Highschool Of The Dead is definitely one of the more memorable anime I’ve watched over the past year, and while the ending wasn’t conclusive, it did not seem to be left on that much of a cliffhanger either. It was in a way left up to our imagination what happened to our characters at the end. It was also never clarified if the pandemic which had been affecting Japan had spread to the rest of the world. I really thought that the story of Highschool Of The Dead would continue its story as I thought the general narrative was very promising in my opinion. However, Highschool of the Dead Season 2 is most likely not going to happen,
The general narrative of Highschool of the Dead was very engaging to me, and although I have seen a lot of “Zombie” type movies and TV series I didn’t think that Highschool of the Dead would be very interesting and original. However, I was very wrong and I found that my eyes never left the screen while watching it.
The characters weren’t that interesting and original so to speak, but it was the story’s graphic and sombre nature about it that kept me watching. The whole story has a realistic feel to it whilst also not straying from its sexual and comedic side. I really liked this about it and if you haven’t already watched it I highly suggest you do.
Although I know that this type of story has been repeated and repeated, I found the fact that all the main characters were highschool students kind of gave it a different edge, as we got to see a Zombie Apocalypse from their perspective, which is something I had never witnessed.
I think if the whole structure of Highschool of the Dead was reworked and the first season consisted of 25 episodes instead of 12 the story could have been stretched out and this would have been better in my opinion.
There would have been more time to introduce characters, and there would have been more time to either build up to a cliffhanger for a second season or to end the story fully with a more conclusive ending.
Nevertheless, this isn’t what we got, and we only got 12 episodes, although the story was shown in those 12 episodes it just didn’t seem like enough time for the story they were trying to tell. However, we now know that there is a more pressing reason for the story’s end.
It seems that the story continues in the manga, which made a lot more sense to me when I found out. The fan and critic response to Highschool of the Dead was high and it was loved by a lot of people.
So will there be a Highschool of the Dead Season 2 – or even a spin-off season? Keep reading this blog to find out, as we have a lot to discuss regarding the story and what would happen if a season 2 was produced. Would it continue where the first season left off or would take place maybe sometime after the events of the first season?
General narrative
The story of High School of the Dead is pretty simple, to say the least, but it follows the perspectives of a group of Japanese high school students during a zombie apocalypse in Japan.
We are introduced to the main characters in the first episode, and although the narrative jumps from time to time it follows a mainly single-strand narrative. This allows the story to flow, whilst not becoming too complicated. We see the outbreak from the first point up until the whole country is infected.
Chaos takes over and we see civilians turn on each other as the national police try to prevent civil unrest and preserve order, failing anyway.
As the story ensues we see ordinary people in Japan’s different districts turn on each other to survive, and this is where the anime’s graphic nature takes hold of the episodes. We even get to see families turning on their neighbours by not letting them in when they need assistance.
There are about 6-7 characters who we are introduced to, and this later becomes 9 as the group grows in size as they find survivors.
The 9 survivors face various challenges such as evading the infected and acquiring firearms and resources for survival. It is noted that the group and any other survivors receive no assistance from the military or the national police.
In my opinion, this is very unrealistic as the country would have been put in martial law by the time of the second episode once the military and the other government entities realised what was taking place.
Lots of governments have plans and protocols in place for this sort of situation.
Near the end of the story, we see the characters escape to a private estate which happens to be the residence of one of the characters (conveniently).
And this (as far as I can remember it) is where the story ends. In my opinion, the story was neither conclusive nor inconclusive, and this annoyed me very much.
I kind of felt disappointed and sad after watching the final episode. This was mainly because I thought they could have done so much with this story and since there were more volumes of the manga written I just could not wrap my head around how this story was just left like this. Although I will be discussing this later on.
Main Characters
Takashi Komuro is the main protagonist in the series and he also serves as the main group’s leader. He is pretty normal and I didn’t pick up anything special about him when I was watching apart from his obvious lust for his subordinates and leadership skills.
Despite his undesirable nature he seems to know what he is doing and he serves the purpose of being the most logical in the group.
I get that he is supposed to be the most relatable and easy to like but I couldn’t really find any way to sympathise with him given he technically murdered his best friend, afterwards becoming sexually involved with the deceased girlfriend.
Next is Rei Miyamoto who is a student at the same high school as Takashi. She is romantically involved with Takashi’s best friend who is killed in the first episode by Takishi. In the later episodes, Rei and Takiahi become romantically involved, which in my opinion is very messed up, but maybe that’s just me. She has a stuck-up nature and isn’t very likeable.
Although all the characters are going through the same situation it’s Rei who continually expresses her emotions to the rest of the group and in particular Takishi, even leading him on with a sexual advance.
The Ending Plot
The ending plot of High School of the Dead summarised is very inconclusive, and it centres around the group’s journey to an estate whose residents are the parents of one of the characters (Saya Takagi). As the Zombies get closer and closer to the estate, it’s realised by the group that the estate isn’t safe.
They also conclude that they need to leave the residence to stand a better chance of surviving.
This is completely stupid given the estate’s size and multiple security features such as fences and cameras, but whatever.
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The end plot sees all the main characters leave the estate and we see that Saya’s parents sacrifice themselves to give Takishi’s group time to leave the estate effectively and safely. Again this is another part of the story which very stupid and unrealistic.
The group could easily leave with Saya’s parents and the other people who were there. Saya does not seem to care that her parents will be left behind to die but let’s not talk about that. And that’s it, we don’t get to see what happens to Takishi’s group and the other characters in the story.
Will there be a Highschool of the Dead Season 2?
It is safe to say that High School Of The Dead was received well by both fans and critics, and it seems to have gained a lot of attention due to the way the story was going.
Lots of people thought that High School of the Dead would be a long-running anime with multiple seasons, just like other Zombie apocalypse TV series such as The Walking Dead. Hopes for a season 2 were very high among fans because of the series’ popularity.
However, this was before the death of the original writer and creator of the manga Daisuke Satō. Sadly, Daisuke died in 2017, just after the first season of High School Of The Dead was released. This is one of the reasons that a season 2 of HOTD would be difficult.
This is because anime series are almost all the time adapted from mangas which are written by their original creators. But if Daisuke Satō is deceased, then surely that would make it impossible for a season 2 to be produced, if there is no content for the production company in charge of the anime adaption of Highschool of the Dead Season 2 to make?
Well, that would be true, apart from the fact that Daisuke died halfway through writing the second manga for the second season.
It’s very frustrating, but this is the situation, and we must understand this to realise if a Highschool of the Dead season 2 is even possible at this point. Although another writer could rarely carry on the story from Daisuke as he would have to buy the rights from Daisuke, this may be different as he is deceased now.
What were are saying is that another writer who is maybe in some way connected to Daisuke could continue the manga and finish off where he left off. If not Daisuke, then someone (another manga writer) could take up the story from where Daisuke had unfortunately left it.
The good news is that it is not entirely impossible that another studio could take up the production role for this series.
The issue here is the rights to the actual story, which would have been exclusively licensed to Geneon Universal Entertainment for the production of the anime. However, now that Daisuke is deceased, this will change.
The fact is that it would be very hard for a studio to create High School of the Dead Season 2 and because Daisuke is deceased, it would make a second season hard if not impossible for them. Never lose hope though.
Given the popularity of the series, we would be sad to see it go forever, and given recent events, this is likely what will happen.
This isn’t to say that a season 2 isn’t possible, but if there were to be a season 2 we can say for certain that it would take a long time to complete because of the problem with the licensing and the death of Daisuke. Some may argue that Daisuke would want High School of the Dead to be finished but obviously, we cannot know now.
When would High School of the Dead Season 2 air?
Given the circumstances, we would say that a season 2 is pretty unlikely, but not uncertain. We could say that if the unfortunate death of Daisuke hadn’t occurred, a season 2 would be certain. So would it be too much to assume a season 2 now isn’t such a stretch?
We would think that the company that undertook the production of the first season would want to carry it on given its success. Some would argue that any further production or adaption of High School of the Dead would be disrespectful to Daisuke. A counterargument to this would be that a season 2 would be what Daisuke would have wanted.
However, as we have mentioned in previous blog posts, the anime industry is an unpredictable one. Sometimes we get new seasons for series that nobody wants, such as SNAFU for example, and sometimes we get new seasons of shows we love. For now, we will have to wait, although you can take the tragic death of Daisuke as what it is.
You can draw your conclusions about what will happen regarding High School Of The Dead, this blog post is only to inform you.
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