I try to avoid the lowest-common-denominator trashy titles what with my free time being at such a premium and with the Backlog being the way it is, but there’s no harm in giving new shows a fighting chance. Long story short, there’s a lot of stuff around that doesn’t interest me and I still haven’t found the opportunity to write some deep ‘n’ meaningful editorial for a while. I haven’t got as far as the latest NoitaminA offerings yet though, so all isn’t lost. Legservice, boobs and zombies ought to be a good place to start though, right?
In the case of Ookami-san and the Seven Companions, I guess it’s fair to say I started watching this because of Ryouko. She’s basically the good old butt-kicking tsundere with a few inches added to her height and has apprently raided Luka Megurine’s backup wardrobe. Which is no bad thing really. The “ZOMG! Those legs go on forever!” observation has been done to death already, so I won’t state the obvious by commenting any further on that. I wish they’d give the poor girl a break on her bra size though…you can’t have everything, y’know?
The question raised now is, should I bother watching something purely on the appeal of one cool character when the storytelling and the rest of the cast are so generic, bland and predictable that the writers might as well have dropped Ryouko into a room full of cardboard cutouts propped up around her? Sadly, no. The narrator and her frequent breaking of the fourth wall is fun though, even though she seems determined to sound like someone’s gran. I suspect her appeal, apparently as a reference to A Certain Magical Index and …Railgun (two shows I haven’t seen), is lost on me.
As far as the idea of ‘guilty pleasure’ goes, I don’t think you can get much better than High School of the Dead. Imagine a George Romero movie in the style of Black Lagoon with the fan service cranked up to eleven and you wouldn’t be far off the mark. Although I wouldn’t say flat-chested is a turn-on (sorry, Ryouko), there’s something not quite right with having boobs twice the size of your head swinging around. Accepting that bit of artistic licence and the pantsu shots aside though, this bloodstained little number could well be a lot of fun in the coming weeks.
The lowbrow ecchi-centric aspects of the production fortunately didn’t draw my attention away from the visuals or the editing, which are suitably smooth, slick and unflinching for the grusome subject matter. The zombie apocalypse thing is so overdone these days that most recent offerings are parody/comedy efforts (Shaun of the Dead and Zombieland being my personal faves) but given the introduction, in which the hero goes from bum to badass and winds up killing his best friend, I’m hoping for some Battle Royale-style character study. How’s that for a slice of fried gold?
They make him his best friend in the anime? In the manga, I wouldn’t call them best friends at all; maybe acquaintances.
> The narrator and her frequent breaking of the fourth wall is fun though, even though she seems determined to sound like someone’s gran.
I found the narration to be the most aggravating aspect of Ookami-san. The show’s generic enough without redundant, captain-obvious narration from Kuroko of Index/Railgun fame. I was only watching it to check out “those thighs” everyone was jabbering about, not to listen to my grandma making fun of the show for me ;)
> the hero goes from bum to badass and winds up killing his best friend, I’m hoping for some Battle Royale-style character study
Here’s hoping, but I’ve grown far too accustomed to generic zombie-fests for such a gimmick to push a show to my watch-list. I might marathon it later, but it sounds like a hefty time investment for what I could see in 2 hours or less at the movies.
I didn’t mind the first ep of Ookami-san, since a few of the really-over-the-top scenes (like the bike sequence) had me giggling a bit, but the second episode was boring and laboured. The narrator has been really poorly implemented. She’s entertaining for all of a minute, and tolerable for all of five.
HotD isn’t generally my sort of thing, but what it has going for it is that it’s really well made (not unusual for Madhouse). This is my favourite scene so far. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-gpNiqGVXw
Ookami-san is hardly anything at all. Ryouko, well, ep2′s mix of defiance and fear worked well, but I’m not all that interested in her, great legs or no. I admit that I sometimes chuckle at the narrator. Having seen Railgun I don’t think of that voice as someone’s grandma. I think of Kuroko indulging in some sick fun in the sound booth (with Misaka, about to smack her). Alas, the narration gets in the way. Way too much of it.
Enough’s been written about Highschool’s excellence, but I’ll add one thing. They often display an image of a electrical tower seen from below. Every time they show it, I get more disturbed. To me that tower radiates menace. I have no idea why. Maybe there’s a reason, but I haven’t read the manga.
When I began watching HOTD my eyes were intially rolling like marbles – within the first minute it manages to pack in more fan service than some ecchi shows manage in an episode. All the same I kept watching for the novelty of zombie action, and indeed as you say it’s quite the guilty pleasure. Upskirty naughtiness aside there’s a thrilling show underneath it all that could be the pick of the season. Either way, thus far it’s the most exhilirating watch on offer currently, so I’ll stick with it.
Watched this out of curiosity as I’ve dropped the “tired” zombie genre long ago. A zombie anime? I just had to see how they handled it.
My guess is the excessive fanservice was more in the spirit of satire than titillation. The show could have been improved greatly by reducing the T & A. That & killing off Nurse Dizweed & the dog. Dang barking kept attracting the ghouls!
Some of my ruminations on this here:
http://jaysteevee.blogspot.com/2010/12/not-so-hotd.html