The mean score is floating around a 7.2. This invisible, anecdotal OMG BUT SO MANY PEOPLE PRAISE IT, SO ITS STILL OVERRATED doesn't exist in the face of a relatively mediocre aggregate score consisting of 650,638 votes. I don't know what you're going on about with the assertion that it's overrated in the face of...I don't know, statistics?
I mean, gee, it's almost like this thread is about you tossing around a bunch of vaguely defined and meaningless criticisms like FANSERVICE and BAD CHARACTERS, and you just made up an invisible anecdote to justify shouting that out in thread form because you couldn't be arsed to write a proper review or blog where you'd actually have to go into this. But what do I know?
Also, another thing - this series is *very* simple. Like, I don't think its one that leaves a lot of room for interpretation from the audience's side of things. I'll still explain why I liked it, but I really do think that if you watched it, you could see where the appeal of it lies. Asking for an explanation feels really trite. Nobody should be giving themselves a headache figuring out where the appeal lies.
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Anyway, High School of the Dead is balls to the wall, over the top violence and fanservice. It's a schlock fest. I'm not watching it as a survival horror schtick about psychological explorations of the cast in question and how they're coping with the existential crisis facing humanity. Boobs go boing. Zombies go boom. Blood goes *blood spewing noises.* It's all spectacle. It's all about mindless tits and mindless action. It's going to be shit if you want something that makes a statement or does something more drama/thriller-esque. It's essentially some exploitation B-movie given anime form and a good budget.
So, looking at it from the standpoint of a hypersexualized, hyperviolent exploitation series - which is an idea/premise that I find appealing in of itself, from an escapism standpoint - there's pretty much 4 components to what it's doing that I'm going to focus on, with two taking a backend and serving in a support role to the two in the forefront.
First - and more important - thing, was the fanservice good? And yeah, I really think it it was. Great, even. Out of all the mainstream (or at least really, really popular and recognized) ecchi series like this one, DxD, Shokugeki, No Game No Life, et cetera, this one is probably the absolute best of that group at being a straight up ecchi. Not the best *ecchi* as a whole, but out of all of the really prominent ones that float to the surface even outside of the ecchi fandom. NGNL is pretty good too, mind you, but I think this one has it beat. DxD is meh and Shokugeki is fucking garbage. It lended itself perfectly to the OTT exploitationfest identity of the series, it was consistently sexy, and its done in a fairly distinct artstyle that's more reminiscent of OVA-era ecchi from the late '90s by using tropes from that era like heavy body shine, making it stand out amongst its contemporaries. Tracing back to lending itself to the series general absurdity and stupidity, bullet time tits. Using a girl's body in a lewd way to stabilize a weapon you're using to blow the fucking brains out of zombies and shit. It had some decently crazy ideas/scenarios on that front, and it managed to not only stay pretty sexy with it - especially the body stabilization scene, that's my favorite - but it tied in well to the general vibe of whole series so it felt additive moreso than anything.
Action? Hot girls hacking shit apart with Katanas. Hot girls with pipes. Guns go bang. Zombie fucking explodes. I'm not a fight scene expert, but I found it pretty high octane and explosive. Things like the characters interacting with the fight itself and their role of it never felt like the thing that I cared about here. It was all about just the sheer spectacle of it. Gore, viscera, etc. And it succeeded there. It was very violent and bloody and gruesome. That's fucking cool, and that's all I want from it.
Characters were fine. This is a series that's very much spectacle over all else, and each served their purpose well enough. You don't need to reinvent the wheel with each archetype here. As a matter of fact, focusing too much on character exploration would probably detract from the best part about the series and so I'd discourage it - the characters were just good enough to fill their role while still being fun to watch. That's perfect here. I don't want to hear their drama or anything like that. I don't care. I want them to be sexy and blow shit up while still being fun to watch. They all do that.
Narrative was largely a vessel for spectacle so I can't say I give a shit about it too much. You had that hatesink villain guy who I don't remember doing much. Most of it was just running around and performing absurd action bullshit in the face of a zombie apocalypse, with whatever scenario they were in basically being a setup to lead into the spectacle. I'm fine with that as well - because, well, what else does it need to be? It's already been established to me that I'm watching something that's fucking all about giant tits and bombastic gore, in that order. Some kind of very overt, focused statement on the human condition or society at large would be annoying, fabricated drama that'd hog up screentime that could go towards benefitting the fucking good parts that this series can do right. I never felt like the narrative served any purpose other than to provide setup and to give a light sense of progression. That's all I want it to do here. So it checks out.
So yeah. I'm going to downplay narrative and character complexity here. I don't care about it as much. And I don't really think HSotD either, because I very much see it as a series where the creator played into his strengths and interests, and his interests didn't lie on the SEL side of things. That also made that spectacle pretty fucking stylish and distinct and made it more fun and accessible to me as an audience member.
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