31 Days of Halloween - High School of the Dead - Episode 1 "Spring of the Dead"

Rei and Takashi debate the merits of running away.
As quickly as possible.

High School of the Dead is based on Daisuke Satō's manga of the same name. The manga is pretty neat, a mash-up of teen angst, zombie ultra violence and scantily clad, buxom chicks (aka fan service). It follows a group made up mostly of Japanese high school students who are trying to survive through the opening days of a Romero-esque zombie apocalypse. So, how does this translate into anime?

The episode drops us right into the chaos of "the day everything came to and end" (in the words of Takashi Komuro, the main protagonist). Takashi, Rei Miyamoto (who was once close to Takashi at one point, but then dumped him) and Hisashi Igo (Rei's current boyfriend) are on the roof of the school, battling a horde of their undead classmates. The rules are quickly established: the zombies are slow moving, can be killed by destroying the brain, anyone killed quickly comes back as a zombie. The story then cuts back to a few hours earlier. Takashi sees the first zombie attack at the front gate of the school and rushes to warn Rei, for whom he still has feelings. Other characters introduced in this episode are: shinai wielding, kick-butt chick Saeko Busujima; smart, rich, bitchy, pink-haired Saya Takagi; gun-fetish nerd Kohta Hirano; and, finally, enormously endowed school nurse Shizuka Marikawa. Along the way, we get the sense of just how widespread the zombie apocalypse is. Calls to emergency services go right to a recording, military helicopters fly overhead for parts unknown, fires can be seen burning in the surrounding city. WE also see how fast the zombie plague can spread as the entire school is quickly overrun with reanimated students and teachers. During a fight with one of the zombie teachers, Hisahsi is bitten. The episode ends where it began, with our trio on the roof. The bite kills Hisashi, forcing Takashi to cave in his head with a baseball bat with a squish and a scream from Rei as the screen fades to black.

Rei shows why she is VP of the martial arts club.

The animation is good, striking a nice balance between realistic and cartoonish character design and action sequences. The violence is graphic, with plenty of red ink being spilled. There is plenty of fan service; the female characters are all built like playboy playmates and repeatedly show off their underwear during action scenes. Given that the episode is only 20 minutes long, we don't get much of sense of some of the future protagonists characters. Shizuka is in one, dialogue free scene (where she is asleep on her gigantic boobs) and Saeko does some posing with her Shinai. Kohta is obviously a nerd - overweight, short, wears glasses...hey, I never said this was subtle visual story-telling - but the gun nut aspect doesn't manifest yet. The sound track is good, mostly hard rock, and includes a welcome homage to the 28 Days Later theme.

For an introductory episode, "Spring of the Dead" is a good example of efficient story-telling. We get a chance to see most of the protagonists, have a good sense of the "rules" of this zombie story and have nice balance between drama (Takashi's feelings for Rei), humor (most amusing scene, two girls running through the school hand in hand, professing eternal friendship until one is snagged by zombies and the other says "get your hands off me you bitch") and gory horror.

Best. Pillows. Ever.