Kita ze Inbou! - キタぜ陰謀!

HotD is a new manga that uses the zombie concept but places it in, well, a highschool. The main characters so far include a guy and a girl, Takashi and Rei, who’re desperately trying to escape the school grounds.

The first chapter was pretty damn awesome in my opinion and the character designs are topnotch. It’s to be expected as this series is penned and drawn by Inazumu (there’s some mature stuff on there) of the DAW (Digital Accel Works), renown doujin artist (and a former assitant to Rikudo, the mangka of Excel Saga). I’m a huge fanart of her artwork as she always draws the most attractive females.

Chapter one introduces the characters Takashi, Rei and Hisashi to us and instantly we’re thrown into a school already overrun by what apparently are zombies. We’re shown how the incident started in the school and shown grim images of the panic caused by the zombie breach. People getting stomped on and thrown out of the way while others selfishly fled for their lives only to still be eaten and killed by the oncoming zombies. Rei, Takashi and Hisashi decide to to get safety by climbing up the school but along the way Hisashi is bitten. Bad end upcoming, right? They make it to the rooftop where they see some black hawk helicopters as well as a good view of the city in chaos. As they begin to discuss another escape plan Hisashi coughs up blood and realizes that he’s going to turn into a zombie. He asks Takashi to kill him before he turns but it’s too late. While Rei is in denial Takashi has to smash their former friend’s head open to put him permanently out of commission for their own safety. This is where we’re shown another conflict between Rei and Takashi, who accuses him of being jealous of her and the formerly living Hisashi (there were flashbacks earlier in the chapter that suggested Rei and Takashi were very close as children, even pinky-swearing to marry one another in the future). Takashi tries to convince Rei that he’s going to fight off the zombies but she stops him and begs for him to stay with her. The chapter closes with them embracing, still without a clue as to how they’re going to escape the zombie-infested highschool.

I’m not sure where this is going yet but I’m intrigued. Seeing as one of the characters, Hisashi, has already died that leaves Rei and Takashi as the remaining two main characters. There was also a girl with a sword shown who seemed to be holding her own so I think and hope that she survives and joins up with Rei and Takashi.