Highschool of the Dead - Episode 7

After taking a fair bit of time out to concentrate on its fan service elements last time around, episode seven of Highschool of the Dead... well, carries right on with the fan service and all-round lack of clothing.

Once both ourselves and the series manage to drag their gaze from our sleeping (and wide-awake) beauties however, we're once again greeted with the harsh realities of this new, post-apocalyptic world; a place where the thought of saving others is akin to suicide, and where nobody is willing to take a chance on assisting another. This is graphically illustrated via a surviving man and his daughter, with the former banging on a door and shouting for help, if only for his little girl, only to find himself stabbed by the home's terrified occupants.


However, our bunch of heroes and heroines haven't completely lost their humanity just yet, and thus a plot is hatched to save the surviving girl from the zombie hordes. Cue Hirano's precision with a sniper rifle, Takashi's bravery which borders upon stupidity (and his handy abilities with a bike) and a Humvee full of half-naked girls to save the day and make their break from the "safe house" they had been using.

While I've broadly accepted the levels and frequency of fan service throughout this series so far, I have to confess that this felt like the closest Highschool of the Dead had got to getting the balance wrong, coming dangerously close to (and perhaps even crossing) the line where the action and tension of the series was dissipated or otherwise dampened by opting for a dose of fan service and/or comedy. Perhaps the worst example of that is Takashi's audacious attempt to rescue the little girl by walking precariously along the tops of available walls to avoid the zombies - the whole "I need to pee" routine complete breaks the tension here in what was a broadly nerve-inducing moment, and it's something which happens a little too often this time around for my liking.

Still, that gripe aside the action we did get was as over-the-top yet awesome as ever, and you can never say no to the introduction of a MELL insert song, right? Hopefully we'll be seeing more of both of those elements next week, and less of the bouncing boobs and nose bleeds encroaching upon it.