Episode 01: Spring of the DEAD

Spring of the Dead is the debut episode of the Highschool of the Dead anime.

Statistics

 * Original Air date: July 5, 2010
 * Opening Song: "Highschool of the Dead"
 * Closing Song: "Kimi to Taiyou ga Shinda Hi" (君と太陽が死んだ日)


 * Manga Chapters: Act.1
 * DVD/BD Release Date: September 22, 2010

Next episode: Episode 02: Escape from the DEAD

Summary
The episode begins with Takashi, Rei and Hisashi fighting against "them" at their campus' rooftop. They make their way to the astrology platform and Hisashi saves Rei from one of "them" before it can bite her.

Transition to several hours ago where Takashi is busy moping about his childhood crush, Rei. Saya tells him that he shouldn't be moping otherwise he will be distracted from school and end up being left behind. After she realizes it is pointless to continue, she leaves for class. Takashi sees several gym teachers looking at a student at the gate. Teshima tries to force him to leave but is bitten and dies of blood loss. Hayashi and the others try to get him back up, which he does, but as one of them. He bites Hayashi and the other two teachers flee in panic. Takashi, who had seen the incident, rushes to Rei's classroom to alert them of the danger.

Takashi runs to his classroom, everyone surprised and the teacher saying that he should not have come. He grabs Rei and tells her they need to leave, but she refuses and he ends up slapping her to get her attention. Hisashi and Rei listen to Takashi's story and leave the classroom. Hisashi grabs some weapons, in case Takashi's story ends up being true and Rei says she can call her father as he is a police officer. He also tells them that he doesn't need weapons as he is a black belt in karate. Rei tries to call her father through the police line, but it is unavailable, which rarely, if ever, happens at all. The intercom turns on and the person talking through it tells all students that violence has occurred on campus and all students should evacuate, before being attacked and killed by one of "them". While the person is screaming, Kohta crawls out of his classroom and Saya tells him the two are getting out of school.

Saeko is busy praying at a makeshift shrine at school before standing up with her wooden sword. Shizuka wakes up from a nap, unaware of what just happened. Students all over the school are stunned, and when a chalk falls from a teacher's podium, they panic in an attempt to flee, creating a stampede as desperate students attempt to escape. Hisashi tells Takashi that they can escape through the administrator's office. On the way, they encounter Wakisaka, who has turned into one of "them". Rei stabs him with the makeshift spear, but he still survives even though it was aimed at the heart. Hisashi grabs him and tells Rei to pull the spear out and attempts to break his neck, but is unable to due to his unnatural strength. Wakisaka bites Hisashi, and Takashi kills Wakisaka with a strike to the head with a baseball bat. The three watch as the undead easily overwhelm the other students and Hisashi suggests going to the roof for safety.

As they reach the rooftop, they see the entire city in chaos. They later see SDF (Self-Defence Forces) helicopters fly in to assess the damage and fight the undead. Rei tries to wave to them but Hisashi tells them that they aren't here for rescue operations. In the school library, Misuzu and Toshimi are running together when Toshimi is grabbed by a zombie. They overpower her attempts and she begs for Misuzu to save her, but instead she kicks her to save herself. Unfortunately, she does not notice three zombies behind her and is subsequently killed by them. Elsewhere, a delusional teacher commits suicide after not accepting the fact that people are eating each other.

While trying to find out what is going on, zombies surround the three. They fight their way towards the observatory and manage to block it before they can get up. After some pondering, Hisashi becomes sick from the bite wound from Wakisaka and asks Takashi to push him off the ledge so he will not come back as one of them. Takashi agrees but Rei becomes emotionally hurt and tries to prevent him from doing so. After Hisashi dies, he comes back as one of them, and Takashi is forced to kill him before he can hurt Rei.

In a scene after the credits, Rei remains devastated over Hisashi's death, wishing to become one of "them" rather than continue living. Takashi tries assuring her that he killed Hisashi for her own protection, but Rei spitefully retorts that he must have done it because he secretly hated Hisashi for going out with her. Hurt by Rei's accusation, Takashi states he will leave her to kill the rest of "them" by himself. Rei stops him, realizing Takashi will die on his own, and tearfully apologizes for her words while begging him to stay with her. Takashi embraces Rei, thinking to himself that, on the day everything ended, he had killed his best friend and held the girl he loved for the first time in his life.

Characters in order of appearance

 * Them
 * Takashi Komuro
 * Rei Miyamoto
 * Hisashi Igou
 * Saya Takagi
 * Kyoko Hayashi
 * Kohta Hirano
 * Koichi Shido
 * Saeko Busujima
 * Shizuka Marikawa
 * Misuzu Ichijou
 * Toshimi Niki

Trivia

 * In this depiction of zombies, if you get bit, you die almost instantly, and turn in mere moments. Zombies can't be hurt from a regular attack, but can still be killed by attacking the head.