By rights, the zombies should not have had the ability to cause the level of chaos we saw in Highschool of the Dead (HOTD). They lacked the chops needed to get the Zombie Apocalypse going without some serious help (maybe the manga explains this better) but once it got going, the zombies really increased the momentum of their undead revolution very quickly. I give humanity less than a 50/50 chance at pulling it out, which is the reason for this top 5 list – Why the zombies will win in the end.

Number 5

People should apply what they learn from zombie fiction

There are two ways for a piece of fiction set in current times to address the popular culture we know; it can pretend the popular culture doesn’t exist or assume the fictional characters know the same movies, music, and TV that we do. In HOTD, the characters reference several well-known zombie movies which establishes that they are living in a world that has access to the same popular culture that we do. Therefore, they should have known what to do when zombies actually show up one day instead of acting like they’ve never seen what a Zombie Apocalypse look like.

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Number 4

Catastrophes too often reveal the dark side of humanity

To effectively fight the zombie problem, people need to be at their best but troubling times will often bring out the worst in people as we saw at numerous times throughout the series. The rapid fall into tribalism shown in HOTD with it’s disregard of those people outside of the tribe have cost and will cost many human lives (for example, the father that tried to get a family to take in his daughter). The power-hungry people like the creepy teacher in the bus and whoever was in charge of the USA that launched the nukes care more about their power and keeping it then actually helping people. Then there’s the looters and those that have gone insane because of the catastrophe occurring around them. All these types of people give the zombies additional ways to attack and win.

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Number 3

The lack of long-range planning by everyone

I can understand that the characters are a little unnerved with the coming of the zombies but the characters time-and-again show that not a single one in HOTD ever really gives living more than a couple of days any thought. They leave behind weapons and vehicles that could be useful in the future like it’ll always be easy to find either at a moment’s notice. Stockpiling food, water, and medicine should be a no-brainer and one of the first things they do. Or how about letting a trained mechanic die when one’s survival might come down to if a group of people can keep their vehicle running or not. Zombies don’t need much to continue living but humans need many different things to have a shot against the zombies.

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Number 2

People only have to make a mistake once

This is more of a philosophical point. If a zombie fails to kill someone then there’s thousands or millions of other zombies that still have the chance to kill that person. If a human makes a mistake – a gun misfiring, overlooking a possible entry point for zombies, a slip at the wrong moment, being caught without a weapon, etc. – there’s a very good chance that that person will get killed by zombies.

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Number 1

No one knows how to fortify a position

Seriously. If only someone in that whole group of people hanging out in the compound had watched Lord of the Rings or some other movie that involved defending a fortified location from an invasion or served in the military or just had some common sense. The only way zombies where getting in that compound was through the gate and something should have been done about that possibility in the couple of days they had. Even their use of dynamite sucked. They could have strapped the dynamite to a barrel of gas and launched it over the gate (or positioned the barrels a short distance away from the gate beforehand and set up a means to light them from the inside) and gotten a lot more zombies than they did. I also find it incomprehensible that the USA is going through leaders so quickly, can’t anyone figure out how to fortify an area and keep the zombies out?

For what it aspired to be, Highschool of the Dead was a fairly successful anime and one that I mostly enjoyed. Every so often, though, it felt like I was being asked to accept a completely illogical piece of plot development or character decision because the author didn’t want to step up and make a better, more plausible story. I didn’t want these problems to get in the way of liking the show so I held off from my complaints till later but later has finally arrived with the end of the show.

I could have gone the tried-n-true way and just listed every problem I saw with the show but I decided to try something a little different and, so, the idea of doing a couple of top 5 lists came to be. These lists will just cover the anime, I’ve yet to read any of the manga so I can’t comment about the manga.

Number 5

Homemade Flamethrower

In episode 3 we saw that zombies could be killed with fire. This should have led someone to the idea of using a flamethrower. I did a quick look online which yielded a variety of easy ways to make a homemade flamethrower. My favorite was using a pump water gun but I also saw people use pump sprayers designed for fruit trees or even just an aerosol canister with a lighter. All very dangerous things to play with normally but in case of zombies, these could be a valuable weapon.

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Number 4

Stun gun

In a couple of places zombies were shown to be affected by electric fences.  Theoretically, then, this should work as a weapon. It would only be a weapon of last resort but it might just mean the difference between infection and life. Cattle prod or a Taser would fall under this category as well.

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Number 3

Duck Tape

I watched MacGyver growing up and Mythbusters; I know the awesome power of Duck Tape. I’ve seen it used to pick up cars and molded into a workable cannon. In the case of a Zombie Apocalypse the ways to use Duck Tape would be endless. One application could be to create lightweight armor that zombies couldn’t bite through.

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Number 2

Molotov Cocktail

I almost included this in with number 5 but the increased ranged capabilities of a Molotov cocktail are enough that it deserves it’s own spot. It’s a quiet delivery system for the humans and it increases the distance someone could burn the zombies to a crisp. Off the subject, but speaking of not giving your position away to the zombies, can anyone remember the characters using silencers on their guns?

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Number 1

Snowplow

We saw in episode 12 and elsewhere that the living used vehicles to mow down the zombies but they never took it to the next step. A snowplow is better designed at the task of zombie mover/killer. Assuming Japan isn’t that different, it should be relatively easy to find one without breaking into the local highway department. If the snowplow isn’t good enough at killing and a construction site was near-by, one could always augment the process by using a roller to squish the pile of zombies that the snowplow would create. Actually many construction/demolition machines would be great at zombie killing and I’ll include them here .