Okie dokie! I am opening this blog post with a rant about zombies, particularly two shows: The Walking Dead versus Highschool of the Dead!
I have watched a fair portion of The Walking Dead (at least two seasons, give or take), and I have fully watched Highschool of the Dead.
Granted, TWD is a TV show and HOTD is an anime, but there is still a great deal that can be fairly compared between the two. I shall first begin the rant with my general opinion of them seperatley, then I shall list my comparing opinions of both of them.
HERE. WE. Go.
The Walking Dead (aka, The Dead Walking
[because of that stupid way they make the title appear at the beginning of the show])
The Walking Dead is a live action tv show on AMC about zombies (duh). It features a really wimpy protagonist named Rick, his wife Lori (who I keep calling Sarah because of Prison Break), his useless son Carl, that one lady Carol, the asian dude Glenn, EFFIN DARYL THE BEST ZOMBIE HUNTER ON URF, Shane; the mofo that won't get eaten already, Dale; the smartest man on urf, Andrea the crazy witch with a capital B, T-Dogg; the black dude who actually defeated the stereotype of 'the black guy dies first' (along with Jerome King from My Soul To Take). There's a bunch of other characters, but they aren't important.
The pilot was phenomenal.
Rick is a cop. He gets shot and winds up in a coma. When he wakes up, he's all alone. The hospital is falling apart. Blood and rotten corpses fill the halls. A pair of doors all chained shut lie at the end of one hall with a message written in blood that warns of dead behind the door. Something bangs at the door. Fingers poke through the crevices, and the sounds of moaning fill the air. We follow Rick as he stumbles across the ruined city, full of pain, confusion, and fear. We too feel what he feels as we see how he's struggling to grasp this new world he has literally been thrust into. He finds two people. The explain what happened and how the dead roam the streets. Rick sets off on his own, intent on finding his family. He comes to the city of Atlanta, and first encounters a hoard of the dead, and is trapped inside an abandoned tank while they swarm around him.
The pilot is the only episode worth watching. Feel free to imagine the rest of the show as you please, full of gripping deaths, awesome characters, horrifying displays of the dead eating the living, and maybe a couple explosions, love triangles... whatever your heart desires. Because honestly, the pilot is the only episode worth watching.
So, the Walking Dead. Each episode is roughly 40-something minutes long, wherein 39 of those minutes are spent delving into BS drama that could be summed up in one 10 minute scene but they decided to drag it out for a season and a half. It's like watching some family drama, reality tv show about those stupid celebrities complaining that they didn't get a 42 billion dollar tiara and are stuck with the 20 billion dollar tiara. Seriously.
Shane: Omg Lori, I lurv you!
Lori: My husband's back, and I'm still married to him. So seriously, we aren't gonna screw anymore.
Shane: But I lurv you! We were supposed 2 B 2gether 4evr!!!! <3<3<3
A lot of character decisions and actions were plain stupid. There was no character development. Oh no wait...
THE CHARACTERS GOT WHINIER AND DUMBER AS THE SHOW PROGRESSED!
"Dang, zombies are attracted by noise... I know! I'll scream!"
"Ermahgerd, my life is horrible! Why God why?????"
"Ugh! Why won't Lori let me screw her??? My life sux! FML!"
"I will only use guns because these things are SO reliable and NEVER run out of bullets :D !"
"Ermahgerd, my waifu died D: FML!!!! I shall give up on everything!"
SHUT UP!" (thank you Daryl)
Honestly, only two characters had any sense: Daryl and Dale.
SPOILER ALERT! Dale died.
Dale fought to keep the group together and remind them not to act like whiny sh*t children. Daryl fought the zombies, used a reliable weapon like a crossbow, and he was always saving their lives and having to do the tough jobs.
Has anyone ever noticed that the entire fanbase of The Walking Dead loves Daryl?
When only ONE character in a tv show is that loved, and no other character is close to being or equal to being as loved, then something is wrong with the show.
I mean, Supernatural for comparison: Sam and Dean (even Castiel) have a large fanbase. Pretty much an equally sized fanbase. I love Dean and Castiel equally. Sam's kinda faltering cause of the over melodrama they've been throwing on him lately. But despite that, I still love all three. I also love Bobby, Benny, that creepy vampire alpha, Charlie, even Crowley! There's a couple more, but I can't pull their names off the top of my head. But do you get it? That's SEVEN characters! On Walking Dead, I only like Daryl because he's the only good character on there. Something. Is. Wrong. Nuff said.
Oh man, don't even get me started on the zombies.
They hardly ever appeared. I mean, some episodes, there weren't any zombies at all. We were lucky if we got to see one standing around, or eating something, or just moaning. If we were REALLY lucky, we got to see zombies get killed or kill.
And the zombie scenes are really short. Only a couple minutes. Sure, it's scary and gets me all "ermahgerd! zombies!" But then the hype and fear is over.
MORE ZOMBIES!!! Nuff said.
Redeeming qualities? You want me to list redeeming qualities?
Um...
The zombies look awesome. And there's Daryl. And! AND! Lori is awesome.
I mean granted, she's not the toughest cookie or weilds a weappon or anything, but the way she stands up to creepy ole Shane mde me really proud. Compared to, say, Olivia Benford from Flashforward. Two girls, same situation. Lori defied Shane and did everything she could to stick by her husband Rick. Olivia kept throwing herself into a mental state of "I am destined to be with this guy" until she finally gave in and had an affair. Lori was strong where Olivia was weak. That gives The Walking Dead a redeeming score.
Plot.
The show had a great potential for plot (see my pilot summary). The show said "screw plot!". Plot sucked.
I give The Dead Walking a 2/10.
Ok fine, 3/10, but that's only cause Daryl asked nicely.
On to the good stuff.
Highschool of the Dead (HOTD)
Highschool of the Dead is a Japanese anime based on the manga of the same name. It features our main protagonist Takashi: the focused, determined guy who is dead set on surviving, Rei: Takashi's first love who is very good with a lance, Saeiko; the school's kendo club president, Saya: the school genius, Kohta: the school military nerd, and Shizuka: the bumbling, somewhat brainless school nurse. There's also a girl named Alice, but she appears later. She is little and has a dog named Zeke and is adorable. A few other characters appear, such as Saya's parents, a creepy cult leader, and I should mention Rei's boyfriend, Hisashi.
The pilot was... breathtaking.
(I ripped this off wikipedia with a couple edits) At the beginning of the semester, Takashi has a social separation with his childhood friend Rei Miyamoto. When he goes outside to mope, he witnesses a zombie attack at the front of the school. Takashi goes to warn Rei and his best friend Hisashi, who is dating Rei, and escapes with them just before news of the attack spreads across the school, causing panic. The three run into a zombie that bites Hisashi in the arm before Takashi kills it by smashing its head. They barricade themselves on the rooftop to witness Self-Defense Force helicopters flying in to combat the zombie outbreak in the city, oblivious to the carnage in the school. Hisashi begins succumbing to his injury and Takashi is forced to kill him, despite Rei's objections.
*facepalm*
COME ON WIKIPEDIA!!! YOU CAN DO BETTER!!!
We only knew Hisashi briefly, but I was having trouble not crying when he died. The emotion all three characters portrayed during that scene was beautiful: Hisashi begging Takashi to kill him so he could die as himself, Rei begging Takashi not to, Takashi standing there numbed and conflicted, then Hisashi writhing on the ground in agony as he begins to turn while Rei is screaming and begging him not to die, her relief when she sees him move, her horror when he tries to eat her, Takashi doing the right thing despite he's begging himself not to. And that is just that one scene!
It only gets better.
The rest of the anime continues on that emotional high, every episode brimming to overflowing with fear, the thrill, horror, and sorrow. I had to watch the entire thing through because I could not pull away.
And the characters!
Each character developed and they developed rather quickly. They had to. It made sense. They're entire world had just flipped upside down. They had to adapt or die. Even the brainless nurse adapted.
I'm still not sure what purpose she served except to drive the car...
Sure, Rei never really got over Hisashi's death. They all struggled with not knowing if they're parents were still alive or not. Kohta was still nerdy. Saya was bossy throughout. Takashi was kind of emotionless and rather negative about things. But they still adapted.
Saya used her bossiness to assert authority and managed to get them on the right track.
Takashi's negative outlook on things caused him to state facts rather than useless hopes like "Someday, people will save us."Because of this, he was able to prove to people they had to take initiative of their situation, and therefore helped them survive.
I could go on and on, but I think I'll stop there for now.
The negatives of the show?
Fanservice.
It was really unnecessary.
Every second they got, the creators threw in panty shots and booby shots, to the point where "if that bra was one millimeter to the left, this would be porn".
Also, I think they studied the physics of boobs more than they bothered character development.
I mean, Saeiko's boobs dodged a bullet.
Not Saeiko.
Just her boobs.
adfhqsufguosagf;lkasflaskndc;oqw,cbufv
Sorry. I had a WTF moment there. 0.@
What sucks is that the fanservice stuff really detracts from the amazing aspects of the show. When most people think HOTD, they think "BOOBIES!" and "ZOMBIES!" and little else.
There's some great philosophy in that show (which shall be mentioned in the comparison below) that I feel is sorely missed and never picked up on by others, because they're always struck by BOOBIES.
ZOMBIES!
I must mention the zombies!
Oh, they were glorious!
They scared me more than TWD zombies. TWD zombies were rotting and just... yah. They were gross. HOTD zombies scared the crap out of me. They were fast, strong, and would go to any lengths to get to their prey. You know how Hisashi got bit? He trapped a zombie in a headlock. The zombie twisted its head all the way around, breaking several bones and whatnot, and bit Hisashi's arm. That was absolutely disgusting to see. And I mean, the thing wasn't even that scary in the begiining. Just moaned a lot and had blood splatters on it's clothes. But that head twist! Ugh! *vomit*
Then, the speed at which they turned. You get bit, you have a couple minutes to say goodbye. Then you hack up blood for a minute, keel over, and get right back up as a full blown zombie.
Even if there was a cure, you didn't have much time to get that cure.
Scariest thing!
A woman runs up to police officers with her son in her arms who looks passed out.
"Don't shoot! We're still alive! My child and I are still alive!"
The kid twitches, lunges, and bites his mom on the neck. She drops him while blood gushes out of the hole. He just lies there, while she coughs up blood all over him. He twists around, licking his lips and moaning. Then his mother gets up and starts advancing towards the cops.
Yah, they have children zombies. They are sick!
The parts that made me cry were in the beginning and end of the show where we see the people panicking.
People are committing suicide. Some are going crazy because they can't handle the horror that they're seeing. A girl breaks away from the survivors and runs to her dying boyfriend. Not to save him, but to die with him.
It was just... horrible.
But that's what made it amazing.
I give this show a 9.9/10.
Would have been 10, but that fanservice... -.-
COMPARING THE TWO
I only ever thought the Walking Dead pilot was phenomenal because it was the first full blown zombie show I had ever watched. It was NOTHING compared to HOTD.
I'm going to just list generals as I explained this stuff more in detail above. Here we go.
Pilots:
Both were good. HOTD just had more of a shock factor. Nothing really to say here.
Characters:
I'm only going to say what I've said already. TWD sucked! Every character seemed like a rip-off of each other. Everybody was whiny and mopey, complaining about how much their world sucked. Sure, the HOTD characters thought their world sucked too. They hated it. But they moved on. They adapted. They survived. They observed their world and gathered what information they could that would be useful to combat the zombies. They found that zombies are attracted to noise, so the mostly tried to use bats, swords, poles, a nail gun; things that were quiet. When they were being overrun, then they brought out the guns.
Like in one scene:
Takashi on a motorbike: "Won't they be attracted to the noise?"
Saeiko (or it was Saya, I forget): "Yes, but that's alright because you will be moving. You won't be in one spot for very long, so they'll try to follow you at first but will soon lose you. If you were standing in one place, that would be a problem."
Ok, not a gun reference, but you see? They are making smart, tactical decisions based on their knowledge of the zombies.
TWD characters like their guns and like them lots. Granted, the zombies in TWD could also see their prey, but noise attracts them. Still, the people used guns, drove recklessly, and engaged in shouting matches frequently. Then they wondered, "Dur, why are zombies here?" "OMG dey must have herd ush!!" "Run away!" Then the next episode: "Dur, a gun!" *shoots the gun* "Dur, more zombies are here?"
The most important point: and I'm brining it up because of the phenomenal dialogue in HOTD that really narrows down the comparison between the two shows:
Overall Character Goal
TWD: Their overall goal is to find a safe place to settle down and live out their lives peacefully and return to normalcy in some way.
HOTD: Their overall goal is to survive as long as they can until the world rights itself.
Do you see the difference?
Yes? Yay! No? Let me explain.
With this bit of dialogue:
Rei: Do you think someone will come and help us?
Takashi: No.
Rei: But why? How can you say that?
Takashi: Remember the helicopters we saw from the school rooftop this afternoon? It's the same deal. No one can be bothered to help us. In fact we might never...
Rei: Never? We might never get any help? Then how are we going to make it through this?
Takashi: We just have to do what we can. That's just the situation we're in.
Later on as well, Takashi explains to Rei that they CANNOT EVER expect that the military and police or anyone has the time to save them. They're busy trying to control the zombies. He is also saying the world can NEVER return to normal after this. The world has changed. The world has ended. He accepts that fact, and the others come to accept it as well. They become determined to survive as long as they can in this world, and maybe someday, the zombie threat will be eliminated.
Rick and the others all run around hoping they can find a safe haven where people can take on the responsibility of fighting while they live peaceful existences until the world reverts to normal. They are stuck in the illusion that the world CAN and WILL return to normal, like the zombies are part of a big, scary, long dream that they'll wake up from one day. Because of this, they make stupid decisions, are constantly wallowing in self-pity and misery, and they whine and act like children.
Takashi and the others are not trapped in that illusion. There are even days where they have fun and enjoy themselves while stopping for a day or two in the safe houses. Sure, they're sad and their lives are crap, but they take a break from the world for a little bit and have what fun they can while they can. They have adapted. They realize that the zombie mess is their world now. It's everyone's world. It's not a dream or an illusion or something that can be erased. It's the way it is.
HOTD beats TWD!!!!
This also makes me want to point out how TWD relates to American behaviour. I'll make this brief.
Americans constantly sit around whining about their problems and wait for someone to come along and fix them instead of taking action and actually changing the problem or learning to deal with it.
You don't like poverty? Get a job! Can't get a job? Expand your job choices. So what if the work sucks and pay is low, at least it's a job!
Don't like the fact that children are starving in other countries? Donate money. Raise money. Volunteer at organizations.
Don't like child abuse or that some cultures are still marrying off thirteen year old girls to forty year old men just so the parents of the girl can have comfortable lives? Stand up and say something!
Don't sit around thinking "Oh, someone else will do it." It's that kind of thinking that is causing crap to happen all over the world.
Don't be the Walking Dead! Be the Highschool of the Dead!
Ok, I'm done ranting. Back to the zombies.
WHY DO I WATCH ZOMBIE STUFF?
They are appealing.
I don't know why. They just are.
I think it has to do with man's masochistic nature. We are drawn to what we fear. That's why we watch horror movies. Even though the plots are stupid and the characters are stupid and EVERYTHING'S predictable and overrated, we watch them and 'enjoy' them, because we love feeling that fear.
Don't believe me? Google it.
MY PERSONAL OPINION ON ZOMBIES
Zombies are my greatest fear.
Seriously, you wanna scare the crap out of me? Sit me down in front of a zombie marathon right before bed.
No wait, don't... I like my sleep.
Why am I scared of zombies the most? Why are they the only monster that strikes fear into my heart?
Have you ever seen a zombie show/movie/game where the zombie pandemic was cured? I haven't.
Zombies have no weaknesses. There is no cure to zombieism. Once you're caught, there is no escape. And when you die... well, you're not even dead.
"But what about vampires? Or werewolves? Ghosts? Or like, wendigos? Aren't those scary?"
Vampires: are cool. Even the ones of old that couldn't go out in sunlight or were allergic to garlic. Heck, if I got turned into a vampire, yay! I've always wanted immortal life.
Werewolves? I get to be a wolf! Yay! Even if I'm a wolf-man thing, that'd be cool. I could totally own that forest and be the king!
Ghosts? If a ghost was real, it could never actually harm you. Scare you? yes. But ghosts are immaterial. Immaterial things cannot touch material things. I am material. Therefore, I cannot be touched. Yah, I suppose, depending on what book you read or movie you watch, I could be harmed, but they have weaknesses and stuff. Plus, I've seen enough Supernatural to know how to deal with them.
Hmm, wendigos. Well, I doubt I'll ever be a wendigo. Even if I do get stuck in a cave for nine years, I would never resort to cannibalism. I'd just go to sleep and die freezing to death.
"Oo, but they're scary and will eat you!"
I could escape. If it bites me. Whatever. I got bit. I just escape, hit the nearest hospital, and bam. All fixed up. Sure, they're scary, but I can deal with scary.
All other monsters: there is a way to escape. There is a weakness. For a bunch of them, they have awesome strengths where if you were turned into one, bonus for you.
But zombies?
It's just pure, utter, horror and fear. You CANNOT escape. They have no weaknesses that are readily dealt with (ie: ghosts hate salt; a convenient item found anywhere food is sold, vampires hate sunlight and crosses; open the windows or pull out your necklace, werewolves hate silver; distract them with silver objects or maybe throw some raw meat at them to keep them busy while you flee) But zombies are only prone to extreme heat and cold, so unless you've got a blow torch or a can of liquid nitrogen handy, good luck to you. Oh, and it's not the pain that deters them, it's the lack of body parts that will hinder their approach.
Once you get bit, you're one of them. It's the end. And you don't want to be one of them.
Zombies are only so cool as long as you're killing them. Being a zombie hunter = fun! Being a zombie = not fun. Whereas, vampire hunters and vampires are equally fun.
The ONLY time I wanted to be a zombie was when I invented my own type of zombie. They weren't even zombies, more like super charged cannibals that couldn't die.
I mean, have you ever met a person that was like "I really, really, really want to be a zombie forever!"
Not me.
Zombies are honestly the most horrifying creation I have ever heard of. I could watch Higurashi When They Cry till the cows come home. I could write a story about psychopathic murderers. I could watch the documentary on the mafia killer "Ice-Man". Heck, I could watch Happy Tree Friends. All that and more, without batting an eye.
But zombies?
*shudder*
They are the dead that never die. How horrible is that?
Curse you, middle ages people and your stupid methods of burying people alive. It was going to bite us in the butt someday! *shakes fist*
So now I bid y'all adieu. I hope you enjoyed my rant. Consider checking out Highschool of the Dead. Give it the love it deserves (not that kind of love -.- stupid fanservice). And someone, tell those Walking Dead people to fix their stupid storyline! I'm talking to you too Robert Kirkman!
EDIT: wow, this thing is long o.o
