Highschool of the Dead/Characters

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Characters from Highschool of the Dead include:

Takashi Komuro

Voiced by Junichi Suwabe (JP), Leraldo Anzaldua (EN)

A seventeen-year-old boy who is among the first to notice that things at the school have gone very very wrong. While he and Rei promised to marry each other, it's been several years, and with his apparent growing disinterest in her, she is now involved with his best friend, Hisashi. Things only get more complicated between the two as "they" spread, and Hisashi became one of "them", forcing him to Mercy Kill his best friend.

Takashi quickly takes a leadership role with the group, through his decisive nature and desire to protect others.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:
  • Adaptational Heroism: The anime makes Takashi considerably more heroic and sympathetic, openly mourning Hisashi, easily going along with Hirano's desire to save Alice, and also being more friendly with Hirano.
  • Anti-Hero: Type II.
  • Batter Up: A baseball bat is the first weapon he gets his hands on. Later chapters shift his weapon of choice to a riot-suppression shotgun.
  • Biggus Dickus: If the speedo fits.
  • Caught the Heart on His Sleeve: Rei does this to Takashi before a "Shut Up" Kiss of sorts.
  • Chick Magnet: All the girls want him.
  • Childhood Marriage Promise: Pinky Swears with Rei.
  • Chronic Hero Syndrome: At first. Seems to finally be breaking out of it after the clinic raid goes horribly wrong.
  • Determinator: When rescuing Alice/Arisu, as well as in basically everything else he does.
  • Failed Attempt At Drama: When Takashi announces intent to leave for Shintoko Third Elementary, the rest of the gang appropriately react except for Zeke/Zero who responds by peeing on Takashi's leg.
  • The Hero: He is, after all, the main character.
  • Heroes Want Redheads: In the manga, he and Rei become the primary love interest to each other, helped by the fact they had dated previously. This is averted in the anime where he is clearly shown being interested in Saeko.
  • Honor Before Reason: He wants to do this in the anime, but Saeko points out it is a terrible mindset for a Zombie Apocalypse.
  • Idiot Hero: Good with a baseball bat. Not so good with actually thinking through the consequences of his actions.
  • Love At First Sight: Since Saeko gets Promoted to Love Interest, it is implied he fell in lover with her either right or very shortly after he met her
  • Love Triangle: Is one awkward situation from being literally fought over by Saeko and Rei.
  • Missing Mom: Hasn't seen his mother since the outbreak; not that he isn't extremely worried about her.
  • Moral Event Horizon: Invoked when he used a live human as zombie bait as punishment for threatening to rape Rei and kill him. He's the only one who thinks he's crossed the line at that point; in fact, he's still redeemable by the rest of his team's standards. He also notes to himself that he may have killed Hisashi (and not regretted killing him) partly out of jealousy over Rei.
  • Morality Chain: Or rather Sanity Chain, especially to Saeko. He also realizes that most of the team plays this role to one another.
  • Only Sane Man: While everyone is at least moderately sane, Takashi’s main advantage is that he’s fully conscious of his grip on the Sanity Ball and can keep the others in line. He does constantly worry that his grip may end up slipping, and worse, knows very well that any freakout would have a domino effect on the team and get everyone killed.
  • Ordinary High School Student: At least until "they" showed up.
  • The Plan: Does one against the gas station nutjob by throwing his bat onto the ground and shooting him. He and Rei then leave the nutjob to die, having made enough noise to attract the zombies.
  • Promoted to Love Interest: While he and Saeko primarily had some teasing in the manga, the anime makes the teasing and interest between the two of them much more obvious and clear.
  • Red Oni, Blue Oni: Red to Saeko's blue, though it does get inverted when she gets too bloodthirsty and he has to be the one to reign her in.
  • Sociopathic Hero: Arguably. He acknowledges that a part of him actually likes the lawlessness brought about by the Zombie Apocalypse when he enjoys smashing a cash register at a gas station. Earlier on he notes to himself that he may have crossed the Moral Event Horizon when he killed Hisashi without being too bothered about it. He's able to relate to Saeko's Ax Crazy impulses because of this.
  • Standardized Leader: Played with. Takashi himself worries that he’s got no real outstanding skills compared to the rest of the (useful) members of the team, yet given the flaky cohesion and variable sanity of the group, his ability to keep everyone on a leash is quite invaluable. The kicker is that while he may be the most centred of the group, he’s not completely stable either and he knows it.
  • Stripperiffic: In the OVA, he wears a very-tight fitting pair of speedos that tend to slightly show off his cheeks, along with a pair of boots.
  • Swipe Your Baseball Bat Off
  • Thanks for the Mammary: Intentional or not, Takashi grabs Saeko brutally by the breast in the park, probably to keep her from contemplating Suicide By Zombie again.
  • Took a Level in Badass: Along with the rest of the cast.
  • Unlucky Childhood Friend: Initially to Rei, but The Plot Reaper made sure Hisashi would go no further with her.
  • Would Hit a Girl: Slaps Rei in the first chapter/episode, and then Saya in the OVA.

Rei Miyamoto

Voiced by Marina Inoue (JP), Jessica Boone (EN)

Takashi's former Love Interest and classmate, as well as a member of the lance fighting club. Frustrated with his apparent disinterest, Rei started dating his best friend Hisashi, though she still harbored feelings for him. When Hisashi is bitten, Rei faces the question of whether it is right to act on her maintained feelings for Takashi so soon after he was forced to kill his best friend. Headstrong and courageous, Rei is a strong combatant and valuable asset to the group.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Saeko Busujima

Voiced by Miyuki Sawashiro (JP), Taylor Hannah (EN)

Calm and collected, Saeko is a high school senior and president of the Kendo Club. She is one of the few survivors of the initial outbreak, and after meeting up with Takashi and the others, she lends her considerable skills with the sword to the team. Reliable in the extreme, she takes great pride in her abilities and in the abilities of her comrades.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:
  • Action Girl: While none of the women, barring Shizuka, are slouches, Saeko is the most action oriented of the group.
  • Action Skirt Rip: To both herself and Shizuka-sensei.
  • Adaptational Jerkass: In the anime, because it does not go into more depth in the series than the manga, Saeko, while not without her moments of kindness comes off more as a Jerk with a Heart of Gold rather than the Nice Girl she was revealed to be in the manga
  • Anti-Hero: Seems like Type III (while she'll gladly euthanize zombie victims out of a sense of honor, she is pretty curt toward Shizuka on more than a few occasions), but she can curve into a type IV or V in combat.
  • Ascended Extra: While still a major character in the manga, her becoming Takashi's love interest in the anime results in her becoming the secondary protagonist.
  • Attempted Rape: In her backstory.
  • Ax Crazy/Blood Knight: Admits this to Takashi, though to her credit she feels enough guilt to be briefly become a Death Seeker for it.
  • Badass
  • Badass Longcoat: Wears one in chapter 29. Her being the Hot Chick with a Sword Makes it even more delightful.
  • Betty and Veronica: The Veronica to Rei's Betty.
  • Big Damn Heroes: She makes her first real appearance when she saves Shizuka from being bitten at the literal last second.
  • Big Breasts, Big Deal: In episode 9 of the anime she gets a Type 1 moment.
  • The Big Guy: Saeko is smarter then most however.
  • Black Bra and Panties: Inexplicably, the bra is invisible until her white shirt gets wet. The panties, not so much.
  • Blue Eyes: In the manga. In the anime, her eyes are purple.
  • Born in the Wrong Century: A warrior of her caliber is an anachroism in the technologically-advanced 21st century; more fitting for the battlefields of the Tokugawa Era.
  • Braids of Action: Sports this hairstyle in the OVA.
  • Brutal Honesty: Saeko is one of the first of the group to fully recognize the zombie apocalypse for what it is, and bluntly tells people that trying to play by a more idealistic mindset is a surefire way to get people killed, and that it is best to be pragmatic.
  • Clint Squint
  • Cool Big Sis: Was this role to the party of heroes until Shizuka grew up and took her rightful responsibility as an adult.
  • Cute and Psycho: Chapter 17 of the manga and its anime counterpart's episode 9 revealed she has some such characteristics, especially in her flashback scene.
  • Crime of Self Defense: In her backstory, where she was arrested after brutally beating down a man who attempted to rape her.
  • Cry Into Chest: When Saya undergoes a massive breakdown due to almost getting killed by a zombie and covered in blood in the second episode of the anime, Saeko immediately comforts Saya and lets her cry, before Saya is able to calm down. Movingly, this isin't treated as Fanservice, but as Saeko being genuinally compassionate.
  • Damsel in Distress: She really loves to put the Lampshade Hanging on this trope, especially in the anime. Ironically, she does fall into this once when she refuses to attack a bunch of Undead Child in the park in one portion, requiring Takashi to save her.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Not as much as some of the other characters, but she has her moments. One of the best is when she sarcastically says "That's my boy." in an extremely forced way to show her displeasure at the women invoking I Have Boobs - You Must Obey! to have them look for food while they do nothing.
  • Everyone Has Standards: As much as Saeko may be violent, and be one of the first to encourage a more pragmatic style of thinking, but she shows several times she does have standards and lines she won't cross.
    • When she tells Takashi that playing the Ideal Hero will not work and they have to become more pragmatic, she gently tells him that she herself does not like their options, but they do not have any other choice.
    • When Takashi decides to go rescue Alice, Saeko fully approves and encourages Rei to let Takashi save her, indicating that as much as she accepts the need to be pragmatic, she won't let an innocent child be abandoned to become zombie food.
    • When Rei gets thrown from the car and injured to the point she cannot move on her own, Saeko does not hesitate to get out and start fighting despite being well aware that there are so many zombies she cant possibly beat them all with her wooden bokken, telling Takashi to hurry and save Rei. Despite being aware that Rei is deeply jealous of her and Takashi, she does not want to see her die so horribly.
    • In the OVA, when the other females, barring Alice who has run off, invoke I Have Boobs - You Must Obey! to get Takashi and Hirano to find food for them, Saeko immediatly states her intent to go to the ocean to fish, and has to be shoved by Saya with the rest of the group, and very notably does not say "We have a problem!" like the rest of the females. Saeko certainly won't hesitate to wear revealing clothing to tease Takashi in private, but she clearly won't use it just to get benefits when the entire group could be doing something.
  • Establishing Character Moment: In her first proper appearance in the second episode, she takes down multiple zombies with no issue, then after the combat dies down, she kindly comforts a student who was bitten and dying, before giving the student a Mercy Kill. This shows she is a deadly combatant, but she is also deeply compassionate and nice.
  • Gainaxing: In the anime, her breasts dodge bullets.
  • Genius Bruiser: See The Big Guy.
  • Genre Savvy: As one of the first characters to recognize just what the zombies represent, she shows her awareness of how women are supposed to be the Damsel in Distress or how they are supposed to save everyone they can. She then bluntly proceeds to tell everyone, especially Takashi just how much of a bad mindset this is in the new reality.
  • Famed in Story: Since she is revealed to have won a national championship at kendo, Rei identifies her immediatly in Episode 2 when the group first comes together.
  • Hadaka Apron: Worn in episode 6-8.
  • Heroic BSOD: Briefly contemplated letting "them" take her while thinking that she is no better than they are, but is instead inspired to accept her bloodlust by Takashi, to live on and seek redemption.
  • Hime Cut: Although her bangs are longer than the standard.
  • Hot Chick in a Badass Suit: Yes, there's artwork of her drawn in this manner. And yes, she does look hot with her dress shirt completely open.
  • Hot Chick with a Sword
  • I Did What I Had to Do: She is the first of the group to recognize that this is the new mindset that will be needed to survive, and that by playing by more idealistic rules will end badly. She does not like it, but she knows it is the only way to survive.
  • Implausible Fencing Powers: Naturally, given the series.
  • Interplay of Sex and Violence
  • Katanas Are Just Better: The sword that Don Takagi gives her is an example despite Hirano's annoyed explanation that an average katana would be rendered useless after beheading, at most, four of "them". Saeko has been going strong with her sword for more than ten chapters now, and doesn't seem to be slowing down. Also, swords may be more practical than guns since "they" only hear and our heroes have to travel through hordes of "them".
    • Funnily enough, it's the resident Gun Nut that talks her into keeping and using the sword, and he specifically points out that it's of superior craftsmanship to most modern or mass-produced-infantry-quality swords, and in the right hands (which it definitely is) can maintain its killing potential with very little maintenance. Eventually Saeko does ask to be shown how to use a gun along with her sword.
  • Lady of War: Observe. At one point she throws her umbrella up, cuts a zombie and catches it again before it hits the ground. She didn't even get wet (at least not from the rain)!
  • Les Yay: Kisses Rei thinking she was Takashi while under the influence of the Funky Smoke
  • Meaningful Name: Overlaps with Bilingual Bonus, though it's likely unintentional. See the tropes above. Now how do you pronounce her first name?
  • Mercy Kill: She does it for a student who was bitten in the second chapter.
  • Moral Event Horizon: Invoked in a flashback when she deliberately allowed someone to try to rape her, only to break his thigh and femur with her bokken once he got close enough. She admitted how much she enjoyed this act of sadism. Like Takashi, she's the only one who believes she crossed the line then and there, and others still consider her redeemable.
  • Mugging the Monster: In her backstory, the man who attempted to rape her assumed she would be helpless, only for Saeko, who had years of martial arts and fight training from her father, proceeded to brutally beat him to the point he was the one who was helpless and begged her not to kill him.
  • Nice Girl: While Saeko is primarily this in the manga, she also has her moments in the anime as well, where this trope is less pronounced.
  • Orgasmic Combat
  • Outside Ride: Saeko can often be found standing atop the roofs of moving escape vehicles.
  • Promoted to Love Interest: She and Takashi already had some hints in the manga, but the anime blatantly ramps up the Ship Tease between the two of them and effectively treats them as a couple in all but name.
  • Rapunzel Hair
  • Red Oni, Blue Oni: Blue to Takashi's red being the one who bluntly tells him that playing the idealistic hero is a really bad mindset. However, when she gets too violent, it gets inverted and Takashi has to be the one to reign her in.
  • Sex Is Violence: Chopping "them" up with her katana gets her a little too excited.
  • Shameless Fanservice Girl: She has no problem wearing extremely revealing outfits to tease and flirt with Takashi, especially in the anime.
  • Single Woman Seeks Good Man: In the anime, she falls for Takashi because he sympathizes with her violent side and does not dismiss or treat her as crazy along with leading and protecting the group.
  • She's Got Legs
  • "Shut Up" Kiss: In the anime, Takashi gave one to Saeko to calm her down after she confesses to her sadistic tendencies.
  • Slasher Smile: When she awakens her Cute and Psycho side.
  • Sociopathic Hero: Under Saeko's calm Heir to the Dojo exterior is a sadist who only recently publicly acknowledged her enjoyment of becoming stronger and deadlier. She was arrested as a young girl for being "overly enthusiastic" in her self-defense against a would-be molester. Though she had her regrets at one point.
  • Tall, Dark and Bishoujo
  • What the Hell, Hero?: Shizuka yells at her early on when she rips her Prada skirt after she trips while fleeing "them". Saeko reiterates that she really does not have an option.

Saeko: Your clothes or your life? Which do you prefer?
Shizuka: ...BOTH!

Saya Takagi

Voiced by Eri Kitamura (JP), Maggie Flecknoe (EN)

The smartest student of Fujimi Private Academy, Saya isn't afraid to speak her mind and say exactly what she thinks of others. She is also the daughter of a ultra-nationalist politician. Her deductive nature has allowed her to realize several facts about how they work and her intelligence has saved the group many times.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Kohta Hirano

Voiced by Nobuyuki Hiyama (JP), Mark X. Laskowski (EN)

Sixteen-year-old Kohta was a school loser and bully magnet. "Their" appearance changed everything -- his secret obsession with firearms prepared him well for his big break as the gang's resident marksman. Because of this, he winds up teaching the others how to use guns.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:


Shizuka Marikawa

Voiced by Yukari Fukui (JP), Monica Rial (EN)

A 27-year-old spinster who served as Fujimi High's School Nurse. While ditzy, Shizuka is naturally very calm, and little fazes her. She is often the group's driver and, being good at her profession, she tends the other character's wounds.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:
  • Action Dress Rip: It was Prada! Later done of her own volition.
  • Adaptational Weakling: While she does wrack up several kills by running them over with vehicles, the anime makes her the absolute useless member of the group, with her never doing anything productive. This is in contrast to her depiction in the manga, where she eventually became a very skillful fighter with weapons and wracked up quite a body count.
  • Beware the Silly Ones: When some of the students on the bus bitch about Shizuka's driving and Takashi's group plan to escape by heading into the city, she hits the brake and practically tells them all to shut the fuck up. Cue students shutting the fuck up.
  • Badass Driver: Don't let her ditzy demeanor fool you - she's one mean badass behind the wheel.
  • Bright Slap: Looks all set to deliver a bike-powered one to Kohta during his BSOD, but instead she gives him a pep talk. It works out the same way.
  • Car Fu: Despite not having handled any weapons per se, Marikawa-sensei has the highest body count of all the survivors due to her, ahem, forceful driving.
  • Cloudcuckoolander: Shizuka could at least pretend to realize there's a Zombie Apocalypse outside.
  • The Chick: Has not handled any sort of weapon thus far. Subverted in that her driving gives her a very high kill count.

Shizuka: "I'm not supposed to be this kind of character!"

Alice/Arisu Maresato

Voiced by Ayana Taketatsu (JP), Brittney Karbowski (EN)

Seven-year-old Alice/Arisu was rescued from "them" by Takashi after a group of hideaways killed her father and closed the door on her. Being an innocent ray of sunshine amidst the bleakness of their situation, the group quickly took a liking to her and has since adopted her as a little sister figure.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:


Koichi Shidou

Voiced by Kissho Taniyama (JP), Illich Guardiola (EN)

Class 3-A's teacher. Rei had a beef on him since he flunked her out because of their fathers' radically differing political beliefs. He doesn't care much for the lives of others, and even at the midst of the zombie apocalypse, is apparently planning to build a cult centered on himself.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:


Rika Minami

Voiced by Junko Takeuchi (JP), Melissa Davis (EN)

A special ops police officer who happened to be Shizuka's roommate. Cold sniper at heart, or not so cold. She had been held up in the airport along with other special forces, clearing zombies so that the airport can be used by survivors to escape.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:


Hisashi Igo

Voiced by Mamoru Miyano (JP), David Matranga (EN)

Rei's new boyfriend and Takashi's best friend. He's shown to be calm and cool-headed, and was even willing to believe Takashi when told about a murder in front of the school, even arming them with makeshift weapons. By these characteristics, one could be forgiven for thinking he would be the protagonist.

Unfortunately, despite boasting hand-to-hand combat abilities, he was bitten by a zombie teacher and asked Takashi to mercy kill him. However, Takashi hesitated and Hisashi became a zombie before finally being killed. Rei was haunted by his death and as a result distrusted Takashi for a while.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:


Asami Nakaoka

A female police officer that Takashi's group had met in the mall. She has a kind heart and a rather timid personality, often referring to herself as "this officer". As an inexperienced rookie officer, she tends to overcompensate when helping civilians.

When her superior officer left the mall to go for help, she was left in charge of overseeing the other mall survivors. Keeping the survivors in check proved to be a difficult task until Hirano and the others came to her aid. She and Hirano quickly develop feelings for each other, creating an uncomfortable love triangle between them and Saya.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:


Soichirou and Yuriko Takagi

Voiced by Joji Nakata (Soichirou) and Yoshiko Sakakibara (Yuriko) (JP), Andrew Love (Soichirou) and Shelley Calene-Black (Yuriko) (EN)

Parents of Saya Takagi. Soichirou is a Japanese ultranationalist who married Yuriko, a woman who had connections with the New York Stock Exchange and therefore their family fortunes increased.

After the initial stages of the outbreak their mansion was converted to a stronghold and refuge for survivors within the area. They take a liking to Takashi, Saya's childhood friend. Soichirou also expresses interest in Saeko, daughter of the Busujima family, and presented his sword to her.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:


Miku Yuuki

One of the Fujimi High School Students who had escaped and joined Shidou's group. She helped Shidou enter the Takagi compound using her sex appeal.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:
  • Distracted by the Sexy: Shidou and his group are able to enter the Takagi compound by using Yuuki's ample bust size to distract the guards.
  • Really Gets Around: There was apparently some, "interesting rumors" about her at school...

Zeke/Zero

Alice/Arisu's pet dog. He and Alice/Arisu were almost killed but for Takashi's intervention. He accompanies the gang as Alice/Arisu companion and can differentiate who are the living and who are the undead.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:


Misuzu Ichijou

Toshimi's BFF, who turns on her when the zombies attack them.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Toshimi Niki

Misuzu's BFF, who loses her life when she's grabbed by a zombie mob on the stairs and dragged to her fate.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Takuzo

A leader of his own survival party who briefly joins Takashi's group. His own group scatters after he dies, except for his girlfriend Naomi, who chooses to die with him.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:
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