From the Bookshelf of Josei and Seinen Readers…

Highschool of the Dead, Band 1

Daisuke Sato,

Shouji Sato (Illustrator)

Start date: December 1, 2013

Finish date: December 31, 2013

Discussion: Anime

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What Members Thought

Aug 06, 2014 Holly Letson rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: manga-challenge-2014, anime-related, mangas, library-books, did-not-finish, mangas-gns-vgs-challenge-2014, real-book-challenge-2014, reading-manga-challenge-2014

I checked out the 1st 4 volumes of this from the SPL. I wanted to get into it, since I had heard that the anime was really good. The anime version has been recommended to me several times. So, I gave the manga a chance. But, honestly, I could not get into this at all, and dropped it almost immediately. I didn't even finish the first chapter.
The art is decent at best, and the storyline is stupid and unbelievable. I will be adding this series to my *Will NOT Read* list, as it just is NOT for me. ...more

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Jun 26, 2013 Mike rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: dystopia-and-post-apocalyptic, starters-sequential-art, manga

Recently I've read a fair number of things I feel like I should've liked more than I did. They had cool sounding concepts and or were directly in my preferred genres but for whatever reasons didn't resonate with me.

Highschool of the Dead is almost the opposite - there are a variety of elements here that should have put it firmly in my "meh" category at best but to my surprise I ended up enjoying it a fair bit.

During a normal day at school a man acting strangely shuffles up to the front gate and Recently I've read a fair number of things I feel like I should've liked more than I did. They had cool sounding concepts and or were directly in my preferred genres but for whatever reasons didn't resonate with me.

Highschool of the Dead is almost the opposite - there are a variety of elements here that should have put it firmly in my "meh" category at best but to my surprise I ended up enjoying it a fair bit.

During a normal day at school a man acting strangely shuffles up to the front gate and takes a bite out of the hand extended to push him away. Things escalate quickly and horrors reserved for movies and make believe descend on the world and our protagonists go from listening to lectures to scrambling to survive. This first volume has a tight focus on three characters supplemented with a gradually introduced supporting cast. It does a nice job of giving the reader enough of a hook while maintaining the suspense of not knowing exactly what's going on. In particular the power dynamics between survivors and their different approaches to how to handle things is quite interesting. The characters generally conform to stereotypical types but are engaging and memorable despite that.

I tend to dislike horror in general and am not a big fan of zombie stories. I started this mostly out of curiosity and was caught off guard in still being interested by the end of the volume. There's nothing particularly original here in set up, but the action and suspense elements are done very well and have me interested in the characters' struggle. Both feelings of helplessness and moments of succumbing to evil impulses during times of danger are done well and feel genuine. There's a lot more tension and soul searching achieved than I would have guessed...

... which makes the general style even more jarring. There is a heavy layer of fanservice over everything, both of the expected violence type and the more out of place ecchi elements. It's more than prominent enough in this volume where the tone stays pretty serious and it's "limited" to over-endowed females, odd poses and panty shots. In future volumes both the amount of skin and the flimsy "plot-related" reasons for it get cranked up several notches. I don't object to fanservice generally, but it is RIDICULOUS in it's implementation here and creates a weird dichotomy of harem comedy style scenes interspersed with a gripping life or death struggle. It shouldn't work and I understand if it ruins the series for others, but it somewhat strangely didn't do so for me. The author's so good at reestablishing the mood and tension that I was never hung up on the previous page's absurdity.

The art is excellent. Again, just be ready for what it depicts.

While it certainly could have been better Highschool of the Dead also could have been a lot worse and overall I liked this departure from my normal reading preferences. "Not for everyone" would be the understatement of the year, but it's very good for what it is. ...more

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