English Dub Review: Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead “Truck Stop of the Dead”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Kosugi’s abuse of Akira ramps up, reverting him to his subservient PTSD state and being at risk of being mentally trapped there, even after the two days they agreed to be there. Shizuka, seeing parallels between this and how her abusive and controlling father treated her, snaps Akira out of it. However, a zombie sneaks in while they’re about to leave and Akira shows leadership by getting everyone to put all the zombies in one place and blow them up, which also deflates Kosugi’s influence. Akira, Kencho, and Shizuka get back in their RV and head on their way.

OUR TAKE

We’re a little over halfway into the show as a whole, though we only have a couple finished episodes left until we catch up with the sub, but we’ve reached a major turning point that accomplishes several important things at once. Akira, as mentioned last week, has come a long way since the zombies came to town, but seeing Kosugi again threatened to put him back under his abusive thumb. It’s only thanks to how he has inspired Shizuka, who got to see his new optimistic and outgoing self, that he was able to be snapped out of it. In addition, we also got to see more of Shizuka’s upbringing, specifically how her father held a tight grip over all aspects of her life when she was growing up, even putting down a dog she had adopted because he thought it would be a distraction. Lord knows how she was able to actually get away from him, but it seems that the zombie apocalypse has benefitted her about the same as Akira, by giving her a chance to fend for herself and realizing that she’s actually quite good at it, though still clearly needing to shake off the worst parts of the pragmatism she was taught.

Kencho is not a big part of this or last week aside from getting injured and needing to mend his wounds, though given he’s rather tall and buff, it probably stands to reason that he would’ve slapped some sense into Akira very quickly had he been able to. This two parter is mainly for Akira to reaffirm his new outlook on life and willingness to do what he wants to do above all else, and to a lesser extent showing how Shizuka commits to teaming up with him and Kencho after finally moving past what her father taught her as well. Honestly, this feels like it would fit better as a season finale, so hopefully there’s something emotionally bigger on the way (I know for a fact that there’s something pretty big coming next episode in the form of a new main cast member), but they’re gonna really need to up their game to hit the same level of emotional satisfaction that this had. And still no word on when the last three episodes will come out in Japan, so who knows what that means for the dub and whether they’ll cover the remaining two episodes before then. Stay tuned to find out!