I'm not a fan of horror but for some reason zombie apocalypse stuff just sucks me in. Now add in the fact that this is a manga (and I do love my manga) and it has ecchi (I do love my ecchi goodness) AND it's set in a zombie apocalypse and that equals one hell of a kickass series you just HAVE to read. The art style is great, characters are awesome, the fat gun otaku is basically a proxy of me! The story is excellent and why are you still reading this review when you should be reading Highschool of the Dead!?

EDIT: Holy shit this series has been on hiatus for over three years (that one bullshit chapter in May 2013 doesn't count). Rating is going down for that. Seriously there's no news whatsoever regarding the author's activities. Is he sick? Dead? Or just plain lazy?

EDIT 2: Well it turns out he is dead as of March 2017 from heart disease. An unfortunate event and one that I notice happens a lot to Japanese authors and mangakas. Ah well guess this series in done sadly.

... Last updated on October 15th, 2017, 2:00am

There's only one Highschool of the Dead. No clone, no other series come close to its qualities.

Sure, lots of highschool zombie manga out there. but to combine all of its genres together in one perfect package of beautiful art, it's the only of the kind.

We search in vain for others like it. Still no sign, so far...

EDIT: Years passed and my verdicts remain unchanged. There's a heck of a lot manga, novels, games, films in this genre. In the manga world, Highschool of the Dead reign suppreme.

... Last updated on June 6th, 2013, 9:16am

Basically, this series is no more and no less than a depiction of a zombie invasion in manga form. Throw in some ecchi and one of my favorite female manga characters of all time and you have a very solid zombie manga.

After reading through a couple of people's reviews.. how they complain about how their is not enough plot information, just purely entertainment... I want to say one thing.

Manga IS FOR ENTERTAINMENT. So, if its purely entertainment, does that not make it good enough? If you don't like ecchi, don't read it. Simple.

Anyway, I think this is an awesome manga, although yes, the background information is little, the action, gore and art makes up for it. 9/10.

People can say whatever they want about how perverted it is, but this manga is banking money. What makes this a great manga is not just the art, but the genres that make up this manga. HOTD is riding on the shounen and ecchi genre which is booming so much right now. Not only that, zombies. Some of us are tired when it comes to monsters, we automatically go to vampires. The vampire genre is getting played out and this manga is a nice refresher to the monster/horror genre. Also, I believe the ecchiness provides this manga with a more interesting story with its short cuts of perversion and funny scenes. Yes, a straight and narrow survivor manga would still wet my whistle, but it would get boring after a while. The short breaks of comedy provide the characters to think that despite it being a zombie apocalypse, they are still human.This manga has many things to bring to the table.

seems like noone until now did a comment about it being lincensed now, well let me be the first one:
GODDAMMIT!!!! the world is just too cruel T_T why? why?! why HOTD?!?!?!

From Xamayon Scans:
Yen Press has announced that they have licensed High School of the Dead in North America, as such we will no longer be continuing the series. Here's to hoping they do at least as kickass of a job as we would have.

And let us not forget the message from the author...

BUY LEGALITY COOL COMIC!!!

We'll post links (to amazon of course ;P) when the first volume is available in english~

Those three things sum up the problems with HotD.

Tonally, the series bounces between very serious to tongue-in-cheek in a flash. It has no idea if it wants to be an ecchi comedy with over the top action or some half-baked drama. And there in lies the issue. The series would be very enjoyable if it would just cut those serious bits out. Cut them out as apposed to focusing on the sincere parts which are obviously not the forte of the author.

Actually writing in general may not be a forte of the author, as the pacing of the manga is rather poor. Case and point: It takes a zombie manga like I am A Hero two and a half volumes to make it out of Tokyo while the cast of HotD is still meandering about with only the simplest development of the characters.

Lastly, the release schedule does the series no favors. This is a series with some potential as an ecchi dark comedy with over the top action, but the writer has little grasp on the concept of storytelling or entertaining and between the pacing issues and release schedule, I'd be in my 30's before this series made it anywhere interesting. Time to put it on the shelf.

... Last updated on November 28th, 2013, 1:26am

i think HOTD is a really good manga. yes there is a lot of fan service which is unneeded but what do expect from the artist. the story itself is one we all know and love, the zombie survival. the story is about a group of friends trying their best to survive in a zombie infested japan while they also struggle with their own moral codes.
As of around march/April 2011 the manga has been on hiatus but i think it will come back due to the popularity it has in america and i have also "heard" there will be a season 2 of the anime (fingers crossed) so hopefully it will come back soon since the story is good, the art is good (i cant believe i am saying this but there is a bit too much fan service for the genre) and overall it gives you a chill while reading and to be honest this manga is like the George A Romero of the manga world and is a must read for any zombie fans out there.

In case you haven't noticed, only the artist does Hentai, the author is a novelist. Personally, I feel the story is solid enough to be engaging and interesting, the ecchi is only an added bonus. But like the other guy said, this is a manga aimed at guys that like ecchiness(might be why they chose a hentai artist to illustrate the author's story), not some ecchi-hating woman.

... Last updated on February 21st, 2012, 5:43pm

the anime is really like the manga, but the bgm ruins most of the great parts. they should use the music from the trailer. For the manga i only have to say - awesome. You can describe it in 3 words: zombies, weapons, fanservice