English Dub Review: Zom 100 – Bucket List of the Dead “Hometown of the Dead I, II, III”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Kanta Higurashi, former classmate of Akira and Kencho, brings down the barrier protecting Akira’s home village from the zombie hordes. Like Akira, Kanta has his own bucket list to do before he becomes a zombie, but it involves doing as much damage as possible. Akira and his friends work to evacuate the village while fighting off Kanta’s depressed friend group, with all of them eventually meeting their bitter end. With his parents and hometown safe, Akira, Kencho, Shizuka, and Bea head back on the road to continue their own list and to live life to the fullest.

OUR TAKE

After THREE MONTHS since the ninth episode (and FOUR if you count the extra month wait for the dub), Zom 100 finally finishes its season, probably long after the hype for the show has long since become zombified itself. To this day, it is not clear why exactly this long pause took place. Some say it was because they ran out of timeslots due to previous delays, others mention that it was a major undertaking for the studio, and still others have implied the ever present and relentless overworking of animators may indeed be one of, if not the, main explanation for this unusual release schedule. But regardless, the last few episodes are finally here, carrying on from the foreshadowing at the end of Episode 9, with the Bizarro Akira known as Kanta getting ready to induce some chaos on the unsuspecting village with his team of evil counterparts to the rest of Akira’s team. I mean, I WISH they were evil counterparts so we could get a little bit more out of their confrontations with those characters, but they probably got as much as they were going to out of the face offs they did end up getting.

I’ve actually seen some pushback on the idea of an Evil Akira, which I can understand to some extent. Kanta is almost TOO much of a twisted mirror of Akira, even having his own bucket list that just happens to be more reckless and cruel, being a way he can get back at a world he feels treated him unfairly. His cohorts seem to feel differently, with each of them having dealt with similar situations that, for one reason or another, drained them of their drive to grow or improve while blaming everyone else around them. Akira, Kencho, and Shizuka also were in miserable status quos prior to the zombies, but once they were given a chance to escape and decide their own fates, they took chances and responsibility for everything from then on. It’s a shame this couldn’t have ended on a more wholesome way with the main four somehow giving their mirror opposites hope to forge their own paths from zero like they did, but…I guess that’s not what they decided to go with. Anyway, now that the whole season’s out, it’s time to finally rewatch it all for the Season Review, which you’ll see here this time next week.