Zom 100

Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead (ゾン100〜ゾンビになるまでにしたい100のこと〜) is a 12 episode horror action series based on the manga of the same name by Aso Haro.  The series originally ran during the Summer of 2023.

     Tendo Akira is a young salary-man working for a black corporation, draining the will to life from him as he trudges through days of abuse.  When the zombie apocalypse strikes he suddenly gains a new optimistic outlook on his life...he finally has the time to kick back and relax.  He turns the collapse of civilization and daily immanent/grisly death into his opportunity to life a fulfilling if someone shortened life.  After reconnecting with his best friend from college, Ryuzaki Kenichiro, the two team up with a goal to do everything they ever wanted to do before they fall prey to the zombie hordes.

    They begin to construct a bucket list and with Akira's desire to see is his parents are safe, they head off to the countryside.  Along the way the pick up fellow survivalist, Mikazuki Shizuka, to join them.  Shizuka is pragmatic and calculating.  She has easily transitioned her calculating resourcefulness to surviving the hellscape that is Tokyo with great success.  She however understands that staying in the maze like city reduces her chances of continued success and agrees to join them on their journey.  As they travel the country side they quickly learn that the living is more dangerous than the dead as bands of abusive  humans begin to interfere in their trip.  The collapse of civil society really can bring out the worst in some people can't it?

    This was a highly anticipated series at the time is premiered in 2023.  The production quality was rather high with excellent directing and a colorful palette.  However it fell victim to its own workload and the final three episodes were pushed back to the end of December.  This caused me to drop off from watching the series as it simulcast to not completing it to well over a year later.  But its production delays weren't the only thing keeping me from finishing it.  I rally fell in love with this fresh take on the zombie trope.  The survivors were fun and enjoyable as they enthusiastically took each day on with carefree abandon.  Akira and Ryu's go-lucky attitudes did a lot to make the series fun and funny.  There was a lot of over the top scenes where their survival was only gotten through the magic of fiction and I loved it!

    Then it fell prey to what every great zombie story falls prey to, the need to shift the dangers from the brainless undead masses to the darkness of human tendencies for control and domination.  The halfway point, where they encounter a trap on the freeway that is set by a band of slave-driving sycophants really turned me off and made me lose excitement with each new episode.  Humans as the real threat is a boring and worn-out trope in zombie films.  I understand the godfather of the genre, Night of the Living Dead set this principle, but we can also explore other narratives beyond that.  I really though Zom 100 was going to be different.  It was at first and it was fun and exciting and lovable.  But it fell back on the common garbage and lost its steam.  It lost its interest, it characters alone struggled to carry on the joy that was experiences in the first few episodes.  The final arc, the one that got delayed, was even less interesting and the story seemed to fall apart with no real goal in mind.  This story could have been so much more but fell into old routines and lost all the shine it had.  Sad...

The series is available on Crunchyroll and Netflix in both sub and dub formats.  There is also a live action version on Netflix.