Day One Hundred and Nine - High School of the Dead: Episode 9, "Mmm... Saeko. I love you."

It's been a while since I watched any High School of the Dead, so I figured I'd head back and take a few in. The episodes are short on time and long on fanservice and, sometimes, that's just what you need.

Episode 9, "The Sword and The Dead" teams up the group's nominal male lead, Takashi, and the ever deadly and beautiful Saeko as they are separated from the rest of the group. The meat of the story revolves around the two of them bonding as they are generally cut off by the horde at just about every opportunity and are forced to improvise and spend the night rough in a shrine temple.

I really love this particular episode because it highlights my favorite shippage in the series. There's just something about Saeko's character archetype that pushes all the right buttons for me. She's vicious, but not evil. Refined, but also primal. Sexy, but demure.

Granted, the series makes no qualms about showing her in a few states of undress, giving her a dousing in river water to force an impromtu wet t-shirt contest (in which she is the only contestant), a sequence where she's braless in a tanktop, and so on, but this is High School of the Dead.

It has two modes... Zombie Violence and Fan Service... and the series is REALLY heavy on the latter. If you're at all surprised with what you get at this point, I have no respect for your powers of observation.

In addition to all the service, we also get to see the weaker side of Saeko (probably just to ramp her moe factor, but still). Despite her deadly ways, she balks when confronted with zombie children and is almost bitten until Takashi intervenes. We are also treated to a bit of her backstory as she relays her fears concerning her possible status as a psychopath who loves to kill and maim.

It's weird how much I love how beautiful her darkness is... and it obviously rubs off a little on Takashi, BUT that last bit is kind of my problem with the series.

HSotD is an obvious harem anime... where the main male lead is the object of both attention and affection for all the female leads. That means that it's all super cheesy, super convenient, and the shippage that I may particularly root for is only around for a few key episodes before it falls into the background in favor of the main romance.

Or, at least, what is HINTED to be the main romance... and, based on the clues, I'm guessing it won't be Saeko.

Unless, you know, the party manages to form a comfortable trois or quart.

Or pentacle.

So many of these buxom girls are just gaga over Takashi, of course, that it annoys the hell out of me. Maybe because I, personally, am more like the chubby otaku character Kohta Hirano whose own love interest is, of course, head over heels for Takashi.

Ah, jealousy... over fictional anime characters.

I wish there was more HSotD. The anime ends on a cliffhanger in a few episodes and its source material, the manga, has been on hiatus for quite some time (over a year) and has only recently started back up again.

For what is there, though, it works on just about every primal caveman/reptile brain tendency. If that's your thing (like it is mine) enjoy with my blessing!

Until tomorrow, Potatoes~