Highschool of the Dead/YMMV

• And the Fandom Rejoiced: It's being animated by Madhouse? And directed by the same guy who did Death Note and made animating that actually interesting?
• Angst? What Angst?: Alice witnessed her father's murder, and is stuck in the middle of a Zombie Apocalypse. Considering this is her default expression, she's taking it very well.
• Base Breaking Character: Rei, depending on which camp you're in. To her fans, she's a badass who pulls her weight within the group, and keep the darker nature of the others in check. Others hate her whiny, Clingy Jealous Girl tendencies, and believe she's exploiting Takashi's feelings for attention (considering the fact that she actually broke up with him before the outbreak).
• Blood Knight: Saeko is shaping up to be one, considering her almost orgasmic pleasure in dishing out hurt at the end of episode 9.
• Complete Monster: Shidou makes "them" look practically humane in comparison. If abandoning a student who sprained his ankle and kicking him down in the face for good measure doesn't cut it, maybe brainwashing the students aboard the orgybus and forcibly ejecting one student who showed the slightest bit of concern for his family will.
• Crosses the Line Twice: Accidentally shooting an infected woman in the breasts? Fan Disservice. Accidentally shooting an infected woman in the breasts, and then accusing the offending bullet of sexism? Hilarious!
• Crowning Music of Awesome:
  • The main theme, "Highschool of the Dead" by Kisida Kyodan & the Akebosi Rockets.
  • A Jimmy Hart version of "In the House, In a Heartbeat" plays at the end of the first episode.
• Die for Our Ship: Rei. Clingy Jealous Girl, occasional Faux Action Girl and in the wrong corner of a Love Triangle that also involves the extremely popular Saeko Busujima. May the gods of canon have mercy on the poor girl's soul, for the fanficcers will not.
• Draco in Leather Pants: Shidou, for some, despite or even because of his status as a Complete Monster.
• Ensemble Darkhorse: Saya's parents, while only briefly important in the Takagi Mansion arc, proved to be badass leaders.
  • And of course, Hirano.
  • Saeko too.
• Fan-Preferred Couple:
  • Takashi and Saeko.
  • Saya and Hirano have a respectable fanbase as well.
• Fetish Fuel Station Attendant: Every single female character covers some fetish, but the winner here is Saya.
• Fetish Retardant: The constant Gainaxing can bounce into the Uncanny Valley at times.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: One of the mall survivors wears a jacket with the words "Bad End" printed on the back, and he gets one.
• The Immodest Orgasm: Saeko sounds like she's had one at the end of her fight against the zombies at the end of Episode 9. The infamous "I'M GETTING WET!" kanji only seems to strengthen that possibility.
• Karma Houdini: Shidou's father, especially concerning his status as corrupt politician and the academic consequences it had on the daughter of an interloping police officer. He's this because, as Rei reveals when confronting Shidou in episode 11, he got off scot-free.
• Les Yay Shipping: While bathing Saeko splashes Saya with cold water and compliments on her voice when she screams. When Saya retaliates, Saeko simply blushes,apparently enjoying it quite a bit.
  • In the OVA, Saeko and Rei think the other one was Takashi andstripped and make out with each other.
• Memetic Molester: Shidou, due to the ORGYBUS.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • ORGYBUS!!!
  • Boobs Dodge Bullet!
  • I'M GETTING WET had spawned a new Memetic Mutation in 2ch, as noted here. NSFW.
  • Takashi slapping Rei in chapter/episode 1, due to her scrappy status.
• Mis Blamed: Some people who have watched the anime without reading the manga have complained about Madhouse inserting gratuitous amounts of fanservice. It was always omnipresent, just taken up a few notches.
  • Fans commonly hold Rei to be solely responsible for her breakup with Takashi, while turning a blind eye to his part in it. Along with the fact that she only began dating Hisashi because she believed Takashi had abandoned her.
• Moral Event Horizon: A given due to the setting. Among them:
  • In an early scene featuring two BFFs, one of them (called Misuzu) turns on the other (called Toshimi) right after proclaiming their everlasting friendship. It's implied in the anime that Misuzu regretted it right before she got killed, but that's a matter for WMG.
  • The household that kill Alice's father and ignore her.
  • When Rei says that Shidou isn't to be trusted, you wonder why, until a couple pages later when he kicks a student in the face when he twists his ankle and asks for help.
    • Shidou's father himself crosses the MEH when he deliberately has all evidence of his corruption destroyed or otherwise disposed of during an investigation into his activities, as Rei implies when she states that her father found absolutely nothing incriminating about the bastard.
    • Oh, and as if Shidou's willingness to harm his own students (and even murder them; see Complete Monster) wasn't bad enough, he had to go and get Rei's mother ostracized. Yes, his family finally shamed Rei's entire family. And That's Terrible. Perhaps Rei should've crossed the MEH (see below); it's a wonder the main party found Mrs. Miyamoto alive and not infected after being shut out by her own neighbors following a simple shopping trip.
  • The protagonists themselves have acknowledged they may cross the line as far as old human society is concerned. So far, two of them think they already have crossed the line: Takashi believes he crossed the MEH by killing his best friend partly out of jealousy over Rei and doesn't regret leaving someone (a violent nutjob, granted, but still a living human) as live bait for the zombies for attempting to kill him and take Rei, and Saeko claims to have crossed the line long ago, when a man attempted to rape her and she defended herself, but enjoyed it and continued hitting him even after he was no longer a threat. Rei comes very close to the Moral Event Horizon when she's given an opportunity to kill Shidou as revenge for rigging her grades over her father's involvement in the investigation of Shidou's father's corruption (an act that can be considered Shidou's earliest candidate for Moral Event Horizon, by the way--both Rei and Mr. Takagi definitely think it's bad enough to warrant a summary execution). However, she decides he's Not Worth Killing, thus averting this trope. Perhaps she should've killed him (and potentially crossed the MEH) then and there, considering what the fuck almost happened to her mother shortly after Shidou recovered from the subsequent ambush on his lot by "them".
• MST3K Mantra: The curious interaction between gritty realism and gratuitous, over-the-top Rule of Cool makes this the best reaction to several aspects of the show, especially the matter of zombie navigation. The fanservice is another point of contention to deal with if one is to enjoy the series.
• Narm: The fanservice reaches ridiculous levels at times.
  • Takashi grabbing Saeko's boob during his rousing speech at the end of Episode 9 becomes this, which seems strange since there was no apparent reason for it. Not mention, he was damn near crushing it. It's a wonder Saeko wasn't in pain. Instead, she seemed to get off on it.
• Never Live It Down: Rei becomes (understandably) devastated over Takashi killing Hisashi, and she accuses him of Murdering the Hypotenuse rather than doing it to save her, and that's all a lot of people need to conclude that Rei's a shallow, selfish bitch who's convinced Takashi's entire life revolves around her, ignoring the fact that she clearly wasn't thinking straight when she said it and apologised immediately afterwards. Not to mention Takashi admits to himself that she was probably right, and he does admit to being The Resenter, even if he doesn't like it.
  • On a different, but not unrelated, topic, there are some people who like to paint Rei as a Faux Action Girl who needs saving all the time, when in actuality she only needs saving three times, all of which were very brief and to show that, while she may be capable, she's not infallible.
• Ron the Death Eater: Oooh, boy, Rei gets hit with this big time. See Mis Blamed and Never Live It Down above.
• The Scrappy:
  • Shizuka gets this for being was The Load until chapter 26. Saya also to a smaller extent but is mostly ignored by the fanbase in general.
  • For a side character, that bratty kid that Asami and the would-be rapist survivor got killed trying to save. That was after he had just shanked one of the mall survivors and let the zombies into the mall while trying to escape.
  • The Nietzsche Wannabe Knife Nut mall survivor who meets a hilariously pathetic end after suicidally charging into a group of zombies with only a knife, not even managing a scratch on any of them.
• Squick: Any fanservice having to do with the brainwashed kids or the zombies.
  • From the OVA, the revelation that Takashi had hallucinations of the group's women suggests that he had scored with or tried to score with a zombie rather than Saeko.
• Unfortunate Implications: Mr. and Mrs. Takagi, the heroic Right Wing Militia Fanatics.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Saya. While her strict, exigent upbringing makes her attitude somewhat more understandable, it ultimately comes off as irrelevant considering the group are in the midst of a Zombie Apocalypse and several other characters (most notably Rei and Saeko) have been through even worse, not helped by the fact that she had the gall to complain about it when she knew her parents were safe while everyone else's were missing. While Takashi does rightfully call her out on this, telling her to Quit Her Whining, this is cheapened by the fact that Takashi ends up having to apologise. For added salt in the wound, Saya responds to Takashi saying he's sorry with a condescending "You'd better be.", showing that she isn't at all sorry for her own outburst.
• Values Dissonance:
  • Operating motor vehicles without a license, generally showing independence may not seem so bad, but consider that the series takes place in Japan.
  • Uyoku dantai. Not really the type of thing the networks would like to present in a Fan Service show.
• What an Idiot!: Okay Mr. nihilistic mall survivor, you claim to be such a huge zombie fan and yet charge into a group of zombies while pathetically flailing a knife about, when it's been established that any melee weapon shorter than an arm's length will only let them get within biting range? All for the sake of going out like a badass? Not to mention that your stab wound wasn't even critical and the zombies could have easily been avoided? Enjoy your undignified, lameass death.
• What Do You Mean It's Not Political?: Saya's family and their supporters are a group of uyoku dantai- militant, traditionalist Japanese ultra-nationalists with an eye on reclaiming lost territory and historical revisionism in the name of yamato damashii. It's considered politically incorrect in Japan to forward ideas like that, much less on a Fan Service show. Simultaneously, the left wing protestors and survivors in the camp act like idiots. It's not clear if this is the authors personal opinion or dramatic embellishment, but his older works like USA vs. Japan 2025 and an alternate history where Japan is divided Korea-style after World War II clearly state that he is more sympathetic to the Japanese right, even though not necessarily belong to them. The ultra-nationalists were censored in the anime as their views are considered politically incorrect.
• The Woobie: Asami gets belittled and ignored by the mall survivors, found that her instructor got zombified while looking for help, has a Heroic BSOD, and is later Mercy Killed after being trapped while rescuing the person that necessitated escape.