I’m still getting caught up on all the anime series I wasn’t able to watch while in the U.S. My current favorite is the awesome High School of the Dead, a classic zombies-take-over-the-world story that’s been updated with plenty of fresh anime memes and fan service, yet actually possessing a well-written story. As is often the case in anime, there might be times when characters do things that are puzzling to Westerners. Like how the tsundere rich girl Saya Takagi hates it when Takashi calls her by her family name (Takagi) rather than her first name (Saya), since calling someone by their last name implies a polite emotional distance which she doesn’t want between them. Once I called the home of a female student and made the mistake of using the girl’s first name by itself without a name suffix like –san on the end while talking with her mother. The woman wanted to know who I was and what my relationship to her daughter was.
I am enjoying High School of the Dead for several reasons.