Seikimatsu Occult Gakuin
Short Synopsis: Our lead character is the daughter of the head of some supernatural high school.
How awesome. This was everything a first episode should be! Funny, entertaining, tense, mysterious, intriguing, engaging, this episode was all of it. I was really afraid of the way that the promo material portrayed the lead characters, but there turned out to be no need to worry. The female lead at least is a very colourful character, and most importantly: this episode really wasted no time to delve into her background. It just went “screw carefully introducing characters and waiting with their background until the last minute. We’ve got only thirteen episodes here, you know!” This episode was full of weird and entertaining plot twists that had a ton of charms. The jokes were quite creative, and most importantly: while it definitely made its characters out to be a bunch of oddballs, it never turned them into idiots. Especially the part in which that ghost pretended to be the lead character’s dead father, she really saw through such a shallow trap immediately, instead of getting all sentimental about it. However, I do have one thing to say about this episode, and this is a pretty big issue: this clearly was a “let’s go all out with our first episode”-first episode. That is NO EXCUSE for the show to dull in after this. This has the potential to become a classic if all the episodes are of this caliber. However, will the creators really have enough material to make every single episode entertaining, or will they just descend into random fluff after this?
OP: Very neat art there.
ED: A decent ballad
Potential: 95%
High School of the Dead
Short Synopsis: Our lead character is in a school full of ZOMBIES
Yeah, it’s pretty much like expected. The story itself has the depth of a paper bucket, we have a school zombie invasion and your average teen-aged lead happens to be one of the few who manages to escape, along with his love interest. There’s a ton of fanservice as well. Does that matter, though? Of course not! This is just one of those shows that knows exactly what it is: adrenaline. This episode was a great taste in what is about to come, with a tight and over the top atmosphere, with a lot of passion and overacting. Right from the start, this would be a series that’s going to sell itself with its action, and well, in this episode it accomplished its mission! On the cliche side of things, though: while there are definitely cliches here and there (the childhood promise being the worst of them), the lead characters for once aren’t actually useless or weak. the lead female practices martial arts, while the lead male has also showed that he can kick zombie ass.
OP: Decent J-rock, though nothing special.
ED: Again, decent j-rock.
Potential: 75%
Seitokai Yakuindomo
Short Synopsis: Our lead character gets to be in the student council in a school with 90% females…. they’re not even trying anymore, are they?
Oh boy, oh boy! I hope that you’re a big fan of short-jokes, because this series surely has enough of them in its endless attempts to remind us that one of the characters is short. Seriously, the people from GoHands are terrific animators. So why the heck do they keep spending their time with these incredibly stupid premises? While not as bad as Princess Lover, Seitokai Yakuindomo is yet another one of those series in which we get to see cute girls with the depth of a paper bag parade around the screen, all around one male character who gets his usual harem. The jokes here… were terrible. They’re not funny, and some of them get repeated endlessly. I doubt that many people who visit this blog were planning to check this one out, but still: there are so many better shows of this kind. I don’t see anything that sets this series apart from its ilk.
OP: Glad to see that the jokes that the series plans to drag out in the rest of the series are even more terrible than what they showed in this episode.
ED: Obnoxious.
Potential: 0%
About Seitokai… they weren’t funny? I thought they were okay for mature jokes…. at least in the manga. I’ll see if the anime did anything…
Ok some of the dialogue really surprised me. All the jokes were sex related and this show really makes me feel dirty. Man i regret watching this already.
“Seriously, the people from GoHands are terrific animators.”
trying to make a joke worse than the ones in the show?
I know this show is probably terrible, but the images really got my attention. I mean, if it looks this good in motion, it’s bound to be one of the best looking ones around.
Westlo: what? They aren’t?
Care to elaborate?
I really do feel like I’m alone on this, but: the first episode really wasn’t that bad. Better than the Ookami show for me, at least. I guess it’s just me and Impz, then, that are gonna watch this series…
HOTK will certainly have more to show than action, if they follow manga.
There are two things that define HOTK for me: Atmosphere and Characters.
Atmosphere wise, the manga(and hopefully the show) will actually succeed in aking you worry about the characters, skipping heartbeats thorough various situations. The manga builds up tension pretty well and with how they adapted first chapter, I am sure it will continue to do so in anime too.
Character-wise, yes there are certain cliched backstory premises involved(and frankly pretty much every manga and anime at this point has them), however HOTK manages to add certain twists to that.
None of the main characters can be defined as weak(and yes there’s more than two “main characters”), but, at the same time, pretty much every main character has certain problems, certain flaws, certain bad character traits that are shown and explored more and more thorough the storyline.
You could say that as much as the show focused on the atmospheric survival scenes, that much it also focuses on how all the hell(literally) that is going on is affecting the characters, their psyche, their world view.
Plot-wise its quite simple and don’t expect much lore/wthhappened-wise till maybe the end of the show. Its not about that. Plot is not that. Why all of this happened is not as important as on what characters do after it has happened.
Good first episode for High School of the Dead. I’m totally psyched which direction the series will go. If I’m not mistaken I think they used the theme music for 28 Weeks Later in one scene.
Heh, HSOD was decent… They just need to drop the pointless fan service… For a show with blood everywhere, if youre gonna do fanservice, show some nudity, not stupid panty/boob shots
Dont like the character designs either, but I can live with that lol
Wow, zero percent potential? Just out of curiosity are you short?
frog: yeah. Why do you ask?
HOTD looks just HOT. 🙂 I absolutely love it. It was time to have a great zombie-anime-series – so let’s just enjoy!
PS: I hope, psgels will blog it! 🙂
@Frost
The manga is written by a hentai artist. Which surprisingly results in really well-portrayed character flaws and uncovering of their not-so-known personality perks.
no matter how i look at it, SY is so 95% opposite of the high school in Kaichou wa Maidsama. And Maid-sama is so much better than this (to me).
no matter how i look at it, SY is so 95% opposite of the high school in Kaichou wa Maidsama. And Maid-sama is so much better than this (to me).
The Highschool of the Dead manga is written by an alt-history writer that used the manga as an author tract. It’s drawn by someone else, who I didn’t know anything about until just now, but it certainly explains why the female character designs look like bad porn.
I think that it’s unlikely they will “drop the stupid fanservice.” I think they actually increased its presence over the source. Gore, T&A, dark comedy, weapon porn, and unpopular social commentary are what you’re signing up for.
Madhouse seems to have toned-down the onscreen gore; there’s even one scene where a zombie bites a guy without even biting him–apparently zombie teeth, blood splatter, and body parts are highly correlated, but definitive causation is still being investigated.
Madhouse did a pretty good job of creating mood. After decades of wear and tear, zombie herpes is more humorous than it is frightening, and recent efforts have taken to speeding the enterprise up to gain urgency where inevitability doesn’t payoff. I think this is put into practice to good effect here, but I don’t know how long it will continue when the source material doesn’t skip around as much.
The main characters are pretty genre-savvy, but they’re sometimes slow on the uptake at first to get the series into the equilibrium the author needs for social commentary. Just chalk it up to “I can’t believe I’m in a zombie movie” denial.
There was one scene where they panned over the same animated sequence three times. Not impressed.
The highlight of the show for me, though, was the addition of a girl being kicked in the gratuitous panty-shot down a stairway. I thought that was really funny.
Im glad I wasnt just imagining things, the female character really do look… suspicious, to say the least
I still think they should remove it entirely, it takes away from the seriousness of the show, and its already hard to be serious with zombies, so yeah… But this is the logical business decision, since its a lot more mainstream
@Frost: There actually is nudity in the manga. HotD isn’t really supposed to be serious anyway. It’s intended to be a brainless (ha ha) action series with shameless fan-service and a little bit of social commentary.
@Frost
Nope. It has more to do with a fact that the manga is drawn by hentai artist than with business decisions 😉
I didn’t quite like all the boobs and pantyshots in HODT but I have to admit that aside from that I found this first episode surprisingly enjoyable.
It left a whole lot things to be answered (first of all: From where did they get the stuff to build the blokade against the zombies from? They’re on a rooftop!) but the atmosphere was well made and the action was good.
The characters are okay for now, too, so I’m looking forward to how the story will develop from now on.
@Moonhawk
About the barricade stuff – Madhouse cut out one manga scene.
There’s a storage room full of school tables/chairs in there(the highschool I was in too did the same, stashing it in the roof, as bringing chairs tables DOWN the stairs is a lot easier than UP). You pretty much see them build it. Then the discussion followed on various things like: how the water should be shared/measured in this situation, what should they do, and in what ways they should kill themselves(as to not get turned into “them” after being killed by “them”) in case something goes wrong.
Changing subject now but just watched Seitokai and liked it quite a bit… The dialogue and jokes have a mature theme to it, even though the characters are high schoolers… Most of the jokes are subtle in a way kids wouldnt understand, and I like that
Theres lots of wordplay too, which is something I always appreciate in humor… Its rare that I disagree completely with psgels but this is one of those times
They probably got the stuff from within the observatory.
I haven’t been so psyched by a first episode of an anime in so long, it was just that well done.
Good old Madhouse know how to make something exciting.
@UnknownVoice:
Thank you! It makes a lot more sense like that.
I just thought of the typical highest point on the school rooftop, which is normally just the upper part of the staircase leading up there.
But now I’m really wondering why Madhouse decided to leave that part out.
Aside from building the barricade, the conversation you mentioned would have added a lot more realism.
@Moonhawk
Most likely due to time constraints. The gray hair (forget his name)’s death was a good way to end the episode IMO.
Sadly, I won’t be able to watch Occult Gakuin for a week. Eff Crunchyroll.
I think we all know what HSTD is roughly going to be like for the rest of the season.
Also, in HSTD, the female lead might do fencing or whatever, but she’s still annoying as hell.
Seikimatsu Occult Gakuin is pretty zany. I was just counting heel shots waiting for old age to claim me, and was caught completely off-guard when the comedy started to flood in. The humor might be as sophisticated as short jokes and tampon references, but I think this show looks promising.
The ED is pretty weird.
Ah, I meant to write ‘might not be as sophisticated’ and unfortunately fell on my own sarcasm and hurt myself.
With HOTD,like the others said,its a type of entertainment where you have to turn off your brain at times(or most of the times :p) to enjoy it.But as far as I’ve read the manga,the dreadful atmosphere stays,so its a high quality brainless(lol,literally brainless) entertainment really 🙂
Hell yeah, Occult garden! I actually have something to look forward to this season!
However, that live action ED is just weird.
Also, anybody notice that The Principal looks a lot like one of the men sitting around the table in the beginning?
Well about the nudity and fanservice: don’t expect it to be toned down. In fact, expect more of it.
funny, I actually got a few chuckles out of Seitokai Yakuindomo. They may have been guilty chuckles but hey? There are worse shows out this season
High School of the dead really did it for me. What can I say? the cast didn’t act like retards in the opening chaos! Sure, there was a breakdown towards the end but that was to be expected under the circumstances AND they were essentially safe from most threats at that point. I guess it just felt most-like how I feel like my friends and I would have responded to a zombie outbreak in high school.
Sure, we’d all get eaten eventually but we’d give it a pro try…
I feel like I’m the only person who doesn’t like HSotD. Never found of zombies, don’t care about the characters, and I’ve seen better fanservice. I got about 2 to 3 volumes into the manga before dropping it. Maybe the anime’ll do better.
occult academy: please don’t disappoint. You’re my one and only reason to continue to watch anime right now.
I cross my fingers for the Higschool of the Dead. I liked it as you can like the n-th copy of a Romero B Horror Movie, but that persistent and repeated fanservice is a little suspicious in my opinion.
Thumb down for Seitokai as such dirty humour can’t honestly come from high class ladies like those. It’s not even funny.
I long to see that other show Occult Gakuen.
After the bland Campanella, the utterly wrong Mitsudomoe and the utmost crappy Ookami-san i start lacking faith in this season too 🙁
It’s 2 years that i repeat the same stuff each season. Luckily there are still a couple of nice anime worth watching every season so, maybe… who knows ^^”
In the meantime i still have plenty of anime to watch saved form the pre-crisis years.
@Ebod – I don’t think it’s the greatest anime ever made ( not by any means ) but compared to the rest of the sumer series(es) It’s the most interesting show I’ve seen.
that said, if you don’t like Zombies, a zombie survival anime isn’t going to do anything for ya XD
When I heard that HOTD was going to be fan service and zombie killing, I didn’t think I would like it.
However, I was gladly proven wrong.
HOTD remind anyone of left for dead/2 from Valve?
About HOTD: Mm..seen a little bit of HOTD art before but I didn’t follow the manga cos it looked pretty grim. From what I gather, it will be pretty heavy on the fanservice – actually much more than now. Also, it will be pretty harem – at least three leading ladies all interested in the lead character, voiced by the guy who did FSN’s Archer. (And there will apparently be *SPOILER* a naked apron scene. A naked apron scene in a zombie survival horror story!? Can psgels stomach this, really?! XD)
I think the story is about the breakdown of societial normalties and human relationships in the face of an overwhelming crisis. There’s already been a glimpse of how friendships die in the face of sheer terror, terrible stress and the instinct to survive. Later there will be challenges to some generally accepted views like how adults are supposed to be examples for/protect kids, or how police are supposed to protect the innocent, etc. Alot of firearm otaku stuff will get thrown in too, along with small squad tactics that apparently help the kids survive. Alot of side characters will appear and get killed off along the way. Not sure how well/seriously it will be portrayed though. From what I can tell, there’s very little explanation for what’s happening. It’s all a micro view of these high school kids trying to survive against overwhelming odds, with alot of fanservice thrown in. I don’t see how this story will end well without some cheesy deus ex machina, but not enough has been revealed about the situation from a macro point of view. I’m betting on some open ending for the anime, though maybe the anime and manga will end at the same time. Apparently there’s some minor links between this story and the movie “28 days later” – that story didn’t end too well either. So I’d be careful getting too attached to any of the characters. 🙁 Hm..what’s the deal in Japan with summer and horror stories anyway?
About Seitokai Yakuindomo, I actually like corny/dirty jokes, and these girls’ straight face deliveries of some shamelessly sensitive lines somehow make it even funnier. I wish I understood some of the jokes though. What did that prez draw on the suggestion box that attracted so much mail??? Also..a pity most fansubbers missed the period jokes in the story.
@addendum to my speculation above. *Episode 1 SPOILERS* Come to think of it, I think it’s presumptuous of me to consider Rei to be a potential harem member. She might have a complicated love-hate relationship with the Takashi pre-apocalypse, but that same Takashi just smashed her lover’s head in. Sure, he was a zombie out to eat her but from her immediate reaction afterwards, she remained none-too-pleased about it anyway. I wonder if her begging Takashi to stay with her might be less about forgiving him and saving his life and more about using him to save her own life – much like the two best friends in an earlier scene, when push finally came to shove – or kick in that case. =.=; Hm….
Seikimatsu Occult Gakuin … IS FREAKING AWESOME .. i really loved every moment of it … this show really has a spirit of its own *pun pun .. yeah XD*
The animation, character designs and facial expressions are all top notch … and i really love how the series deals with western occult themes instead of japanese ones (although at some points making clear cut distinctions between the two isn’t easy) … damn … can’t wait to see the next episode … school principal turning evil spirit by his own voice recording rehearsal of a wrong spell and a naked guy beamed down from the sky wearing a pair of shaded goggles while complaining about how bright the beam was .. count me in .. you don’t see a series like that too often these days XD
Also the flashbacks with the young kids trying all sorts of stuff (counting the 13 stairs and summoning spirits) were pretty cute and hilarious.
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And while Highschool of the Dead wasn’t as good as Seikimatsu Occult Gakuin it still managed to create a dreadful atmosphere … i didn’t read the manga so i don’t know why people just keep calling it brainless fun .. but from what i saw it seemed pretty serious .. the parts where the students panicked and started running out of the classes after hearing the screams of the radio guy were pretty disturbing .. people being kicked down or stomped and everything going out of control in few seconds .. not to mention the scene where one girl kicked her friend down the stairs was pretty sad (only diluted by the unnecessary panty shot) … and yeah .. the fanservice can be overbearing sometimes and dilutes the rather serious and disturbing atmosphere (like hell .. the camera cuts specifically to show a panty shot of the main female character then cuts back to the action .. i was like WTH !!!)
Either way it portrayed a zombie outbreak in a confined environment (school campus) pretty well .. and the art and animation are pretty solid … i just wonder how things will progress and how it will end .. if they manage to get that right it can prove to be a good action/horror/survival series with some fanservice added on top.
Just caught Seikimatsu myself too. Looks very nice. Nice blend of action, comedy, suspense, drama and mystery, while still remaining somewhat lighthearted and fun. Lacks the grimness and gloom and doom from HOTD. Definite win here….so far. The 2 kids in the ed is kinda weird though. Are they supposed to be the two leading ladies when they were kids?
Ah, sorry…my bad. I think the kid in the ED with the striped shirt is a boy. A young No. 6? A timetraveller from 2012?