This is obviously the most discussed series of the summer, so I don’t think I need to add a whole lot in terms of recap. Frankly, I’m not sure how much can even be served by blogging a series so thoroughly covered already, but it’s certainly an interesting series so far.

Episode 2, for me, revealed some major problems for the series. Conceptually, a traditional zombie horror riddled through with every anime cliche imaginable – jiggly boobs, panty shots, fat otaku in glasses, katana girl, airhead school nurse – is an interesting one. In practice, though, something about the tone in this ep just didn’t strike a good balance for me. The light-hearted moments seemed forced and stilted. And really, how much longer can we see limitless gore before it simply begins to lose all shock effect?

I also had major issues with Takagi. Thoroughly obnoxious, completely and transparently artificial. And really, all this “Fatass” stuff – are we really that juvenile in this day and age to find that funny? If this intends to be a parody, HSotD needs to do a better job of satirizing the zombie genre itself. I feel right now as if the series doesn’t know exactly what its trying to be.

I’ll be watching it though, at least for a while – everyone else will, seemingly, so why be left out? It’s Madhouse, and they’re rarely less than interesting these last few years. But I’m worried about whether the first episode was so much better than the second because of writing quality, or simply because after two eps the series is already wearing thin.