It has been nearly six years since Highschool of the Dead Season 1 aired, and since then, there is no word as to whether the second installment is a go. Still, fans are hoping to see the anime's sequel become a reality.
Based on the manga of the same name, Highschool of the Dead follows a middle school student - Takashi Komuro (voiced by Junichi Suwabe / Leraldo Anzaldua) - whose ordinary life turns upside down after the world is struck by a deadly pandemic that turns humans into zombies.
He along with several survivors from Fujimi Academy, including Saeko Busujima (Miyuki Sawashiro / Taylor Hannah), Rei Miyamoto (Marina Inoue / Jessica Boone), Saya Takagi (Eri Kitamura / Maggie Flecknoe), Kohta Hirano (Nobuyuki Hiyama / Mark X. Laskowski), Koichi Shido (Kishou Taniyama / Illich Guardiola) and Shizuka Marikawa (Yukari Fukui / Monica Rial), do everything they can not only to survive the zombie apocalypse, but also the dangerous fellow survivors.
In the Season 1 finale of Highschool of the Dead, multiple missiles were seen launching from submarines, but one missile suddenly blew up in the atmosphere. Due to the electromagnetic pulse (EMP) burst from the sudden explosion, near-by electronics and machines broke down.
This caused Koichi Shido's bus to crash into one of the barricades keeping the zombies away from the Takagi estate. Hence, Soichiro ordered the main gate to be closed, but the overwhelming zombies immediately breached the gate.
With the estate no longer safe, Souichiro Takagi (Joji Nakata / Andrew Love) and Yuriko Takagi (Yoshiko Sakakibara / Shelley Calene-Black) ordered everyone to fight and head to another area that has yet to be breached. They left the area using their Humvee which was not affected by the EMP, while the other survivors fought the horde of zombies. The group was later seen standing outside of the shopping mall.
Now, it looks like the group's fate remains a mystery as speculations are rife that Highschool of the Dead is unlikely to return for a second season. The animation studio's hesitancy to move forward with a sequel has a lot to do with the series writer's death.
Daisuke Satō passed away on March 22, 2017, from ischemic heart disease. Unfortunately, there is nobody in the world who could inherit the series writer's vision and continue the story he would have wanted to tell.
"It's common overseas for comics and novels to be created by multiple collaborators," Triage X editor Kawanakajima said (via Anime News Network). "For example, the person who first wrote the Perry Rhodan novels has passed away, but the next generation of authors are continuing it. But for Highschool of the Dead, [Daisuke Satō] was the one and only, so I'd like overseas fans to understand that nobody else could write it easily," he added.
