Official Review
It's hard to keep the zombie genre fresh, given all the different types of stories it encompasses. This makes any new, halfway decent zombie show or movie all the more special. Thankfully, Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead – which concluded its first season last month – is more than halfway decent: It's a zombie anime with a delightful premise, and one of the best first episodes of an anime in a long time.
Based on the manga of the same name written by Haro Aso and illustrated by Kotaro Takata, Zom 100 follows Akira Tendo, an office worker for the kind of exploitative employer known as a "black company" in Japan. Most of the first episode is a gritty and painfully relatable tale about the way we chain ourselves to routines and lives we never wanted for the sake of money, or because of other people's expectations, and how that slowly kills a part of us. For a guy as miserable as Akira, the start of a zombie apocalypse is not a curse, but a blessing. When the dead rise, he finally gets to live his best life.
This masterclass in visual storytelling is one of the single best episodes of anime in a long time. Framing, composition, and color are used to sell Akira's daily torment as well as his elation the sight of a horde of flesh-eating ghouls. As Akira's work life gnaws away at him, the colors become more muted – before the zombie apocalypse ushers in a burst of vibrant hues. Akira then rips the black bars off the screen, and expanding the aspect ratio as he embraces life for the first time in years. And that's all just the first episode.
The rest of the season 1 focuses on Akira's efforts to live life to its fullest, crossing items off a bucket list (like spending an entire day doing nothing but playing games and drinking beer) while befriending other surviving doofuses. Those doofuses include a himbo who dreams of becoming a comedian (though getting naked and acting foolish is the extent of his act), a survivalist who slowly embraces life and fun, and a German tourist who loves Japan so much she goes around in samurai cosplay chopping off zombie heads with a big dumb smile on her face.
At its core, this is a road trip show, with the gang going around Japan on adventures that are as wholesome as they are funny. But it's stilla zombie story, too, and Zom 100 works as a refreshing take on the walking dead. For one, everyone in this story is aware of zombies: Akira is shown slaying video-game zombies at one point, and we meet a movie makeup artist who didn't realize the zombies weren't fake until it was too late. This means there's no time wasted on learning the rules, no time spent having to convince people that the zombies are dangerous. Instead, we go straight into bonkers situations like a trip to an aquarium that turns into a fight against a zombie shark (really). Though Zom 100 is all about our main group of survivors, it occasionally turns its attention elsewhere, painting a more global picture reminiscent of World War Z, which helps make the show's world feel lived-in.
The central theme is "starting over," for better and worse. This informs every character, and every story, meaning that even when we get to one of the tried-and-true conventions of the genre – villains who prove that the humans are the real monsters – it works because we see how these characters were just waiting for an excuse to act on their worst impulses. This vile group may seem a bit cartoonish, but it quickly becomes clear how their hedonistic desires were brought upon by a feeling that the world wronged them. It's rather realistic and timely — as evidenced by the rise in loud, destructive, horrible misanthropes who've thrived during the COVID-19 pandemic.
As violent and gory as Zom 100 can be – splashed in multi-colored paint that stands in for blood splatter –, it's also hilarious. The humor of Zom 100 lies somewhere between the hangout tone of Shaun of the Dead and the self-aware comedy of Zombieland. Because it's all about enjoying the little things, the characters mostly act like idiots with little regard for common sense or caution. It works, though, because Akira never stops reminding the audience how fleeting their joy is. His bucket list is made up of things he wants to do before he turns into a zombie. He has already resigned himself to the fact that he will eventually succumb to the walking dead. We know from the very beginning that life was miserable for these characters, and it very well can be again. But before they turn into ghouls, why not have some fun?
If there's is one big problem with Zom 100, it's that its first season was plagued by production delays that made it a less-than-perfect watch. There was a three-month break before the final three episodes aired; after the stellar premiere, the quality of the animation proved unreliable. And yet, even an average installment of Zom 100 is rather great, and there's no discounting how genuinely brilliant the first few episodes are.
Verdict
Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead delivers a refreshing take on the zombie genre by turning the apocalypse into a huge playground where protagonists make their dreams come true or die trying. With a vibrant color palette, endearing characters, and a fantastic sense of humor, this is a deeply relatable and funny zombie story.
