Alice in Deadly School

Yikes. What have we got here? A jumbled mess of excessive and unneeded gore, unfunny comedy, and completely not scary horror. The plot is…. ok so actually there isn’t a plot and there isn’t even a story, not even a premise. It is just a bunch of girls acting completely normal and goofing off during a zombie apocalypse. If there was more too the plot then I would write more but that is the entire plot so this is just going to be short. The characters have out of the ordinary and nonsensical reactions. If you saw a zombie you would run away and hide right? Nope,instead Sumio and Momomura just film the zombies. Why do the zombies not attack them but kill every other character? Because the camera man always survives I guess. But it never gets explained why the zombies don’t attack them. They don’t even give a rats ass about the other students getting killed at school. They just go “OMGGGG! SO COOL!” Yikes.. Nothing important happens. There isn’t really a beginning or an ending. The plot is barely there and nothing is explained. Just a straight up waste of 41 minutes. Don’t watch this when you could be watching an actual good zombie school anime like School-Live, which correctly does gore, comedy, and horror. Anyways, do NOT watch this if your expecting something meaningful, scary, or funny. Literally nothing happens the entire time.

Oops... I went into this blind & not realizing it was part of an existing series (kind of), so I was SO confused for most of my viewing; I thought it was a double-opener first episode for a full series and it was only when it ended but there was about 5 minutes of credits I was like "OH FUCK NO THIS IS A SHORT FILM ISN'T IT???? FUCK MY LIIIIIIIFE!" Anyway, to review it somewhat objectively (in the sense thatIi went in with absolutely no prior knowledge and basically consumed it for what it was, not that I think my opinion itself is objective) I'mshocked they put so much effort into an ova. The animation itself was kinda... well, shoddy feels a bit too harsh, given that they *did* put considerable effort in keeping the girls consistently cute and doe-eyed throughout even if proportions and framing were kinda outta whack on more than one occasion... let's say, 'not entirely polished'. That aside, the directional choices really helped lift the production up so you didn't notice it quite so much. Choice of backgrounds, framing of scenes (I know I JUST complained about this, but for the most part the framing devices used are super artistic and interesting!), cutaway shots (? not really sure what to call them, but y'know, when they randomly decide to focus on some flowers or a leaf blowing in the wind) and the music were excellent and reminded me somewhat of Kuzu no Honkai in that regard. The way in which the characters are introduced made next to zero sense, but honestly I found myself shrugging through most of it like "well, so much anime is so ill-planned or doesn't have the airtime to be able to take its time with introductions I'm actually kinda desensitized to this" so though annoying, it actually didn't hinder my viewing all that much. Despite being only about 40 minutes in length, it successfully managed to make me invested in 3 different pairs of friendships. Albeit with the notion that this was a full series... Despite the seemingly tepid score I've given it, I'd actually recommend this to people that feel like watching something that's a bit balls-to-the-wall, acid-trip insane. I know there's WAY kookier stuff out there, but the way this ova (for the uninitiated, of course) just throws information at you full-speed & in a seemingly incoherent chronology was definitely a ride, for sure. [ Someone pointed out on the forum that the amateurish nature of the production was probably a meta choice given that it's a story-within-a-story made by an amateur acting troupe, and I think that's a fair comment to make soIi thought I'd add it as an addendum to this review! ] If you were a fan of Paranoia Agent or Sayonara, Zetsubou-sensei I think you'd have a fun time this this! Maybe it's just me but I got the same sort of frantic energy from this that I did from those two shows. story- 6 art- 6 sound- 7 character - 8 enjoyment- 6 overall- 6

This was an interesting watch to say the least. It's a very standard 'beginning of zombie outbreak' story with an unusually light-hearted tone. The main two girls being a manzai comedy duo does at least offer some justification for the light-heartedness. Speaking of the main duo, their friendship is both the most developed and most enjoyable part of this OVA. Their comedy routine wasn't particularly funny but personally I felt that made them more charming. The side characters are given personality and fleshed out about as much as they can be in only 35 minutes. The writing is competent and tight, but there isn't muchtime for things to be expanded on beyond the basics. The animation is consistently good, and the character designs are simple but appealing. Nothing gorier than blood splatters/stains is shown, and fanservice is limited to a few bras peeking out of ripped shirts. The music is slightly overbearing in some of the later scenes, but the use of diegetic music throughout the OVA was a highlight. Another interesting choice was the distorted screeching noise the zombies make, it was easily the most unique and unnerving thing in the whole episode. Overall, if you're a fan of generic zombie stories or want to see a cute friendship between two girls, this is a great way to kill 40 minutes. If you're looking for something unique or deep, this is a skip.

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