Highschool of the Dead: Difference between revisions

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Imagine waking up one day, going to school and then going to the roof to pine over your lost love. Then looking down and seeing a teacher's fingers get bitten off by a trespasser. Then seeing that teacher eat another. Then going to get your ex-love and her boyfriend to save them and fighting "[[Not Using the Z Word|not zombies]]". You try to call for help, but the lines are busy because of emergencies all over the town. And when you finally get to a television to see what's being done, you learn that it's happening everywhere.

 

 

 

 

* [[Abandoned Hospital|Abandoned Clinic]]: Where some of the group go to collect frozen plasma and a blood transfusion kit for the old woman.

* [[Action Dress Rip]]: Happens a couple of times to Shizuka as well as Saeko and Saya's mother.

* [[After the End]]

* [[Apocalyptic Log]]: The news report the students watch in one of the classrooms that ends with the broadcast abruptly cut.

* [[Apologetic Attacker]]: The household survivor who tearfully said sorry over and over as he stabbed {{spoiler|Alice's father}}, [[Moral Event Horizon|leaving him for dead and abandoning]] {{spoiler|Alice}} to the zombies.

* [[Artifact Title]]: Only the first few chapters take place in high school.

* [[Asshole Victim]]: Asshole teacher Shidou, a thug who threatens to rape one of the main characters, and some really stupid protesters who were in denial of the dead coming back to life and refused to cooperate with the police or the ultranationalists.

* [[Author Appeal]]: The older and current work of the original manga artist make his preference for larger breasts pretty clear. The only difference with this work is just how blatant it is. Almost every female on the page past puberty sports at least a D-cup.

* [[Barbie Doll Anatomy]]: Averted. See [[Bleached Underpants]].

** Played straight in the OVA, when {{spoiler|Takeshi}} hallucinates he's taking off {{spoiler|Saeko's}} bikini top, she has no nipples.

* [[Big Damn Heroes]]: Everybody gets a turn, it seems. Outside of the main cast, the JSDF actually gets one rescuing a trio of side characters.

* [[Big Fancy House]]: The Takagi mansion.

** The kids are forced to drive without a license, use guns, act strongly as individuals, rely on themselves instead of authority figures or the government and steal things to survive. It doesn't seem that bad from an American point of view, until you remember that this [[Values Dissonance|story takes place in Japan]]. Takashi's narration actually makes reference to this several times, usually in the form of "It had been just half a day, and we had already changed this much."

** {{spoiler|Takashi}} shoots a would-be mugger/rapist, but leaves him alive so he can be bait to draw off any zombies in the area.

* [[Bolivian Army Ending]]: The {{spoiler|Takagi household}} storyline ends with {{spoiler|Takagi's parents}} trying to fight off a massive zombie horde.

* [[Brainwashed and Crazy]]: Shidou used his charms to manipulate the students into his personal sex cult.

** In chapter 25, Saya acknowledges Takashi's leadership: "We get it, you're the main character."

** A German localization changed the bathing scenes dialogue:

'''Saeko:''' You should know that Saya. One at a time would've been only half as pleasant for the reader.|Volume 2, Chapter 6}}

** When asked why she is spacing out during a zombie attack, Shizuka breaks the fourth wall.

'''Saya:''' Yeah, ok. Get in the car! }}

* [[Bullet Time]]: Happens a lot in the anime whenever guns are involved. [[Rule of Cool|Taken to a ridiculous extreme in Episode 8]] when Takashi fires various rounds that manage to pass [[Gainaxing|between Saeko's thighs and breasts]].

* [[Car Fu]]: Zombies get mowed down several times over the course of the series.

* [[Car Skiing]]: Episode 12 of the anime adaptation has the group escaping the overrun mansion in the Humvee. To get past the barricades, the Humvee leans so far over it nearly tips.

** Way, way back in the high school, Saya and Hirano snatched a toolbox from one of the workshops. When they finally reach the police station, Saya lends Hirano one of the tools from that toolbox, a hand-powered drill. He uses it to break into the armory.

** Mad the mechanic in the manga explained that the buggy was capable of water transportation but suggested sticking to the riverbanks or cutting into the nearby park. Takashi and Saeko ended up driving the buggy into the riverbank and ditched it in the park.

** The police officer at the bridge placed his pistol to his head after the situation gets out of control and he gives the final order to exterminate everyone. Even came complete with a [[Fatal Family Photo]].

* [[Dub Name Change]]: Alice's name in the dub is "Arisu", as in "Ar-Ri-Sue" even though her name is written and translated as "Alice" in the manga.

** Takashi takes the time to cover Alice's dead father's face with a shirt from a nearby clothesline before making his daring escape with Alice and Zeke in tow.

** Upon returning to the home base at the airport, Rika recommends a posthumous promotion for her dead partner Tajima.

** A student named Kazu Ishii who is protecting Shizuka gets bitten from behind by zombies [[Dangerous Windows|breaking through the windows]], and Saeko offers to kill him before he turns. With a smile on his face, he replies "Please do it."

** {{spoiler|Hiro Tamaru}} gets one by {{spoiler|Asami}}'s hands after getting caught in the hole at the clinic.

* [[Dying Like Animals]]: Many people simply cannot cope with the existence of "them", and many others, like Shidou, take advantage of that.

* [[Establishing Team Shot]]:

** Done as the group prepared to leave the school.

** [[Credits Jukebox]]

* [[Facial Horror]]: Many of the zombies, and very likely some victims.

** Ishii, {{spoiler|Officer Tajima, and Asami}} get rather dignified deaths in the form of assisted suicides.

** Alice's father dies [[Go Out with a Smile|comforting a traumatized Alice]] and does not reanimate as a zombie.

** There are even several accounts where female zombies give a [[Full-Frontal Assault]].

** Shidou turns the protagonist's original escape vehicle into the ORGYBUS, and the survivors remaining into a cult revolving around free love between high schoolers.

** Chapter 29 features a female zombie being ''shot through the breasts.''

** In the OVA Kohta wears a ''girls'' school swimsuit.

* [[Gun Nut]]: Kohta is a self-proclaimed "gun otaku", but as he is a sixteen-year-old in ''Japan'' at the start of this series, he doesn't actually own any. He did however go to America and learn how to shoot (at a Militia camp in the translation, by Blackwater in the original and the anime).

* [[Gun Porn]]: There's almost as many focused shots of guns as there are of breasts.

* [[Hello, Nurse!]]: Shizuka was the school nurse.

* [[Heroic Sacrifice]]: Used to subvert the [[Adults Are Useless]] trope - adults can fight just as competently, if not more so, and even sacrifice themselves so that the protagonists can live on. Even the guy who [[Redemption Equals Death|tried to rape Shizuka.]]

** [[Lampshaded]] when the team raids a [[Abandoned Hospital|hospital]] to acquire plasma for a dying old woman. {{spoiler|They point out that since the woman needs ''regular'' blood transfusions and they can only bring back enough usable plasma for one, they are essentially risking all their lives to buy her an extra week or two at the most. One of them does in fact die during the raid. As if that weren't already messed up, the old couple commits suicide a short time later}}.

** Played triumphantly straight when our heroes brave a veritable ''horde'' of "them" to save one little girl... and won.

* [[Hot Dad]]: Alice's dad.

* [[Hot Mom]]:

** Kiriko Miyamoto, Rei's mother.

* [[Hot Teacher]]: Kyoko Hayashi, the Ping Pong Club's advisor. Her glasses add a [[Hot Librarian]] appeal.

* [[Idiosyncratic Episode Naming]]: Replacing a word in a famous title or name with "dead", eg. "The Good, The Bad, And the Dead".

* [[Implausible Hair Color]]: There is a rather large percentage of blond and brown-hairs in the cast. More so than in [[Real Life]] Japan, at any rate. These, at least, are natural hair colors. The same can not be said of pink-haired Saya.

* [[Improvised Weapon]]: A given due to the setting, including but not limited to broom handles, power drills, and drip stands.

* [[Infernal Retaliation]]: A molotov cocktail proved that fire does not really bother "them", but does make them slightly more dangerous.

* [[It Got Worse]]: Good luck finding many situations that don't start going to crap within 5 pages in the manga.

* [[Just a Kid]]:

** The group received this treatment from some of the refugees at the Takagi mansion.

** The remaining mall survivors eventually reversed this view of them.

* [[Knife Nut]]: Two of the mall survivors.

* [[The Last Dance]]: The [[Nietzsche Wannabe]] mall survivor was surrounded by zombies and nursing a stab wound, so he opted in his own words to go out like a badass. He failed. [http://www.citymanga.com/highschool_of_the_dead/chapter-25/38/ Badly.]

* [[Laughing Mad]]: Many are reduced to grinning and/or laughing right before and during their rather undignified deaths.

** The survivors in the city who attacked Takashi and Rei. They were a bit off.

** Two mall survivors descended into mad laughter, with one of them shanking the other.

* [[Let Us Never Speak of This Again]]: The results of the Funky Smoke {{spoiler|Shizuka and Saya waking up naked on top of each other, Saeko and Rei kissing each other in the nude thinking the other was Takeshi.}}

* [[Love Triangle]]:

** Saeko also does this for a bitten classmate.

** {{spoiler|Asami for Hiro Tamaru}} after he got bitten in the [[Abandoned Hospital|Abandoned Clinic]].

* [[Moment Killer]]:

** Usually done by Saya. She lampshades this in chapter 28 where she promises not to ruin the hug between Takashi and Rei upon finding the possibility that Rei's father may still be alive.

* [[Nietzsche Wannabe]]: One of the mall survivors.

* [[No Celebrities Were Harmed]]:

** [http://www.citymanga.com/highschool_of_the_dead/chapter-5/04/ One zombie looks like Korean actor Yong-joon Bae], leading to accusations of racism.

* [[Nonuniform Uniform]]: As the students make their way across the city, some of them only wear part of their school uniform with other clothing. Saeko got the biggest response from the group from [[Impossibly Cool Clothes|her own]] [[Custom Uniform of Sexy|adaptation]].

* [[No One Gets Left Behind]]: A major recurring theme. Some characters die trying to save others, while some kick them to the ground.

* [[Otaku]]: Mall survivor Hiro Tamaru showed hints of being a gun otaku like Hirano.

* [[Outrun the Fireball]]: Anime adaptation only. Takashi and Rei rush down a tunnel after [[Every Car Is a Pinto|an overturned bus that had caught fire exploded]], separating them from the others.

* [[Paint the Town Red]]: Things get icky during a zombie invasion.

* [[Panty Fighter]]: No surprise here.

* [[Papa Wolf]]: Inverted. Rei {{spoiler|almost kills Shidou}} because he made her father cry.

* [[Parental Substitute]]: Though the whole group has pretty much taken it upon themselves to be the new family of Alice, Hirano and Takagi seem to be the ones she's latched onto as surrogate parents. This was [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] and used as [[Ship Tease]] in [http://www.mangareader.net/high-school-of-the-dead/29/32 chapter 29].

* [[The Power of Friendship]]:

** The main characters have never hesitated to protect and support each other.

* [[Ramp Jump]]: Done a couple times with Takashi on the bike. The first time occurred at the bridge where he and Rei reunited with the others. The second time occurred when he went off to save Alice. Both times involved use of [[Ramprovisation|improvised ramps]] and abuse of [[Slo-Mo Big Air]].

* [[Reckless Gun Usage]]:

** Except in the anime's infamous "boob dodge" sequence where Takashi repeatedly narrowly avoids gunning down Saeko instead of the zombies.

* [[Refuge in Audacity]]: And ''how''. Episode 8 of the anime actually combines [[Fan Service]] and [[Bullet Time]] to form what is quite possibly one of the most gratuitous sequences ever animated.

* [[Redemption Equals Death]]: The mall survivor who {{spoiler|earlier attempted to rape Shizuka-sensei}} goes off to try to save the twerp who {{spoiler|let the zombies into the mall in the first place}}. He gets bitten for his trouble.

* [[Rule of Cool]]: The anime runs on this, often to ridiculous extremes.

* [[Sanity Slippage]]: See [[Laughing Mad]].

* [[Series Hiatus]]: Chapter 29 marked the longest break the mangaka duo ever took for their series, Kadokawa Shoten accordingly put the series on hiatus, taking their time with [[Updated Rerelease|rereleasing]] the first 4 volumes in full color; meanwhile Shouji Sato (artist) is working on his other series (Triage X), and still works on [[Hentai|what]] made him rise to stardom in the first place.

* [[Senseless Sacrifice]]: The raid on the clinic ended with {{spoiler|one able-bodied survivor killed and the old woman that they were trying to save committing suicide anyway}}.

* [[Sex Is Violence]]: For Saeko anyway. "I'm getting wet", anyone?

* [[Ship Tease]]:

** A bit between Hirano and Takagi in recent chapters, especially in chapter 28.

* [[Shoot the Shaggy Dog]]: {{spoiler|The scenario of getting medical treatment for the old woman. In the clinic, one of the able-bodied survivors dies. Later, when the zombies get into the mall, the old woman and her husband commit suicide by jumping off the roof anyway, meaning all that came of it was one less survivor and conflict between the characters}}.

* [[Shoot Out the Lock]]: Averted. Hirano stops Takashi from attempting to shoot out the lock of the police station's armory, worried that the bullets will riccochet and hit one of them.

* [[Shown Their Work]]:

** The guns are amazingly detailed, and are shown to have actual limitations. Kohta Hirano also makes sure that everyone who even touches one follows strict gun safety, as American gun enthusiasts are generally taught to do.

** The author shows a decent understanding of how the American government works, although that's a bit more subtle.

* [[Sixth Ranger]]: Takuzo and his party briefly serve as companions to Takashi's party.

* [[Skinship Grope]]: Sure, flesh-eating ghouls are overrunning the earth and civilization is crumbling. No reason not to throw in some scenes of the girls feeling each other up in the bath, right?

* [[Spoiler Opening]]: For those who have not read the manga, they may be confused as to who the little girl in the anime's OP is. She does not appear until episode 7.

* [[Strawman Political]]: the protestors on the bridge and the woman in the Takagi compound who somehow connect the zombie apocalypse with government repression and Japanese repression of the rest of Asia, respectively. They all also think that the zombies can be cured of their disease. It's notable that they all die horrible deaths.

* [[Stupid Sacrifice]]: That one mall survivor didn't need to go out like a badass. As Shizuka pointed out, his stab wound was not even serious.

* [[Sweat Drop]]: Common. It is a rather tense situation.

* [[Tempting Fate]]: On the way to Saya's house, Rei noted that the group hadn't run into any of "them" so far. Guess what was waiting for them as they got closer?

* [[That Didn't Happen]]/[[Kissing Under the Influence]]: The gang (minus Takashi) agreed that the hydrangea smoke episode never happened.

** The [[Nietzsche Wannabe]] mall survivor who attempted to knife several zombies but did not even scratch one before getting swarmed and devoured. The dumbest part was that Shizuka pointed out that his knife wound was not even critical, making his actions senseless.

** A special mention to the would be mugger {{spoiler|who tried to rape Rei, '''OUTSIDE''', in the middle of a [[Zombie Apocalypse]]. You know where the zombies are going to most likely to hear and then eat you. This idea is not only despicable but beyond stupid. Even if Takashi had not been there, the mugger's actions would of gotten both, him and Rei killed. Good thing Takashi rescued her, shot the guy, and left him alive to be zombie bait.}}

* [[Too Hot for TV]]

* [[Twelve-Episode Anime]]: Due to the manga's current brevity. Another season will presumably emerge once the buffer's built up again.

* [[Undead Child]]:

** The undead children Takashi and Saeko encounter in the park.

** When Takashi says his mother is a teacher at another school we cut to a shot of it and a few zombified children.

* [[Updated Rerelease]]: When the series began with the erratic schedule for its releases, Kodansha decided to have Shouji rerelease the previous volumes in full color, it stopped at the 4th volume after a regular release between each new volume, it's unclear if the project will go further than that.

* [[We Need a Distraction|We Need Some Zombie Bait]]:

** A morbid example with Takashi wounding a thug at the gas station and leaving him for dead. His screams of pain attracted the zombie horde, allowing Takashi and Rei to escape with little notice.

* [[Wet Sari Scene]]: Saeko gets soaked twice in episode 9. The first time she's wearing her white uniform shirt, giving a clear view of her lacy purple bra. The second time she's wearing a black tank top, so not so much see-through.

* [[Wham! Episode]]: Chapter 28 - What?! {{spoiler|Shidou and his cult}} are still alive?

* [[Wilhelm Scream]]: In episode 1, as the Outbreak begins and students flee in a panic.

* [[Wingding Eyes]]: Appears to various cast members in various forms.

* [[World of Buxom]]

* [[Wrench Whack]]: The preferred weapon of Mad, the Takagi mansion's mechanic.

* [[Zettai Ryouiki]]: Occasionally Rei, Saeko, and Alice.

* [[Zombie Apocalypse]]: This story seems to follow the Romero rules, but "they" have a ''very'' strong grip. Also the zombies start slow, but if they hear a sound nearby they can move quicker. The fact that it's played as realistically as possible is also notable. The protagonists test and figure out that "they" must find things through vibrations. No circulation also means that in Japan's humid weather, the dead will probably decompose to the point of uselessness in a little under a month. Nobody has a clue how the dead are still capable of moving, though.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Anime]]

[[Category:Manga]]

[[Category:Zombie Stories]]