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Do you ever get the feeling of being pleasantly surprised by something? The kind of show you would expect to hate, but found to be enjoyable for the most part? That's what this anime has given me. Despite the hate that this show gets, I found it to be a solid enough zombie action romp with a distinct style to it that only Tetsuo Araki could give it. While the ecchi elements can be overbearing and excessive, I thought the show was a passable way to spend my time during the quarantine.

Now with that in mind, the story for this show is yet another zombie action plot with some romance and ecchi thrown in. A sudden zombie apocalypse starts and destroys the world as we know it and a group of strangers decides to work together to survive. They go to one place to another to protect themselves from the zombies. Nothing out of the ordinary, but I do like how this group is actually pretty competent as far as fighting and working together is concerned. Take Hirano Kouta for example. From the outset, he seems like your standard basic perverted nerd, and he is that to an extent, but he's extremely useful thanks to his knowledge on how to use guns. That is a skill that no one else in the show has. It ends up saving the cast multiple times in the show, and the guy does pull his weight (no pun intended). He's what I would describe as a gun otaku, and the guy is handier than I thought he would be at first. I was afraid that he would be an annoying comedic relief character, but he turned out to be pretty decent.

The other thing about Hirano is his dynamic with Saya Takagi, the cute glasses girl with pigtails. She's a bit of a smartass who initially looks down on him and calls him a fatass nerd. She works with him to survive and escape the school, and she does decide to slowly warm up to him (Though not in a romantic way, FYI). She also has an issue with her parents after the zombie outbreak, but that gets resolved fairly quickly. Her parents are rich folk who are total badasses and try to save as many people as possible. Saya meanwhile is a snob with a capital S though, since she is usually the one trying to take charge and telling the group what to do. She's also a childhood friend of the protagonist Takashi, but that doesn't really go anywhere.

Speaking of Takashi, he had a crush on one of the girls Rei, but she dated his friend Hisashi who died in the first episode. After that, they do seem to try and kindle a relationship between one another. It honestly feels like she clings to him because she lost Hisashi so early into this disaster. While that may be unfair to her, she does take interest in him after that guy's death. More on that later. As for Takashi himself, he's a decent protagonist. He does come up with some legitimately smart ideas to deal with the zombies, and he does have some nice moments with other characters, namely with Saeko. He does come off as a brooding loner kind of character at first, but he gradually becomes the sort of leader that a schlocky zombie apocalypse would call for. He's an alright lead all things considered.

I really don't have anything to say about Shizuka Marikawa. She's just the usual blonde bimbo type of character with big boobs. She is the school nurse, but it's not like her medical capabilities really get utilized at all. She's just there for ecchi scenes and for driving around the characters. That's it. Arisu is the little girl they decide to save from the zombie horde, but she's mostly just a normal happy girl aside from the fact her father was killed and she was crying about it. She's largely insignificant to the plot.

Then there's Rei, and I don't think her romance subplot is really all that necessary considering the circumstances they're in. Especially since that plot isn't resolved at all anyways. Aside from fighting alongside the other characters, there's not much worth noting about her. She's also a childhood friend of Takashi, and it seemed like their long history together eventually made Takashi interested in her. When the catastrophe breaks out, she was in denial at first because she didn't want to believe that Hisashi is dead and she doesn't want to believe that everything has gone to shit. She begins to deal with this shift and help the others fight the zombies, but aside from that, she isn't too interesting on her own.

Finally, there's Saeko. She's the wise and stoic kendo school student. Her skills do make her a legitimate asset to the team since she can kill zombies very efficiently with her kendo stick. A plot twist that's revealed with her is something that feels pointless considering the situation that they're in. The bonding moment seems rather unnecessary given what the issue actually is given the context of the series. Still, she gets shit done and she's easily the most attractive girl in the show, so I can't complain too much.

One thing that I find annoying about this show is just how excessive the ecchi elements are. Now don't get me wrong, ecchi by itself is fine, but when you see panty shots and boob shots in action parts of the show, they get distracting. There was the legendary matrix boob shot, which whether or not you watched the show, you've probably seen it. That one is an exception because of how ridiculous and amazing it is in and out of context. Aside from that, I'm really not bothered by the ecchi parts of the series. As long as the series primarily separates those scenes with the action set pieces, then I'm fine with getting a little bit of fanservice here and there.

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Another issue is how annoying and blatantly evil or dumb some of the adults are in this series. Take the teacher for example. He smiles menacingly, and he gives off a creepy vibe to him. Rei says they should've just let him die, and judging by the way he acts, you are given the impression that she's right. The old lady arguing with our characters is an example of the adults acting stupid. She and a bunch of other adults believe that the zombies really aren't zombies and that this is just a disease spread about, only for her to get eaten anyway. It just feels cheap to have characters that exist to prove the characters right.

One last issue that I'll mention is the lack of any sort of conclusion for the story. Granted, the manga author of the series has passed away, so the chances of this getting a sequel are slim to none, but regardless, everything feels like they haven't been properly wrapped up. It feels like this could be a two cour show, but as is, many plot points are left up in the air. For that reason, and for the aforementioned boob shots, I do think this show shouldn't have taken itself so seriously. People would've been kinder to it if that were the case.

One thing you may recognize from zombie stories is that they like to call their zombies some kind of special name, whether it be clickers from the Last of Us or walkers from the Walking Dead series. In this series, they just call the zombies them. Just them. Not really anything distinct or memorable. They also function as a mixture between the two zombies I mentioned, where they're blind, slow, and rise from the dead. This makes it easy to deal with individuals but also hard to deal with in large waves.

Then there's the visual presentation, which is fantastic. One thing you would expect from Tetsuo Araki is dynamic camera angles and panning shots. It's like a blockbuster action flick, and it really makes the action fun to watch. Lots of well animated facial expressions and boobs too, as everything feels so fluid and smooth (Pun totally intended that time!). Araki really does give this show much more flare than it might disserve.

Not much to say about the soundtrack. Aside from the opening, the tracks feel like they just faded into the background. I can't remember anything from the OST during action or more quiet moments. Voices are also fine, so there isn't much for me to say there.

Ultimately, whether or not you watch this show depends on your tolerance on ecchi. If you hate ecchi, you'll hate this show, but if you can tolerate the ecchi or even enjoy it, then maybe you'll like this series. As for me, I thought it a decent time waster. Nothing more, nothing less.