First Impressions: High School of the Dead
So the Summer 2010 anime season has well and truly begun. As usual, everyone’s assumed that it’ll be crap and that anime is doomed. But it can’t be that bad, right? Err… Anyway, there are usually a few hidden truffles to snuff out every season, and I’ll be hoping to cover some of those over the coming weeks. At the moment, Occult Academy and Shiki are looking interesting enough.
One anime has arguably had magnified interest before the season started thanks to a fairly unique premise for an anime, which is strange both because “unique” and “anime” don’t often belong in the same sentence these days, and because the trope almost feels like it has been overused in other media. Zombies!
It beggars belief that there hasn’t been a proper Dawn of the Dead-esque zombie apocalypse anime before (at least, not that I know of). The medium has the potential to lend itself very well to emphasising the scale of such a disaster, as well as the human stories that arise from it.
So here we have High School of the Dead. It’s based on a popular manga which, as of Comic-Con 2010, has been licensed by Yen Press in the US. Luckily, US Yen Press releases tend to trickle on to the UK market as well.
An admission – I am terribly excited about this show. It has an original premise, giving it lots of potential, it promises balls-to-the-wall action thanks to the undead perusing the streets and as we see from very early on (episode one), it isn’t afraid to get into some of the moral strains that can appear during zombie apocalypses.
It’s being animated by Madhouse, which as we recently found with Redline, appears to still have the money to push the animation of its works into a different league compared to your typical late-night anime. The stellar opening sequence takes the time to transliterate its staff members into English. If that isn’t a sign of a show confident in itself, I don’t know what is. All in all, everything’s looking good.
The show doesn’t waste much time in setting up its advertised plot. While Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 left us waiting for the whole episode for the inevitable to happen, HOTD drops us right in with the gore turned up to eleven. Excellent!
First Impressions: Redline
So, the Manga All-Nighter for 2010 happened overnight two nights ago in London. All in all, it was a very nice event – comfortable seats, free stimulants to power through the night, a great crowd and a few anime movies to digest.
As well as showing the first episode of Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood, the event showcased docu-anime Musashi, based on the life of famous samurai Musashi Miyamoto, a Bleach movie, namely The DiamondDust Rebellion, the new Fate/Stay Night movie Unlimited Blade Works, and a new film from Madhouse called Redline.
Musashi was very interesting, giving a view of samurai and their tactics not often seen. Despite this, I feel it’s one to re-watch in the daylight hours. The Bleach movie was the Bleach movie. Basically inaccessible to people who haven’t slogged through the hundreds of episodes already (you poor souls). Unlimited Blade Works was adapted from a route in the original visual novel, again not being the most accessible film ever. The action sequences were well choreographed, but a rushed introduction to the world and the characters dampened things a bit for me.
You’ve probably guessed from the title of this post that my stand-out favourite from the night, however, was the first movie shown, Redline.
The story is set in the near-future, where hover cars are poised to completely take over the wheeled variety. Proper motor racing is still a popular sport however, with the main event being the hotly contested Redline race. The movie opens with a fantastically animated qualifying race between a myriad of over-the-top characters in long, embellished machines.
The pure speed is emphasised by the cars literally ripping up the track and the spectator stands as they fly by at impossible speeds, all set to loud, banging dance music. I adore the soundtrack for this film, the high energy tracks fit very well with the both the racing incidents and the daring cockpit manoeuvres of the drivers. As a bit of a petrolhead myself, the racing sequences in the film are pure crack. With the commentators describing the race the whole way, it almost felt like a futuristic Wacky Races on speed.
It’s clear that the main focus for the film is on the racing action, and that the pace and plot does slow somewhat in between the set pieces. Despite this, the highly stylised animation help to bring a sense of life to the worlds and characters. The plot itself is simple – here are some people who want to win, and have always wanted to win. Quite clichéd, and it gets slightly dubious when they throw in some more antagonism near the end, when the Roboworld government attempts to stop the main race from happening. It feels like an excuse to wheel out some fancy 3D rendered enemies and ultimately distracts from the pure racing action that really should be the focus of the movie.
Despite a somewhat simple plot, the pure energy and character of this film really shine through – it’s really very enjoyable. I’m pretty sure this was the first time it was shown in the UK, so it’s unclear when (and indeed if) it will be coming out. Hopefully it’ll be soon.
