Zom 100: Zombie ni Naru made ni Shitai 100 no Koto

After graduating from a top university with an impressive extracurricular record in the rugby club, Akira Tendou has nailed every step of the way to securing his dream job. On top of that, a beautiful and kind co-worker always brightens his day in the office! Life seems to be going very well for Akira until he slowly realizes that sleepless nights and brutal work are his new reality.

Due to three years of mind-numbing labor in an exploitative company, Akira is unable to recognize the tired, unaccomplished person he has become. On track to losing all passion in life like several of his overworked colleagues, Akira finds his saving grace in the most unexpected way possible—the breakout of a zombie apocalypse.

With the free time he finally has, Akira decides to complete a bucket list of a hundred things he wants to do before he eventually gets turned into a zombie. Although he is surrounded by the dead, Akira has never felt more alive!

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Mikazuki, Shizuka Main

Kusunoki, Tomori Japanese

Tendou, Akira Main

Umeda, Shuuichirou Japanese

Amerhauser, Beatrix Main

Takahashi, Minami Japanese

Ryuuzaki, Kenichirou Main

Furukawa, Makoto Japanese

Higurashi, Kanta Supporting

Okamoto, Nobuhiko Japanese

Ootori, Saori Supporting

Amamiya, Sora Japanese

Yukari Supporting

Wakayama, Shion Japanese

Shou Supporting

Miyano, Mamoru Japanese

Kosugi, Gonzou Supporting

Miyake, Kenta Japanese

Kaneshiro, Nagisa Supporting

Sasahara, Yuu Japanese

Kamei, Hiroshi Producer

Kojima, Hiroaki Producer

Okamoto, Junya Producer

Satou, Emi Producer

Reviews

Mar 28, 2024

EdySilva

Recommended

This anime is pure CINEMA. I waited a long time for this anime and it surprised me in an incredible way. Both the art and animation are incredibly beautiful and solid, the cinematography is insane. The direction behind each episode is extraordinary. The first episode is extremely exciting, remarkable and fun. I can safely say that it has one of the best first episodes of all time. This is a zombie comedy that uses the apocalypse in a brilliant way to show you how exploration affects you and how people steal your dreams and passions. A very entertaining masterpiece that inspires you to free yourself ... from these influences so you can enjoy your life to the fullest. Memento mori!

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Dec 25, 2023

Ohmena

Mixed Feelings

"If you’re gonna waste the limited amount of reality at your disposal, who cares if someone tries to stop you? You gotta cleanse your brains. Your life isn't fast food" - Song of the Dead, Kana-Boon

Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead burst onto the scene with an explosive and brilliantly captivating introduction, leaving no room for doubt. Starting with a metaphor that likens working in a black company to becoming a zombie, which also serves as a powerful reflection of a somber Japanese reality, underscores the depth of the issue and offers an impactul entry to explore this theme in the anime, and so ... it does, as Akira, the main character, unfolds his journey as he resigns by throwing his boss out of the window, a symbolic act of breaking free from his own limitations.

The anime's premise is remarkably simple. A zombie apocalypse serves as the unexpected catalyst for the protagonist's liberation, enabling him to fully embrace life. What truly captivates in this narrative is the paradoxical and extravagant juxtaposition it presents. The essence and beauty of the anime stems from the very contradiction of a zombie apocalypse becoming a conduit for the protagonist's freedom and happiness. However, this uniqueness is not the only characteristic that defines it. The animation's vibrant colors and lush palette add a startling contrast to the morbid and frightening scenario that often accompanies a zombie apocalypse. This fusion of disparate elements creates a unique synergy, providing an experience that is both fascinating and unpredictably fun. Ultimately, this combination of factors results in a perfect formula for a genuinely captivating and entertaining work.

Undoubtedly, the creativity and expressiveness Akira presents find a unique harmony with the general atmosphere of the anime. From using a rugby ball strategically attached to a horn to attract the zombies' attention through sound, to the audacious choice to wear an anti-shark suit to avoid being bitten by the undead, are examples that reward the audience in a gratifying way. The absurd caprice of these unconventional solutions lends a humorous and ingenious touch at the same time, adding undeniable value to the narrative. Finally, this dose of improbable wackiness proves to be not only funny, but also exceptionally beneficial to the experience as a whole.

Addressing the negative aspect head-on, it's paradoxical but also evident that the protagonist, ironically, bears significant responsibility for almost erasing the qualities that could have enriched the anime. His negative influence is so pronounced that it becomes difficult to ignore how his presence significantly affects the overall appreciation of the work. Regrettably, Akira is remarkably inconsequential as a character. His eccentric behavior and extravagant actions can certainly be considered an attractive aspect of the anime; however, as a whole, it appears that his personal evolution is at a standstill. Just when you expect him to be developing self-awareness, he goes back to where he started. This regressive dynamic is constant throughout the narrative, noticeable in practically every episode.


Q: A zombie apocalypse has just happened, what to do first?

A- Worry about your own family (just saw a family turn into a pool of blood) ✕
B- Going out with a stewardess ✓
C - Make dreadlocks ✓
D- Have a cool beard ✓
...


Bluntly, what's truly disheartening about the introductory part is how the protagonist dismisses the gravity of the world situation, listing thirty trivial matters to his bucket list before recalling the existence of his own family. This glaringly illustrates the character's inherent shallowness and emptiness. What is the real purpose of stating that "the most important thing I want to do right now is see my parents", when at no time before that has he shown any regard for them? The irony deepens even further when we realize that, instead of immediately acting on this desire, he chooses to prioritize trivial acquisitions, such as a new television to play video games. This sheds light on Akira's true priorities and underlines his disconnect with the claims he makes, reinforcing the contradictory nature of his actions and words. Regardless of whether it was the author's intention or not, the fact remains that it's indeed frustrating to follow the story of a character like that.

Essentially, the majority of the issues raised would have become almost irrelevant if the author had promptly addressed the family matter, allocated screen time for the character to express genuine concern for his parents during his adventure to find them or, even more ideally, refrained from introducing them so early on the story. And this indirectly creates an identity problem in the anime: After all, what does it propose to be? An episodic comedy? A comedy that uses elements of dark humor to, in the end, convey an impactful message to the audience? The feeling that permeates the anime is that the author faced difficulties in clearly defining his direction. The interaction between the zombie plot and the development of the protagonist ends up creating a web of intentions that sometimes becomes somewhat confusing. While hilarious moments and enjoyful situations predominate, the deeper content that could have been explored seems to give way to the comedic aspect. In this sense, the narrative resembles a puzzle with scattered pieces, some of which fit together perfectly, but others seem somewhat out of place.

As previously mentioned, there are no apparent issues with the protagonist's eccentric behavior and unpredictable actions. Quite the opposite, these aspects contribute to the charm that this anime brings forth. My concern lies in Akira's lack of emotional growth and priorities; he fails to navigate loss, fear, and the repercussions of his choices in the way one would typically expect. The protagonist's lack of self-awareness is notable, as he rarely reflects on his actions or consequences. This lack of introspection prevents him from growing as a character. In short, every dramatic part of the show involving Akira ends up becoming a wasted opportunity, as he does not extract learning from the situations in which he finds himself. Not only is this a fact, but one often witnesses him transitioning between emotions in an unusual manner: he appears worried, then, seconds later, he reverts to the same personality of "look the crazy stuff I do in a zombie apocalypse." As a spectator, feeling uncomfortable with certain situations becomes the only viable option due to the protagonist's utter lack of awareness and empathy. It's not inherently problematic for a character of this nature to exist. The real issue lies in the fact that this character is precisely protagonist. With the anime's proposal, witnessing someone like Akira being consistently rewarded, despite the decisions and actions he undertakes, makes it progressively challenging to wholeheartedly support each achievement. In essence, the lingering sense of injustice ultimately overshadows any sense of triumph.

Then, when it comes to priorities, it's a recurring theme that Akira tends to prioritize trivial and mundane matters over recognizing the genuine significance of what truly matters. While this contributes to the comedic aspect the narrative aims to convey, there's another dimension to this behavior. At various points throughout the anime, there will be instances where grappling with the idea that "A" should take precedence over "B," or vice versa, becomes a challenge. Addressing immediate concerns that can be easily done is one matter, but sidelining a clearly more important goal for the sake of frivolities presents a different scenario altogether. Without intending to be overly critical, Akira serves as a prime example of how a slightly disproportionate protagonist can negatively impact a work, regardless of the quality of the story and world-building.

Regardless of the previous issue, the second negative point has nothing to do with the work itself but it's crucial to address the issue of how problematic the anime's postponements were. This situation carries a tremendous irony and frustration, given that in its opening episode, Zom 100 critiques capitalism, particularly the Japanese black companies, yet ends up experiencing the very setbacks it aimed to criticize. Placing the protagonist in a setting reminiscent of the current anime staff's former studio, and witnessing the anime succumb to the same issues the animators had indirectly highlighted, presents a truly unfortunate twist of fate.

In fact, the delay is a double-edged sword: while serving as a significant irony regarding its critique, it also provides relief for animators by easing the burden of a heavy workload that would have accompanied the original schedule. Nevertheless, this regrettable situation will undoubtedly leave its mark in the records of anime industry. Luckily, the fact that the anime is more focused on an episodic comedy, the postponement issue actually doesn't affected the enjoyment of the story too much. Aside from this and from the protagonist, the anime still managed to captivate its audience with a surprisingly fun character: Beatrix.

Xenophile girl injects new life into the anime as the final addition to the main group of characters. Her interactions add an extra layer of unpredictability to the group dynamics. She can transition seamlessly from being a badass samurai with a stylish soundtrack to an incredibly friendly and extroverted individual who pays no heed to societal norms. Her relationship with the rest of the group creates delightful moments of shared camaraderie, often giving the impression that they share the same braincell. For me, she is the greatest of all time and the one who carried and saved a lot of things from this show.

Unfortunately, this show is a love or hate choice: If one ignores the protagonist decisions, way of thinking and actions throughout the anime, it will end up being an actually funny watch. If not, Akira will most likely break the viewer suspension of disbelief and every scene will feel forced.

Therefore, despite its promising potential for a highly captivating story, "Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead" is notably undermined by both its controversial production issues, identity crisis and a protagonist lacking emotional depth. Sporadic delays, an incomplete opening theme, and drops in animation quality collectively diminish the overall enjoyment of the work. Yet, despite the challenging schedule, the production team still managed to deliver something remarkably compelling, even amidst unfavorable working conditions. In the end, despite its enjoyable and compelling narrative elements, this show has its potential severely limited, rendering it unable to achieve the impactful and lasting status of a truly memorable story.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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Dec 25, 2023

Ionliosite2

Not Recommended

Zom 100: Zombie ni Naru made ni Shitai 100 no Koto has taught me that people don’t know what “dystopia” means anymore. For the last 5ish years, I’ve seen a lot of complains on why the generic isekai we get by the dozens are popular, but I find the answer to that question very obvious: escapism, as they provide an outlet for MC-kun to get free from the burdens of the real world, and enter a fantasy world where he can do whatever he wants, while the high school age viewers places themselves in his place. Zom 100 offers the same idea but for the ... working age viewer, with the zombie apocalypse replacing the travel to another world, showing our working-class MC-kun being able to do whatever he wants now that he’s free from his work so the overworked viewer can self-insert on him.

As a direct result of its escapism angle, the series isn’t actually horror, having a lot of light hearted moments and comedy to make it look like this is a superior lifestyle, which backfires on it hard because the comedy in this series is atrocious, I’m talking about “going naked is funny” and “fart jokes” levels of bad comedy, I wanted to slam my head on a wall when they unironically showed a zombie farting as if it was a punchline. This same light tone also undermines all the serious moments, not helped by the fact the series suffers from “getting character development means you’ll die” syndrome, so you get a scene painted as tragic because a character we barely knew is a zombie followed by the cast laughing at silly jokes. I’m a big fan of the style of Hiroyuki Imaishi, and one thing his series manage is to strike a balance between the serious character moments and the absolute batshit insanity going on around them, but this series clearly has no idea how to do that, as the tonal whiplash here is so jarring even Code Geass and its constant back and forth between racial politics and waifus eating pizza feels more balanced.

MC-kun, named Akira this time, is a self-insert character, as unlike any other person or even the other characters in the same show, he shows absolutely no horror or regret at the idea of the world ending in a zombie apocalypse, instead being happy that he doesn’t have to work anymore, obviously a tool to enable the escapism aspect of the premise. This behavior is just downright nonsensical, as we have no explanation or thematic point made by Akira acting like the death of most of humanity is his comfort catalyst, and in fact makes him come across as a sociopath rather than the sympathetic character the narrative tries to paint him as, something that’s very notorious in episode 3 where contrasted against his friend who has a far more logical reaction to seeing everyone around him turning into murderous monsters. A character acting in an extreme way CAN be done well, as shown by Shirou in Fate/stay night and Shu in Ima Soko ni Iru Boku, but only if said behavior is done to make a thematic or moral point, something that’s not the case here, as there’s really no clear reason for him to act like that beyond making it #SoRelatable to the viewers who also feel overworked. Also, what’s up with the fact he doesn’t even look like an adult? If you showed me his design with no context, I’d say he’s 15, and even watching the show he acts just like I’d expect an anime teen to do it.

The other characters aren’t really much better. Kencho has no character at all beyond being the comic relief, and by that I mean that he’s an obnoxiously loud idiot who clearly doesn’t know how to deliver jokes, with getting naked seriously being the best he can come up with in terms of comedy, just to put into perspective how poor the overall comedy of this series is. While I think that Shizuka was passable, given she seems to be the only sensible person here, she’s mostly used as a strawman damsel in distress despite her supposed capabilities to highlight how cool our MC-kun is, leading her to be a fanservice source at best. Bea is a westerner obssessed with Japanese culture - that's her entire character, everything around her revolves around being a weeb, and once again she's just a tool to provide some extra fanservice.

An aspect for which I wanted to give this series points, however, is the visuals. We live in an age of seasonal shows that all are filled with so much cost cutting like CloverWorks works being filled with blurriness, and the idea of what good animation is has been reduced to just “flashy visuals” rather than having any appreciation for the technical aspects with MAPPA churning out disaster after disaster that isn’t well animated to anyone who knows of animation but looks flashy so it gets called “good animation” by those who don’t know, making Zom 100 a show that stands out in this landscape because it actually tried. The first episode didn't have the generic simple shots made to save money, it had an actual visual identity, something that’s such a rarity in modern anime that I can see why people act as if this was groundbreaking, even if in reality it’s more of a minimum to look good, at least when they don’t use CGI, that still looks bad even here. However, this “carried by the animation” angle was only at first, as each episode got uglier and uglier to the point it got rid of much of the praise points I could give it, as it looked like any other anime by its later half, which very likely relates to its now infamous troubled production and grueling working crunch. Given that from what I read, this new studio BUG FILMS was created by people who felt overworked on their previous work at OLM, and the evils of overwork being the main theme of the series, the fact this new studio now perfectly reflects the very type of company the anime criticizes is incredibly hypocritical.

Overall, this series is just a failure all around, it fails at being entertaining, it feels at giving social commentary on Japanese work culture, it fails at being funny, it fails at building actual characters, and most importantly, it fails as an anime production, with its terrible development hell that postponed the last batch of episodes for months being a perfect example of the terrible state the anime industry is in nowadays.

Thank you for reading

Reviewer’s Rating: 2

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	Poll: Zom 100: Zombie ni Naru made ni Shitai 100 no Koto Episode 12 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page ) Stark700 - Dec 25, 2023	257 replies	by TheStarscream759 »» Dec 22, 7:11 AM
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	Poll: Zom 100: Zombie ni Naru made ni Shitai 100 no Koto Episode 5 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page ) Stark700 - Aug 13, 2023	275 replies	by SirAnderELL »» Dec 14, 12:22 PM