[Sheba]

[QUOTE=TinyRedLeaf]

Wait. We don't know that Takashi will be the eventual leader. This is the anime, which, for all we know, may take a totally different route.

Spoiler for spoiler's sake:

I get the feeling that most people in this thread have read the manga already, given the relative lack of howls like: "OMG, you prick! You just gave away the entire story!"

As a rule, I don't usually read the manga before I watch the anime, having learnt my lesson long ago with the Claymore series. But Highschool of the Dead was just too tempting, and I went ahead and read the source material and ruined whatever suspense I might have enjoyed.

Still, let's be considerate and not give too much away, eh?

To be honest, I need to reread the manga a little bit.

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From what I recall, he have become more a leader figure because the group silently agreed on it (as in, we don't have, "We choose you as leader" kind of scene). Even without a designated leader, the group was still functional through cooperation and knowing what one is able to, and acting in consequence.

In real life and in fiction, I find such supposed lack of "confidence" to be a sign of a potential leader. It's not really a lack of confidence to begin with. It's more a sign of someone who is fully self-aware of his limitations. Such a person is likely to gain and keep a team's respect, because he is typically less inclined to subject them to risks he knows he wouldn't take himself.

On that I agree. Perhaps, "lack of confidence" was the wrong term to define it, knowing my limits in english.

In that respect, Takashi has already acquitted himself remarkably in at least one instance — at the school building, where he volunteered to test Saya's theory about zombies detecting their prey by sound. He read the situation perfectly, understanding immediately that everyone else was reluctant to take the risk, including Saya, so he decided to take one for the team. He offered to bell the cat when no other mouse would. It's noticeable that Saeko regarded him with very high esteem after that. It was likely that had Takashi not stepped up, Saeko would have done so, and thus become the nominal "leader" of the group.

So again, a good leader is not necessarily, in my own experience, the strongest, swiftest or even the smartest person in a group. More often than not, he's the one who is best able to marshal all the resources available to him. That is a skill that anyone can learn, but few perfect.

On that I agree again and that is the reason why, for me, Shidou's group is ill-fated. The groups that glues together the best are those that are the least fucked-up and where the "troops" trust and respect the leader. This is what we are seeing in Takashi's group.