Somehow, I stumbled upon High School Of The Dead, and I was glad that I did. I’ve always been looking for manga or anime that has a storyline flowing along the lines of the zombie outbreak ever since I became a fan of zombie flicks a couple of years ago, but I never seemed to be able to find any. Somehow, High School Of The Dead slipped under my radar until a couple of days ago, when I read it by sheer random luck.
In High School of The Dead, you’ve got 2 things. Gore and nudity, stuff that can be found similarly in Gantz. I love Gantz, and I always read the new chapter released once a fortnight. Therefore, I love High School Of The Dead too. Although I’ve never really been a supporter of excessive fanservice as it more than often compromises the storyline. However, its presence doesn’t matter at all, and in fact is a positive factor, if the story’s interesting enough. This applies to Gantz, as well as High School Of The Dead.
In High School Of The Dead, you have a scenario similar to your usual zombie story. A sudden unknown outbreak occurs and the whole worlds starts getting infected rapidly. The story then goes on with the adventures of our main character and his gang as they go around busting zombie brains and trying to survive. Not exactly the best storyline, but extremely entertaining, at least for me. Who ever said that entertaining stuff had to have a top-notch storyline?
The cast in High School Of The Dead is unbelievably insane, just like in Battle Royale. Remember how we had a bunch of 17 year olds who were an ace-hacker, Bruce Lee’s reincarnation and some killers who looked like the Golgo 13 in his teenage days? This time, Kurz Weber in the body of a geeky gun otaku, some kickass swordswoman and a school nurse who has a friend who owns an apartment stocked with weapons of destruction. There is not even the slightest sense of realism in the cast, but who cares? Since when were zombies realistic anyway?
And now for the part regarding why I love High School Of The Dead so much. To start off, it’s a doomsday scenario, and I’m a plain sucker for such stuff. The most important factor, of course, is the fear yet excitement I derived with each new page. I’m deeply attracted to such things. It’s the same for Gantz. Who would have expected Kurono to die when he was all invincible running around the place, eating aliens for breakfast without breaking into much of a sweat? In the case of High School Of The Dead, the characters can die anytime, with zombies roaming the world and the possibility of a sneak up attack. Both come with the element of surprise of losing everything that has been built up in a matter of seconds.
However, with two totally different plots, differences are bound to arise no matter how similar they are. In Gantz, there’s the rule where the dead can be revived, so killing off a couple of core characters would be no biggie. On the other hand, there’s no way for a infected human to revert back to his original human form. Hence, killing core characters would be a little tougher, since the loss of one could result in a huge impact on the storyline. Currently, I have not the slightest idea what the following developments will be, but I’m really hoping that it doesn’t turn out to be a typical bad end where humanity is totally wiped off the planet. I’m hoping for something along the lines of World War Z’s ending.
Enough about the storyline, and time for my favourite character. Busujima Saeko. That lass totally kicks ass with her leet combat skills and wooden sword. Yet, even with her calm and composed side of her, there’s a soft side to her as well, as seen from her interaction with Komuro. That’s exactly the reason why she’s attractive. She’s somewhat of a cool-dere, and cool-deres always appeal to me.
This might sound weird, but I actually enjoy the scenes with her slicing and dicing pounds of undead flesh. It seems that the exhilaration that characters such as Saeko and Komuro experience while dishing out damage on the zombies is contagious. I hope Saeko doesn’t die to the zombies anytime soon, or I’ll be once again feeling that sense of sorrow and unwillingnesses to continue on with the story when Mimura Shinji died in Battle Royale despite coming so close to succeeding in his plan.
With the craze of manga series adapted into anime, I’m hoping that High School Of The Dead will get adapted soon too. My guess is that it’s just a matter of time, considering how popular the manga is in Japan. And if it really does get adapted, I hope it doesn’t turn out all shitty like majority of manga to anime adaptations. As for the animation studios? Bones or Madhouse for the win.
Where’s Saeko?!?!
I’ve read something regarding a High School Of The Dead movie, but till now, news of it seems to be sparse. I hope that it wasn’t dropped, as I’m looking forward to it. After all, I have not viewed any animated movies with a zombie outbreak as the plot. The insane action’s also something I want to watch.
Merchandise-wise, only 1 figurine has been scheduled for release, and that’s Miyamoto Rei. I would have given a thought to purchasing it if it was released by Alter, Max Factory or GSC, but with Toyworks behind it, there’s no way in hell that I’m going to part with my cash. But, if any of the former 3 companies decided to release a Saeko figurine with a decent sculpt, you can be certain that I’ll be grabbing. I can always dream and wish…
The final verdict on this series : If you are a fan of zombie outbreaks, gore, crazy fights between the living and the undead, a dash of humor and loads of fanservice, this series is the right thing for you.
This is definitely another series that will be added to my must-read-as-soon-as-possible-once-released list. Who knows, I might even develop the habit of purchasing Dragon Age on a monthly basis just to get my continued dosage of zombie slaying and epic armslave battles.
I read the first few chapters of High School of The Dead but I dropped it. It’s a little too gory with fingers falling off and zombies biting others.
I have a weak heart…lol 
those girls look hot
YES! Another fan of HSOTD who would like to see an anime adaption. I didn’t hear about the movie though.
MELOVESTHEHUGESECHZFEST
lol. It is about time! Welcome aboard!
Hynavian > The things you fear are the things I fancy. LOL
otaku dan > Especially Saeko
Gregs Myers > I tried looking up more information on some Japanese websites, but to no avail…
bj0rn > You love the zombie orgies?
The Sojourner > It’s zombie slaying time!
humm i think takagi saya is more interesting. hirano kohta sure is interesting.
HSotD has it all: nice art and characters, zombies and big guns, and lots of gore and fanservice. I would really like an anime based on it.
I read til around 3rd volume, I think. Don’t quite like zombies things, but I read this for those hot girls ^^;
Hi, first i Realy like this manga, especially becouse i am huge George Romero Zombies Movies Fan… and they guys who draw and make the script s pretty obvious they are fans to of Romero Movies…and is the fanservice…
and i wanna say that of the movie, is a joke than made the authors, i dont know if you have the all special in which mention the all movie stuff, but in a page of that special its print a fake internet address so…
well thats all, i am hoping to, that an anime cold be made some day, preferently tomorrow if it cant be today…ja..
SALUDOS Y SUERTE!!!
*I find Saeko very admirable & hot at the same time; Highschool of the Dead is really cool specially for a zombie-based manga, the artwork is awesome as well.
By the way, where can i get a high resolution of the second Seako pic that you posted?
I’ve found out about Highschool of the Dead about three days ago, and I got hooked easily. I like it not for the gore or fanservice though. (Really shocking huh?) I like because the story it has is decent and the character development is quiet good. I’ll admit that I also find Saeko both kick-ass and hot as Hell, sadly I get the sense that she may end up dead in the end. I hope not because I hate it when the Badass character either get killed or become weak later on. As for an anime adaption, I doubt it because it would have to go through alot of changes like the amount of gore they could put in and no doubt combining some parts together or rearranging them.
Greetings, I´m from Bolivia.Highschool of the Dead is one of my favorites mangas, it has a very good character design, good story, tons of gore and fanservice. And I expect they made an anime adaptation, but it must be a OVA series to avoid lessen the gore and/or fanservice.
Lastly, my favorite character is Saeko, I like her personality, beautiful face and espectacular body.
No wonder I recognized the art. The artist’s circle is DAW (a hentai group).
Fap Fap Fap
GAHHHHHHH!!!! I LOVE THIS MANGA!!!
This is what zombie and manga is all about, great story hot woman and a whole shitload of zombies. anything thing sweeter then this i would have to take a bit out of it like the zombies do in this anime. since i am writing on this i would really appreciate if anybody knows how i can pick of these book, or what site to look.
this a nice manga….really love it, i recommend another thriller manga such as Battle Royal and Suicide Island, so dam refreshing!!
i read up 2 chapt 22 3 hours it is awsome + police girl/asami is cute XD
Love HSOTD! Not a zombie storyline, but I recently started reading Deadman Wonderland. Great story, interesting characters and decent amount of gore.
yo high school of the dead is just totally awesome i love it but its been about 5 months since the last chapter came in and i want it to come out so bad so if anyone knows what the heck is going on plz tell me , and damn a tv anime of this would be totally awesome it would so kick Higurashi no naku koro ni’s ass for violence but i doubt it will be aired on television……
ive read all i could of highschool of the dead and its the best. i wish they would make more chapters online soon. right now they are just about to leave the mall
Reading this gave me a massive rush, like I want to play Left4Dead. The characters are damn likeable, all the while they’re using the best of their wits and fighting skills to keep themselves alive. At the same time over time there’s genuine character development, transforming themselves from mere civilians to sworn fighters.
The storyline was a few more notches better than Battle Royale, with much furious pace, along with the dilemma of surviving a catastrophe of this magnitude.
Damn wish the duo should continue this story. Recommended for anyone who loves action, fanservice, adventure, and George Romero flicks.
Truth be told… i watch alot of movies and ive read alot of books and although i feel very depressed saying so, Saeko has probably the highest chance of dying around the “end”. I’m probably wrong but if Rei’s relationship with Komuro actually kicks off, it is highly possible a love triangle may occur and the Komuro/Saeko relationship may be one of those secret “i-like-u-but-im-not-gonna-say-so-cos-my-gfriends-around. Then Saeko will be bitten by a zombie in the very last moment of escape and she say’s her last dying words before she kills herself to stop becoming a zombie and Komuro chucks a giant fit of tears and swear words and goes on a hunt for the person who started the whole outbreak. BUT ON a side note, Saeko is very much the most badass character there. On another sidenote, it should be speculated that the creepy teacher with his religion on the orgy-bus is probably still alive and he may (although doubtful) be the reason for Saeko’s death and rather than Komuro killing him, despite going all emo, it will be Kohta since Kohta clearly stated to the creepy teacher “You may be alive now, but i’ll kill you”. Hopefully im completely wrong.
For those of you who absolutely love how almost every female in the manga looks drop dead gorgeous (like me), is cos the artist does H-doujins, and i mean c’mon… its quite obvious that his art style does seem to compliment having attractive characters.
HSOTD is probably one of the the best mangas to come out in my opinion and an anime adaption seems a bit early, the movie however seems like it could happen, the manga has been written perfectly for that type of movie angle, and i just hope they make a trilogy rather than one big movie.
i love hsotd its the best manga ever do u know were i can find the books i cant find them
Amazon Japan.
i love this manga so much ^^
love the plot,, the character (especially saeko ^^,, and hirano :-)), …
all of it! too bad it didn’t continue T_T
I am reading this manga and I really like it.
It looks like resident evil and I love this film/game ! So cool.
I think it’s the first time I read a manga like this one.
pls make an animeted of this high school of the dead
too good to be true! i love manga that is mature and has zombies!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! zombies rule!!!!!!!!!!!!!
this is a great series but it has been on hiatus for a while now to bad to but it’ll come back no worries.
this is so good of a anime it should keep going of a longer time
i also stumbled upon this manga just by pure luck, cant get enough of it, can anybody tell me when they will continue the issue? ive got withdrawal symptoms from it not ending
***If you like Gantz (ガンツ), you will love High School of the Dead!!!(学園黙示録).
Dude i found it the same way and instently fell in love i hered they are makeing it into a anime cant wait for that
I really liked this, for all its aspects - the gore, the fanservice, the characters, the story, setting, everything.
The artwork was strangely familiar…but when I found out it was by Digital Accel Works, a hentai group, I was not surprised.
@TieofDoom> Wha..what?…why d hell u be suck a killjoy?…oh C,MON
why don’t u put Rei on that situation?…SAEKO must survive!!! and hapyyyy ending………..well aside form saeko part…I,m agree with u
oh well it said the manga gona cont in march…can’t wait T_T
Saeko is my favorite character out of all other mangas. She’s totally sexy.
That is all mangas in general.