The infamous Highschool of the Dead anime scene featuring Rei shooting a bullet through Saeki’s chest remains a hallmark of the cult classic zombie apocalypse anime—and now finally gets an official plot from Famous director Tetsuro Araki. Responding to a post on X (formerly Twitter) suggesting Araki was responsible for the scene, he replied: “This is Takayuki Hirao! ???? I asked him to do something fun with the boobs!” In a follow-up post, he revealed that when he asked for this, he did not expect Hirao to go this far. He added: “I was so angry and then let it go and said: ‘What a guy.’ ????“
The post to which Araki responded involved a conversation about his illustrious career, suggesting he had “found Jesus” through his recent masterful work on Perils in my heart (BokuYaba). Most recently, Araki directed Atarayo’s BokuYaba Season 2 opening video, “Boku wa…”, which went viral for its emotional storytelling and stunning animation. Those qualities often define Araki in his short animation work, as seen in Araki & Hiroyuki Sawano’s COLORs last year. Araki also directed the first three seasons of Attack on Titan at WIT Studio, Death Note, and the recent film, Bubble, which was praised for its stunning visuals.
Even though Araki calls Hirao ‘completely outrageous’, the two have remained friends for many years since meeting at Madhouse. According to Araki’s X bio, he and Hirao have known each other for 20 years, documenting their experiences in a series of conversations posted on Animage, titled Bariuta no Koi wo Shiritai!.
Highschool of the Dead is animated by Madhouse and is currently streaming on HIDIVE. They describe the series: A small group of students at Fujimi High School are fighting for their lives after surviving a zombie outbreak. Takashi’s mission is to unite the survivors and escape the horror that surrounds them. In this new world of the undead… will they be able to escape?
Source: Tetsuro Araki on X (formerly Twitter)© Daisuke Sato, Shoji Sato/Fujimishobo/HOTD Production Committee