Top 25 Opening Themes for Fall 2012

Perhaps it's more due to the expectations I had assigned to the fall season after such a fruitful spring session, but I had high hopes that we'd get some creative approaches to the openers this season. Overall, while I think the music itself has gotten easier on the ear and catchier in the brain, I'm finding myself sighing more after the first ninety seconds of the episode.

I'm uncertain if it is due to the content of the shows. Long-distance hikes such as Space Brothers and Gintama' have resigned themselves to glancing out the window and appreciating the scenery, while shows granted a second season such as Sword Art Online and Medaka Box are sleepwalking, plenty satisfied with their content keeping the viewer's interest. Outside of the eternally-enjoyable Polar Bear Café and the Jojo's Bizarre Adventure remake, all of the shows in the Top 10 are first-time appearances.

The decent shows have managed to make ripples, but I can guarantee you this: the bad shows sank like shrapnel. You won't see To-Love-Ru Darkness and Girls und Panzer in these rankings, but you will see a show I wish we could scrub from the collective fanbase's memory, only for its incredible failure. I'm sure you've already guessed by now.

With that, I give you the hardest rankings I've ever had to sit through—the Top 25 opening themes of Fall 2012.

(Clicking the title of the song will bring you to the YouTube'd OP; clicking the artist will bring you to their PV for the song.)

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Best Opening Themes of Winter 2012

I'll state my position on the Winter 2012 opening themes by restating my position on the ending themes. There was not a lot to be excited about. I have a feeling that many staffs asked their moneymakers to either take the season off or nap until it was time to shine for the last two minutes. I suppose that's why so many shows felt dry in Winter; too much hibernation, not enough hi-fidelity.

Okay, then. Let's try to pry whatever meat we can find on these carcasses left over by the buzzards and make some sort of ranking for the opening themes. Slim pickings, folks. Hope you have eaten earlier.

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Your Investment Portfolio: Spring 2011's Losses

The Spring 2011 anime season is just about over!

Pay two months of subscription fees!

I'll be the first to admit that I know very little about finance and economic matters. I'm not dumb enough to be unable to tell stocks from bonds, but I'm also not the sort that will be able to construct Madoff schemes. I get much more use out of a book on checkers than a check book.

However, I do understand that there are nuances with stocks. Just because a stock has fallen in its price, that doesn't mean that the stock is totally going to be worthless now or in the future. I'm going to apply the same mentality when it comes to my anime—a show that has improved over the span of a season doesn't mean it was or will continue to be good in the future, and a show that has lost ground may not continue to lose it.

So take the following analysis with a grain of salt (but hold the tequila). Here are some of the shows that have lost some steam over the pressure of the Spring 2011 season.

Part 1: Spring's biggest gainers!

Part 2: Spring's biggest losers!*

Part 3: Spring's incomplete deals!

Part 4: Spring's bankruptcies!

Part 5: Spring's best investments!

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Your Investment Portfolio: Spring 2011's Gainers

The Spring 2011 anime season is just about over!

Go directly to Go! Collect what's left of your sanity!

Let's face it—being an anime fan this season meant that huge investments in time had to be made. Perhaps you've spent a little coin for a premium membership at Crunchyroll. In all likelihood, you've even invested sleep to watch some of the shows (since there were a lot of them). However, just how much of that investment has actually paid off? What shows out there were worth their weight in Perica?

It's about time that we get in contact with our bookie broker to see what shows have been wise investments this season and which will be wiser investments in the long run. We're going to run with this whole "Bank of Otaku" motif and discuss which shows improved over the season and which shows were dreadfully bad to the point of Chapter 11.

Part 1: Spring's biggest gainers!

Part 2: Spring's biggest losers!

Part 3: Spring's incomplete deals!

Part 4: Spring's bankruptcies!

Part 5: Spring's best investments!

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F1RST IMPRESSIONS: Maria†Holic Alive

We continue our look at the newest anime shows for Spring 2011 with Maria†Holic Alive, a sequel to the Maria†Holic anime produced by SHAFT.

Storyline: 3

For those entering the show right in the middle, Maria†Holic covers the story of Kanako Miyamae, a second-year student who transfers to the hallowed halls of Ame-no-Kisaki Academy. While she is enraptured by the thought of falling in love like her parents did at Ame-no-Kisaki, a past incident has left her completely terrified of boys and head-over-heels in the thought of finding true love with another girl. However, in the ironic style that many anime shows embrace, the first person she meets and falls for is Mariya Shidō, a cross-dressing boy who gets sadistic pleasure out of masquerading as a petite and refined girl.

The entrance into the second season, Maria†Holic Alive, doesn't require much knowledge of the first. Just know this much: Kanako has managed to assemble a group of dependable friends, but her secret yuri affection for them makes her heart (and nose) bleed. Mariya, however, sees Kanako as both a danger to his identity and his personal plaything. When Kanako discovers the location of the tree under which her parents met, she's anxious to get under it with her own friends, only to find the tree is housed within the confines of a dangerous dorm filled with challenges. Will she overcome the obstacles to her heart? Will she find true love? Will Mariya actually stay away for an entire episode?

The concept of Maria†Holic Alive was fun to follow in the first season, so the second season could try to get down to business, but it's still a lot of fun to pick on poor Kanako. There's a good chance the show may just fiddle around with the players on the chessboard until the end of these 13 episodes. I'm torn on whether the show should remain comic or delve into drama, but so far the first episode is mindlessly fun.

Animation: 4

There is no doubt in my mind that animation studio SHAFT is the best at what they do, but that's not to say their expertise is in animation, per se. They provide some terrific openings and closing to keep the viewer's attention, and they don't always depend on sharp movement to animate their shows. Much like their productions of Bakemonogatari, Sayonara Zetsubo-sensei, and Puella Magi Madoka Magica, SHAFT provides a sort of artistic animation in Maria†Holic Alive, one where still photography dominates the animation and minor movements are "filmed" at interesting angles. However, SHAFT also stays quite faithful to the original manga with some scenes dictated by Kanako's superdeformed reactions.

Characters: 3

The more I look at the character designs and make that association between SHAFT and Maria†Holic Alive, the more I see a Takarazuka performance that has been invaded by a fanatic stalker. If Kanako was erased from the show like a Garfield Minus Garfield strip, the characters would likely appear normal about 90% of the time. You do have some unique characters stemming from Mariya's sadism and her maid Matsurika's deadpan comic delivery, but this show centers around Kanako's priceless reactions. The other characters are just gravy.

Track: 4

Again, SHAFT's role as the adhesive for this show becomes a central point for the show, including its soundtrack. Composer Tetsuya Nishiwaki is retained from the first season for his services, so we get a good mix of background music and an opening theme that becomes a terrific parody of a live-action sentai song. This also means we should be getting a good ending theme for the show if the songs from the first season are any sort of barometer. The acting is good, but the use of the same voice actresses from past SHAFT shows has to make you wonder if they'll ever stray from the norm.

"Hype": 5

It's directed by Akiyuki Shinbo. It's produced by SHAFT. That alone should make your skin tingle like Kanako being touched by a male, but most of all, it's an Akiyuki Shinbo/SHAFT anime that's actually being streamed overseas.

Legally. That never happens.

Granted, that means you have to get a monthly subscription from The Anime Network to watch it to completion, but it should still excite SHAFT fans.

Overall: 19/25

I was a bit worried that Maria†Holic Alive might devolve into a shôjo version of Sayonara Zetsubô-sensei—the non-sequiturs spill like wine, the animation devices are similar, and just about all of the voice actresses played a female student in SZS—but I like the spin that both SHAFT and the original mangaka Minari Endô have put on yuri comics and Takarazuka theater. We get plenty of odes to the comics produced by the Year 24 Group in Japan, but the comedy surrounding Kanako's fanatic obsessions with romance also lead her to be a likable tragic figure—always the stalker, never the stalked.

It's good to have Maria†Holic back and to have SHAFT finally make their presence felt.

(Maria†Holic Alive is simulcast on The Anime Network every Sunday at 11 PM EDT.)

Winter 2011: The Awards

The winter anime season for 2011 is just about over, and as expected there really wasn't that much to be thrilled over, in terms of successes. There wasn't much in terms of hype, as a lot of the big titles had been saved for the Spring season, but there were a few gems in the rough. The devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan really did make this season an afterthought, especially with the lack of closure on what was considered one of the best shows of the year, so perhaps we shouldn't be all that picky.

In addition, the departure of winter also signals the departure for Bradley, as he will be leaving the pages of AniMaybe for now. The contributions from him in the forms of reviews of Beelzebub and Star Driver (as well as the late-night tweets) are immeasurable, and I hope that the endeavors for which he leaves are constructive and beneficial. Saraba, Bradley.

Here are our choices for the Bests and Worsts of Winter 2011:

Best In Show (single-season)/ Best Overall

Geoff's Choice: Puella Magi Madoka Magica

To be honest, the past few weeks have made me skeptical of this choice for the best single-season anime show for Winter 2011. As you may know, Madoka Magica's broadcast is currently being delayed as a result of the tragedies over in Japan, likely as a precaution due to its subject matter. I still have my suspects that the show hit a little too close to home, as the apocalyptic imagery in the series did involve "flood damage".

While there could be more development to the characters—Madoka's wishy-washy nature makes Usagi from Sailor Moon look like Sir William Wallace—the rest of the show has been nothing short of outstanding. SHAFT has once again gone for broke with enthusiastic approaches towards animation, some of the scenes bordering on modern art. The twists and turns in the plot were so shocking to behold that I found myself wondering just how the show could end without some miraculous happy ending.

However, the one thing that makes the show animation gold? Kyubey. Never before has there been a magical-girl mascot that is so innocently dastard in its machinations, and I don't recall ever seeing a frothing contingent of fans that have wanted one to die this badly before. Yeah, the likes of Luna, Yûno (Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha) and Kero may not have had a raging fan base in the past, but to have thousands of fans take their anger and frustrations about Kyubey to Twitter and express it so openly is a wonder to behold. It's hard to imagine what fate the critter has in store for him.

Bradley's Choice: Level E

Honorable Mention: Wandering Son

Worst In Show (single-season)

Geoff's Choice: Freezing

While Onii-chan no Koto was high on my "AUGH!" list, Freezing really takes a significant step back in the way females are portrayed in anime. Much like To Love-Ru before it, the show is heavy on the "Panty Blocking Ray" censor smudge, mostly due to the unnecessary skirt flips and shredded clothing during battles. Main characters Kazuya and Satellizer are stereotypes in anime, with Kazuya being the "magical average-boy" patrolling his tall, big-breasted meganekko. The nudity is humiliatingly egregious, and the fact that the partnership between the male Limiters and female Pandora warriors forces the females to take the brunt of the violence just shows disrespect towards women.

Yes, despite the differences in culture one may cite between Japan and the U.S., I dare play the "sexism" card here.

Bradley's Choice: Onii-chan no Koto Nanka Zenzen Suki Janai'n Dakara Ne!

(Dis)honorable Mention: Infinite Stratos

Best In Show (multi-season)

Geoff's Choice: Star Driver

Really, everything I spoke about Star Driver last season still applies to the series here. There is a distinct separation between the show's comedic moments and serious drama, and the production crew has done an admirable job at sticking to the patterns that work. I absolutely loved the twist from the story that involved the twins Mizuno and Marino. Granted, the relationship between our two main male protagonists, Takuto and Sugata, already had a tension to it that felt like it was ripped from CLAMP's X series, but it was pretty inevitable. While I haven't finished the series as of yet, it's an enjoyable romp and, like Madoka Magica, should be viewed as a complete show. Here's to hoping that it gets licensed for the U.S.

Bradley's Choice: Star Driver

Honorable Mention: Mitsudomoe

Worst In Show (multi-season)

Geoff's Choice: Super Robot Wars OG: The Inspector (GT)

It's disheartening that I must choose SRWOG: The Inspector as the "worst" continuing show of the season, as there's likely no significant reason to do so, but the show did have its difficult points. There were displays of mecha that didn't really impress me like they did in Star Driver, and any impressive moments just seemed to be nullified by the use of a complicated plot. There were too many characters for me to really concentrate on, and it didn't help that Obari's directorial presence made it feel like I was watching Gowcaizer. I really did want to get into this show, but sadly the show made me want to watch other mecha shows instead of those from the SRW franchise.

Bradley's Choice: N/A

(Dis)honorable Mention: Kimi ni Todoke, 2nd Season

Most Potential (continuing series)

Geoff's Choice: GOSICK

There are not many new shows that are being stretched to a second season this winter, so GOSICK pretty much wins by default. I still do like the Holmes/Watson dynamic between the diminutive Victorique and her partner Kazuya (no relation to the one in Freezing, thankfully), and the appearance of new characters in each episodical arc gives the show a refreshing reset that we get from detective shows like Meitantei Conan. We do get some carry-over between cases, so there's also this feeling the show will stay in one piece throughout its two-season presentation.

There may be a little hesitance to proclaim GOSICK as having "potential" from the show's use of lengthy explanations and not enough drama from battles, but that's usually the case when it comes to detective shows. I'm hoping that we get a solid presentation and a formidable villain that we have yet to see in the cases of some of the other shows from this season. GOSICK will likely be bombarded by the presence of other shows in the spring, but here's to hoping it shines through.

Bradley's Choice: Beelzebub

Honorable Mention: Rio: Rainbow Gate! (if the 'cliffhanger' counts for anything)

Least Potential (continuing series)

Geoff's Choice: Cardfight! Vanguard

(Yes, the image isn't of the actual series, but it's a much more entertaining card fight...)

Does this show have potential? As an anime, it likely is through with its season, as another incarnation of Yu-Gi-Oh! hits the store shelves and television waves soon, but as a card game, I can't imagine Cardfight! Vanguard surfacing as a commercial success. The gameplay is confusing enough as it is, and there's just not enough distinction to keep it separate from Yu-Gi-Oh!'s stranglehold on the card-game industry. If the show was created as a spinoff, it might get sprinkled with some of the pixie-dust from Yu-Gi-Oh!, but as its own entity Cardfight! is merely a paper cut.

Bradley's Choice: GOSICK

(Dis)honorable Mention: N/A

Biggest Surprise

Geoff's Choice: Kore wa Zombie Desu Ka?

While Rio: Rainbow Gate! did surprise me by how mindlessly fun it was, KoreZom was the biggest surprise for me, since it was a harem show that didn't overload on harem devices. The main character Ayumu actually had more brains in his head than most male leads in harem animes, and he was a zombie! While the show didn't particularly end the way I had hoped it would end, I was glad to finally see a main character with a spine.

It's also funny that I was able to enjoy the supporting characters, even if they picked on Ayumu like he was some sort of carcass to vultures. None of them appeared to sincerely interfere with Ayumu's appreciation for the necromancer Eu's company, and it provided a unique dichotomy between characters—we didn't have to hear complaints between the two like many relationships these days. Luckily, the tsundere character (Haruna) was not too meddlesome. While the show ended with a shrug, I was happy to have it do the best of all the harem shows this season.

Bradley's Choice: Rio: Rainbow Gate!

Honorable Mention: Dream Eater Merry

Biggest Disappointment

Geoff's Choice: Dragon Crisis!

I honestly wasn't looking for shows like Dragon Crisis! to save the season, but I certainly saw it as a possible selection for a show that could bring a good story and let the other shows drag the season down. I had my hopes raised quite a bit by the voice actors provided for the main protagonists and their enemy, but I can't say that the show allowed them to shine. The pattern of introducing sub-characters in two-episode arcs was too simple to predict, and they weren't vivid enough to make for an exciting climax.

Come to think of it, I can't really put a finger on why I let the acting alone determine this show to be better than advertised. Rose (Rie Kugimiya) wasn't all that exceptional as a character (read: with the tsun extracted), and Ryûji (Hiro Shimono) turned out to be a serious wimp. Team that all up with a third wheel (Eriko) and what had to be the worst ending theme and animation I had ever seen, and you have hot garbage.

Bradley's Choice: Fractale

(Dis)honorable Mention: Haiyoru! Nyaru-Ani; Starry Sky

Fall 2010 - Hyakka Ryôran Samurai Girls

I'm not exactly sure what to think when I'm faced with the rehashing of history. I've been told to respect my elders and learn from the successes and mistakes we've made in the past as a country. This includes honoring our forefathers with reverence when it comes to their sacrifices for the sake of nationalism, but it also means being able to laugh when it comes to satire of those figures. I don't mind comedy that pokes fun at war, politics, and history—ask me about Bob Newhart's phone call between Abe Lincoln and his press agent.

However, there seems to be some fine lines being drawn regarding the re-imaging of historical figures in Japan. We've already seen what happens when the parody goes a bit too far into situational comedy (Tono to Isshô). We've also seen recent forays into portraying Chinese historical figures as females (Koihime Musô, Ikkitôsen), sending the storyline careening into a less-violent and decidedly feminine direction. Battles were still waged, but they usually involved some stage of dizziness and undress.

Hyakka Ryôran Samurai Girls, the lone Fall 2010 series that The Anime Network has obtained for online viewing, steps away from Chinese history and opts for yet another interpretation of Feudal-era Japan. Instead of taking the viewer into the past to retell the story, however, the timeline is allowed to unwind without the upheaval of the Tokugawa shogunate. Rather, Japan has become "Dai-Nippon", a unified and isolated country that trains its samurai warriors in an academy at the base of Mt. Fuji.

The newest arrival, Muneakira Yagyû, called to the academy to attend its classes with his childhood friend Sen, is suddenly thrown into an unstable situation when he moves into his dojo. His confrontation with the underdeveloped Yukimura Sanada and her bodyguard unravels an underlying plot by Toyotomi forces to take down the Tokugawa lineage, but it also draws Muneakira to their side when Sen's own forces mistake him for the enemy.

The confrontation with Sen's maid-servants turns out to be a major event, although not as much from the sword-clashing itself. In mid-battle, a naked girl falls from the heavens into Muneakira's arms before kissing him. The girl, who calls herself Jûbei Yagyû, ends up displaying the swordsmanship of a "Master Samurai" and overwhelms the others, only to pass out, later unable to remember how she transformed.

Much like any other harem anime, Muneakira's confidants are all female derivatives of historic figures, and each seek to capture his lips in order to turn into a Master Samurai. The modern setting allows for anime stereotypes—for example, Jûbei is a bubbleheaded ditz, Hanzo Hattori is a meganekko ninja in maid's clothing, and even the legendary Musketeer Charles d'Artanian makes an appearance as a foreign blonde swordswoman. As clues fall into place, the group realizes more and more the real motivations of the Tokugawa government, with Muneakira as the general for the opposing forces.

When you consider past efforts, yes, Jûbei has been female before (reanimated through the "lovely eyepatch" in Jûbei-chan), but that story was strictly parody. On the other hand, in much the same way that Sakura Wars took on the enemy by assembling a female resistance around a male protagonist, Hyakka Ryôran ends up trying to mix comedy with romance and drama. The story is there, but the comedy occasionally drags its level down towards that of a Tenchi Muyô—the show is bound to be remembered for its sexual situations and trips to the beach rather than its swordfighting.

Despite its heavy emphasis on titillation, Hyakka Ryôran does have its saving grace, mostly through its art style alone. Each scene is drawn with the thick ebony stroke of a calligrapher's pen, giving the show a feeling of something more cultural than mere eye candy. There is no escaping the sexual energy of this show, whether intentional or comic, but the art itself provides a unique sort of self-censure—while shows like Sora no Otoshimono and To Love-Ru have depended on cumbersome rays of sunlight, Hyakka Ryôran spatters ink on its nudity to hide the naughty bits with a bit more modesty.

There is no denying that the show is meant to thrill its viewers with the tried-and-true formula of the harem comedy, but the attempt by animation studio ARMS at developing a worthy story with imaginative artistic devices actually overrides the sex jokes and makes Hyakka Ryôran more watchable. It is still ridiculous to imagine the tough sneer of Jûbei coupled with the flash of panties and a vapid giggle, but we're still rewarded with a show that has an overall objective for its main characters, and the artwork allows the eyes to focus on both the action and its background.

In short, there are boobies and butts in Hyakka Ryôran, no doubt, but there are also plenty of other things to look at, you pervs.

5W1H: The First Half of 2010

A good journalist is told to keep the "5W1H" mantra alive when writing an article. (No, that doesn't stand for "WWWWWuH?", although some journalists appear to act that way.) If one is expected to conduct an appropriate investigation into something, he or she is expected to ask:

• What?
• Who?
• Where?
• When?
• Why?
• How?

After a little bit of consideration, we here at AniMaybe felt that this system could be applied(with a little bit of tinkering) to our reviewing process for the anime we have watched over the past six months. After all, there have been shows that have been forcing us to ponder a lot of questions (as well as interjections and expletives), both good and bad.

• What the...?
• Where did...?
• Who in the...?
• When did they...?
• WHY?
• How the hell...?

Most of the time, the questions came when we were either flabbergasted or drunk on exhuberant energy, but in the end, we tweaked those questions further and came up with the 5W1H Awards for the First Half of 2010! (An experiment in critical thinking, perhaps, but an experiment nonetheless. It's something we just drummed up, so by all means give us ideas for modifying them.)

What?! - To be reserved for the double-take of the half-year (a.k.a. "WTF?!"). The show that left us speechless, either in a good or a bad way.

Who?! - The award for the best performance over the half-year. When we think about 2010, this is who left the biggest impression. Could be a character, voice-actor, producer, director, designer, etc. (Pretty broad, I know.)

When?! - Not necessarily meant for the best show of the half-year, this award is for the show with the least amount of hype that was so surprisingly good it left us wanting to know the time of its next arrival.

Where?! - Not necessarily meant for the worst show of the half-year, this award is for the show that had the biggest hype but disappeared from the map so quickly that we can't find it anymore.

Why?! - This should speak for itself. The award given to the one show that just didn't deserve to be animated in the slightest. Meant to be wailed toward the heavens like a pained Captain Kirk while one is crouching on their knees before the computer and begging for all that time back.

And How! - Not as much a question as it is a statement, but it fits the category. This is to be given to the one show that came out as the without-a-doubt BEST show of the spring and summer.

Your assignment, gumshoes, is quite simple: what anime TV shows run in Japan the last six months deserve these awards? We'll present our own in October, but we also ask for other reviewers out there to provide their own, either here in our responses section or on other review blogs!

Let's get the WWWWWH Awards started!

(The name's up for debate, as well...)

Summer 2010: Highschool of the Dead

(Screenshots courtesy of Anime Network. Episode 1 is available on their website for free viewing.)

Aside from the two undead zombie hunters in Zombie-Loan (who really don't look too undead), there haven't been many zombies in anime that have managed to make names of themselves. Any and all sorts of invasions unleashed upon the populace haven't really amounted to squat, since the droves of rotten flesh with hankerings for brains have usually been dispatched by the supernatural all too easily.

It's hard to understand why a zombie apocalypse hasn't resulted in success in anime or manga, but perhaps the atmosphere wasn't right for the story. Perhaps success was meant for more first-person perspectives in video games (House of the Dead, Resident Evil). Perhaps the apocalypse was meant for more sinister means and not merely a parade of the undead. (Or perhaps we really really didn't want to wander into stories about zombie girlfriends.)

Well, damn the ecchi undertones. Highschool of the Dead does the obvious by taking that awkward, hormone-infested dump called "school" and turns it into a playground for zombies...and the awkward, hormone-infested teenagers trying to escape them.

The concept of the anime is as plain as the paper that housed the manga written by Daisuke Satô, known for his fictional readjustments of history, and illustrated by Shouji Satô (no relation). While skipping classes and brooding over his crush Rei dating his best friend Hisashi, Takashi Komuro witnesses an odd occurrence at the school's gates—one of the late students sinks his teeth into the Phys-Ed teacher, and one zombie becomes two. Sensing the oncoming onslaught, Takashi dashes into his class and pulls Rei and Hisashi out before the panic sets in.

In a matter of minutes, the peaceful school is overrun with the infection, leaving the three to survive on the school's rooftop, only to see the grim reality that the entire city has already succumbed to the spreading infection. Surprisingly, the first episode of the anime leads to the first notable death of the series, as Takashi is forced to kill a zombie-bitten Hisashi right before Rei's eyes, setting the somber and drastic tone of the series.

Of course, every zombie apocalypse is to have their smaller bands of survivalists who dispose of the horde their own way. Cold and collected Saeko uses a kendo bokken to split open skulls. Combat otaku Kôta fashions a nail gun for the fight and attempts escape with his classmate Saya. The school nurse Shizuka...well, Shizuka's not really the "fighting" type, as her breasts are really in the way too much to tell what her fighting style is.

This is perhaps the trickiest part of Highschool of the Dead—fan service lurks amongst the action like the undead. Mangaka Shouji Satô's reputation for erotic artistry and sensually-drawn women is well-represented, as the cinematographic angles tend to get rather low. Skin shines, breasts bounce, and skirts flap in the air from helicopters. Yes, the story is shockingly stocked with horrific shots and grisly deaths, but the flashes of lace and skin (when not being ripped or chewed) are almost so inappropriately strewn in the story that it gets comedic.

That being said, even the blatant service shots are not enough to keep this series from being exhilarating to watch. Piloted by director Tetsuro Araki (Death Note), the pace of the show is rather explosive once the zombie population hits exponential rates, and its presentation is pretty sharp from an artistic perspective. The characters may not be the most memorable, but the show appears to be willing to present the survivors through their own monologues as time goes by. Most of all, the story manages to take the overplayed setting of a high school and turn it upside-down—while schools are normally used as "haunted houses" in some horror shows, very rarely will the horror be presented during the day.

It is perhaps this excitement, this altering of the scenery that we've found commonplace into a thrill ride, that makes Highschool of the Dead an anxious show to watch. The starting episodes present the zombie apocalypse the way it should be presented—as a panic attack with very little choreography, even with the panty shots.

The only disappointment? High schools can never be used again successfully in stories as zombie breeding grounds.