Do you play the Left 4 Dead game series? If the answer is yes, join me and my like-minded friends above at another Japan-based Left 4 Dead Steam group that I am member in as we defend Tokyo eastern United States from the zombie apocalypse! Add me in your friend list via my profile here.
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.
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’…
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.
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.
Do you play the Left 4 Dead series? If yes, join me and my like-minded friends above at Left 4 Dead Japan Steam Group as we defend Tokyo eastern United States from the zombie apocalypse! Add me in your friend list via my profile here.
Today, Highschool of the Dead will have the honors of being the first 2010 anime that will challenge the newly anointed ‘Anime of the Year 2010’ title holder Working!! Featuring a storyline that is very common in the Western world in multiple forms of entertainment media, will this anime set up in the suburbs of modern Japan shoots its way to the title?
Of course you silly, silly boy! You are in an anime now! Probably the first ever zombie apocalypse anime ever made.
Story:-
It’s spring in Japan, and the school year has just started. Suddenly, from out of the blue, the ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE arrived! A ragtag bunch consisted of several high-school students (and their anatomically-incorrect school nurse) then has to fight their way out of their zombie-infested school, one safe-room episode at a time as the world slowly descends into a NUCLEAR APOCALYPSE!
Frankly speaking, the storyline in this anime is not much different than your typical Hollywood B-movies that has the same plot. Here you will see the conventional zombies that is sensitive to sound (while forsaking the other 4 senses), has supernatural strength, hard to kill except with a headshot and cannot cross any body of water. Fortunately for our survival team, the zombies here walks slowly plus the infection vector doesn’t spread airborne. If this is Left 4 Dead, which I play quite extensively, this ragtag bunch won’t survive a day with those fast common infected and of course, the special infected.
Oh BTW, those zombies doesn’t walk around moaning ‘Brainnnnnsss’ or whatever its Japanese equivalent.
And just like those B-grade Hollywood flicks, fan service rules the roost. If in those films, you can see scantily-clad women with the tightest of outfits and the least amount of fabric possible, armed with shotgun while cr0wning those undeads, in this anime you can see pretty much the same thing, except that the female characters prefers to melee the undead instead of shooting them. I have to admit, I do really like them hehehehe. The fan-service is definitely one of the most important traits this anime has, which is reinforced by the fact that as the series goes on, the amount of fabrics that the female characters wears become lesser and lesser with every passing hour.
Zombie apocalypse and fan service aside, is the story is any good? Well, I have never seen any of those B-grade Hollywood flicks being nominated for Best Picture in Academy Awards, thus you should not expect any Hayao Miyazaki-quality storyline in this manga-adapted anime. But then again, I highly enjoyed watching this fast-paced action-packed title, assisted by flawless plot progression all the way to the ending that is set up for a richly-deserved movie sequel second season. If a second season is really in the cards, then I suggest that it should be cornily titled ‘Highschool of the Dead II – The Siege of the Shopping Mall’ or something like that hahahaha!
Meanwhile, I feel the character developments in this anime is constrained by the low amount of episodes this anime has. The way the story is written, there should be plenty of development potential left amongst the members of the ragtag bunch, especially the school nurse, the weapon nerd and the newly-orphaned brat. And did I see some good romance subplot forming there? Thinking about them, the more convinced I have become that this anime really need a sequel. A sequel with a corny title!
The Left 4 Dead protagonists may have it harder than the protagonists in this anime, but at least they doesn't have an emo baggage like the one above!
Character Design:-
The character designs for male characters is pretty much your stereotypical shounen cookie-cutter design and just barely passable, but the designs for female characters definitely come straight out from a hentai mini-OVA or something like that. Nevertheless the designers managed to keep the design under control, unlike the over-the-top designs you can see in Dragonaut – the resonance. Definitely a positive aspect for this anime, and I fully expect to see more inappropriate ‘fan-fictions’ surfacing at TokyoTosho in the future.
Voice Acting:-
Voice acting in this anime is solid overall, but there are no outstanding performer(s) that stands out from the rest. A positive aspect for this anime.
Music:-
The OST is sparse and only evident in action scenes, but it is still decent. The OP theme is very good, and so are the most of the ED themes except for episode 8, 12, 11, and 4. A positive aspect for this anime.
Move aside Ceiling Cat/Basement Cat/Long cat or whatever! Here we have the most awesome cat in the world, who sleeps his/her way through a zombie apocalypse as if they are nothing!
Animation/Direction:-
The character animation in this anime is not as fluid as I expected for my standard, but the general animation quality is very good, even in fast-paced scenes. Choreography in this anime is mixed bag; the action scenes by the meleeing female characters are good, while the rest is just average. The director has not done anything wrong at all in this series, and that’s a decent feat onto itself, considering that it is really easy to screw up with this kind of storyline.
Conclusion:-
8 out of 10. Therefore Working!! will be able to keep its title for the time being. I still haven’t made any decision of what anime I should watch next, you just have to wait for it to come.
Some faulty advice about the usage of shoguns for killing zombies there buddy. In Left 4 Dead, unless you are cr0wning, you will aim the shotgun at the chest, not the head. The main protagonist will learn this the hard way though. And do not use them in open space maps, unless you are pretty desperate.
The rest of the audition's result:- 2. Papa no Iukoto wo Kikinasai! (パパのいうことを聞きなさい!)[8/10] 3. Daily Lives of High School Boys (男子高校生の日常)[7/10] 4. Nisemonogatari (偽物語)[7/10]
The rest of the audition's result:- 2. Ginga Kikoutai Majestic Prince (銀河機攻隊 マジェスティックプリンス)[8/10] 3. Kakumeiki Valvrave (革命機ヴァルヴレイヴ)[8/10] 4. Mondaiji-tachi ga Isekai kara Kuru Sou Desu yo? (問題児たちが異世界から来るそうですよ?)[7/10] 5. Shingeki no Kyoujin (進撃の巨人)[7/10] 6. The Devil is a Part-Timer! (はたらく魔王さま!)[7/10] 7. Strike The Blood (ストライク・ザ・ブラッド)[5/10]
The rest of the audition's result:- 2. No Game, No Life (ノーゲーム・ノーライフ)[8/10] 3. Aldnoah.Zero (アルドノア・ゼロ)[8/10] 4. Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance (精霊使いの剣舞)[7/10] 5. TERRAFORMARS (テラフォーマーズ)[6/10]
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