High School Of The Dead Ep02

Have you ever had a bad day?  You wake up, stub your toe, slip in the shower, can't find a pair of socks that match, dump a cup of coffee on your khakis, your customers are all grumpy, the boss screams at you for nothing, your car gets a flat, the girlfriend dumps you, and finally your bed breaks and dumps you on the cat who promptly turns you into into his personal scratching post.  By the time you stop the bleeding it's three in the morning and you have to be up in a couple of hours to do it all over again.  That's a bad day.

Then there's the day Takashi and Rei are having.  The zombie apocalypse has begun, their city is in turmoil, they've seen many of their classmates eaten, and he had to put his best friend Hisashi down after he got bitten defending Rei from their Modern Japanese teacher. 

But hey, you keep mourning the loss of your quad venti skinny 170 mocha macchiato no lid double cup.  At least they have socks that match, right?

Meanwhile back in the zombie zoo, pink-haired harpy Saya Takagi has teamed up with Kohta Hirano, overweight loser and author of the Hellsing manga, and she's not happy about it.  Of all the people in the school for her, a super-genius, to end up with... he's slow, doesn't like walking, and kinda dumb.  He wears glasses.  His socks probably don't even match.  And good lord, have you read Hellsing?  What sort of twisted mind comes up with Nazi Vampires in zeppelins destroying London?  Well, there's nothing for it...

...she'll just have to boss him around until the running starts.  That way, she won't have to be faster that the zombies, she'll just have to be faster than him.  Though maybe he'll be worth keeping around, somehow, because when the zombie apocalypse occurs you still need someone to be comic relief.

Because violence and fanservice will only get you so far. 

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Just A Little Teaser

It's coming...

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High School Of The Dead Ep01

There are times when I greatly enjoy blogging.  Where the intellectual stimulation it provides makes the sky blue, the birdies sing, my toes tingle and puts a big cheesy grin upon my face.  And then there are the times when I spend days banging my head against any convenient sturdy surface while trying to figure out how to deal with a topic.  Can you guess which one of these two options I've been experiencing as I've watched and rewatched the first episode of High School Of The Dead?  Don't get me wrong, I really like this show, but writing about an action series can be frustrating in the extreme.  But enough about my problems, let's get on with why you're really here... the zombie apocalypse!

"I stayed up late the night before the world came to an end" says the unnamed narrator.  Of course, he's a high school student... chances are he stays up late every night.  I did when I was a high schooler, even though I didn't have any reason to... I was a good little student.  Still, the drama is higher with the world ending than, say, "I stayed up late the night before one of my socks disappeared." 

Suddenly, zombies!  The walking dead!  Draugr!  Oh, and three allegedly non-zombie kids running across the roof of a school, armed with a baseball bat, a pointed stick, and a bloody bandage.  Wait, what?

A brief skirmish points out that the only way to kill the Shambling Deceased is to hit 'em in the head, and they that appear to be unstoppable otherwise.  Slow, but unstoppable.  Our heroes gain the heights of the Observatory Platform, and after saying that, I would like to point out that schools in Japan get all the cool stuff... an observatory?  Really?  I mean, yeah sure, my high school had a radio station, but I hand-wound the transmitter's antenna for pete's sake.  It had a range of about 100 yards!  We didn't have no frickin' observatory.  We did have ducks though, and that makes up for a lot.  If we DID have an observatory, I think there's a fair chance I wouldn't be sitting here, hammering on my keyboard on a weekend, but I digress.  The uninjured fellow takes one look at the Waddling Cadavers and yells to the heavens "What the hell is going on?!?!"   

High School Of The Dead, that's what's going on... and you're right in the middle of it, buster!
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Tank Witch

Over at Steven's place, a discussion about the new Strike Witches movie is going on.  Over there, I mentioned that I'd kill to see some Tank Witches involved.  Reader Siergen wonders what a Tank Witch would look like, since they've not been animated, and Steven says their legs look like the lower half of Robby The Robot.  Still, that doesn't really clear anything up.  Fortunately, I can do a little better than that!

Ladies and Gentlemen, allow me to introduce Elizabeth, a Britannia M4A1 (Early) Sherman Tank Witch!  She normally sits on top of my computer, guarding the external hard drives.  She ended up at Pond Central thanks to the good graces of Avatar, who sent her my way last year.  According to the light novels, since they don't have to fly, a Tank Witch can use more of her magic ability for her shields, much like a tank is more heavily protected than a fighter plane.  They're obviously slower, however, so there are tradeoffs.  Still no pants, though.

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The Best Laid Plans Of Ducks And Men...

Well, I had planned to do intensive work on the first installment of HSOTD: The Episodic Review, but I got sidetracked.  Bad Wonderduck... and I've just realized that I can add words to Firefoxy's dictionary, so now I don't get the evil red squiggle under "Wonderduck" anymore.  That just made the night worthwhile.

Yes, it's that easy to make nights worthwhile here at Pond Central. 
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The Polls Are Now Closed

The votes are in.  The Pond Scum has spoken.  The next series that I'll be doing an episodic recap for is High School Of The Dead.

Considering that it was my favorite show in 2010, this will hardly be a chore.  Don't get me wrong, it wasn't the best anime series of 2010, just the one I enjoyed the most, the one I most looked forward to watching.  Considering that Season 3 of Hidamari Sketch ran that year, as did Amagami SS, Sora no Woto, Strike Witches S2 and Ikkitousen Xtreme Xecutor, all of which I greatly enjoyed, that's really saying something.  Heck, I'm even reading the manga for HSotD as well, and I don't read all that much manga.

However, I will say that this wasn't the show I hoped would win.  If I hadn't of opened the choice up to voting, I probably would have done Blood-C.  There's a lot more train-wreckage in that one, though it did all make sense... eventually.  I may even still do it sometime down the road.  Alas, only DiGiKerot and David voted for it.  I'll admit that I threw Library Wars into the mix because I actually enjoyed the show; yes, that's right, I was one of the few. 

Which brings me to Black Lagoon.  It's outstanding.  It's one of the best anime series I've ever seen.  It's also grimmer than the Warhammer 40K universe.  It takes a lot to make the Zombie Apocalypse seem light and fluffy, but in comparison to Black Lagoon, pretty much anything is cotton candy and unicorns farting rainbows.  Having said all that, it might have been interesting to recap, but all in all I think I'm glad it didn't win.  Though, it is a shame I won't get to say anything officially about this scene:

...because it's an Elco 80' PT boat firing two Mk8 torpedoes at a Mi-24 "Hind" helicopter, and you just don't get much of a chance to say things like that very often.

So the final counts were:
High School of the Dead - 9 votes
Black Lagoon - 5 votes
Blood C - 2 vote
Library Wars - just watching.

Stay tuned for the first recap of HSotD, coming awfully soon.

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Voting Is Now Open

That's right, you read that correctly.  I have an urge.  I have a need.  I have an itch, which the doctor gave me an ointment for but never mind that now.  I have... a hunger.  I must do my annual episodic series recap.  Two years ago, it was Ga-Rei Zero.  Last year, Rio Rainbow Gate! was both my muse and my bane.  And now, it is time for me to strike whimper suck recap again... and I'm going to let YOU, my endearing readers that I lovingly call The Pond Scum, vote on what series I'll do.  Here are the candidates:

High School Of The Dead

Zombie Apocalypse meets Japanese High Schoolers in a fight to the death... undeath... whatever.  Great action, hideously top-heavy female character designs, comedy... what's not to like?

Toshokan Sensou (Library Wars)

In the not-too-distant future (next Sunday A.D.), the Government cracks down on books and magazines it deems offensive.  Naturally, the nation's librarians take up arms against the oppressors.  Or something like that.  Not terrible art, some fun times, action, romance... what's not to like?

Black Lagoon

The times are grim.  The times are dark.  Nuns and maids are heavily armed.  And everybody has a toothache.  Violence, awfully black humor, good art, and you see a helicopter shot down by a torpedo.  For what it's worth, the seiyuu for Revy, Megumi Toyoguchi, has a voice like liquid sex... not that you'll be able to hear it on here.

Blood-C

Schoolgirl is a little klutzy, a little dim, quite friendly, and able to kill everybody within a 50m radius using her sword without breaking a sweat.  Fortunately, she's just a demon hunter.  Or is she?  Bwahahahahahahahaha!!!  The most recent show of the four, it's got the best art and the worst hairstyle I've ever seen (see above).  Also: grim, dark, toothache.  Or is it?

So those are your choices.  Consider them wisely, for your mind may be at stake.  Mine is already forfeit.  Balloting is open until 1159pm Sunday, March 4th.  One vote per reader (unless you're from Chicago).  Leave your choice in the comments.  No write-ins.  The top rung is not to be used as a step.  Huh, will you look at that: "breach hull, all die."  I even had it underlined.  Make your picks, place your bets!

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