby off-shore island. There, they accidentally something related to pot, and hell started to break loose again. A ‘hell’ that is good for the viewers 
This OVA doesn’t contribute anything to the series storywise, or character development either. This beach episode incident, which isn’t seen in the manga, is actually pretty much the same as the beach episodes that happened in other anime titles (read: nothing happened). Instead, the fan-service element of this series comes out to the fore, arguably even more so that it is in the preceding first season.
Being only half-episode long, do not really expect any plot expansion and character developments here. Just enjoy the daring things a couple of the characters in this anime are doing here. And other anime titles can pick a couple of points from this OVA. The beach episode in Infinite Stratos is nowhere as good as this OVA, for example. Basically, this OVA has very minimal differences to a ecchi doujinshi, and that’s a very good thing.
How many times have you seen an unofficial doujin being animated anyway?
The extremely lucky main male protagonist, right before doing ‘that ecchi thing’…
Character Design:-
My comment from the same section in the review of the first season still applies.
Voice Acting:-
My comment from the same section in the review of the first season still applies.
Music:-
My comment from the same section in the review of the first season still applies.
There are more zombies in the opening sequence than in the island.
Animation/Direction:-
Just as expected, this anime doesn’t use the blurry animation technique seen in Infinite Stratos, and this vindicates my decision to watch this OVA (the only sequel in this audition) after it. Being a Blu-ray rip, it seems that the animation quality in this OVA has improved quite slightly, with no more of the character animation problems seen in the first season.
As for choreography and directing, I suppose that my comment from the same section in the review of the first season still applies.
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Conclusion:-
10 out of 10. Twice as good as the first entry of the audition, Infinite Stratos, despite being only 16 minutes or so in length. A second season is really needed, but with the rate the manga is going, 2013 is a more realistic date for it.
With this, this OVA basically has both hands of the ‘Anime of the Year 2011’ title. The rest of the titles in the audition will have a lot of work to do to prevent this OVA from running away with it.
Second Season – Make it happen Japan!
Shortlink: http://wp.me/prgSo-oP
